Bloodstock News 2010

You would probably find out who am then.We are a stud based in Ireland and have around 10 mares.The reason i come on this forum particulary is because of the others who have mares and i like the talk between everyone on here and while reamaining anonymous
 
@DT - yes, we are based in Germany, and well, as I said, it was take it or leave it. Silvano is doing very well in South-Africa, which has quite a high standard in racing (I start thinking higher than Germany to be honest) , and the connections were there. Foal is smallish, but stocky, and a colt, thank god, so we are happy. The mare will now go to Dashing Blade, btw.
And we are getting an Orotario-foal on the farm as well, out of a Galileo-mare, something special for the little Farm where we board and breed.
 
No, been thinking about it, but the other mare is simply not commercial enough to pay all the transport fees, and for this one it just hasnt happend. She was over in England once, though.
 
If you breed to race yourself you should look into Soldier of Fortune he was a very talented horse and Coolmore have given him a chance in France.You may be looking for a speedier and more commercial horse but if your breeding to race he would be worth a shot:)
 
Cheers Galileo, I have tried but found very little info about the sire Alexandrova has been covered by. Do you know which sires have covered here in the past. Also when is her first due to hit the track. I am fairly new to the Breeding side of the game and i cant when out when it will be.
 
She has a Kingmambo filly yearling, and should have a Dansili foal this year and now to be covered by Fastnet Rock.
 
Alexandrova (won Gr.1 Oaks, Irish Oaks and Yorkshire Oaks)
All Too Beautiful (Gr.3-winning sister to Galileo and half-sister to Sea The Stars)
Chenchikova (full-sister to High Chaparral)
Clodora (Gr.2-winning dam of Poulains winner Clodovil)
Damson (Gr.1 Phoenix Stakes winner)
Delphinium (dam of Gr.3 winner Hebridean)
Gagnoa (dual Group winner and twice Classic-placed)
Imperial Beauty (won Gr.1 Prix de l’Abbaye)
Maryinsky (dam of Gr.1 winners Peeping Fawn and Thewayyouare)
Moneefa (dam of Gr.2 winner Dandoun)
Monevassia (full-sister to Kingmambo and to the dam of Gr.1 winner Rumplestiltskin)
Moonstone (Gr.1 Irish Oaks winner)
Myth (dam of four times Gr.1 winner Johannesburg)
Pharapache (dam of Gr.2 winner Westphalia)
Race the Wild Wind (Gr.1 winner and dam of Gr.1 winner King Charlemagne)
Royal Ballerina (Gr.2 winner and runner-up in Oaks and Irish Oaks)
Strawberry Roan (Stakes-winning full-sister to Oaks winner Imagine and half-sister to Generous)
No Quest (dam of Gr.3 winner Macaw)
Resurgence (dam of dual Gr.1 winner Araafa)

Got this on Betfair but i got sent it as well by EBN
 
There are some very blue blooded mares there. They surely are giving him every chance to succeed.

Does this mean that the Encosta De Lago experiment didn't work last year. When they brought him across to cover some mares.

It seems to me that Coolmore are desperate to find a sire from the southern hemisphere. A sort of reverse shuttling.
 
Trying to find a stallion that can switch successfully from NH to SH is very tricky. Many have failed. The racing conditions are so very different.Danehill was an obvious exception which was ironic as most of his progeny where back at the knee. The latest glaring failure up here was exceed and excel.He was given a good chance and they sold well but they don't handle our conditions.
 
Raises an interesting thought, Sheikh: not just breeding for a type of conformation, or trying to get a specific performance (such as distance or sprinting), but also considering how the progeny will cope with local conditions. You'd not want to look to heavy-set, on-the-forehand type sires for hot-weather countries, where the impact on always firmer going would soon take its toll. Likewise, not much point having low-actioned sires or dams in mind for Irish NH (or even British, given the dreadful going we've had this season). So many aspects to try to get right! And so many buyers are canny as to what would be suitable, that it's very much their market.
 
KANDAHAR RUN, to stand first season at his owner's Gestut Ammerland near Munich.

ALL THE GOOD, God's 2008 Group 1 Caulfield Cup winner sold to stand at Cokay Stud near Istanbul.

PIPEDREAMER, dual Group 2 winner, bought privately by Dr Marwan Koukash from Cheveley Park Stud.

DAYLAMI is secured by Coolagown Stud, Co. Cork, for 2010 season, fee at 3,000 Euros.

CHEVALIER, sire of 2009 Molecomb Stakes winner MONSIEUR CHEVALIER sold to Ruia Stud Farms in Maharashtra, India.

AN ACCORDION, winner of 2008 Wm Hill Trophy, Cheltenham, retired age 9.

DESERT SUN, aged 22, pensioned off by Eliza Park, Victoria, Australia.

VANGELIS, Group 2-winning son of HIGHEST HONOR, transfers from Haras de Grandcamp to Haras du Bois d'Argile near Chantilly, standing for 2,000 Euros.

NOM DU JEU, Australian Derby winner, becomes one of the first sons of MONTJEU to retire to stud.

SQUARE EDDIE, US Grade 1 winner for John Best retires to Vessels Stallion Farm, California.

FLY TO THE STARS, 16, moves from Poland to Hrebcin Napajedla, Czech Rep.

KING'S APOSTLE, last season's Maurice de Gheest winner, to begin stallion career at Klawervlei Stud, S. Africa.
 
By Richard Griffiths 10:47AM 10 MAR 2010
ARTHUR B. Hancock III, the breeder of Sunday Silence and son of the legendary Bull Hancock, has called for an industry debate about whether the use of large books for stallions ultimately affects the quality of the horses they produce.
He was speaking in the wake of an extraordinary advert he placed in a thoroughbred newsletter which was headlined: 'What Bull Hancock Really Thought', in response to the fact that his famous father, who developed Claiborne Farm into America's leading stud, is often quoted in promotional material for stallions.
In the advert, Hancock recalled aconversation he had with his father in 1969 about why he had not sent more mares to Bold Ruler, whose stud fee at the time was $100,000 for a book of 38 mares.
'Bull' Hancock's answer was: "Because, son, over-breeding a stallion compromises the quality of the offspring. It has been tried with stallions who got a couple of stakes winners in their first crops and were never heard of again."
Hancock said his father believed too many coverings "diminished semen vitality and was not conducive to producing the soundest and most robust offspring....He said that a stallion should make around 100 covers a year.
"In the early 70s before the days of palpation (physically checking a marefor pregnancy) and ultrasound, that was about 40 mares at 2.5 covers per mare. Today that would be about 75 mares at 1.3 covers per mare."
Even allowing for today's advanced veterinary techniques today's popular stallions would easily exceed 'Bull' Hancock's recommendation, with some covering over 170 mares a year.
Asked why he placed the advert, Hancock said yesterday: "If people want to know what my father said then they should flip a coin and know everything he said - that's the reason I ran it. The great broadcaster Paul harvey had a catchphrase - 'Know the rest of the story'. It's like that."
Arthur Hancock said he could recall a noticeable decline in the crops of one well-known stallion he stood. "If you overcover them, after two or three more crops their foals just fall away , they become weedy. A number of very knowledgeable horsemen have told they they have experienced this also. They stop producing what I would all the heavy hitters.
"This is something the industry needs to debate. You risk saturating the breed with bad horses."
Hancock said his advert was directed at stallion owners in general and not just Coolmore Stud which has linked qualities identified by Bull Hancock to their own own horses when promoting them. "I love John Magnier – I went to his wedding.
"I don't want this to come across in a personal way andit is not directed at one farm. I see my father quoted often and I juist feel if you are going to print what he said - print everything he said. I am speaking simply about the problem, of overbreeding. The whole things is bad for the industry."
 
I think it's gone too far and any attempt would be regarded as being a restraint of trade, Hamm. Not sure I would agree re the numbers = weaker individuals observation - would like to see a proper scientific study supporting that claim but economically, he was right - too few stallions covering ridiculously inflated books will do the breed no good at all.
 
I think it's gone too far and any attempt would be regarded as being a restraint of trade, Hamm. Not sure I would agree re the numbers = weaker individuals observation - would like to see a proper scientific study supporting that claim but economically, he was right - too few stallions covering ridiculously inflated books will do the breed no good at all.

Stallion people will often use how many mares a stallion is going to cover as a selling point if that no. is limited.

Interesting you don't buy into that one Song. What about older stallions, do you think there is any deterioration in the quality of the stock as stallions get on in years ?
 
Older stallions ? No, although I know many breeders don't like using an older stallions but that has to be down to the fact that their fertility does usually become impaired the older they get but it still only takes one sperm to do the job! And I don't believe that it matters much whether the sire is a 4 or a 25 yo - especially these days with incredibly advanced feeding regimes, care etc..

However, I do agree that the offspring of older mares tends to be slightly compromised as she ages - ie over 20 - as her uterus will become less efficient and, of course, her risk of haemorrhage increases as she gets older. So it is quite possible for her last few foals to be less robust than her middle ones, although, again, with the level of care and veterinary attention given to most broodmares these days, maybe it's not as marked as it once was.

I am all for limited books of mares - I believe 80 should be the maximum any stallion is permitted to cover. If you have a good stallion, his fees can be increased to match demand and if he's a dud - well at least the numbers he will have produced will have been limited a bit!

However, it ain't gonna happen !
 
So in a nutshell, is it fair to say that as long as the sperm is a swimmer you don't believe it has any detrimental affect whether that stallion has already covered 110 mares or he's 21 years old ? Just clarifying, no agenda.
 
Because there has to be a number ! We've just discovered just how dangerous overproduction can be - hundreds of foals and yearlings have been led out unsold through the sales ring the past eighteen months and a lot of jobs have/will be lost because of it - Ireland in particular has found out to its cost how damaging too many stallions covering huge books can be.

I reckon eighty mares allows for the annual upkeep of the stallion, a good enough proportion of offspring on the racecourse to give him a fair crack at making the grade and the ability then for his owners to charge more for his services if he delivers the goods. It doesn't overwork the horse and, with the ability these days for dual hemisphere coverings, there's an opportunity for him to also earn his keep southern hemipshere time.

It's only my opinion and there's nothing particularly scientific about it - and no danger of it actually happening, either !!
 
80 does seem to be the tipping point for 'exclusivity' - it's certainly the figure most used in the Stallions Book, etc., when advertising how many mares the stallion will serve. Over that, and you're going to start wandering into SADLER'S WELLS territory and end up with multiple thousands of offspring, meaning that eventually you read 'free from NORTHERN DANCER' as a selling point, rather than an advantage.

Interesting debates going on at present about the desirability - or, mostly, undesirability - of too many 'elite' stallions dominating the market, and the fact that most of them cross and re-cross lines again and again. The fear being, of course, that there's not so much overbreeding, but too much inbreeding, with vulnerabilities as much as abilities predominating. Thus, you could have a very precocious type, but one that's broken down and busted by mid-3.
 
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