Key to Group 1 glory

Did you know that in the past decade, almost 60 percent of the Group 1 winners in Australia have had a mother that won at a distance of 565m or more?

NSW dog man Charlie Riccio, a self-confessed greyhound breeding nerd, has compiled those stats and that gives us a huge insight into breeding a Group 1 winner.

Charlie has analysed the racetrack performances of the mother of every Group 1 winner for almost the past decade. That encompasses 298 Group 1 races from 2012 up to and including 2020.

Charlie focussed on the mothers of every one of those Group 1 stars and especially the race distances those females had won over before going to stud.

What he found is amazing and presents a thorough insight into how breeders should contemplate going about planning what "could” be a Group 1 winner.

Charlie found that of the 298 winners of Group 1 races in the time period he studied, seven bitches that were never raced were able to produce the winners of nine Group 1 events.

That is indeed an interesting figure. It is just 3.02 percent of the overall number of Group 1 winners.

The stats on bitches that did not win races further than 500m during their race career were just as telling.

Of that list, just nine were able to produce the winners of 11 Group 1 races. That is 3.69 percent of the total.

As Charlie said: "With the proliferation of short course races throughout the country, I expected this number to be much better. Consider the number of bitches that have won races under 500 metres. It must be huge."

With city racing being generally restricted to 500m, 600m and 700m events, more of them coming over 500m, it would be expected bitches that won races from 500m to 564m would have a huge influence on success in Group 1 racing.

Charlie's figures show 74 bitches, winners between 500m and 564m, produced 106 Group 1 victors. This is 35.57 percent of all Group 1 events.

But, the staggering aspect of Charlie's figures came when he analysed the figures for bitches that had won races at longer than 565m.

Bitches in that group produced 57.72 percent of the Group 1 winners.

Some 95 bitches, winners at further than 565m, produced 172 of the Group 1 winners.

Says Charlie: "Some of the figures were skewed. For instance Chloe Allen produced Fernando Bale who won eight Group 1s.

"But, it is obvious if you want to put the odds in your favour of getting a Group 1 winner either by breeding or buying pups, then you have to look at bitches who won over a distance of 565 metres or more.

"Of course, bitches who won over 500 metres and more are just as great a chance of producing at the highest level.

"But, if you are thinking of breeding with a bitch that could not win past 500 metres and hoping to get a Group 1 winner…consider your options."

It is obvious from Charlie's figure that short course winners and unraced bitches still have a chance of achieving the greatest success, but their chances are a paltry six percent.