Australian breeding industry has this (IMO) unhealthy lust for breeding speed horses, so much so the trend to find stayers overseas is a growing one - one S P O'Donnell is probably the most well known and most active in this pursuit.

We try and attract overseas runners to our big races, which traditionally are over a mile and greater, yet the breeding seems aimed at horses that are to run upto 1400m...and very fast. Our stayers seem to be keeping them at bay, but don't forget West Coast, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Port Adelaide have all conquered the flying caper and taken the AFL Premiership Cup home in recent time and adapted in a very short time period.....

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Stix
.......Giddy Up..... !!

I thinks it's all about cost Stix. Training stayers nowadays is an expensive proposition as it takes time to bring them on and a lot of trainer expenses. A sprinter however is [mostly] doing it's best work from 2yr. old to 4 yr.old and if it can win at group level, future stud fees can result in astronomical $ amounts.

Take for example Encosta De Lago [with only a 11.8% win SR] at Coolmore stud. At a service fee of $302,500 the stallion has generated revenues of over [hold your breath] $68 million and it's not even the top earner! Stud fees is where the real money lies, not prize money and if an owner and a suitable trainer can produce the goods from a young horse, serious riches await. A quick initial earn on investment will alway predominate a slow earn. So that is why owners predominately invest in sprinters, not stayers.

Any horse can jog and sprint. If we look at times today of most staying races we find mostly very slow times [jog and sprint]. These horses aren't stayers, they are mostly pretentious stayers that are basically sprinters.