As their name implies these homebred products were foaled in New Zealand and are far less numerous than their contemporaries imported from Australia or the northern hemisphere.

Currently they lead the statistics for the country’s stallions at the season’s half way mark.

On the figures posted on January 31, 2003, the two leaders on the premiership were Zabeel (Sir Tristram—Lady Giselle, by Nureyev) with $NZ 675,300 in earnings and O’Reilly (Last Tycoon-Courtza, by Pompeii Court) with $NZ 646, 621 to his credit.

Also prominent was High Royal Highness (Grosvenor—Gem In The Rough, by Mr Prospector) with $NZ 385,555 and taking the eighth ranking on the premiership and The Son (Noble Bijou—The Twinkle, by Gate Keeper) on the 14th position with $NZ 253,435.

The Son’s sole representative was the Wellington Cup winner Oarsman.

O’Reilly and Zabeel were the first two stallions on the three-year-old returns at January 31 with $NZ 555,001 and $NZ 505,215 respectively.

The overseas imports dominated the juvenile figures with the best homebred being the freshman Danske (Danehill-Our Tristalight, by Sir Tristram) in eighth placing with two winners from five starters.

Traditionally New Zealand thoroughbred breeders gave little support to their top products, preferring the “blue bloods” from abroad, who in most instances were inferior in performance to our best New Zealanders.

Martian (Martagon—Otterden, by Sheen) was a notable homebred stallion, who won seven premierships in eight years between 1914 and 1921.

He was not exactly a true Kiwi as he was conceived in the UK in 1901 but was born in New Zealand.

The overseas imports completely and utterly dominated the sire tables from 1922 till Kingdom Bay’s emergence in the 1993-1994 and 1995-1996 seasons.

A classic winner to 1600m, homebred Kingdom Bay (Otehi Bay—Golden Praise, by Golden Plume) was rather unusual among premiership sires as he basically threw sprinters and metric milers rather than classic runners.

Since then the homebred contribution has been dominated by the super stallion Zabeel, who won four titles from 1997-1998 till 2000-2001. He was toppled last season by the English import Volksraad.

Compared with the 70 years after Martian when the homebred was virtually snubbed, the local product has now been acknowledged with a little more respect. There’s a new dimension, too, with Sir Tristram’s involvement in upgrading the local thoroughbred families.

But now there’s a new element for the home product to contend. It’s the shuttle sire, imported from the northern hemisphere for an off season duty tour.