Breeding Insights

[Flizan Hambletonian]

I´m wondering about one thing. Can you tell from racing and running ability how good the mare is? For example, if you have a claimer-mare, can she become a good broodmare?
Combinations I´ve learned (remeber I´m still a newbie compared to many players here): Arabs: Visionary-mares with the TBS-stallions are a really good mix. Gilmer-mares (paint) with TBS-stallions Steeplechasers- I use a lot of GP-stallions (they make the best hypos).

[Rochelle Bos]

Alyssa, if you are still a new player, you can use the recommended list to find good mares! All the retired (but not pensioned horses of course) for sale that come up on the recommended list are stars or blue hen. Polk and I bought a lot of mares from Jaysman when we were newbies... Oh, I miss that recommended-filter...

I miss it too Flizan. I miss it too

[Dylan Christensen]

Alyssa, if you are still a new player, you can use the recommended list to find good mares! All the retired (but not pensioned horses of course) for sale that come up on the recommended list are stars or blue hen. Polk and I bought a lot of mares from Jaysman when we were newbies... Oh, I miss that recommended-filter...

This was a thing!?! I wish I would’ve known that lol

[Laura Smith]

I´m wondering about one thing. Can you tell from racing and running ability how good the mare is? For example, if you have a claimer-mare, can she become a good broodmare?

Racing ability and BSA comment are separate and unrelated (correct me if I'm wrong, Em.) That being said, a crappy racehorse with no pedigree is unlikely to become a useful broodmare, even if she has a decent BSA rating. But if you have a crappy racehorse with a great pedigree, she is probably worth a try or two in the shed.

[The Steward]

I´m wondering about one thing. Can you tell from racing and running ability how good the mare is? For example, if you have a claimer-mare, can she become a good broodmare?

Racing ability and BSA comment are separate and unrelated (correct me if I'm wrong, Em.) That being said, a crappy racehorse with no pedigree is unlikely to become a useful broodmare, even if she has a decent BSA rating. But if you have a crappy racehorse with a great pedigree, she is probably worth a try or two in the shed.

Exactly this.

[Regina Moore]

Exactly this

I've become less and less interested in breeding mares that were outright slow on the track. I've had so-so racehorses become really nice broodmares, but I can't recall a single "different career" or "claimer" galloper that amounted to anything as a producer, regardless of pedigree. I recall on a one of those audio casts where Em was asked the single most important factor in the game, and she replied "speed". If a mare was godawful slow on the track, she doesn't seem to have much hope of passing on her grandparents' or great-grandparents' brilliance. (Having said that, there's a gazillion fast race mares that are bred to super fast stallions that come up with godawful slow foals. So, it's always a brain teaser.)

[Alyssa Lapa]

I'm pretty flexible.

I have an Unpredictable mare out of Go Pro by Mr. Foster who is a B- on flat, and a Some Potential mare out of Silk Gloves by Taste My Blade who is also a B- on flat.

I'm not very good at pedigrees yet so this thread is really helpful in understanding why certain horses pair better than others. There's not a whole lot of information for newbies about reading pedigrees and if it is there it's pretty old.

I was able to figure out which mares these are... When you say the mares are a B-, are you referring to the grade given to the mare's sire and dam (for the matings that produced the mares), or to a hypo that the mares themselves have with another stallion?
Either way, anything lower than a flat B is troubling. I don't have a "B+ or above only" criterion for breeding -- I think every horse should be considered on an individual basis -- but a B- or lower usually indicates either a serious lack of quality somewhere in the pedigree or a distance/surface mismatch, which isn't the case here.

The Mr. Foster mare I wouldn't waste a lot of time or money on. Mr. Foster was a wash as a sire, and it's a long way back to quality on the dam's side; the mediocre BSA rating just kind of cements the general mediocrity.
The Taste My Blade mare actually has some pedigree, so even with her poor BSA rating, if you're going to give one of these a chance, I'd pick her. Don't spend more than $10k, though; she needs to prove she's worth spending real money on. There are a ton of options in that range; some are established stallions (Into Space, Tencendur, Puppeteer, The Silence) and several more are newer guys who got caught up in the shuffle of incoming stallions in the last couple years (Come Into Being, The Hearts of Many, Loyal By Your Side... and Weak Strong Heart is an amazing deal for the price.) Look for high allowance or better %'s, ideally from a sample size of more than ten foals.

So once you know what you want to spend, do some searching; what's worked best with the mare's damside? What's worked well with Taste My Blade, both as a sire and as a damsire? Look for patterns, and omit Steward-breds; they're nice and all, but looking solely at player-breds will give you more realistic data.

Don't blow a lot of GPs hypoing horses like this, either -- but if she can't at least get a flat B with a decent sire, I wouldn't bother with her at all. I breed a few flat Bs here and there, with a little success (success in that case means, like, money-earning claiming horses) but like I said, a B- or worse is a sign your time and money are almost certainly better spent elsewhere.

If you do decide to give her a go, don't sit on her too long. Two bad (solid or worse) foals and she should get gone from your barn.

Good luck!

Wow, thank you very much for all the insight. It gets so intimidating sometimes looking through everyone, but this gives me a nice idea of where to start.