I’m in the process of reading Avalyn Hunter’s study/biography of Mr. Prospector. It was published in 2008, so time does make a difference.
She talks quite a bit about how “commercial” Mr. P was in breeding, in that he met the American market’s desired characteristics, including the propensity of his get for dirt track surfaces. Then she adds a caveat on his future value by suggesting that racing was moving toward polytrack which was more similar to turf, so dirt bred horses might be at a disadvantage.
We all know that the polytrack experiment did not last; part of the reason was injury. Could that have been because the vast mass of American horses are dirt-bred and have been so particularly intensely in the past twenty years or so–i.e the Mr. P influence? Given that no one in their right minds, especially after reading her book, could ever consider Mr. P a line noted for soundness (the number of his best runners who had to be retired because of injury at early ages is almost unbelievable) and given just how many racers have Mr. P close and in doubles, could the racing PTBs have decided to give up on polytrack because it placed their past couple of decades of breeding at a disadvantage?
She states quite baldly that Mr. P is far more influential in North and South America, the only places where the majority of racing is on dirt.
I’m now going to read her study/biography of Northern Dancer next.
