By MIKE DILLON
Are we breeding 3200m stamina potential out of our horses?
Almost certainly.
The lack of depth, and even class, in the Sydney Cup on Saturday highlighted the point that 20 years from now we might not see 3200m races run at all.
Up to the 1970s, the best staying horses in Australia and New Zealand could pretty much all run the 3200m of the Melbourne of Sydney Cups.
Today a far lesser percentage of our best thoroughbred stayers can run a genuine 3200m and only a select few of the Australian topliners even attempt it.
The thoroughbred breed has been refined.
As the demand for early comers as 2-year-olds and 3-year-olds has increased, breeders have steered away from stallions leaving slow developing staying types. This carries over to broodmares carrying the more electric bloodlines who, when mated with speed stallions, begin a speed syndrome which is almost irreversible after a couple of generations, although throwbacks will always occur.
New Zealand has been much slower at this process than Australia, where the desire for speed is now endemic, but our own breeding industry is still headed in that direction.
Right here you have to once again thank God for Sir Tristram. Without the old bloke and his sire son Zabeel, the list of winners and horses who have really performed at 3200m on both sides of the Tasman in the last couple of decades would look even more ordinary.
Apart from distance capability of the stars, today's weight-for-age stakemoney means there is no real need for the guns to chase the 3200m races, despite the biggest prize being the Melbourne Cup, this year at $A4.3 million.
Until the 1970s a horse had to target the Melbourne Cup to attack the real money.
New Zealand mare Giovana is a classic example of perhaps where our good horses are headed. You have never seen a horse travelling as well as Giovana on the home turn on Saturday that didn't win a major 3200m race.
It had nothing to do with class - Giovana had more than any of the opposition - it was simply that she could not see out the 3200m.
"Glen Boss said he was so confident of winning at the 500m, but when she hit the wall in the home straight she felt like she was going to run last," said Giovana's trainer Roger James yesterday.
It would be a shame to see the end of 3200m races, but in 20 years' time it might be difficult to find horses who have the grit for it.
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Trainer Karen Zimmerman has resisted an invitation by South Australian racing officials to take Cinder Bella to the Adelaide carnival.
Yesterday Zimmerman could not be persuaded to run Cinder Bella in the $A150,000 Marsh Classic at Morphettville on Saturday week instead of this weekend's $40,000 Cuddle Stakes at Trentham.
The Levin trainer says she is happy her one trip to Australia with her class mare achieved what she was looking for - a turnaround of Cinder Bella's erratic raceday temperament, something she is loathe to tamper with again this campaign.
"It has really settled her down. The Adelaide race sounds interesting, but we've made our minds up to spell her after Saturday and we'll stick with that."
The predicted weather pattern of rain for the North Island for the remainder of the week will be good news for Zimmerman.
Cinder Bella got away with a track which seemed a good bit firmer than the 2.9 official rating when she won the $70,000 Travis Stakes at Te Rapa on Saturday, but without rain she would have to contend with an unsuitable 2.1 rating at Trentham.
"Our track is unbelievable for this time of year," said Wellington racing manager Blair Thomson.
"We've had only 70mm of rain since January 1 where we would normally have had 300mm."
Country Rose, who finished third to Cinder Bella on Saturday, will back up in the Cuddle Stakes along with stablemate Miss Jessie Jay.
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New Zealand Bloodstock has had almost unprecedented worldwide requests for catalogues of Ra Ora Stud's complete dispersal sale on Saturday week.
The richness of bloodlines in the weanlings, yearlings, broodmares and, of course, the rare available share in Zabeel, have potential buyers on a roll.
The offering of Ra Ora's 56 broodmares on an unreserved basis at the stud itself will be the most intriguing dispersal auction in memory.
Racing: Refining breed leaves dearth of real stayers
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