Festivus...how'd you do?

[Fern Thompson]

Thanks, Cate. There is some solace in that. Since year 47, I've not had one horse that I bred change. A few I bought went from allowance to stakes. Most went down, if anything.
Good luck in future years!

[Gigi Gofaster]

99 yearlings;
No freaks but 11 stakes and a host of lovely allowance fillies so I’m content.

Oh and I had one allowance runner go up to stakes.

[Lily Wilkins]

I'm not sure what to think of this crop. Definitely underwhelming, but lots of progressive and late bloomer comments.

18 TB yearlings... 3 Stakes (2 Late bloomers, 1 Progressive), 3 Allowance, 5 Productive, and the rest are trash.
I wanted Malicious Mischief to be a Freak soooo bad (I mean, look at that pedigree!) but she's one of the Stakes. I am taking comfort in the fact that she's a "Late Bloomer"

I always check my racing stock for improvements too, and this $40,000 claim jumped from Allowance to "at peak" Stakes:
https://www.simhorseracing.com/horse.ph ... ID=1135983

[Darcy McBride]

I galloped my claimers/solids in my holding barn and had 2 Claimers go to Productive and 1 Solid to to Productive. So....it's an improvement? lol

[Sherry Crow]

not great for me
2 stakes
20 allowance
26 productive
27 solid
36 claimers
9 DC ouch!

My Blue hens that Hypo an A didnt give me anything great

Sherry

[Tammy Stawicki]

I know I typed a response to this but must have forgotten to hit submit

Anyway, now that I've all but given up on my thoroughbreds in favors of mixed breeds it seems that they have started doing well as my mixers have been slumping. After breaking my sim decade+ streak of not having a better than allowance galloping homebred yearling last year I got a 2nd one this year. Also one of my higher allowance gallop percents, which in turf milers can make for some nice horses.

Stakes 1 (9.1%)
Allowance 4 (44.4%)
Productive 1 (9.1%)
Solid 1 (9.1%)
Claimer 4 (44.4%)

Total = 11

The stakes was by Do Something Nice
The allowances were by Of the Great Ones, Peaceful, Steelslayer, and Tin Dog

[Polk Buffalo]

No TB freaks

7 Arab router freaks - Really happy about that.
1 Trotter freak - Castle Drogo surprised me.

66 stakes in total. -sounds good but that is about 7% stakes.

I now have one 2yo allowance/chase freak late bloomer. Happy for her.

I managed to breed two to Dave Matthews Band. Claimer and allowance. Disappointment.

Some nice 4yo improvments. Got a Paint miler colt freak and an appy router female freak.

And I retired a lot of claimers and solids.

[Eric Hamme]

42 yearlings total

2 stakes (one my DMB filly, the other a turf sprinter of all things)
11 allowance
7 productive
8 solid
14 claimer

This feels like about a normal year for me, which is slightly disappointing because my broodmare band has more star mares than ever, but I always knew this would be a slow burn.

I didn't gallop a lot of non-yearlings, but one did turn from allowance to stakes. I believe that's the first time I've ever had a gallop change.

[Tim Matthews]

It's the same refrain every year - I know they can change later, but an absolutely abysmal crop for me by the looks of it right now lol

[Laura Smith]

135 flat TBs
7 stakes (5.2%... all TS)
51 allowance (38%)
24 productive (18%)
11 solid (8%)
41 claimer (30%)

Can't complain about 43% allowance or better, really, but it was a weird year. Some of my best mares gave me a whole lotta nothin' and some unexpected mares gave me nice things. So... about the usual, haha.

Stakes by Strong and Free (x2), Composer, Little Fictions, Lord Black, Lord Empire, and SYM... so yeah no big surprises there either, heh.

[Lee Tuttle]

I've been working back through my low end foals that turned 2 that had a late developer comment.
Most are still the same with the same comment. So they'll continue to linger for a bit longer.

A few nice surprises with the young steeple chasers getting their first jump training. Lines that I'd been crossing around and playing with since I started. So I'm happy about those. The last time this happened with my steeple chasers, they were "adjusted" 5 mins later. So paws off Em!

[Tony Baker]

First ever crop was way beyond my expectations.....at the top end.

Bred 170 TBs........12 Stakes (3 AWS, 4 TS, 2 DS, 1 TR, 1 DM & 1 DR)

[Polk Buffalo]

I galloped my late, late bloomers that turned 4. (they were all late bloomers after Y54W9D1) All of them (about 60) changed to peak reached today.
Someone said that horses could be late bloomers after turning 4. I am sure that is not the case.

[Lance Macisaac]

Second freak ever, first non-chase Otherwise, kinda disappointing. 1 Stake, 4 Allowance from 21 yearlings.

[Laura Ferguson]

I galloped my late, late bloomers that turned 4. (they were all late bloomers after Y54W9D1) All of them (about 60) changed to peak reached today.
Someone said that horses could be late bloomers after turning 4. I am sure that is not the case.

I didn't really check for late bloomer/peak when galloping my horses, but I'll have to remember to do that in Week 8. That said, I usually have horses improve at 5 and even 6. I checked the one that went just went stakes at age 6 after galloping allowance ages 1-5, and here's the history in terms of late bloomer/peak comments:

Y55-Preseason Trainer: 'Quest for Iditarod' is a stakes quality horse. This horse looks to be about at their peak, but even I can’t always predict the future!
Y54-W8-D7 Galloped
Y54-W8-D7 Trainer: 'Quest for Iditarod' sure moves like a very nice horse! This horse looks to be about at their peak, but even I can’t always predict the future!
Y54-Preseason Galloped
Y54-Preseason Trainer: 'Quest for Iditarod' really wowed me out there! This is at least an allowance horse with some stakes potential. This horse looks to be about at their peak, but even I can’t always predict the future!