Is there any indicaters to know when is best to retire a horse to stud. I am retiring my horses (males) at the end of season when the horse is 3 yrs old but is it worth it to keep the horse races till 5 or 6 yrs old and most important is there a way of telling when a horse will not run well after 3 years old so you know to retire them then as its the best you will get from them

performance dips off between 6 and 7 ive had 8yo win group ones but very rarely

I tend to retire them when they stop winning (group 1's) or when something of mine that is younger comes through and beats it. Or when I really need something at stud. e.g. I had a load of 1m2f-1m4f game mares I wanted to cover and 2 greater than great 1m2f stallions, one in the stud and one still racing. I wanted to keep the one racing and retire it the next season when it was a 7yo but because I had so many mares I wanted to cover I decided to retire him a year early and get his produce a year earlier. It's not that often that you get 6 or 7 really good game mares at my favourite distance in the barn all at one time so I just couldn't miss out on it.

i mostly retire at 6yo end of season so they get a full campaign at 6 keep the odd one at 7 or 8 but they past there best by then unless like supercat i need somthing for breeding then retire early

thanks guys for the help. shame there isnt different types of maturity for horses ie early bloomers only perform well at 2/3 year old and late maturers that get better after 3 or mainly 4 years old like harbinger and horses that perform well consistenly from 3 to 6 years old.

But there are!
I play a mixed game and often find early bloomers and late maturers. Countless times I`ve had a great 2yo not progress, wish I could say I`ve had as many ok horses progress but patience is a virtue and we have a limited stable size.

Well if that is the case then i go back to my original post, when is the best age to retire a horse and is there any indicaters to if they are an early bloomer or late maturer, i ask this because i want to retire my horse to stud when they are in peak condition ie highest handicap rating so they breed better or am i getting this all wrong and it doesnt matter when you retire a horse to stud, they will breed as good as they were when they were at their best. So when you go to breeding barn and the horses have a handicap rating, is this the rating when it retired or is it its top rating it acheived

It makes no difference when you retire a horse what its offspring will be like is already determind so it matters not.

I also have had great 2yr olds but been average at 3 and i have also had ok 2yr olds turn out to be multiple group 1 winners at 4-5 yrs so it does happen where you have late bloomers.

Although i have very rarely if at all had a group one winner past the age of 7. So i tend to retire my horses for stud around 5-6-7.