The best since Gunsynd August 14, 2001 A horse bred by the Marheines at their Stratheden Stud at Tamworth, Assertive Lad, has been acknowledged as an Australian champion for the second successive year based on the annual Australia -New Zealand Classifications. In capturing this honour this gelding lays claim to being the best horse reared in NSW north of the Hunter Valley since John Clift produced Gunsynd at The Dip at Breeza over thirty years ago. Assertive Lad was at the head of the weights on his own at the end of his two-year-old season, one in which he won five of seven starts, but had to share the glory for being the best three-year-old of 2000-01 with Universal Prince, both of them receiving 116 kilograms, five kilograms more than their nearest rival. He is by a former Australasian champion three-year-old, the Newhaven Park, Boorowa, NSW, located Zedative, while Universal Prince is a son of the Sadler's Wells sire Scenic. Both horses were bred in Northern NSW as Universal Prince carries the brand of Robert Sangster's Swettenham Stud and grew up at Collingrove Stud, Sandy Hollow, Hunter Valley.

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