BARGAIN BRED RACING SERIES & BREEDING CORNER

Bluegrass Derby 2005 – From a Breeders Point of View

I will take a break away from the normal Breeding Corner and take a look at the runners in one of the Sim’s biggest races the Bluegrass Derby. Last year it was interesting to see how many of the runners were bred from mares and that Danzig had quite a bit of influence in the make up of a derby runner. Here is a list by post position of the Sire, dam (if one was used), dam sire and dam’ dam sire.

1. Bluelite Special  - Broto X If This Be So X Prospector’s Gold.

2. Instant Classic – Forty Niner X Unbridled X Northern Dancer

3. Hattori Hanzo – Fusaichi Pegasus X Kitty Katz (Storm Cat X Seattle Slew)

4. Crafty Victory – Victory Gallop X Crafty Prospector X Eastern Echo

5. Prince Murf – Deputy Commander X Princess Murf (Broad Brush X Forty Niner)

6. Cheap Wine – Gone West X Seattle Slew X Raise a Native

7. Seeking Stardom – Seeking the Gold X Squall’s Allegged (Summer Squall X Alleged)

8. St. Kilda – Miswaki X American Booty (Dancing Spree X Fast Gold)

9. Tempest – A.P. Indy X Miss Mama (Storm Cat X Kris S.)

10. Al Prado – Aldebaran X Kris Kring El (IRE) (El Prado (IRE) X Kris S.)

11. Forestal – Forestry X Urallana Nc (Fusaichi Pegasus X Danzig)

12. Upper Management – Miswaki X Ixworth (Polish Numbers X Affirmed)

13. Grand Canyon – Posse X Happy Project (Storm Cat X Mr. Prospector)

14. Orca – Seeking the Gold X Danehill Reef (Danehill X Riverman)

15. Fly for Buda – Sadler’s Wells X Blushing Groom (FR) X Rube the Great

16. Anticosti – Unbridled’s Song X Your Hill (Danehill X Fappiano)

17. Cader Ydris (IRE) – Giant’s Causeway X Apotheosis (A.P. Indy X Sadler’s Wells)

18. Dubai Prospector – Essence of Dubai X Carby Prospector (Mr. Prospector X The Minstrel)

19. Bright Sal – A.P. Indy X Mr. Prospector X Coastal

20. Peyresurde – Sadler’s Wells X Ibardin Nc (Broad Brush X Forty Niner)

Fourteen mares produced runners this year and oddly enough two with the same breeding (Broad Brush X Forty Niner). Seven of the fourteen were stakes winners. Nine of the fourteen earned over one hundred thousand in purse money during their careers. Nine of fourteen recorded a speed figure of 100+ during their racing careers with two others over 95. The lowest high speed figure was an 81. Thirteen of the fourteen mares were winners on the track. The one winless mare only raced three times before being retired.

That is one classy group of mares overall. Much more so when compared to last years Bluegrass runners. Is this a trend? I tend to think so. With retired mare breeding in full swing I think we will see that top class runners like these will come mostly from solid mares that not only were well bred but had good racing careers.

From the sire side of things Sadler’s Wells, Miswaki, A.P. Indy and Seeking the Gold have sired two runners each in this race. From sires with their first crop of runners eligible for this race Posse, Aldebaran, and Essence of Dubai sired runners while more popular and expensive sophomore sires like Mineshaft, Vindication, and Empire Maker came up empty.

Sires from the Mr. Prospector sire line, Seeking The Gold, Miswaki, Aldebaran, Unbridled’s Song, Fusaichi Pegasus, Gone West, Forty Niner and Victory Gallop make up half the field. Northern Dancer line sires Sadler’s Wells, Forestry, Giant’s Causeway, Deputy Commander, Posse and Broto make up seven others. The Seattle Slew line through A.P. Indy make up the last three runners with A.P. Indy and Essence of Dubai.

That seems amazing that ultimately three sire lines are responsible for every single runner. However that is not very different from the real life derby runners. Of the twenty real life derby runners the Mr. Prospector line produced six runners, the Northern Dancer line produced six runners, and the Seattle Slew line through A.P. Indy sired two runners. So fourteen of the twenty in real life derby runners come from the same sire lines that produced all the sim’s Bluegrass Derby runners.       

There is one bargain bred that made the field but every other runner in this field has at least one big time sire in their pedigree and in most cases two. On the other hand there are only a couple here that are Big Sire X Big Sire X Big Sire.

Breeding a derby runner takes as much luck as skill. Still looking at the derby runners maybe we can get an idea that might make our odds a little better. Using a big time sire will help the odds however as you can see there are just as many moderately priced sires that have runners. The Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer line sires dominate the entries.

If you are using a mare better make her a solid one that ran a 100+ speed figure and earned over $100,000 in purses. Having one big time sire in that mare’s pedigree would be nice. I think I would use a sire from the Mr. Prospector line depending on the retired mare. If the retired mare had two big time sires to add to the pedigree like Storm Cat X Seattle Slew I would not worry too much about getting a top of the line expensive sire. If the mare’s breeding only had one big time sire to add to the pedigree I would get that high priced sire.