Hi, do you have any advice how to pick good sires for my mares? I have lovely mares (G1/G2/G3 winners), but they usually end up having mediocre babies and I guess it's sometimes because of the stallions.

I have no idea how to pick the best of them. What is the ideal strategy? Looking at their offspring, Group winners or what?

I'd appreciate sharing your tips regarding breeding in general, too

Thanks and have fun!

Hi

There is no win them all stallion. Like in real life you get mediocre horses and bad horses at times. What I do is check the stallions record on graded winners, stakes winners and overall win percentage. Don’t pay attention to fees, some fees want 500k and don’t expect that the offspring will be this huge Gun Runner horse lol. That’s all I got for you

Okay, thanks a lot

Hi,
Putting in the time and being patient is the key. Sounds like you are off to a good start though if you already have G1/G2/G3 mares. On average you may get 1 decent foal out of every 10 so be prepared for plenty of disappointments along the way. Once you start getting a few good ones though you can then use them to breed with as well to further enhance your chances and before you know it you'll be turning out a lot of good horses.

To begin with have as many breeding mares in your barn as you can afford. You can pick up cheap mares at the breeders sales and usually from Selling or Claiming races. The more you have the more chance you have of striking gold.

As for picking stallions to breed from, there are a few factors to consider. Do you have a particular race or distance that you want to do well in? For me it was stayers as I wanted to target the Melbourne Cup. So I just looked for any stallions that had won or performed well in 2m and 2m+ races (use the Diary tab to look at results of previous years' races) and bred with all the ones I could afford. Fortunately I got lucky and found a good one early on in my save.

Also I often will go to the Horses tab and look at the best performers of all time and look for any stallions that either have won a lot of group races or have a high percentage of winning races as these are most likely the best performers in your save. Some may already be deceased, but if you are lucky there will be a handful to choose from. Either they will be at stud, in which case go and breed with them, or if they are still racing you can follow them so that you get an email when they come up for auction or go to stud.

Another thing you could do is if you are watching one of your horses race and your horse gets beat by something really good, take a look at that horse to find out who its sire is and then see if that is still in the breeding barn.

Most of all don't give up. You might have found a really good stallion but don't know it yet as its first offspring was no good. Try it for a few more seasons or stand it with as many of your mares as you can afford in a season. Remember the more darts you throw at the dartboard the more chance you have oh hitting the bullseye!

Best of luck and keep us informed on how you go.

Hi Paul,tunnel rush
The advice you've shared about breeding and developing a successful line of horses is quite insightful.
Then, What are the best strategies for managing my breeding budget?