Among the weakest, if not the weakest group of Freshman Sires in last 50 years. Hard to imagine that any will later become elite sires.

1]Colonel John  2]Dunkrk  3]Dixie Chatter  4]Parading  5]  Pioneer of the Nile     stanley marcinkowski, Plowville, Pa

This group has at least some potential and definitely some intriguing characters - Pioneerof the Nile and Colonel John are of interest to gauge Empire Maker and Tiznow as sires of sires -- U S Ranger and Cowboy Cal both have more than enough ingredients to make good sires, the former in particular could absolutely be elite, similar to War Front;  Unbridled's Song may finally break through as well as a sire of sires -- Dunkirk was a good horse with a great pedigree and Alan says Zensational was Unbridled's Song's best horse and he goes tail female to Myrtlewood.

@sceptor - the same is said nearly every year, usually proven wrong.  Mr P, Storm Cat, Dynaformer weren't consisdered any great shakes when they retired.   Others who were, have faded into near oblivion.  

I for one am eager to see the Fort Prado and Colonel John babies run.

Lmaris:

Oh, really? Find me a year when the deemed top 10 or 15 had weaker qualifications than these? Going in, both Mr. P. and Storm Cat looked better than any in this group. Dynaformer was a surprise, but I doubt he would have been selected for an original top 10 list. Perhaps our definition of "qualifications" differs.  

Dynaformer was not a surprise to one small and beleaguered coven of breeders, those who were scanning the horizon desperately looking for outcross sires for Mr. P and Northern Dancer crosses, especially as it was becoming common to double down.

Dynaformer contributed two crosses of Nearco, Blue Larkspur and Hyperion in his foal's sixth (6th) generation, making him an absolute outcross by contemporary standards, and he had Ribot who nicked with both predominant sires, spectacularly so with Northern Dancer.

On paper he looked awfully good.

To suggest that one could have predicted Dynaformer's success at stud is utter nonsense. Being an outcross to Northern Dancer and/or Mr. P. is alone far from a Rx for success-there were many from his era with similar credentials that failed. Also, Nearco and Hyperion "blood" are not examples of outcross influences for Northern Dancer, and Ribot did not nick all that well with Mr. P. Lastly, take a closer look at what worked well with Dynaformer, and you'll see that much of his success wasn't likely attributed to his blends with Mr. P or Northern Dancer.