John, I've noticed you mention a few times on the forums that you're intrigued by the idea of versatility breeding to access AW lines in your broodmares.John Smith wrote: ↑3 months ago I don't have any AW TBs..maybe I should get some...although in my opine, there should just be more versatility into this division from turf dirt runners or vice versa.
So, I said to myself "Self, why don't we explain versatility breeding to John, and make it a forum post so it can benefit other people too?" So here we are.
First off, I'm not an expert by any means - more experienced people who are masters of versatility please don't come after me with torches and pitchforks.
Second of all, I'm going to explain versatile AW breeding by making some references to crossing *chasing* into your TB lines. This is just so I can explain how versatility works and provide examples. I don't know anything about AW pedigrees. I've been working on breeding chasing into my flat turf lines, and to a lesser extent breeding TM+TR racers.
The basic concept of versatility is that some horses have breeding (and racing) numbers in divisions other than their main racing division. A horse might be a turf sprinter, but also have breeding numbers in all weather sprinting. Or they might be a turf router who has breeding numbers in steeplechasing.
A good starting point for lines like this is the holiday fillies and mares the Steward puts up for auction when she adds a new GP stallion, or when a popular real stallion is retired to stud or passes away. These ladies don't tend to produce a lot of amazing stakes runners, but they're usually very very versatile. Since they're not amazing broodmares, they tend to be affordable in sale or lease auctions.
You can assess mare versatility by using hypos. Ask around on the forums (or crack open the stud book), and find a high-hypoing stallion in the division you're looking for. **For this step, your hope is to find stallions that aren't themselves versatile.** If you're looking for an AWR stallion, you want a specialist that is 'only' AWR. This is because you're using the hypos to pinpoint the mares you have that are hiding AWR numbers.
In your case, you want at least one each of AWS, AWM, and AWR stallions. Buy some Game Points, hypo the specialist test stallions to your girls, and make notes. IMO (and this is very subjective) no more than one letter grade below the mare's top hypo is a good hypo for versatility at this stage. I also won't go lower than B+. So, if the mare hypos flat A in her usual division, you want her to have at least an A- hypo in the versatile division. If she's an A- in her usual division, then at least a B+ in the versatile division. If she's a B+ in her usual division, she's should also be a B+ in the versatile division.
Keep an eye on your mares while you're doing all these crosses, and make note of any stallion names that repeatedly come up in both the stallion and mare pedigrees (if you're lucky there will be some bold names from linebreeding to grab your attention). When I started breeding versatile chasers, I noticed that Galileo was showing up in a lot of these pedigrees. After a while a light bulb lit up and I was like "Oh, I bet Galileo is a source of chasing in the sim". You should pick up on source stallions for your preferred AW divisions while you're hypoing your mares.
These source stallions will be useful for finding other mares that might be a little low on the hypo side but are hiding versatile lines. Their absence in a pedigree helps you to identify 'outcross' stallions that give you the breeding numbers you want without getting all inbred.
Once you've narrowed down which mares you think are most likely to have AW breeding numbers, you breed each one to versatile stallions with a lot of (successful) racers in both the mare's usual division, and the AW division she hypos best in. I use "real" stallions (either player-owned or Steward-owned) in these versatile projects, but you can look for player-bred stallions also.
I breed fillies (as they'll be future broodmares). The first versatile cross tends to be kinda meh. At this point the filly often can't race in the second/versatile division. That's okay - they just need to be good enough for their dam's usual division. You race the filly as usual, and retire her. BSA (if you do that) and hypo her. You want her to have your usual preferred hypos for the AW division at this point -> no compromising on one grade below.
You have two options with your new broodmare.
* You can breed her to another versatile stallion - in which case her foal "should" be able to race in both the original division and the new AW division (as long as you get a decent gallop).
* You can breed her to a specialist stallion in the AW division. If you use a specialist you should treat the foals as AW-only, although you can technically cross versatility back into later generations.
**In general** a versatile racer will not do as well as a specialist. The benefit to a versatile racer is that they can make money in more than one division. They become a sort of gateway horse that lets you play around in a second division without chasing down a whole division's worth of new broodmares.
However, as always, breeding is very random and you can get a lucky slider result that gives you an excellent versatile horse, or an unlucky parade of foals that can't run in any division.