My Year 65 Breeding Process

Original article written by Serenity Sky posted 5 months 0 weeks ago

This year proved to be my best foal crop, to date. While I have only been breeding for the past 5 SIM years, I can only expect things to go up from here.

As we looked at in my most recent article, “A Look Into My Year 65 Foal Crop”, we bred 7 stakes yearlings, of which 4 were late bloomers, 2 were progressives, and only 1 was a peak. We also bred 34 allowances, of which 21 were late bloomers. And, to me, productives are still very valuable prospects, so I’ll include them as well, here. We bred 69 productives, of which 35 were late bloomers.

Late bloomers are the racehorse version of gold to horse trainers, and this season brought me 102 out of 185 late bloomers. We are hoping that at least 20% of these will show an improvement in the next couple of years, but are still happy with the outcome, either way.

While I’m sure most methods have been looked at either way, I see no harm in reiterating the methods that have been proven to work for most trainers. This is NOT to say that there is a right or wrong way to go about breeding. There are multiple methods to breeding, and there is not a single one that is better than the other. All have pros and cons, as well as random and fixed variables to take into account, as well.

This year, while I was breeding my mares, I took a closer look at the dam lineage. When purchasing more breeding stock, I looked for mares with sires and grand-sires who had been proven to show good crosses already. It is much easier to breed for a good cross when there has already been an established cross. I did, however, also purchase stars and blue hens from sires who had not yet had a proven cross, as these sires were still rather young. The mare’s rating was the selling point here. If I could not have a good cross, I relied on the mare’s rating to fix that gap.

When it came to picking out the stud to use, I relied on the search function to look into already established crosses, and went about trying to find a stud that could meet this cross, either within the first- or second-generation. I looked first at the top standing studs, and if I could not find anything there, then I dug a little deeper and looked into the newer and/or cheaper studs. I found that this method was the most successful in my breeding ventures this year.

I would like to make a note here, as well, that I did also utilize my own standing stud, Lionheart. I bred a whopping 118 foals from him. While he produced no freaks or stakes, he left me with 18 allowances, 45 productives, 20 solids, and 35 claimers. Despite him being a low- to mid-tier stud, I was still impressed with these standings. Had I not bred him and had I had more cash to spend this last season, I’m sure my foal crop would have been saturated with even higher rated foals. However, his foals will make good fodder for the races and I expect them to bring me plenty of cash in the next year or two.

This above note is to show that while the top standing studs are of course your best bet when it comes to breeding, especially as a newer player, you can still get very decent foals from personal standing stallions, and this is likely the best way to dabble with breeding.

Another note I would like to add is that most experienced breeders recommend breeding your own mares. The best mares you will get are the ones that have had careful thought put into them when it came to breeding a cross. Even though they may not be much on the track, it is still worth-while to give them a shot in the breeding shed, especially if you had put a lot of time and effort into picking out a good cross.

When it came to breeding the fillies, I researched to find which studs had better colts and better mares for producing future offspring. When I thought I had a good cross for a future dam, I would pick the option for filly as often as I could. Of course, I still have to wait quite a few more years before I will see if my research here paid off, but I have very high hopes for a majority of my mares.

Remember, breeding is an investment. It takes a lot of time, patience, effort, and money. Do not breed so hastily and carelessly, and I’m sure you will find that you will reap more rewards down the line.

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