The goal of this thesis was to analyze harness racing successfulness of horses with a good na-tional level success in foal shows by comparing them to the averages of corresponding age class. Five most successful Finnhorses and warmbloods in the national foal show, born in the years 1999- 2001, were included in the harness racing successfulness analysis.

Another goal was to find out if there was any connection between traits evaluated at foal shows and harness racing results, and if so, what were the correlating qualities. This analysis included five Finnhorses and five warmbloods with the best success in national foal show during the years 1996- 2012. Since not every horse had a start in harness racing competition only 78 Finnhorses and 67 warmblood trotting horses took part in the analysis.

Similar research about harness racing successfulness of foals that succeeded in national shows was conducted in 1993- 1996 by Eero Perttunen. This thesis is meant to act as a continuum to the earlier research and the client is Suomen Hippos ry, the Finnish trotting and breeding asso-ciation.

In two of the three years included in the study, warmblood trotting horses with success at foal shows clearly had worse results than the average of their age group. Warmbloods born in 2001 were the only ones with more starts and earnings than their age group’s average. Similar results showed up with Finnhorses, but horses born in 2001 had more starts and earnings and they were faster than their age group’s average.

There seems to be no strong linear correlation between conformation evaluated at foal shows and the success in harness racing. Therefore it can be said that good conformation scores at foal shows won’t automatically lead to harness racing success.