July 27th, 2008 — Choosing A Stallion, How To, Thoroughbred Broodmares, Value For Money
Handsome Ransom – Great Value!
Last week I outlined some suggestions about how newcomers to the industry could choose a potentially successful broodmare without it costing them a small fortune.
This week’s posting outlines another procedure which I recommend. There are two main ways one can make a profit out of breeding thoroughbreds. One is by the mare increasing in value as a result of her progeny succeeding on the track; the other is by breeding a foal whose sire becomes much more sought after in the time between the conception and eventual marketing of that foal. Identifying such stallions is an exercise to which breeders devote much time.
A stallion whose foals are about to race when you breed your mare to him is your best chance of making a significant capital gain via this approach to breeding. To give an example, I would recommend the Red Ransom sire Handsome Ransom as a case in point. A blazingly fast juvenile himself, he is likely to leave good 2yos; yearling buyers at the last round of sales were clearly of this opinion as Handsome Ransom yearlings fetched excellent prices as compared to his $4000 service fee. This season his fee remains at $4000; if his progeny win good races next year’s fee could well be considerably in excess of this figure.
The next step in the plan should be to buy or lease a mare with a pedigree which is complementary to that of Handsome Ransom. If you are not confident in your knowledge of pedigrees, then there are a number of pedigree advisors such as myself who will be happy to help you. Certainly, I would be looking for a mare with a reasonable amount of speed in her pedigree and I have a strong preference for mares which have won at least one race. It’s one thing to breed a foal by a stallion which is doing well; it’s quite another to breed a foal which buyers can see is likely to have the necessary qualities to win good races.
July 20th, 2008 — How To
As in any business venture, it is important to have a plan with realistic goals when you are getting involved in breeding thoroughbred racehorses.
The first decision that needs to be made is whether you are breeding to race or breeding to sell. If your dream is to prepare a stunning yearling and sell it for a large sum of money, you are going to have to make a significant initial investment. In New Zealand terms, if you are going to sell a K1 or K2 yearling, then you’ve got to own a mare with the commercial appeal for her progeny to be selected for these sales in the first place. Such mares do not come cheap; nor do the service fees required for such yearlings to be produced.
If you have only a few thousand dollars to invest, then you’re much better off forming a partnership with other like-minded individuals or changing your focus into breeding to race. Sound racemares with winning form and adequate pedigrees can be bought at the moment for only a few thousand dollars. These could be mares which have just finished racing or young broodmares which have just embarked on their breeding careers. Last week’s posting contains some pointers which should aid the selection of such mares.
The policy of choosing a young mare with a reasonably good pedigree and mating her with an appropriate stallion in order to maximise her strengths and minimize her weaknesses has a number of advantages. In particular, you will be able to assess the quality of foal your mare can produce without spending a fortune. If the foal is a good type, you will have a range of options as to what you can do with it. Selling as a weanling or taking the foal through to the stage at which it can be leased as a racing proposition are just two of the possible courses of action. Attractive individuals can make good money as weanlings; leasing stock you have bred will not bring you any immediate cash return but if you offer the lessee a right of purchase and your horse wins some races you could gain a significant return on your investment.
Please feel free to contact me if you would like further details on leasing out horses or on any of the other issues I’ve mentioned.
July 13th, 2008 — How To, Thoroughbred Broodmares
One question I’m often asked is what guidelines are there for people getting involved in breeding thoroughbreds for the first time. In particular, how can one select a mare which has a reasonable chance of becoming a successful broodmare.
For the purposes of this article I’m assuming that there is a sale coming up in which a significant number of mares are being offered for sale. I suggest that newcomers focus on mares which have won at least one race; sometimes racehorses, no matter how impressive their pedigrees, just don’t want to be racehorses – in other words, they don’t try. These mares are to be avoided because they tend to leave foals which demonstrate exactly the same fault. There’s nothing more soul-destroying for a breeder to produce a stunning foal, spend vast sums of money raising it – maybe even put it into training themselves – only to discover that the horse just doesn’t have the competitive spirit. Being a race-winner doesn’t automatically guarantee that a mare is courageous – she may have won a weak maiden race early in her career and then decided that enough is enough – but it is certainly a positive indicator. Needless to say, finding a mare which has won, even in modest company, in each of two or three seasons, is a great way to start your selection process.
The second thing to look for is a consistent family. If a mare is a winner and is from a winning dam which has produced a series of winners, then the conclusion is obvious: if one chooses a suitable stallion, the resulting foal should have a good chance of following the family tradition. Conversely, the sort of mare to avoid is one whose dam has had several foals, few of which have either been to the races or been successful. A significant percentage of non-runners may indicate conformational or temperament problems; a significant percentage of non-winners implies strongly that the mare is not passing on desirable genes.
Finally, and this is where some degree of expert help is required, an assessment needs to be made as to the quality of stallions which have served the mares in the family under consideration. If a family has a record of producing useful winners by average, or worse, stallions then this is a family with room for improvement. If one can find a winning mare from such a family and the mare herself is by a decent stallion, then this the sort of mare one ought to consider buying.
Next week: some further pitfalls to avoid.
July 6th, 2008 — Choosing A Stallion, Value For Money
When you’re advising clients as to the best stallion for their mares, all sorts of factors need to be kept in mind. Obviously the key concern is finding the horse with the pedigree which best matches that of the particular mare, given her conformational and temperamental make-up. However, this is an inexact science and getting it wrong is an occupational hazard. From everybody’s point of view, therefore, it is some consolation if the stallion recommended has done well in general and if he has provided good value for money at the time when the service fee has been paid.
Danroad has already produced a Group 1 winner in his first crop, stands at a bargain fee of $6000 +GST and has a pedigree which suits a wide range of broodmares. He is a horse which has appealed to me since he first retired to
stud. I’ve bred to him and have an impressive 2yo gelding out of a very ordinary little Manntari mare; his placed gelding Outtalimitz was my top colt selection in the 2007 Carnival Sale and I’ve also made several mating recommendations for him.
From a pedigree point of view Danroad has a lot to offer. The bloodlines which have affinity with Danehill are well documented but Rockdale’s pedigree suggests a number of exciting possibilities. Firstly, he’s out of a Danzig – line mare. To date inbreeding to Danzig, especially via male lines, has not been very successful – is this the beginning of a new phenomenon? Secondly, we have the Nijinsky – The Minstrel cross, another genetic combination not normally sought out by breeders. These two close relatives can certainly work well on occasion, Falkirk being an example which quickly comes to mind, but the overall picture is not compelling. Finally, there’s the plodding Vienna lurking back on Rockdale’s female line; is this a suggestion that all our Vaguely Noble blood has finally found a means of recovering its former glory?
I realise that using one horse’s pedigree to draw global conclusions has logical drawbacks, but it may well pay breeders to analyse the pedigrees of Danroad’s best performers in case he is the breed-shaper we all try to find before it becomes obvious to everybody.
June 29th, 2008 — Choosing A Stallion, Value For Money
Hawkeye is a stallion I rate highly. A five times Group 1 placed horse by one of our planet’s great sires from a mare which has also produced two other Group 1 performers by the same stallion must have serious appeal on this qualification alone. This cross works!
However, what New Zealand breeders are particularly concerned with is whether this successful cross is going to nick with some of our most common bloodlines. In my opinion, this may well happen.
To begin with, most Danehill horses do well with mares with strong Sir Tristram and Star Kingdom lines. Moreover, although the Danehill – Vaguely Noble cross has done particularly well north of the equator, there seems no reason why this shouldn’t happen down here as well. Mr Prospector is now quite common in our boodmare population as are Northern Dancer lines other than Danehill. There are certainly enough mares with complementary bloodlines to give Hawkeye a real chance to succeed.
The potency of these genetic combinations is well known to most breeders, as is the fact the Hawkeye comes from a successful sire-producing family. What particularly interests me is that his female family offers us a chance to reinforce some of the bloodlines that have contributed significantly to the success of the New Zealand thoroughbred. I refer to the Hurry On – Son In Law cross, the cornerstone of many of our most effective staying families. Sires such as Beau Pere, Foxbridge, Summertime and Agricola are justly
respected names in our pedigrees.
Hawkeye’s race record indicates that he has inherited the toughness typical of these bloodlines. How many 3YOs have we seen which have competed successfully in four countries during their classic year – and come back to be competitive at Group 1 level in the following season?
Correctly mated, Hawkeye could be one of the most successful stallions of his generation.
June 22nd, 2008 — Choosing A Stallion, Value For Money
There are three factors I look for when recommending a first-season sire to clients: racing class, toughness and a pedigree that is complementary to that of the relevant mare. Any Suggestion passes the first two tests with flying colours and his pedigree seems to suit a significant cross-section of our broodmare population.
Any Question had blazing speed, running quick times when winning nine times from 900m to 1200m in his home state of Queensland, including one event at Listed level. What impresses me about this is that he wasn’t just a one-paced sprinter, a stallion type which I have learned to avoid. Instead, he showed the ability to quicken off a fast pace; this was particularly evident in his second placing to Miss Andretti in the Group 1 MVRC Australia Stakes. Certainly the great mare went past him to win convincingly, but he too was drawing away from a top class field.
Secondly, I have a strong preference for stallions which have shown their resilience by competing in more than a handful of races. True, some of our most successful stallions of the past have had extremely limited careers, but now that the breed seems to be losing some of that traditional hardiness, it seems logical to prefer a sire whose racetrack performance extended over a number of seasons.
Finally, it makes it a lot easier for a stallion to succeed if he has a pedigree which is complementary with a significant number of mares. For example, Cinna is a name which occurs frequently in New Zealand pedigrees for the simple reason that her descendants have been phenomenally succesful. Not only does Any Suggestion trace directly in tail female to this great mare, but one of the key sires in his pedigree, Vice Regal, is inbred to Cinna via Illustrious and Whistling Wind. Breeding back to such a dominant influence is worth serious consideration. Another pedigree feature of note is Any Suggestion’s inbreeding to Ribot. New Zealand breeders are sometimes unduly suspicious of this great sire, largely because some of his worst-performed and worst-looking offspring found their way to our stud farms. However, there is no doubt that he is one of the planet’s greatest stallions; inbreeding to him can be spectacularly successful.
I have already recommended Any Suggestion to several of my clients; if you would like to discuss him with me, please feel free to get in touch.
June 15th, 2008 — Choosing A Stallion, Value For Money
To a considerable extent, thoroughbred breeding is all about getting the stallion choice right and at this time of the year breeders are busily attempting to foretell the future. For my first few posts I thought I would focus on a few stallions deserving, in my opinion, of serious consideration.
One such horse is Edenwold. To my way of thinking, any 2YO capable of winning four races on end (including three stakes events) out of eight starts and being elected Champion Canadian Colt of his 2YO generation must be a serious horse. His victory in the prestigious Queen’s Plate over 2000m as a 3YO proved that he could train on and stretch his considerable speed to a middle distance. Prior to this event, the Canadian racing media were skeptical as to whether such a brilliant horse would have sufficient stamina to succeed in one of the major races on their calendar; his performance left no doubt about his courage and tenacity.
Edenwold’s pedigree also looks well suited to New Zealand and Australian racing. The deeds of Southern Halo, especially via More Than Ready, are well documented. Southern Halo x Mr Prospector x Buckpasser is a proven cross and any stallion inbred to such a prepotent mare as Your Hostess must appeal strongly to breeders in this part of the world.
If one adds in his impressive physique and excellent temperament, he does seem to constitute good value at his advertised fee.
June 12th, 2008 — Horse Racing
From the 1 May 2004 edition of Cloughmore News
It’s an emotional business, racing. You know that there are ups and downs and optimists like yours truly would even argue that the inevitable downs make those moments of success even sweeter.
However, it occurred to me recently that one thing our industry could do much better is to educate newcomers to racing about the realities: there’s nothing more exciting on the planet than to win a race with a horse you own or have bred, but you’ve got to be aware of the downside.
How often are people lost to racing after one unsuccessful experience? It’s not getting people into racing that’s the problem, the difficulty lies in keeping them involved.
We need our PR people to focus on this: to generate stories about people who have stuck at it, without costing them a fortune, and eventually gain the thrills of success.
Those of us who have been around for a while know that the thrills outweigh the disappointments. Maybe we could all do our best to get this across to friends, relatives, and colleagues.
