The word on the street is there are very few full books out there so if there’s a stallion that you like, do make an offer. The stud can only say no.
In my view, we should have much more confidence in our industry. The Entain money is making racing a much more attractive proposition than it used to be. Provided that you’ve got a correct young horse, you don’t have to sell it as a yearling; you do have the option of leasing it, perhaps keeping a share in the racing partnership.
So what am I doing this season?
Well, I’ve bought three cheap mares off Gavelhouse. Miss Thorn I’ve already written about; she’s been covered by Armory.
I’ve also purchased two Darci Brahma mares. Marshal has a 17-day positive to The Chosen One – surely the best-priced stallion in the country. She’s a sister to Dee and Gee about whom I wrote a story or two elsewhere on this site. Welcome hasn’t had a heap of luck so far in her breeding career, but this is one heck of a family (Sunline, Phar Lap). She’s booked to Pure Champion.
Chambon has left the promising Riviera Rebel to Pure Champion and has a stunning yearling filly by the same sire. It never pays to ignore the obvious, so back she goes.
I already have a yearling by The Alfonso and am much impressed by his strength and temperament. The two mares at the bottom of my list, Desiree and Make You Move are both booked to him. They have both left winners so they’re worth a crack.
Last Tuesday I bought a mare from Gavelhouse for $500. In itself, this isn’t news, but I don’t buy too many empty elderly broodmares with moderate produce records, especially if some of the stallions involved have been top class.
So what was I thinking?
Well, firstly I had a vet check her out for breeding soundness. It really is a joy talking to vets: you’ve got to listen to what they have to say, and especially how they say it. They will never commit themselves, unless the horse is observably dead, but amongst the forest of uncertainty I picked out a few saplings of optimism. In short, most of the breeding bits seemed just fine.
Anyway, I then checked out the mare’s race record: 5 wins and a third placing in the prestigious Matamata Breeders Stakes. Check.
What about her progeny? Five to race, three relatively minor winners. Of more interest, I noted that three of her younger foals had yet to race. These included a 3YO named High Roller. When I watched his latest trial, I became seriously excited. Have a look at www.loveracing.co.nz
LOVERACING.NZ – New Zealand Thoroughbred RacingNew Zealand’s premium digital channel showcasing thoroughbred horse racing. We deliver the latest news, video, profiles, field & form, statistics and raceday info.www.loveracing.co.nz
and you’ll understand.
When, and preferably before, you buy a mare you really need to have some sort of idea what you’re going to do with her. When she’s 17, there’s no point just popping her in a paddock; you need to try to get a foal out of her.
Over the years, I’ve developed a few rules for stallion selection.
Never use a stallion who isn’t courageous and doesn’t care about winning.
Never use a horse with poor conformation.
Get the best deal you can on the service fee.
Always choose a stallion with a complementary pedigree. (I’ll explain what I mean by this next week.)
Recently I was asked to give a mating recommendation for the good mare, Sulu Sea. I have to admit that she was a racehorse who I knew virtually nothing about. I had no idea how “good” she was. After completing some basic research, I concluded that If you’re capable of finishing within a length of the winner of the Wellington Cup, you’re a pretty handy racehorse.
I quickly discovered that Sulu Sea had two unusual qualities. Firstly, the further she went, the better she performed and, secondly, her pedigree could kindly be described as unremarkable.
Sweet Orange, Duelled, Desert Fox…it’s not until we get back to Sulu Sea’s third dam that we find a stallion one could describe as successful – the Sadler’s Wells horse, Scenic.
So where to from here? The first thing breeders need to do is to figure out what sort of distance aptitude they want their foal to have. When you have a good class staying mare, there’s not a lot of point sending her to a pure sprinter. You need to try to produce a stayer that is better than Mum. The best way of doing this is by trying to identify those aspects of the mare’s pedigree that led to her being who she is.
The challenge with Sulu Sea is that the influences she is predominately inbred to – Danzig and Mr Prospector – are anything but stamina influences. So what’s going here? Clearly, Danzig and Mr Prospector have had very little influence on the production of this mare, so is there a pedigree influence which is positively linked to producing high-class stamina?
The answer is a resounding “yes”. You’ve got to track a wee way back, but there are no fewer than eight Princequillo strains in this pedigree. The great Sir Tristram is inbred to Princequillo, a U.S bred stallion who has been hugely influential in the development of the thoroughbred.
So I’d recommend that the owners of this mare find a stallion strong in Princequillo. He’s a stallion you can inbreed to without undue conformational or temperamental risks.
Now it’s up to the owners. How much money do they want to spend? What conformational factors are relevant? And, of course, temperament is always crucial.
A couple of days ago I was engaged in a conversation with a successful South Island trainer. We were discussing the value of inbreeding and the word “incestuous” came up. Back in the mid 1900’s and beyond, this heavily emotive term was frequently used to discredit attempts to produce inbred thoroughbreds.
However, we’re always looking to find clever ways – preferably at minimum cost – to produce a faster horse, and inbreeding really does seem to work, however one defines that contentious term.
So I had a quick search for some expert commentary on the issue and almost immediately discovered the article linked below.
I also discovered another article which clearly assumed that the concerns raised were of no importance compared with our need to produce thoroughbreds which turned out to be more successful than their peers. This article will appear in a day or two.
Finally, I’ll write a piece which summarises my experiences, both successes and failures.`
“He strikes us as a real classic stallion. He gets a very good type and is a total outcross with his pedigree free of the major European forces like Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Montjeu, Danehill, Green Desert, Invincible Spirit, Danehill Dancer, and Dubawi.
“We are thrilled that he is coming to Coolmore and are very excited about what he might achieve when paired with our Galileo mares,” stated Coolmore spokesman David O’Loughlin.
The above quote explains succinctly why Coolmore have outlaid a no doubt eye-watering sum to purchase upwardly mobile French stallion, Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj).
The breeding powerhouse have no shortage of Sadler’s Wells and Danehill bloodlines at their disposal and their brains trust must have been mulling over for quite some time the age-old question, “Where do we go next?”
Clearly they’ve seen Wootton Bassett as the answer to that question and their conclusion is not exactly surprising given that the son of Iffraaj has shown a remarkable ability in the last year or so to throw class and to throw that desirable quality consistently. To date he’s produced 106 winners, including 15 SWs and another 12 stakes-placed performers.
So what does this all mean for the kiwi breeder? Well, Almanzor now looks a much safer bet than he did when he arrived and full marks to Cambridge Stud for what was then a courageous decision to stand him.
Turn Me Loose has his first juveniles out and about this season. As his dam is bred on the Danehill – Sadler’s Wells cross, it will be very interesting to see how his youngsters perform.
Ribchester, the winner of four Group 1s in Europe, begins his third SH season at Haunui next week. At $15,000 he will no doubt attract many of our most commercial mares. Inbred to Nureyev, and featuring the highly successful Nureyev – Last Tycoon cross he must be a very strong chance to make a significant impact down here.
Jon Snow’s first foals are arriving about now and Wyndspelle is about to begin his first season at stud. Both Group 1 winning sons of Iffraaj are at bargain fees. Wyndspelle stands at $5000; ATC Derby winner Jon Snow is at $3750.
Wyndspelle features the Iffraaj – Sadler’s Wells cross which Coolmore are hoping to build on; Jon Snow has a similar pedigree to Ribchester. Inbred to Nureyev, he has the Nureyev – Last Tycoon nick as well.
We’re all in these difficult times together and If Little Avondale and Cambridge Stud can offer breeders significant advantages by using their stallions, I can follow their example by offering free mating advice for the coming season.
Little Avondale have trimmed Time Test’s fee from $10,000 to $6000 and I’ve been unable to resist this inducement. I can well remember when Rich Hill reduced Pentire’s fee to the same amount – and the angst when the mare concerned failed to get in foal, especially when the son of Be My Guest left SWs all over the place in subsequent years.
I really rate Time Test and he should cross well with many of our leading bloodlines. Inbreeding to Sadler’s Wells clearly works well and if you’re going to inbreed to Danehill, something most of us approach with caution, Time Test’s Dansili line is one that should be relatively risk-free. The mare I’m sending is bred on a Rip Van Winkle – Dansili cross, so I’m going for broke.
If you’re thinking of using Time Test, then have a look at the photos of last year’s foals on the LA website. It’s something of a challenge to tell them apart.
Cambridge Stud’s 2020 strategy is to offer a
payment on live foal deal – an arrangement which will appeal to breeders
whose cash flow isn’t what it used to be. They offer two stunning
physical types in Almanzor and Embellish and deserve to be rewarded for
their initiative.
To date, other studs’ announcements of their 2020 fees have been notable for their adherence to 2019 figures. Let’s hope they think again. Wouldn’t six weeks’ free agistment be a powerful inducement?
In recent years I’ve often published a review of fees
based on what I’ve considered to be the extent to which they’ve
represented value for money. I plan on doing this again in a coupe of
weeks, but one stallion I’d like to mention at this stage is Derryn.
His offspring on Gavelhouse have been nice types and my experience with breeding a mare to him has been more than satisfactory. Tuscany Rose is a mare that has yet to leave two foals alike, even when bred twice to the same stallion but her Derryn filly we’re currently weaning is an absolute cracker. She appears to have a fair amount of Lonhro in her, which is certainly encouraging.
That was impressive. Racing three wide for a good part of the journey and carrying 60kg against a useful field was not enough to stop the son of Fully Fledged from scoring his first black-type success in yesterday’s Counties Bowl. In doing so, he became Cloughmore’s 27th individual black-type winner and gave us our 60th stakes race victory.
Thinking back to when I advised successful breeder Kaye Sanders to send her Maroof mare Keshava to Fully Fledged, I recall that she told me that her mare was a one-paced but handy sprinter and we agreed that finding a stallion to impart a degree of class was clearly a priority. I had recently seen Fully Fledged (Align) at Fairdale Stud and had been impressed by his physique and his temperament. Racegoers will recall that as a 2YO he ran through the Trentham running rail and I suspect that many breeders remembered that incident and had doubts about using him as a stallion. The old prejudice against chestnuts also came to the fore, I’d imagine, together with the thought that possibly Align wasn’t entirely desirable as a sire of sires.
Anyway, I always had a soft spot for Align, having been associated with Donna Logan’s selection of the impressive but ill-fated Align to Infinity, and I had long-since developed a theory about breeding sprinters. As long as the dam was quick and came from a speedy family and provided that you didn’t lose that speed by selecting a stallion with significant and dominant stamina influences, you had a decent chance of producing a fast racehorse. How much class it had was another matter but, as always in breeding, you have to give yourself a chance.
Apart from the Northern Dancer duplications, the only significant cross which features in Fully Funded’s pedigree is the Grey Sovereign x Crepello nick, but it’s a cross for which I have a deep affection. As time has rolled on, these two stallions occur increasingly further back in pedigrees (obvious statement of the year), but when they turn up in the same pedigree page it always adds to the appeal of the animal concerned.
Let’s hope Fully Funded makes it to the Group 1 Railway Handicap on New Year’s Day and that he gets a decent draw.
It’s always difficult to design a headline for an article with multiple purposes, so apologies for the above.
One of the good news items relates to the RTR catalogue. It seems to offer a range of well bred-types with attractive pedigrees; I had real difficulty sorting out my feature lots as the overall quality was impressive. I was especially taken by some of the fillies. As always, the Analysis is available for sale in its totality and also via commentaries on individual lots.
Under the heading of “Thank Goodness They Are Starting To Show Something” is the news on the recent form of the stock of Super Easy. We all know that Prom Queen is a freak but the support acts have been well hidden until the last few days. Last weekend Easy Does It won nicely in Singapore, the day after the very smart Easy Beast was again successful, this time in Adelaide. Yesterday Easy Eddie cruised home as a red-hot favourite at Wyong and Lisdoonvarna won a Class 1 event at Nowra treating her rivals with disdain. Easing down, she recorded just a tick over 1.09 for the 1200. On a personal note, Tuscany Rose foaled a stunning filly by Super Easy during the week so that cheered me a up not a little.
If that sounds a little emotional, we all know that racing is a story of highs and lows. Maybe we’re all manic-depressives to some extent. Anyway, the bad news is that La Nouvelle Vague broke down during the running of the Winton Cup; best case scenario is that he’s a mere 12 months away from his next start but, to be realistic, tendon injuries are never good news. Hm. Many of my fellow owners have been here before and we really feel for the Eade family who have spent so much time and effort getting our horse to black type level.
In the bitter-sweet success category was the win of our now leased out Darci Brahma mare in the R65 2100 event at Ashburton. I referred to the Dee and Gee narrative in my 16 September article, “A Cautionary Tale”, but I really didn’t think she was capable of winning a $22,500 event so easily. Oh well, at least we owners can congratulate ourselves on selecting a decent horse while we repeat to ourselves, “If your horse was foaled in December, you do have to give it time to show what it can do.”
That was one tough performance. Carrying top weight on a Heavy 10 track and failing to settle in what is generally a slowly-run race did not prevent the gelded son of Handsome Ransom and the Istidaad mare Itsa Belt scoring a meritorious victory in yesterday’s Fasttrack Insurance 3210 at New Plymouth.
When Kevin Gray asked me to make some mating recommendations for his mares back in 2008, I well remember looking at Itsallbelt’s pedigree and thinking that this was going to be something of a challenge. As a racemare, she had failed to earn even a very small cheque in seven starts and her dam was by one of my least favourite stallions, Stylish Century. She did trace to the wonderful Flight family, but that was pretty much it.
One factor that I always have in mind is that I never encourage clients to spend their hard-earned on mares which could charitably be described as marginal. So that restricted my choice of stallion for Itsa Belt and also led me to start my search close to home. At the time Handsome Ransom had his first crop of 2YOs in action and they had attracted much favourable comment. He did have a weakness or two in his pedigree but at $4000 seemed to be a relatively low risk option; in addition, as a grandson of Roberto there was some chance that some of those desirable genes would end up in Itsa Belt’s offspring as Istidaad was out of a Roberto mare.
To be entirely honest, I had no idea that Itsallbelt would turn out to be a slow-maturing stayer that he is. Essentially, the Handsome Ransom mating was supposed to inject some speed into what was a very slow mare and to produce a reasonably compact physical type. I suppose that Itsallbelt has much more base speed than he dam did and maybe the Roberto duplication has helped in producing one tough animal who doesn’t like stopping, but this wasn’t one of those matings which makes you say – yes, I got that so right!
As I’ve said before, you’ve got to have luck on your side in this business.
My name is Philip Jeffreys. I’ve been breeding thoroughbreds since 1974 and since the late 1980s have been developing a business which specializes in advising breeders on pedigree matters. This includes mating advice and also pedigree analysis of broodmares, yearlings and weanlings for prospective purchasers.
Even for industry professionals, reasonably priced pedigree advice is vital if sound business decisions are to be made; for newcomers to breeding and racing, objective analysis of pedigrees is essential.
2013 looks like being Cloughmore’s most successful year to date; the site will be regularly updated with our latest winners and a range of articles on pedigree issues.
