The current picture of European trotting

Let me introduce myself: my name is Filippo Lago, I’m Italian and I’m 30 years old. In Italy I am a collaborator of the site www.vendopuledri.it for which I deal with foreign trotting, and, in my spare time, I manage our small broodmare farm with my family.

And this is my first article for harnesslink.com.

It is difficult to take a picture of harness racing breeding in Europe. Everything is so fast, everything changes abruptly.

Bloodlines change all the time, like a trend: today they are like this, next year they are like that. All this makes the job of the breeder difficult but at the same time fascinating, in whose hands the task of reading the future is entrusted by putting into practice the crossings of the best bloodlines of the moment, but also taking into consideration that every product a stallion creates, it will be put to the test on the market many months after its birth.

With this article we try to shed some light on the bloodlines that currently characterize European breeding considering the results on the track and the consequent choices of the breeders. Wanting to embark on an imaginary journey that starts from Northern Europe and more specifically from Sweden, there is no doubt that today we can define without fear of being contradicted, that Calgary Games (Readly Express) together with his father Readly Express (Ready Cash) and Maharajah (Viking Kronos), are the pillars on which Swedish breeding is based.

In an interview given to the Swedish press in the second half of 2022, Christina Olsson, manager of the Svensk Travsport breeding, underlined the concept according to which Maharajah, Who’s Who (Maharajah), Readly Express and Calgary Games, all stallions of Swedish origin, were among the most popular in the world.

Remaining in the current situation and wanting to give a dimension to what we wrote about in the interview above, it is enough to think that a Calgary Games carat (sperm for life) was sold for 900,000 SEK ($85,000 US) at Menhammar Stuteri Online in November last year.

As for Readly Express, on the other hand, last year it received the title of “ELITHINGST” in Sweden (Elite Stallion), on the grounds that Readly Express is believed to have an extraordinary legacy which sees twelve millionaires including four GR1 winners at a young age.

He was the third Swedish-born horse to receive the title after Maharajah and Raja Mirchi (Viking Kronos). As for Maharajah, his production is really vast in Sweden but not only and it is difficult to skim his products: one would risk forgetting some excellent names. Wanting to underline two of them, we can mention Who’s Who and Moni Viking (Maharajah), the latter recently taking to the track in Paris on the occasion of the Prix d’Amérique.

Moving to France, the attention focuses mainly on two stallions, one of which is really busy with his first sons and is obtaining good results capable of consecrating him as well as a champion on the track, also an important stallion: Face Time Bourbon (Ready Cash).

He is perhaps at this moment the “revelation” stallion of France of the trot and to support this thesis, it is not necessary to go so far in memory: at the recent Arquana auctions “Ventes du Prix d’Amérique”, one of his sperm for life breeding was purchased for €130,000, recording the top price on the first day of negotiations in Deauville.

There are other numbers capable of reflecting the good performance of its offspring on French soil: for example, the first year of production saw 56 qualified (equal to 62%) and its best offspring is called Kompostel (Face Time Bourbon), is three years old and has been able to get two wins and four placements in six races with a bank account of €74,900.

With regard to Ready Cash (Indy De Vive), it is the other timeless stallion, indeed a real flag for the French trot, there is not much to say. It is simply a true pillar of breeding in France but not only.

Focusing on the French trot and in particular on the development that Ready Cash has provided to breeding in France, it is sufficient to name some of his sons who have and are characterizing the results of the races: think for example of Bold Eagle, Bird Parker, and Django RiffRad, just to name a few.

We descend a few more kilometers and enter Italy, whose breeding enjoys important genealogies and crossings which find their fulfillment giving life to horses capable of exalting themselves all over the world, even in America.

It is enough to think of Alrajah One (Maharajah). However today one of the best young Italian stallions is called Nad Al Sheba (Windsong’s Legacy), a stallion recently approved also in Sweden. His strength is undoubtedly that he is the continuer of the Windsong line’s Legacy, wanting to jump to America for a moment therefore, the same as Chapter Seven, therefore Walner.

Nad Al Sheba especially in recent years has seen its production have at least one of its own sons dominate the classic circuit every year: Uragano Trebì, Velvet Gio, Vertigo Spin and Capital Mai. In short, the list is long up to Dimitri Ferm, born in 2019, protagonist of the Italian youth classic circuit until he obtained the victory in the “Italian Trot Derby” the most important race for a three-year-old horse in Italy, the race that definitively consecrates a horse by giving it the label of champion.

Said of Nad Al Sheba, another young stallion currently in demand is Vivid Wise AS (Yankee Glide), the richest Italian trotter after Varenne (Waikiki Beach) in whose production we can already identify classic winners and places such as Cadillac Grif, Charmant De Zack and Clelia D’Arc.

Finally, the glorious Varenne is timeless, capable of supplying Italian breeding with numerous champions with a capital “C”, increasingly appreciated sire of mares.

If you have any questions or story ideas for Filippo Lago, please email him at lagofilippo0@gmail.com

by Filippo Lago, for Harnesslink