Entries Tagged 'Choosing A Stallion' ↓
June 23rd, 2017 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion, News
Many of us will recently have received a copy of the NZTBA’s excellent “Register of Thoroughbred Stallions of New Zealand 2017”. It’s a great reference volume but it’s certainly a concern that the range of stallions available to Kiwi breeders reduces on an annual basis.
This is not a complaint about our stallion owners. It takes a significant degree of financial courage to stand a horse at stud and there are very few stallions in the Register which are overpriced. In fact, the reverse is true. Darci Brahma is an absolute steal, as are Pentire and Keeper. Of the up and coming types, Shocking, Showcasing, Zacinto and Highly Recommended are examples of stallions which are well worth their advertised fees.
Clearly, the annual exodus of mares over the Tasman to visit Australian-based stallions makes a lot of sense for our breeders. We operate in an increasingly global industry and it’s unfair to blame breeders for making informed financial decisions, especially as some Australian operations offer significant inducements to attract New Zealand mares. However, it is equally true that every dollar spent by our breeders over there is one dollar less available to our stallion owners for re-investment.
Having said that, this year offers nine first-season stallions, compared to seven last year and five in 2014. In both 2013 and 2015 we also had nine new horses. So, in my view, our studs are doing their very best to maintain a supply of fresh bloodlines. The reason why fewer mares are being mated every year is the staggering level of production costs. I’m sure there are many small breeders like myself who structure their activities around their own small landholding; moving to town would mean the end of our breeding activities.
Anyway, from a personal point of view, the number of enquiries I’ve had for mating advice is very heartening. Clients are understandably motivated by getting value for money and it’s really important that the industry supports its members by offering a range of payment plans for service fees. Breeders have long memories and a good deal offered in one year will often lead to that wonderful phenomenon of repeat business.
July 10th, 2016 — Choosing A Stallion, Value For Money
I’ve written articles on this theme before and they always get a strong reaction, mainly from the owners of stallions which don’t make the list. So I’d better start of by emphasising the fact that not making the list doesn’t mean that I think that your stallion has no chance of success; all I’m giving is one person’s opinion as to which stallions offer good value for breeders as at July 2016.
Let’s deal with the proven horses to start with. DARCI BRAHMA is currently second on the sires table and at $15,000 constitutes amazing value. He hasn’t set Australia on fire but he’s done very well in Singapore and he has the priceless asset of leaving horses which have that magic extra gear. On a personal note, I own a small share in the courageous mare Candle in the Wind who typifies her sire’s virtues and the Cloughmore Racing Partnership also has a holding in the 2YO Darci filly ex Gabana.
Last night’s Singapore Derby was a triumph for FALKIRK – if you didn’t see it live, do check a replay of Well Done’s freakish victory. The son of Tale of the Cat has a winners to starters ratio of 60% and just about all his best progeny have similar influences in their pedigrees. His sons have outperformed his daughters, but at $4000 he’s a steal.
On the subject of yesterday’s Asian racing, a son of SHOCKING was hugely impressive in winning a Class 3 1200 event in very quick time at Sha Tin. I have little doubt that this Melbourne Cup winning son of Street Cry is the next big thing. At $8500 he has to be huge value.
SHOWCASING and SWISS ACE have both made strong starts to their careers, and readers of this page will already be aware of the respect I have for SUPER EASY, PURE CHAMPION and KEANO. Of the newbies, IL CAVALLO offers very strong value as well.
To conclude, I’m going to give another mention to two stallions I have a significant regard for. Many breeders like to gamble on stallions with rising 2YOs as the stud fee can appear great value two and a half years later when the yearling sales come around.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and HE’S REMARKABLE both stand at $4000 and both continue to appeal very strongly indeed. HE’S REMARKABLE had superior ability and his pedigree has been franked by the deeds of his top class brother Xtravagant. His progeny may well not make 2YOs but you’d have to be very confident that he will be a star on the rise in 18 months’ time.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED is quite simply my number one stallion prospect amongst those sires with progeny which have yet to race. Very unusually for me, I’ve spent the hard-earned on sending three mares to him to date and will be fronting up with another this season. In the front paddock are two of the nicest yearlings I’ve ever bred: strong, sensible and well conformed. I’ve been wrong before, but I’m going to be very surprised if I’m wrong about this horse.
April 19th, 2016 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion
I part-own a one-win Chinese Dragon mare named Oriental Bronze and have recently been struggling with a problem which many of you will be familiar with. Do I put her back into work? Do I breed from her? Do I move her on?
As I always advise my students, I thought I’d better start by doing my homework. To my surprise I discovered that Chinese Dragon has a 50% winners to starters ratio. As he’s only had one SW, he’s certainly not a good stallion but I’d thought that he was entirely useless. I’d also thought that he’d ended up somewhere like New Caledonia or Thailand, but no, he’s in Oz and standing at $3300.
The information about where he was standing comes from the article referenced below, which is quite fascinating from at least two points of view. Firstly, the Lucky Country has a huge range of stallions standing at very reasonable fees. Here in New Zealand we breeders have a very restricted choice. There are sound economic reasons for this but the fact remains that if we own a mare which lacks commercial appeal, just what do we do? Over-mating her in terms of service fee is just plain daft; we are often left with the choice of going to stallion X or leaving her in the paddock or getting rid of her. Whilst Option C is no doubt the most fiscally sensible solution, there’s always that nagging thought that just maybe she could leave a Bonecrusher or a Grey Way or an All In Fun…
The second thought produced by the article was how crucial opportunity is in a stallion’s career. Whilst Chinese Dragon was lucky enough to end up at Fairdale, he doesn’t seem to have been overly-well patronised by outside breeders with an avalanche of top-class mares. It’s true that assessing opportunity is quite a challenge because we’ve got to factor in the question of genetic suitability of mares for a particular stallion, not just how much black type they have close up in their pedigrees. If you’d like some proof of this, the enduring success of White Robe Lodge is a case in point.
Anyway, here’s the article.
Click Here To Read
October 13th, 2015 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion
This is a serious horse. Local breeders will remember his dominant front-running display in the Group 1 Windsor Park Plate but some may not be aware that this attractive son of Footstepsinthesand was also successful in Group company in both Ireland and Hong Kong.
Thoroughbreds need to be physically and mentally tough to stand up to 36 starts in Hong Kong and for a stallion to do this is a remarkable achievement. Towards the end of his time in Asia his form did fall away but there are not too many stallions who retained their zest for racing to the extent that when he arrived in New Zealand at seven years of age he was more than making up the numbers at the highest level of competition.
Kiwi breeders may remember him as a front-runner but an examination of his best performances in Hong Kong show that he was a long way from being a one-dimensional racehorse. He certainly showed the ability to accelerate off a strong pace – a quality that many of us look for in assessing a stallion’s prospects. Any stallion with 50 starts on his resume must also have an excellent racing temperament and, as far as soundness is concerned, breeders would have few concerns with an animal which has competed in five different jurisdictions with widely varying racing surfaces.
Finally, those of you who have read my article about He’s Remarkable posted on 3 September will be well aware of my argument that we can easily be guilty of over-using a stallion’s own sire as a predictor of his likely success. If you are considering Pure Champion for your mare, the fact that Footstepsinthesand is not yet a noted sire of sires should not be seen as a negative factor. I’d be more interested in those statistics which tell us that the ability of Pure Champion is no fluke: his sire has produced 42 SWs and 565 winners from 1062 live foals – more than respectable figures.
Pure Champion is currently standing at Willow Glen Stud, Waimate, at the very reasonable fee of $4000 +GST. I am also impressed by Willow Glen’s agistment costs.
October 3rd, 2015 — Choosing A Stallion, News, Value For Money
Any relative of super sire O’Reilly has immediate appeal as a stallion prospect. If he’s by a stallion which won two championships in Hong Kong and if he was a more than handy racehorse himself, then the attraction grows stronger. Add in a bargain basement fee of $2000 and you’ve got to start doing your homework to see if he suits any of your mares.
As the headline suggests, the stallion I’m talking about is Keano. An expensive yearling, he raced in very strong company over the Tasman and his best win as a 3YO in the QTC Lightning Handicap is easily accessible on Youtube.
He’s already stood in Australia and only became available because his owner decided to sell all his thoroughbred holdings. As www.arion.co.nz shows us, he’s an attractive type; his purchase by Taranaki breeder Jeff Bliss may well prove to be an inspired decision.
Apart from his pedigree, what I really like about Keano is that he was obviously rock-solid sound. There are not many stallions currently available which have had 27 starts over three seasons. Readers of this site will be well aware of how highly I rate soundness in a stallion: whatever a horse’s level of ability, it’s all irrelevant if he can’t be relied on to stay in one piece.
Keano is likely to leave speed and his pedigree has been highly successful in both our and a variety of Asian racing environments. Without giving away too many trade secrets, I expect him to be well suited to mares by Howbaddouwantit, the Rahy and Nijinsky lines holding particular appeal.
Let’s hope Keano gets the opportunity he deserves.
September 8th, 2015 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion
Whatever he ends up achieving in his stallion career you’d have to agree that Linwood Park’s son of Encosta de Lago carries one of the most evocative names in the Stallion Register.
It’s often been observed that good horses deserve striking names and it would be interesting to undertake a study to see whether there’s a correlation between a first-season stallion’s name and the quality of mares he receives. I’m not suggesting that a horse’s name is a major influence in a breeder’s decision but we’re very brand-conscious in this day and age, so you do have to wonder.
Anyway, Echoes of Heaven is a name with all sorts of positive associations and after the first race at Wanganui last Saturday you’d have to agree that the number of positive associations increased by one. The Duke of Jazz, a $13,500 weanling purchase, defeated a couple of heavily-backed progeny of Savabeel and Darci Brahma narrowly but well. The son of Such Sweet Thunder certainly appealed as a likely juvenile on physical type but, as I’ve observed before, looks are one thing and performance is another.
Interestingly, Echoes of Heaven has had very few representatives at public sales. This year he had one colt in the Select Sale and just four more in the Festival. The Select colt was a half-brother to Group 1 winner Habibi and the three Festival colts which found new homes averaged $13,000. If the former colt sounds familiar, he’s the one that our Cloughmore Racing Partnership bought into. I’d seen him as a possible staying 3YO but he’s done everything right so far and we’re currently trying to find a 2YO trial for him.
Given that there were two offspring of Echoes of Heaven in the first 2YO race of the season, perhaps his progeny will come earlier than many expected. Nevertheless, I still rate him primarily as a legitimate chance to leave classic 3YOs. He was a very handy young stayer, his best performance being a second placing in the Group 1 South Australian Derby before he contracted a serious illness which effectively concluded his career. His full-brother Manhattan Rain is beginning to look an above-average stallion. To date he’s had 41 winners from 87 starters including 5 SW and 5 SP performers.
All in all, Echoes of Heaven is well worth serious consideration as a stallion prospect – especially if you’ve got a Danzig and/or Sadler’s Wells line mare.
September 3rd, 2015 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion
Readers of articles posted on this site will be familiar with my enthusiasm for the stallion prospects of the Pentire horse He’s Remarkable. The other day I suggested to a client that HR might be a suitable mating for one of his mares.
“Oh no,” he replied. “I don’t fancy a son of Pentire as a stallion at all”.
I didn’t argue the point as I’ve learned the lesson over the years that thoroughbred breeders are extremely unwilling to jettison their prejudices. (I’d also have to say that there are more instances of otherwise entirely sane human beings following theories founded on a combination of prejudice and bad science in the world of thoroughbred breeding than in any other field of endeavour that I’m familiar with.)
Anyway, let me move on from my prejudices and ask you all a question. What do the following stallions have in common – Sir Tristram, Battle Waggon, Mellay, Noble Bijou, Balmerino, Zamazaan and Star Way. Yes, they are all highly successful stallions but, as they say on TV, there’s more…
That’s right! They are all sons of stallions that many people thought would find it totally impossible to leave sons who could become decent sires, let alone breed-shaping animals. Where would the recent history of New Zealand thoroughbred breeding be without horses of the calibre of Zabeel, Empire Rose, Grosvenor, Battle Heights, Panzer Chief, Battle Eve, Swell Time, Princess Mellay, Powley, The Phantom Chance, Prince Majestic, Bounty Hawk, Good Lord, Lord Reims, Sky Chase, Waverley Star….
You’ll note that I haven’t even got onto listing equine stars whose dams are by one of these stallions.
Anyway, I do think I’ve proved my case. Pentire is certainly a good sire. You’ve got to be considerably better than average to produce 43SWs including 12 Group 1 winners. He’s certainly been considerably more successful than Never Say Die (Battle Waggon), Trictrac (Balmerino) and Star Appeal (Star Way).
Perhaps I should conclude by noting that He’s Remarkable is out of a mare by Zabeel. Now, let me think, Zabeel’s sire was….?
July 18th, 2015 — Choosing A Stallion
OK, it’s an obvious headline but I really do think that this Group 2 winning son of Fastnet Rock has a real chance of making it as a stallion.
The deeds of his sire are well known and he’s got a number of well-credentialled sons already shaping very promisingly as stallions. Hinchinbrook, for example, has already had six 2YO winners including the Group 1 winner Press Statement and the Listed winner Flippant. Stryker has a 2YO SW this season and Wanted, whose oldest progeny are now three, has 17 individual winners including a SW and two SP performers.
Highly Recommended’s dam also has a produce record to die for: 9 foals, 5 SWs by four different stallions, 8 winners and the only non-winner already the dam of a Group 2 winner. It’s hard to over-rate the importance of consistency in a pedigree, whether we’re looking for a potential racehorse or a potential stallion, and it’s difficult to find a mare that’s a more reliable producer of racecourse ability.
When a stallion has only one crop on the ground, it’s always difficult to make an accurate assessment as to the quality of his foals. Apart from the old saying of fools and foals going together, good looks and ultimate racing performance are not at all the same thing. What I can say is that I sent two of my mares down to Berkley Stud to be mated with Highly Recommended; both produced colts which appear to be very nice types in terms of conformational correctness. One foal looks very much like his dam, the other much less so. Both are well-muscled for their age but the quality that really strikes a chord for me is their temperament. I have bred over 200 foals and I can’t recall any that have been more sensible and relaxed.
All in all, breeders should seriously consider using Highly Recommended. He’s well priced and seems to have attracted strong books of mares in his first two seasons. He also has the advantage of having a pedigree which complements many of our leading bloodlines.
June 3rd, 2015 — Breeding Theory, Choosing A Stallion
Readers of this site will have noticed that May was a great month for Cloughmore – ten individual winners constitutes our second best ever monthly result – but it’s now time to focus our attention on the forthcoming breeding season. My plan is to write a series of articles which focus on stallions which seem to be flying under the radar. There is no significance at all in the order in which these articles will appear, and I’m equally sure that there are stallions which I won’t be writing about which also deserve large books of mares.
I’m starting with the son of Red Ransom because I’ve previously written an article on him and he’s a horse which I’ve always thought is likely to be under-rated. His race record marks him as a racehorse of the highest class; Japanese form has long been undervalued by the New Zealand breeder – Shinko King being a case in point. To my eye, he’s a stunning looking horse and he also boasts a pedigree which appears to suit many mares in our stud book.
I’ve had a good level of success with inbreeding to Turn-to via the Don Eduardo – Prized cross (All In Black, Don Doremo) and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Roc de Cambes continues to cross well with Zabeel. The Group 1 placegetter Reminisce is out of a Zabeel mare and SP Ragnaar is out of a grand-daughter of Zabeel mare. Incidentally, there’s another line of Sir Tristram close up in Ragnaar’s dam.
We often forget that the success of our breeding industry has historically rested on the use of bloodlines which one might describe as stout. Recently we’ve moved away from breeding stayers in order to satisfy the requirements of a variety of Asian racing environments. We continue to do so at our peril.
May 2nd, 2014 — Choosing A Stallion, News, Value For Money
Breeders are always looking for that stallion – the horse they can use for a bargain basement price and then participate in the ride to stardom that the stallion enjoys. Volksraad started at $2500, Sir Tristram began at $6000 and at one stage Pentire stood at a modest $6500. It can happen, it does happen and I’m thinking that perhaps it is going to happen again.
I must admit that when Battle Paint was first announced, I wasn’t much taken with his photo. Although he was a highly talented 2YO who placed second to Holy Roman Emperor in the Group 1 Grand Criterium at Longchamps and although he was by a stallion that I’ve had significant success with and although his dam had produced 50% SWs to foals, I just wasn’t convinced. I am now beginning to suspect that I was 100% wrong.
To date Battle Paint has had no less than seven individual trial winners, four of which have raced. They include the Singapore winner Affleck, successful at his only start, a S$90,000 juvenile event. Jet Trac ran third in the Listed ARC Champagne Stakes and The Real Deal ran second at his Ellerslie debut. Sure, there are 52 Battle Paint 2YOs out there but there’s a remarkable consistency in the performances of those of his offspring which have appeared at trials.
Oddly enough, what really alerted me to this stallion’s potential was a phone call from a Taranaki breeder who had come across this site. He told me that he had been breeding horses for quite some time, that he had two Battle Paint youngsters and that he had never bred horses with such outstanding temperaments.
However, I do have to say that the class of 2010 could well turn out to be a stellar group of stallions. Thewayyouare has made an outstanding start and is highly likely to go on with it, Road to Rock has impressed me so much that I’ve actually spent my own money on a service to him, my enthusiasm for Roc de Cambes is undimmed, Buffalo Man has made a great start and Sufficient is also showing significant promise. Nonetheless, given Battle Paint’s likely affinity with some of our most successful bloodlines, he also has every chance of building on his impressive record to date.
