Llowalong's freshman sires smash records in 2024

From Harness Racing Australia - 22 January 2025

Freshman stallion POSTER BOY (pic) smashed all records in 2024. The regally bred former star pacer boasted 23 individual winners from
his first crop – headlined by the brilliant The Highlight Reel - more
than double any other first season sire before last year.

POSTER BOY (Somebeachsomewhere USA) is quickly matching his success
on the track where he won 22 of just 30 starts, including Group 1
success at two (Vicbred final), three (NSW Derby) and four (Chariots Of
Fire). In total, he won five Group races, along with a second in the
Victoria Derby and that enormous third to Spankem in the 2019 Miracle
Mile.

Since HRA started keeping statistics on first crop stallions in the
2002/03 season, the record was shared by Bling It On (2021) and Vincent
(2022) with 11 individual winners.

While POSTER BOY’s impact has been phenomenal, it was just the
headline of a crucial growth in interest and impact for Australian-bred
first season stallions. Underlining that, SOHO TRIBECA also smashed the previous record with
17 individual winners, most notably Hell Im Smooth and Soho The Real
Deal.

They were the stars of an impressive six of Australian-bred freshman
stallions to have at least one individual winner in their first crop. Go back to 2006 and former star pacer Saab's (Classic Garry) first
crop had nine winners which equalled his sire, another great Australian
Bred sire Classic Garry's (Garry Rowan) 1989 achievement of nine in his
first crop. 

In the 16 seasons from 2002/03 to 2017/18, there were on average 4.4
Australian-bred first season stallions that sired a winner, with an
average of 7.2 winners. Saab’s nine in 2006 was clearly the highest,
ahead of Rich And Spoilt (six in 2006) and Flightpath (six in 2013).

Follow The Stars joined Saab in 2019 with nine individual winners,
then Bling It On set a new benchmark with 11 winners in 2021, a mark
Vincent matched 2022. Overall, the 2024 season high of 56 individual winners to first crops
of Australian Bred sires, smashed the previous season record of 21.

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