westmeadhawk
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hi archie
Top Honcho is one of the most prolific greyhound sires I think and the greyhound-data site lists him as having over 8000 pups!
Droopys Fergie has only 43 though according to their stats (two litters with Top Honcho)
If your figures were true she would be some bitch and theirs a real love match 
| Quote: | He died last year and is considered to be akin to a Northern Dancer dog equivalent!
As a sire he was AMAZING. But as a sire of sires and a sire of broods - well that's where his legacy is really starting to make its mark. He has numerous sons at stud - in fact - his immediate successor in the UK Open Race Charts is his son Droopys Vieri. It looks like Vieri will dominate for the next couple of years - but not to the extent his sire has. He will battle it out with Droopys Kewell and Honcho Classic. The stud charts will never again be dominated in the way the son of Head Honcho and Rainbow High did. With the increasing popularity of imported semen, we now see the likes of Brett Lee, Go Wild Teddy, Just The Best, Elite State, Big Daddy Cool, Token Prince all getting sufficient amounts of breedings to enter the top 20 lists over the next decade. These sires added to the top 10 or so Irish based sires will share the champion's title between them for the next decade, and we could see Droopys Vieri crowned champion for a couple of years before it changes hands every year for quite a while.
As a broodsire, Top Honcho is challenging Staplers Jo and Larkhill Jo for the top spot. This year he has had great success - his most prominent 2nd offspring being Ms Firecracker and Farloe Black.
So where will the NEXT Top Honcho come from? Well I can't see one coming in the next decade. What is needed possibly is another PERCEIVED outcross. I write perceived because Top Honcho is perceived as an outcross - but one man's outcross is another man's linebreeding. It should be noted that Top Honcho himself hails from an Irish damline - his fourth dam La O'Leary was born in Cork at the end of the 60s before being exported to Australia. She was mated to another Irish export Come On Wonder who was by Newdown Heather - that giant Irish champion of track and field.
We are saturated with Australian sirelines so we are not likely to get another Top Honcho from that bank of sires. Ireland and Britain have a chance if one of the unfashionably bred sires takes off and breeders cotton on - but I cant see it. America has already given us Sandman, but Irish breeders do not go for what are perceived as stamina rather than pace infused sirelines. However if I was to pick a sire - Hondo Black has made a great start. He is crossing well with Irish lines and Top Honcho bitches too!
For whatever reason, the Irish cousing damlines are not being bred to track sires, and we have already seen the likes of Knockeevan Major succeeding after being bred on these lines. An opportunity exists but it is a big risk. Many have tried and failed - but the offspring of a track bred sire over a half coursing bred bitch could be the answer to the corner many feel we have backed ourselves into.
Top Honcho was undoubtedly a Prepotent (that's breeding jargon for "showing great effectiveness in conferring genetic traits or in fertilization") Supersire. But he was aided by his studkeeper's brilliant marketing - he knows how to pick an import for the Irish market. The biggest factor in Top Honcho's success - apart from his sheer brilliance - was the 'blank canvas' of a gene-pool that he was breeding into. The fabulous non-diluted Irish damlines he bred into were crying out for him and Irish breeding has become full of his blood. This is a success story - but the next direction for Irish breeding will be an important one - many feel the chasing instinct is not as it was when the Irish influence was stronger.
Who will be the NEXT TOP HONCHO? I doubt we will see another like him. |
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or is science involved cheers archie.