Just a question...

Post by **The Steward** » 18 years ago

Oh yes, I remember that post.

I much rather research the GREAT broodmares of the past.

Like Desert Stormer.

And Pike Place Dancer.

Of the WAY past.

16 SIM years ago.

Also Ara tried to teach me about ancient horses in SIM terms. Like Symbol is Domino. I will NEVER forget that. Also she said never forget Flying Childers.

Eric Nalbone · Post by **Eric Nalbone** » 18 years ago

Lisa, that one was an epic. I spent too much time on it to NOT save it. It resides, buried in my backup files, on my hard drive. Took me 2 minutes to find, and I'm glad its still there. *G* It was fun.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 18 years ago

Oh Jesus you are so smart to remember that. I am proud of you!

Also Conduit is Domino's son Commando. I'm not sure if I ever told you that.

Mallory Claire · Post by **Mallory Claire** » 18 years ago

Reading Eric's posts remind me just how "out of the SIM" I am. I'm having such a hard time getting back into it. I can't remember pedigrees or anything for beans. So I'm sure I'll just be piddling around for the first year or so.

My first crop of yearlings are RANDOM, or at least they're going to be. But it should make for an interesting season.

Brianna McKenzie · Post by **Brianna McKenzie** » 18 years ago

I don't believe in luck, phewwy!

However I'll be darned if I can explain how Nothridchances turned out to be as good as he was, and I bred the sucker..

AlyseSchuver · Post by **AlyseSchuver** » 18 years ago

My best homebred, Smoke and Flame, came from a donated mare with already one not-so-stellar filly, and a stallion that cost 2500 and had no record and no foals. So you can get some good surprises.

Ronda Figal · Post by **Ronda Figal** » 18 years ago

Is it possible to "breed up" a broodmare.. for instant take a mare by a good stud and breed to a stallion of higher quality(happins to begginers all the time, we dont have the moeny for the big names in most cases).then take that baby(female) and breed to yet anoter better stallion and so forth????

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 18 years ago

In theory it should work, HOWEVER you need to check the following:

1) That the mare had SOME ability as a racehorse. If she never won a race or even placed, she probably shouldn't be bred.

2) That the mare and stallion have similar distance/surface preferences.

3) That there is either inbreeding to a good horse or there is a proven nick between the mare's pedigree and the stallion's.

4) Make sure the filly produced actually is better than her dam before breeding her to continue your experiment.

I'm not guaranteeing this would work, mind, I'm just offering suggestions on the best way to perhaps make it work.

Eric Nalbone · Post by **Eric Nalbone** » 18 years ago

To a limited extent, yes, but its a slow process. There are races carded to fit all types of horses, and the first goal of a new player should be acquiring the money to start upgrading their stock through the auctions or private deals. Its a much faster route to success than breeding up your own stock; some horses just start so bad that breeding them to respectability could take EONS, and you just don't have that kind of time as a breeder. As a general rule, once you're dealing with good horses (though the money scale is all screwed up, I'd have to figure out these new numbers with new money scales), one $1,000,000 horse was infinitely more valuable than 10 $100,000 horses, unless you got really lucky with one of those cheaper ones. Your goal should be to find that one broodmare around whom you can base your barn.

Ara found Rain Dancer, Jon found Pike Place Dancer, I acquired Mirror, etc. A foundation mare like that will really spark your breeding program, and can do a lot more for you than 100 bad mares ever would, simply because it would take too long to breed them up.

My general rule is that I'm not expecting to breed up more than 1 class level. If I am breeding a claimer, an allowance horse is my best-case scenario. A GIII talent is my best hope for an allowance mare, a good graded stakes horse from a GIII or GII mare, and a superstar from a GI winner. There are exceptions on a horse-to-horse basis, but they're general rules of thumb that may work well.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 18 years ago

Yup, an inspirational story about how I acquired Rain Dancer:

When you joined the old SIM (SIM years 1-4), you would pick a starter stable out of a selection of about three possible stables. Each stable had five horses to start, of which one or two would be stakes quality. I joined just a couple of days after Jon Xett and was frankly a bit ticked off that he got the stable I wanted. This turned out to be a good thing, because in the stable I did get was Fleet Lady, who went on to be Champion Turf Mare. In the first week I was in the SIM Fleet Lady won a stakes and earned me enough money to go shopping. From the sales page I picked out a daughter of Storm Cat named Rain Dancer. I promptly retired her to use as a broodmare. This marked the first time I really talked to Emily as she immediately e-mailed me and basically yelled at me for retiring such a good horse. I whined that I just wanted a broodmare so she compromised by un-retiring Rain Dancer and selling me (or giving me, I forget which) Glorious Song. This was a good deal, far better than I realized at the time since these two mares were the foundation of New River Farm and if I had missed either of them Atlas would never have existed. I continued to race Rain Dancer and she did darn well. Also Glorious Song started having nice babies. And thus my conquest of the SIM began...

Ronda Figal · Post by **Ronda Figal** » 18 years ago

This is great.. Just what i was looking for..In breeding would u say the mare is more important then the stallion???

Debating which way to go(talking to myself)...

Eric Nalbone · Post by **Eric Nalbone** » 18 years ago

Hands down, the mare is the most important part of the equation. God himself in horse form couldn't sire a good horse from a bad mare.

Once you have a good mare, stallions make a HUGE difference, but if the mare quality isn't there, its like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Get a good mare or two to breed with, it makes life more enjoyable.

Ara Davies · Post by **Ara Davies** » 18 years ago

Basically, look at it this way. A stallion can have dozens of foals a year. It's easy peasy for your foal to have a good sire. EVERY foal on the SIM should have a good sire since it's not very difficult to do. What IS difficult is for a foal to have a good sire AND a good dam. This is why the mare is often considered more important than the stallion. Any horse can have a good sire; what's the challenge is having a good dam as well.

Ronda Figal · Post by **Ronda Figal** » 18 years ago

Okay.. i have 2 mares that 2 me are good but my horses are nowhere nears the quality of your guyses..Now i have a Lucifer mare that is out of a mare that prodcued basically nothing..My mare was the best of the lot if i remeber right..She was a msp winner and i think her earnings were the highest of any of her siblings...So would she be a good canidate to start with....

Krystle Yanagihara · Post by **Krystle Yanagihara** » 18 years ago

Oh, well I have a mare (She's So Unusual) who gave me a few nice/decent turf running horses, and I don't believe she won a race (can't remember). I had another, Bold Bomber, who out of the blue gave me Expectations, my multiple stakes winner. O_o. Of course I'm not really that good with pedigrees so once I found out they were turfie mares I stuck them with turfie stallions. I didn't breed them though, I bought them off the sale page or off people.