Reader Q&A: Inbreeding to Alydar

• Jeri from New York asked: I’m pleased to see Empire Stud signed up! Could you ask Alan Porter if there is any value to tying to inbreed to Alydar. I do not see his name come up in pedigrees anymore and I have mare by Western Expression whose bottom has Alydar mate of third dam. I may be going back to far, but I could not help but think of the great horse himself.I met Mr. Porter at McMahon’s a few years ago with my young children in tow. We bred our first race horse on his say. He is yet to win but just turned 3 and the trainer and owner had him in 52000 open races at 2. I wish they stuck with the lower New York races!
   

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Written by Alan Porter | March 31st, 2008

Grand Slam Lives Up to Name

Ashford Stud sire Grand Slam lived up to his name over the Easter weekend with three stakes winners in three days. (More…)

Research is a Mare Owner’s Best Investment

• Amy from Lexington asks Alan: I work for a small farm in Lexington and have been helping to plan matings. I really enjoy pedigree research and learning all the theories behind different nicks / crosses inbreeding / outcrossing, etc. The main problem I have run into had been finding a way to figure out what lines broodmare sires cross with. I was hoping you could shed some light on finding a good approach to look at a mare’s sire and gather information on what that horse has accomplished as a broodmare sire, and with what lines he has made those accomplishments. I would appreciate any advice you can give me. (More…)
  Written by Alan Porter | March 27th, 2008

Live With Alan and Byron

Horsemen will have an opportunity to learn more about the value of pedigree nicks in April, when TrueNicks co-founders Alan Porter and Byron Rogers host an online seminar to discuss the TrueNicks service. (More…)

Giant’s Riches

Yesterday brought the news that champion 3-year-old filly Rags to Riches was to be retired and bred to Giant’s Causeway.

The match of the history-making Belmont Stakes (gr. I) heroine with Storm Cat’s leading son is one that should create a tough runner, and a horse that will have no problems with classic distances.

Of course, we couldn’t resist running it through the TrueNicks program. This came up with the mating as a C based on the Storm Cat / A. P. Indy cross. That cross has produced only three stakes winners, albeit a couple of notable names, headed by the Haskell (gr. I) winner and Kentucky Derby (gr. I) runner-up Bluegrass Cat (TrueNicks, SRO), and graded stakes winner Untouched Talent. Storm Cat himself sired Bluegrass Cat and Untouched Talent from seven starters out of A.P. Indy mares, but so far there are 42 starters by sons of Storm Cat out of A.P. Indy mares, and only one stakes winner. (More…)

Cometh the Hour

Cometh the hour, cometh the man… or so the saying goes and in Australia it seems that the hour is arriving for a stallion or sire line to stand up and be counted when it comes to the next leading sire. With a broodmare population that, at least from a commercial aspect, is becoming laden with Danzig and his prolific son Danehill, it is fast becoming a case of the next great sire or sire line being built on the back of the Danehill phenomenon. Sire lines tend — and tend being the operative word — not to like to be bred upon themselves and thus it is less likely that a Danzig-line stallion will remain on top of the heap for much longer as an alternate sire line comes to dominate or appreciate the genetics of the broodmare population at large. (More…)

A+ Glory

In a previous post, Alan discussed the success of Honour Devil, a son of shuttle sire Honour and Glory out of a Fitzcarraldo (ARG) mare, and noted that it was part of a broader cross that involved another son of Relaunch in Slew Gin Fizz.

On Saturday, the Relaunch/Fitzcarraldo cross, already a TrueNicks A+ rating, came up with its first grade I winner in the shape of the Honour and Glory 2-year-old filly Bouclette Glory, winner of the Gran Premoi Saturnino J. Unzue Stakes (Arg-I) at Palermo. Bouclette Glory once again highlights the vast database that TrueNicks has available to make its calculations. As The Jockey Club Information Systems gathers foal records and race results from throughout the world, TrueNicks is able to calculate the nick rating for any named horse from just about any corner of the globe.