She is a champion....couldn't care less what anyone else thinks

Burn One Down is a very good competitor and always a winning chance if he gets out well - otherwise he will run average times as he did at Albion.

None of these would live with Space Star, Miata or with Sweet It Is (when she did not run into backsides, which was very often).

Fanta Bale's record over 700m+ - 8 starts for 6 wins (all BON) and a 2nd, with three of those wins at group 1 level.

When she doesn't lead? Hard to get a real gauge since she's led through the first turn in all but two of her staying starts - but both times she hasn't led through the first turn over 700m+ she's won - the Sandown Cup where she was fairly away and checked entering the straight the first time and settled fourth/fifth, and in a heat of the Gold Cup at Albion Park where she settled third.

There is just no pleasing everyone

The only thing I could guarantee with these guys, if they owned her, is that 'she would be the greatest bitch since Zoom Top' and 'Burn One Down' would be the greatest since Chief Havoc

Holy Cow....what a pack of whingers

I will go one further and say they are even better stayers and chasers than some mentioned, as they have to race on tracks that have been slowed down in the last 12 months, not to mention that they don't have the benefit of the host of stimulants and other motivational techniques that some of our past champions have had to help them a long

trent wrigley wrote:

Would have loved to watch a match race xylia Allen , Miata and Fanta would've been a cracker

Multiple Grp 1's over the 3 city distances.

Well done PAW & connections.

Have a good hard look at yourselves and give her the credit she deserves!

She may have, all dogs at the top level beat each other at various times

But Irma Bale, as good as she was, WAS NOT A CHAMPION

FANTA BALE IS A CHAMPION

Without question, the current batch of (alleged) stayers are the worst for a long time. Consequently, when a high quality race dog like Fanta Bale comes along she looks terrific and wins terrific money. She gets out well, positions herself well, keeps on keeping on and is worth whatever she wins.

But she is no champion. She is following on from an era starring Chinatown Lad, Sweet It Is, Miata, and so on, which would knock her off nearly every time. Fanta Bale races neatly but rarely does she run time.

The entire staying group - as a group - has fallen away significantly in the last several years, which must be a function of breeding trends. Few can run out the trip and often times are terrible. It's often embarrassing to see them going up and down in the one spot on the home turn. No-one wants to use staying sires. Wheeler does not aim to produce stayers yet several of his line have featured in staying wins - presumably by accident, as was the case with Miata. The best of rest, Xylia Allen, could run brilliantly one week but could never back up a week later. Others won by spearing out of the boxes and just flopping over the line. They were really 650m dogs.

Indeed, in the Bold Trease final all but one runner, including Fanta Bale, ran an average of 7 lengths slower than their heat times. That's not exceptional, it happens in every heat/final series

I hark back to a quote from the late Bill Pearson of Gold Guide fame; "They are not as robust as they used to be".

The industry needs to carefully study those weakening trends and come up with policies that reverse the decline. That will not only benefit the breed, it will make customers happier. They love long races.

(NB: the thoroughbreds have the same problem).

She outrates them all for chasing ability, consistency, toughness and versatility

These are what we are trying to breed into the breed

It's great having the fastest dog in the world, but no good to you if it chases half the time or excuses have to be found for them

It's a new era, get with the times

I would have her any day, over any of the others

I can't argue with any of that. But I would not race her 6 times in 6 weeks over 650m/720m plus lots of travel.