What do you look for in a breeder?

[Aragon Stables]

Hello all Have been thinking about what makes a good breeder and doing some research, and thought I'd ask the community for their thoughts also. There are a number of factors which can potentially be taken into account. I'm interested to know what other stables look for as the top contributing factors. If looking at a horse as a potential breeder are you looking for :

a) Work Times of the horse
b) On track performance of the horse ( wins/winnings )
c) The on track performance of the sire
d) The on track performance of the mare
e) The number of gold/silver stars/winnings in the first 2 columns of the bloodline
f) The number of gold/silver stars/winnings in the last 2 columns of the bloodlines
g) The presence of certain horses in the bloodline

Maybe if you're so inclined list the 3 factors in order of importance that you look for. It may help newer stables to get a guideline on what may be good breeders/breeding pairs.

Thanks

[Greeko Holdem]

I created my own list of blood lines I look for. Track performance is the least of my concern.

I also look for new blood that are creates. Usually sprint creates.

[And More Racing Stable]

If you get 10 answers Jason they are likely all going to be somewhat diverse.

I don't necessarily concern myself with specific bloodlines. It's true there are some that stand out when I see them because they tend to produce relatively consistently from generation to generation. However, I look for more than just blood. I like to see a horse who has produced steadily...good earnings per offspring and per start. I also look to see that those stats aren't skewed because of 1 or 2 big horses and the rest did little. If the horse is unproven then I like to see that he/she ran well and that the sire and dam both produced with some consistency. I don't need to have all these factors but the more the better and then it's a gut feeling as to whether there is enough there for me or not. There's a saying in real race horse breeding..."Breed the best to the best and hope for the best"...I think it applies here too.

[Aragon Stables]

I appreciate the answers none the less. Wasn't expecting a consensus. I was just looking through my breeding shed trying to compile a list to offer to someone and was endeavoring to choose the 'best' ones while realising 'best' was seeming very subjective

[Cold Dog Soup]

Going to go over a few things that have been discussed in the past since I cant find the post.

Things you should be looking for in a breeder...

1. Offspring production. Obvious one. If they are producing horses that win races then more likely that your offspring will win. 3K per race per offspring from both the sire and the dam are really good numbers to shoot for.
2. Pedigree. Even if the breeders didn't win races if the grandsire and granddam did and produced good horses. then that increases you chances of breeding a good one.
3. Be cautious of breeders whose numbers are inflated by one horse. Yes you can find a breeder producing 4k per race but if it has 20 offspring and 95% of the winnings are coming from 2 horsessss..that's not good.
4 As AMRS said "Breed the best to the best and hope for the best" In the earlier days of the game. Ryan Express dominated the bloodlines. Even more so that TnT does now and that says a lot. Ryans model was basically breed two good horses multiple times if he got a good one. Keep the best of the lot to breed again.
5. Its been shown over and over that you can get good breeders for cheap if you know what you are looking for. Take a chance on a create. I was always a huge fan of fast creates whether they won or not. You find a horse in a 3k claimer with 3 legs but both of its parents produced over 4k per race. Certainly worth taking a chance on. Not every one will work out but the ones that do will certainly make up for the ones that don't.

Hope this helps.

Good luck,
B.

[Aragon Stables]

Thanks, Brian.

That's largely the advice I have followed so far in stock piling potential breeders. Just haven't had a chance to bulk breed at any point to see what I can produce. Perhaps once the new season rolls around. Will be putting a few up publically, some of them for the minimum fee to see what they can produce.