Racing: Stud careers beckon for top pacers

Two of the richest pacers ever trained in New Zealand are unlikely to be seen here again.

However, they could be set to continue their battles in the stallion barn next season.

Changeover is just one satisfactory fertility test away from being retired to stud after his battling effort in last Friday's Auckland Cup.

The $2.4 million earner will head to his new home at Nevele R Stud in Canterbury this week and if his fertility test proves satisfactory his sale to the stud will be completed and he will not race again.

Meanwhile, his rival for much of the past 14 months, Mr Feelgood, will continue his racing career in Australia after being transferred from trainer Tim Butt.

Butt agreed the best place for Mr Feelgood, who has won close to $3 million, was in Australia in the short term at least and he has joined Queensland trainer Luke McCarthy, who is likely to set him for the Len Smith Mile outside Sydney next month and then possibly a winter campaign in which he could clash with Blacks A Fake and Washakie in Queensland.

Mr Feelgood could then be retired to stud.

His is one of the more fascinating stories in harness racing history, having started his career winning the prestigious Little Brown Jug in Ohio at 3.

He then went on to win at the highest level as a free-for-aller in North America before a brief stud career there, which has already resulted in him having yearlings sold at the sales there.

Mr Feelgood was then sold for close to $1 million to Australian owners and pulled off one of the great transitions in racing history to win a 3050m standing start race, the Hunter Cup, just a few races into his new career.

A month later, he inflicted the only Interdominion Grand Final defeat ever on Blacks A Fake when winning the Gold Coast Final last March.

Both Mr Feelgood and Changeover have had disappointing seasons by their very high standards, showing just how hard it is for age group stars to maintain their form at the elite level later in the careers.

You only have to consider the brilliance of pacers like Il Vicolo, Iraklis, Courage Under Fire and Christian Cullen as 3, 4 and in some cases 5-year-olds compared with their earnings and productivity in the twilights of their career to realise Changeover and Mr Feelgood are not alone as pacing stallions who looked tired before their racetrack career's ended.

Just how Changeover's seemingly endless controversies will impact on his stud career is impossible to predict but the fact one of the most successful stud farms in the industry was willing to pay $2 million for him suggests it may not be as bad as his critics suggest.

With breeding and great looks, Changeover should get adequate books in the first two season and after that the performances of his stock will be far more important than his wrongdoings as a racehorse.

Both he and Mr Feelgood are coming on to the stallion market at a time when broodmare owners are spoilt for choice, with Christian Cullen, Bettor's Delight, Art Major and Mach Three all popular at the yearling sales recently and still solid broodmare owner support for under-rated greats like Live Or Die and Falcon Seelster.

The problem for the new sires may not be getting a decent book of mares, but attracting the quality of mares that will help them make an impact in their crucial first seasons.

OFF TO STUD
* Changeover only needs a good fertility test next week to be retired to stud.
* His close rival Mr Feelgood has been transferred to an Australian stable for the winter.
* That makes him very unlikely to race here again.
* Both stallions will arrive on the market at a very competitive time.