The worldwide standardbred pedigree database Classic Families (CF) has been available free online to web users since December 2008. Aside from some additional features added since that time together with a considerable amount of information fed into the database, very little has changed on the site itself. The CF team however has remained stable – Australians Ron Groves, John Peck, Simon Morris and New Zealander Peter Craig.
The team sought feedback from regular users who were granted access to preview the proposed new public version of Classic Families. A number of suggestions made together with those of the CF team and IT specialist Simon Morris have been incorporated into the new CF.
The weekend of 11/12 February 2023 saw the launch of the “new” Classic Families available at :
https://classicfamilies.net
containing amended/additional features within the regular information sources.
Current and new users will be required to create and activate a logon account before being permitted access to the content. There is both a register and login link on the home page.
The new CF database currently contains :
- details of 221,000+ horses
- just on 7,500 maternal families
- results of 5,700+ individual races (800 NZ; 1,992 Australia; 1,943 North America; 855 Europe; 137 Great Britain/Ireland); over 64,000 individual feature winners
- close to 153,000 race results
- approximately 470 lists of award winners, money and speed honours
- details of dates of operation/sizes of 744 tracks worldwide, several with brief histories
Front Page News – now shown on individual lines for a particular topic.
Information sources –
Main Page –
Horse Details
Contains the base details of a horses sex, date and country of birth, stakes, best mile time/rate, number of CF classic wins/links to career page, four generation pedigree, Classic Family number/now linked to Family Winners page (by clicking on any horse in the pedigree it becomes the horse under review), numbers of classic relations/linked to various items it contains and any notes pertaining to horse in question. Tail lines : provides the sire and maternal lines traced back to their original source – use tabs to switch between Tail Male or Tail Female. Descendants : gives both male and female Classic winners applicable to family members. The offspring tab : lists progeny in the database applicable to horse under review. For male progeny enables you to see winners produced as dam sire plus winners at ages two, three and four. Classic Crosses : allows you to check every classic winner and their wins of the horse as a sire or dam sire plus broodmare crosses through to fifth dam sire. Career (previously History) provides a listing of a horses’ feature race wins, national awards, speed records and siring/broodmare siring credits. All above have printable/pdf feature built in with the exception of details page
Pedigree –
Printable six generation pedigrees (includes x – factors) allowing you to check for duplicates and cross duplicates etc. Also available as pdf’s
Reports –
Family Winners
Using a family number or family name allowing you to get a complete list, in reverse chronological order, of all Classic Winners and Classic List horses in the family
Classic Races
Results of 5,700+ races past and present worldwide – added to regularly
Elite Performers
- a) performers – all time lists for $500,000+ earners in Australia and New Zealand; millionaire Pacers and Trotters; current fastest time categories/performances for pacers/trotters, listings separate 2yo’s and Australia/New Zealand; Hall of Famers
- b) awards – Horse of the Year Awards (Australia, NZ, Canada, USA, UK plus several European); Sire of the Year (numerous countries – lots of age group categories for Australia/NZ & USA); Broodmare Sire of the Year; Grand Circuit champions
c) historical – lists of the first 100 $100,000 winners; 2:10/2:05/2:00/1:55 winners for Australia, NZ & North America; 1:50 winners; separate categories also for trotters and 2yo’s.
d) speed – Mile evolution records for North America/Australia/New Zealand, Europe/UK, includes 2 and 3yo’s; fastest pacers/trotters of year in NA (2/3yo and overall)
Tracks
Use the tracks tab to select one of the track codes to view the results of all races and/or elite performances run at that track plus compare speed performances across tracks of different sizes. Where known years of operation and track sizes are shown plus any applicable track history
Information –
BM Crosses
Details how to access and utilise the broodmare crosses feature
PS Rankings
An annual ranking system of the best trotters in the world since 1958 by ranking their performances and assigning them a performance score
Book List
Eight “books” including PS Ratings covering thoroughbred origins, North American and Australasian trotting
User Guide and Help/About
Provides two useful assistance items for using CF –
The USER GUIDE (an on line tutorial) contains a detailed run through of how to manoeuvre around the various features of the CF program. To maximise the benefits from using the database, it is well worth an hour’s study to become familiar with the terminology used and options available. For example, the definitions of Classic Races, Classic Winners, Classic Horses, Classic Progeny and Classic Descendants; maternal family and country numbering; time record format; treatment of earnings between countries.
The HELP PAGE is a guide to the Classic Families information sources for users as outlined above.
CF allows comparison of pedigrees of horses back to their tap root mare and the relevant maternal families’ successes. Using the Classic Crosses tab and selecting “as sire” produces a sires Classic Winners sorted alphabetically. The same can be done using the “as dam sire” tab. These tables allow you to assess what type of stallions or sire/dam sire crosses have been successful with the immediate family. By clicking on the headings, one can sort the information to suit your purposes especially utilising the Broodmare Crosses tab. There are many other possibilities as race success or potential cannot be judged by speed and/or earnings alone. The user guide tutorial assists in this regard.
The new improved Classic Families available now remains free to use. It continues to provide an amazing level and depth of harness racing information.
Peter Craig
13 February 2023
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
Driving The Future Of Harness Racing
