The Breeding Corner continues this week with Part II of retired mares that ran well on the track but are bred on the cheaper side. We took a look at the first four of eight mares last week. This week we take a look at the last half of the eight and draw some early conclusions, while planning for the future. Lets get right to these mares.
The Big Ask – (Esperero X Prince of Fame) The Big Ask was a three time stakes winner, stakes placed a few more times earning $247k on the track. She had ten career wins all on the turf her best races coming between 10f and 12f. She only had a handful of speed figures over 90 with a career best of 98.
She has two off spring #120777 Resist The Urge (Bahri) and #76429 Ask Not (IRE) (Sulamani). They are a combined 17 – 2 – 3 – 4. Both runners have won a MSW race. Ask Not (IRE) is the older runner and she has hit the board at the entry level allowance level a few times already posting high 80’s speed figures on turf and a couple of 90 speed figures on the dirt. Resist the Urge is running mid 70’s speed figures on the turf, which is not bad for a two year old.
The Big Ask did not pop the big speed figures as a runner but did show a good level of class. Neither of her runners has stretched out very far to this point so the jury is still out on how much stamina she may pass along. To this point the results are solid.
Green for Deed – (Green Applause X Shadeed) Green for Deed was a 15 time winner. All of her wins came on turf and she was stakes placed twice on her way to earning $208k on the track. She got her stakes placings at the age of three and had a career best speed figure of 94. She ran a handful of 90 speed figures but was mostly in the 80’s.
She has two offspring #14601 Winter Rye (Slew City Slew) and #115553 Shade of Green (IRE) (Black Sam Bellamy (IRE)). I only bred Winter Rye a previous owner snapped up the chance to breed Shade of Green.
Winter Rye has turned out to be a solid runner. She has a record of 11-2-2-4 hitting the board 8 of 11 runs. Unlike her dam she has preferred the dirt and she has an entry level allowance win to her credit. The allowance was at a mile and a quarter and she is running mid 80’s speed figures. She looks solid with room to improve.
Shade of Green has two shows in seven starts. He has not been real solid with his best speed figure a recent 66. He does seem to prefer the turf.
Green for Deed seems to be off to a solid start. One runner is off to a good start while the other seems at the very least capable of earning BPs.
Groovy Entrance (GB) – (Entrepreneur (GB) X Groovy Jet ) Groovy Entrance was a one time stakes winner and was stakes place two other times while winning fourteen career races most on the turf. She earned $351k on the track. Her career best speed figure was a 103 with a handful of 90 speed figures. She ran well at distances from 6f – 12f.
She has two offspring #47333 Groovy Sun (GER) (Monsun (GER)) and #132577 Rule the Groove (Peace Rules). They are winless with a place and a show from 11 combined starts. Neither is showing solid speed figures. Groovy Sun (GER) has cracked into the 70’s speed figure wise just once in nine tries. Rule the Groove has just two starts but both were bad with speed figures of 46 and 58.
With this mare I am starting to think she is not going to be a good producing mare. I did make some different sire choices and will try her again but to show so little in both offspring does not give me a good feeling.
Jens Ocean Day – (Tidehaven X Plugged Nickle) Jens Ocean Day was a one time stakes winner and that was the only time she was stakes placed. She had 8 career wins and earned $172k on the track. She won her stakes at 9.5f and was a good runner in the 8f-9.5f races. She had a career best 104 speed figure with a couple of other 100+ speed figures in her career. She had a couple of dirt wins and ran in the 90’s speed figure wise on the dirt.
She has two offspring #85315 Ocean Justice (Lit de Justice) and #120474 Ostagir (IRE) (Cape Cross (IRE)). They are a combined 16 -1 – 0 – 0 . They have been horrible neither showing anything close to speed. Ocean Justice broke through at the maiden claiming level and her best speed figure has been a 72. Ostagir (IRE) has yet to break the 60 speed figure barrier.
Here we have a very solid race mare who ran very solid speed figures doing well on turf. Neither of her runners seem to take to the turf very well and neither has shown anything close to talent.
In the early stages of this experiment I am walking away with the impression that more times than not a mare that was solid on the track passes along enough talent to her offspring to make them fun and useful runners. The few that have not produced leave me scratching my head a bit and wondering if I made the right sire selections for the mare.
This is a bunch of mares that were mostly stakes winners and so far none of them have produced a stakes runner although it is still early. The mares that appear to be passing talent to their offspring are going to get used with a better class of sire this year, assuming of course I get to breed to them this year. The thing I would like to test is breeding these somewhat successful sires back to some of the better sires. Maybe I am off in thinking top tier sires with these bargain mares will not produce well.
The experiment will continue in 2007 with a couple of mares already in the stables and plans on acquiring a few more. Hopefully this has you looking at your less expensive bred mares in a different light. Look through those retired mare pages you may have a bargain mare or two to try out.
I hope you enjoyed the retired mares and as always if you have any questions, comments or sire requests feel free to drop me a line at mcbwildcat@aol.com. Please reference the Breeding Corner. Good Luck and Good Breeding!
