BARGAIN BRED RACING SERIES & BREEDING CORNER

Graeme Hall (14065)

Graeme Hall got off to a rocket start as a freshman sim sire. He saw a drastic decline on his second season for no apparent reason. In real life his two year olds will be hitting the track for the first time this summer. He is one of those mid tiered sires that are capable of producing some big time runners.

Real Life- Graeme Hall is by Dehere. His dam sire is Crafty Prospector and his dam’s dam sire is Al Hattab. His dosage index is mid range at 4.14 a little of the speedy side. Graeme Hall was a very good mile and an eighth horse. That is the distance in which he won two grade II events the Arkansas Derby and the Jim Dandy. He won another grade II and grade III race in his career and ran second in the Grade I Cigar Mile. He was a very good consistent runner hitting the board in fifteen of twenty-two lifetime starts.

His first crop is shaping up to be a solid one with several stakes winning or producing mares being bred to him. Several of the mares are from the Mr. Prospector line. Using a grandson of Mr. Prospector as a dam sire will create a 4X4 inbreeding. It appears more speed type dam sires have been bred to him than stamina types. That could mean his two year olds will be pretty solid and he will likely produce more sprinters.

Sim Life – In his freshman class he was used sixty-six times. He produced thirty-nine winners (59.1%) seven of which turned out to be stakes winners (10.6%). One is a graded stakes winner. #8474 White Graeme (Whitesburg) is the graded winner. He got his graded win at two. He was a multiple stakes winner and finished third that year in the Breeder’s Bowl Juvenile. Hallfly’s Gulch (Gulch) is his best runner going now. He is on a six-race win streak and the last four have been stakes.

After that very good freshman crop he only gets used eighteen times his sophomore season. Twelve of those become winners with only one stakes winner thus far and she is a turf stakes winner. Keep in mind these guys are just three years old but to go from sixty-six runners to eighteen is quite a drastic drop. He has already produced eight two year olds thus far. He has been bred to some very nice dam sires this year like Storm Cat, Gulch, Nijinksy, Kris S., Storm Bird and Grindstone.

He has produced better on dirt than turf however he seems to have very good potential as a turf sire. He has been bred to the Mr. Prospector line with good success. Because of that his runners are predominately sprinters. The potential to get a route horse is there with this guy’s pedigree.

Breeding Suggestions – Inbreeding to Mr. Prospector seems to produce some solid results in the sim thus far. That however creates a more sprinty offspring. With Northern Dancer, Bold Ruler, and Mr. Prospector already in the pedigree it is tough to find dam sires that will not create some sort of inbreeding.

Anytime you get this nice mix of sire lines in one sire the Ribot, Halo, Buckpasser, and Turn-To lines come to mind. Even the Nasrullah lines with stamina like Blushing Groom (FR) should blend well. You do take some risk trying to breed stamina into Graeme Hall. It has not really worked yet in the sim. His fastest dirt runner between a mile and a mile and an eighth is just 104. On turf it is a little better at 108. Still this guy seems well worth the risk. He has the potential to produce a very versatile horse. One that can run six furlongs to nine furlongs on turf or dirt so even if your runner is not allowance quality he or she should be able to have many options at the claiming level. Having more options means a better chance of earning BPs.

Graeme Hall (14065) X Pleasant Colony (4824) X Riva Ridge (5334)

Graeme Hall (14065) X Sunday Silence (6339) X Buckaroo (871)

Graeme Hall (14065) X Octagonal (NZ) (4519) X His Majesty (2803)

Bargain Bred – As of now Graeme Hall does not get low enough by the end of the week to recommend using him as a bargain sire. 

What to Expect – Depending on who you breed to Graeme Hall you will likely get more of an early bloomer. Graeme Hall himself ran well from ages to through four. He did race a couple of times as a five year old. Experiment with his runners. They may surprise you with how far they may run or what surfaces they are capable of running.