Looking for some COTH wisdom.
Regarding race mares. What are some qualities that would justify a mare being sold as a broodmare prospect vs rehoming as a riding horse? Is there a place in the breeding shed for hard knocking allowance mares or mostly just the stakes horses?
It depends.
The fact that she is a hard knocking allowance mare isn’t enough (by itself) to make her a broodmare prospect. What is her family like? Is there good blacktype under the first dam? How about the second dam? Who is her sire? Where did she run? (ALW wins at Keeneland mean more than those at Charlestown.) What does she look like? How big is she? How old is she? Without more information, it’s hard to answer your question.
Conformation and pedigree. You don’t see many mares with good pedigrees running cheap.
[QUOTE=Palm Beach;8932144]
Conformation and pedigree. You don’t see many mares with good pedigrees running cheap.[/QUOTE]
A LOT more now then pre-market crash. I’ve been offered a couple of pretty nice pedigreed mares off the track that I would have bought in a heart beat pre-crash. For a LOT more money. Mares that would have had a lot of people dropping a claim slip in for. Mares that I would have been 1 of 10-15+ having to “shake” to see who gets the horse.
Used to do very good “specking” on these types. Give $7,500- 20,000 bred to what I hoped would be a well received freshmen stallion. Pay out of proceeds stud fee. Lose on the odd one, break even on some, make good money on some and hit a home-run from time to time.
The market now is WAY too tricky for this type of “play” IMO. At least it is for me and I am supposed to know what I am doing. The market sucks for “blue collar” horses. There are not a lot of “blue collar” owners around these days that are willing to pay fair money for a nice horse. A horse that has a better than average chance of being a nice “average” racehorse. They will sell but for less, a lot of times far less than production costs.
But if a person has the resources to breed and race its a buyers market. There are plenty of nicely pedigreed mares to be had for a fraction of what they used to cost.
[QUOTE=jolise;8931962]
Looking for some COTH wisdom.
Regarding race mares. What are some qualities that would justify a mare being sold as a broodmare prospect vs rehoming as a riding horse? Is there a place in the breeding shed for hard knocking allowance mares or mostly just the stakes horses?[/QUOTE]
This might interest you.
Shammy Davis-Thank you for that article. Very informative.
I am always curious where the hard knocking mares end up.
Also, wondering how to pull up a catalogue type page on a mare to find out her dam side.
[QUOTE=jolise;8933954]
Shammy Davis-Thank you for that article. Very informative.
I am always curious where the hard knocking mares end up.
Also, wondering how to pull up a catalogue type page on a mare to find out her dam side.[/QUOTE]
This is the catalog page for Sooner Time when she went through the sales ring as a yearling: http://apps.keeneland.com/sales/Sep14/pdfs/1882.pdf
[QUOTE=jolise;8933954]
Shammy Davis-Thank you for that article. Very informative.
I am always curious where the hard knocking mares end up.
Also, wondering how to pull up a catalogue type page on a mare to find out her dam side.[/QUOTE]
The easiest “free” way is to go to the Blood-Horse sales page;
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/thoroughbred-sales
Scrawl down to Search Sales Results. In the Search By box, Horse’s Name. In the next field click drop down and click dam. Enter the subject horse’s dam’s name and click “search”. It will take you to this page;
I used the name of a mare we own. It gives all of the horse’s sold out of her at public auction. Go down the list and find the most recent horse that sold out of the mare. Note the sales company, the sales date and the hip number.
Then go to that sale’s company’s website and click on sales results, than click on the year and sale the horse sold in. Click on search sales results and enter the hip number. This will give the link to the selling horse’s catalog page at the time of sale.
Keep in mind that the information given will not be current depending on the date of the sale. There may have been horse in the family that have become stakes winner since and or allowance winners etc. A catalog sales page is “condensed, edited”. It will only show the “most important” horses in the subject horse’s family.
If you want up to date, current details and or a complete unedited pedigree you will have to pay for that, around $15-20 per horse. There are a number of different types of pedigrees offered. Keep in mind if you pull an unedited pedigree and it is a deep family it can be MANY pages long. The majority of which IMO is superfluous.
Not to hijack the thread, but since this is about breeding…at what age are most broodmares pensioned? Mid to late teens? Early 20’s?
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8934093]
Not to hijack the thread, but since this is about breeding…at what age are most broodmares pensioned? Mid to late teens? Early 20’s?[/QUOTE]
Depends on the farm. Some seem to breed until the mare flips them the bird and refuses to get in foal. Other have an age that they stop at (there’s one in England that pensions mares at 17 because she feels it’s too dangerous after that) but it seems like breeding until the mare says no is more common.
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8934093]
Not to hijack the thread, but since this is about breeding…at what age are most broodmares pensioned? Mid to late teens? Early 20’s?[/QUOTE]
IME it varies wildly depending on how successful their babies are, how easy they are to get and keep in foal, and how able and willing the owners are to support them.
When my family was breeding, assuming the mare was healthy and had nice foals, it was typically late teens and occasionally early twenties. A few who threw less than correct foals or were tough to breed etc. were retired much, much earlier and if they were sound became riding horses instead.
What defines when a mare refuses to get in foal? How often do people try before they conclude it isn’t going to work?
[QUOTE=SnicklefritzG;8934106]
What defines when a mare refuses to get in foal? How often do people try before they conclude it isn’t going to work?[/QUOTE]
The ones I know for a fact do it that way try to get her right (clean her up, ect) and breed her most of the season then give up if it doesn’t work (some stop a few months out, some go until the shed closes). It’s not just a one month “she’s not going to get in foal” type of thing.
