Benchmark (9966)

I have always held Alydar in high regard. I enjoy using his sons and this son of Alydar could be on his way to making a significant impact in real life. Benchmark comes with a very nice pedigree and despite not standing in Kentucky he is producing pretty well in real life.

Real Life- Benchmark is by Alydar. His dam sire is Danzig and his dam’s dam sire is The Axe. That is a pretty nice pedigree all around. His dosage index is 2.84 a good mix of stamina and speed. His was accomplished in route races. It appears as though injury kept Benchmark from the track quite a bit during his career. He had one race at three four races at four and two races at five. When he was finally able to stay at the track at age six he racked up three grade II wins placing in a couple of other graded races.

He now has five crops of racing age and has already produced five graded stakes winners and ten stakes winners over all. His best runner to date is a young three year old that looks like a potential Derby contender. Brother Derek is already a grade I winner and won his first start as a three year old in the grade II San Rafael. He has also produced a graded stakes winner on the turf in his runner A To The Z.

In real life he has been bred to a few Mr. Prospector line dam sires producing a 3 X 4 inbreeding to Raise a Native. It is interesting though that several of his stakes winners and better runners are total outcrosses. Northern Dancer appears in the fourth generation of Benchmark’s offspring however you do not see a lot of 4 X 4 inbreeding to Northern Dancer.

Sim Life – Benchmark has thirty-six active runners in the sim. He has produced two stakes winners from those thirty six. Some of his faster runners in the sim are sprinters but I think part of that is breeding Benchmark to more speed related sires. His sim runners have run well on both surfaces.

Aside from being bred once to Forty Niner he has mostly been paired with less expensive dam sires. One of his stakes winners is inbred to Raise a Native, the other is inbred to Northern Dancer.

He has twenty-six retired sim runners and only one was even remotely successful. The one won five races all sprints and was bred to Avenue of Flags (Seattle Slew). There seems to be a lot of room for growth for this sire.

Breeding Suggestions – I think inbreeding to Raise a Native is not a bad way to go when looking at certain nicks. I would worry that inbreeding would create more of a sprinter than a route runner. I like inbreeding to Northern Dancer. Nasrullah appears in the fifth generation of Benchmark’s and has been a good inbreeding in many sires.

There is one sire in the fifth generation of Benchmark’s pedigree that is very intriguing. Mahmoud inbreeding is a fairly rare inbreeding. Skip Trail is an example of a sire that does well when inbred to Mahmoud. To inbreed to Mahmoud there are only a couple of possible sire choices and they are probably best used as dam’s dam sires. Quadrangle and Cojak.

Alydar has crossed well as a dam sire with Storm Cat and Seattle Slew. Both would be interesting dam sire choices to be used with Benchmark as well as any sons of those sires. Bold Ruler, In Reality, Ribot, and Damascus line sires should blend well with Benchmark. I think it is important if you want a route horse to breed some stamina back to Benchmark.

Mr. Prospector line sires should also work well but I would be more likely to try other Raise a Native line sires to get a Raise a Native inbreeding. Affirmed, and Majestic Light are two such sires.

Benchmark (9966) X Seattle Slew (5660) X Quadrangle (5047)

Benchmark (9966) X Summer Squall (6327) X His Majesty (2803)

Benchmark (9966) X Silver Buck (5835) X Sea-Bird (5646)

Bargain Bred –  Benchmark gets down to the mid 30’s BP wise at the end of the week so he has the makings of a solid bargain bred sire. From his active runners most are bargain breds. Several of those are pretty good runners.

Benchmark (9966) X Vicar (12025) X Cojak (1199)

What to Expect – I might expect a Benchmark runner to be a little bit of a late developer. He is producing runners that run well as two year olds but I think Alydar as a whole tends to throw runners that take a little time to develop and will run well for many, many races. His sim runners seem to show speed and some of those runners do not get tested over a mile. I think he will produce some solid route horses if given the chance. His runners could like dirt or turf or both.

 Benchmark seems set up to have a pretty good year in real life as a sire. That could mean in the near future he starts to produce a little better class of sim runner. As always if you have any questions, comments, or sire requests please drop me a line at mcbwildcat@aol.com. Be sure to reference the Breeding Corner. Good luck and good breeding!