Bloodstock Agent

[Nick Gilmore]

Can we change the comment to something without actual significance? The term "blue hen" is an actual term that is not casually thrown around to any mare that may or may not produce. It is a title awarded to the best of the best who have proven themselves as producers.

Blue Hen” Mare: A mare which IS a prolific producer of quality offspring. In addition, her sons and/or daughters also have a significant impact on the breed; i.e., Grey Flight, *La Troienne.

Maybe change the comment to "_________ looks like a spectacular producer, what a special mare!"

I don't know, but anything besides blue hen please.

I have to second this, just give it another name. Especially when a lot seem to agree to title means little, in spite of the fact a lot will spend big bucks for a blue hen when she comes with no guarantee.

[Paul Heinrich]

I rechecked all of mine, just out of curiosity. Only 2 popped up blue hen, out of 30. Both were unexpected and recently retired, so we'll see what they can do. However, I think BS works the same on all weather as gallops do - late to the party. Mares with multiple stakes winners (SC runners) were still stars, so I don't think there'll be much difference on AW compared to other divisions.

I had similar results - I didn't keep track, but it was something like 5-6 out of 42. I'm not going to go selling all my meager 'stars' by any means, not when I can't see much difference between what they've actually produced (with the exception of my two mares who would likely be considered contenders for the true "blue hen" moniker in the real world).

As to whether or not "blue hen" is a proper name, I don't mind it. If you're going to change it because most of them aren't *actually* blue hens, then you probably have to change the "stakes" gallop comment as well, since most of them don't seem capable of consistently (or otherwise) winning stakes races.

[Eric Nalbone]

Especially when a lot seem to agree to title means little, in spite of the fact a lot will spend big bucks for a blue hen when she comes with no guarantee.

Semantics aside - since we have to call it *something* - people would pay a lot of money for "star" broodmares prior to this change. They didn't come with a guarantee, even if people will pay for them. That's why some people sell (because they don't want to take the gamble) and some buy (because they do want to take the gamble). Moreover, I'd assume that the bloodstock comment is simply looking at some underlying "max ability" number regardless of surface and assigning a comment to a number. I have no idea how the system works, but if you were to grade mares on a max producing ability of 0-100, and assign 100-90 as "blue hen", 80-90 as "star", 50-70 as "formidable", etc. you could get something reasonable. It also goes a long way towards explaining why you aren't hearing about AW star/blue hens, scary gallops, or A crosses.

If you choose poor crosses, get unfortunate random slides, can't place your horse properly, don't equip them right, don't wait for them to mature, etc. that's either caused by randomness or by trainer error. All of us have experienced plenty of both, and it likely doesn't change the underlying producing ability of the horse but rather reflects that with one shot a year (and maybe 10 in a career) of a broodmare, it's pretty likely that you won't see the *best* your mare can do on any foal. There's a 25% chance that your mare's first two foals, even to the same *perfect* cross, will be "below average" if slides are a 50/50 shot to be positive or negative. And that's even without considering that I don't think most of us consistently make all the right decisions with most horses even if they ARE a positive slide. I think you can be guaranteed that your mare is actually a stellar mare relative to others ... you're just not getting a guarantee on anything else.

As a final note, if you do want an opinion on semantics, I think you could make the same argument around "star" mares, "scary" or "stakes" gallops, etc. You can make the same argument in real life around how the term "great" is bandied about. Some people use it on a number of horses every year, some seem offended when it's applied to anything short of Secretariat. We have to call it something and I wouldn't worry too much about what it is that we call it, personally.

[Ara Davies]

Out of my 50 formerly star mares, 26 stayed star and 24 were rated blue hens. Since I really really really want to keep as few horses as possible, this new rating will help me reduce my stock even further, if I can convince myself to sell some of the stars. Once upon a time I had like twenty foals a year and those were really the days *sigh*

P.S. Reminder for those despairing that Alix von Hessen has four millionaire sons, two of which are champions, and she is only rated "could surprise"

[Ara Davies]

Oh and Eric, Sun Flare is a blue hen and theoretically should be AW, but hasn't been producing that well. In that case though I'm assuming the problem is lack of appropriate stallion options or the possibility that she might produce better on dirt or turf. Then again, now that I look, her oldest daughter was a wow galloper who tested as a blue hen (so that's two blue hen AW mares) and her 3yo son is also a wow, so it's pretty likely that the problem is my terrible record of actually racing my horses.

[Anna Leroux]

So far five blue hens, the rest have stayed star that were already star. But five's pretty good for a barn of 73 broodmares! Still checking but happy for this!

[Karl Smythe]

Blue Hen Mares so far:

Pacer - La Otra
Quarter - Sheila E.
Thoroughbred -
Falling Angel - dirt sprinter
Coeur d' Alene, Reine Mathilde - dirt miler
Cottonelle, Majesterium - aw router
Akatsuki, Julyette, Mandeesha, The Feature, Valeris - turf router
Sanbanyi, Scattered Goals, Story Never Told, Injust, Movingtoanewsound, Florida Starlet, Sarasota Bay, Doozie, California Goddess, Admire the Memory, Fiery Victory - dirt router

All done.
So far, some of my best producers are these mares (according to gallops).

[Emily Klein]

I have 7 star mares and I checked all of them the other day. The only blue hen is Fairweather (turf router, Tattered x Manatee).

[Abe Froman]

25 of my 70 star TB mares were blue hens. I personally dont care what they are called. Also, people have to remember that stars/hens can throw duds, and formidables can throw champions. Soldier Field would never have won the AUS triple or 2 SCs if I didn't breed formidable mares, because his mare is formidable.

[Jon Xett]

My mother had me do workbooks during my summer vacations. She was a teacher. I thought this was a cruel punishment as I sweated over the summertime tasks. Later in life I was embellishing on what horrible summer childhood memories I had as I said in mock anguish, " and it didn't matter how hard I tried, all I always ever got was a big red crayola 'C' on my work page!". To which my mother replied, "Jon, it was not a letter grade, all that means was that you were correct".

I give you all a big red "C" and urge you to continue to enjoy playing the game. jX

[Laura Smith]

Need like button for above post

[Emily Klein]

I forgot to check one of my star mares earlier. Kiwifruit is a blue hen mare.

[J K Rowling]

More people need to remember random slides. I got twins out of a formidable mare and a top stud, one was a wings and the other was a scary. You can prepare yourself to breed the best all you want but you're still at the mercy of a random slide.

[Carolyn Eaton]

I have only bothered to recheck 3 of my mares -

Send Out the Dove - dam of Olive Branch - still "star"
Glinda the Witch - dam of stakes winning/GSplaced twins and a "scary good" 2yo; "star"
Girl Called Alice - 1st foal was HTT or wings - I don't recall (sold at auction) - next 2- both colts are "scary" with Let's Get Rocked having some of the best 5 and 6f works of his crop; "blue hen"

so it will be cool going forward, but I don't see myself bothering since slides appear more important (which Laura mentioned earlier)

and I constantly remind myself - Wild Horse Race would have been a "B" mating if hypomates were around then, and her initial gallop was great gallop/wings

[Mike Eaton]

9 out of 15 of mine were blue hen