Views on Auckland Reactor?

[Newmarket]

Seems a long time ago that AR was racing in NZ. Won quite a few in a row early on, and a few yanks paid big money ($4mill I think) as a stallion, sadly things didn’t work out and ended up back here….owners must have been very happy selling for so much, AR left a few good ones but really will be remembered as an average stallion. 
 

I’ve just been looking at all his NZ starts, to me it looks like the class of horse he was beating was certainly not strong, any views? 

[Withadream2]

It’s very common for great racehorses to fail at stud.  A number of NZ and USA imports have been very disappointing over the years. Lord Module, Roydon Glen, Auckland Reactor from NZ & Andrel, Red River Hanover, Nat Lobell from USA as well as Mach Three who was ok but a bit disappointing considering how good a racehorse he was.  

[Nowornever]

Any horse who can win 32 from 53 is pretty good. Probably one of the weaker 3yo years his was. Never did much when racing over seas.

From his progeny Chase Auckland 14 from 35 his best performer to date

 

[the galah]

i remember him as being virtually unbeatable when he was a 3 year old. He had an effortless action and i think mark purdon did a wonderful job in allowing the public to feel part of the action when he raced. For example he was shown on trackside one night,i think at cambridge after he won,taking the horse uo the staright and people lined the outside fence and patted him .What purdon and auckland reactor did that night and that season or two,,both during and after the races, epitomised the value of the connection between horse/driver/trainer and the public.

being by mach three,speed and shorter distances seemed to be where he excelled from memory.

As a sire ,i don't feel he lived up to the  expectations. If anything,what i've noticed over the years is there is a lack of mental toughness to his progeny. As a general rule,they are inconsistent and moody. Obviously there were exceptions,but it was not unusual to see his horses make mistakes.

It sort of seems to be the norm that sires leave progeny that have mostly the same traits. For example,in my opinion,the better father patricks seem to go good when they are 2 and 3 years old but don't get any better,nor  do there manners. Still they seem to sell well at sales,so not everyone agrees. All peaks were guaranteed to break when starting off and they seemed to lack much mental stabilty. vertigo was an exception to that rule. Brylinz boyz,they used to break in their first 7 or so starts then they would go away ok after that,art majors are best sprinters and you wouldn't take them in 2 mile races. I always thought, while sundon was a great sire,he was also the reason trotting races had so many breakers . Having said that,these days several other imported sires seem to have progeny with the same breaking habits.

Anyways i'm getting off track from auckland reactor.

Personally i thought auckland reactor had the x factor as a racehorse,before he went to the usa.

[Newmarket]

3 hours ago, Withadream2 said:

It’s very common for great racehorses to fail at stud.  A number of NZ and USA imports have been very disappointing over the years. Lord Module, Roydon Glen, Auckland Reactor from NZ & Andrel, Red River Hanover, Nat Lobell from USA as well as Mach Three who was ok but a bit disappointing considering how good a racehorse he was.  

Yes but none were purchased for $4mill. Didn’t it get sold for $2mill and sent back to NZ, AR was a complete flop racing in the USA. 

[Withadream2]

43 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

Yes but none were purchased for $4mill. Didn’t it get sold for $2mill and sent back to NZ, AR was a complete flop racing in the USA. 

Lazarus was purchased for around that amount & the Jury is still out on him.  A Rock n Roll Dance is another who is leaving winners but his stock need time so he’s not overly commercial. 

[Newmarket]

1 hour ago, Withadream2 said:

Lazarus was purchased for around that amount & the Jury is still out on him.  A Rock n Roll Dance is another who is leaving winners but his stock need time so he’s not overly commercial. 

I remember at the time, Mark Purdon stating that Auckland Reactor was the best horse he had trained 🫣😙, was surprised he stated that, mind you probably added a few $$$ to its price….