Good Sense - By Martin Stiles

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 17:36:00 GMT

"That ’ampstead, ’e’ll never ’urt ’imself!”

The speaker, an Englishman from the class that drop their aitches, was doing time in the United States breaking yearlings. Hampstead, the yearling just then cantering past us on the training track, was my first racehorse, having been foaled from my first broodmare.

What was the real meaning behind the trainer’s remark? He was clearly passing judgment on the colt’s potential, which he did not rate very high. (Hampstead, by Beau Prince—Sun Miracle, by Heather Broom, was gelded soon thereafter, and eventually won several claiming races.) I took the trainer’s remark to mean that he felt the colt lacked the competitive fire that characterizes the best runners, and which is generally believed to make horses more subject to break down. I also detected a note of admiration for the colt who had the good sense to keep well within himself, to “take care of himself” while performing. Many times during the subsequent 40 years, I have asked myself whether the goal of breeders shouldn’t be to produce horses with good conformation, good speed, and good sense.

It seems likely that one reason speed has become such a dominant ingredient in the recipe followed by Thoroughbred breeders is that it is so readily quantified. At a sale of 2-year olds in training, workout times like :20 or :21 for a quarter-mile attached to an entry will virtually guarantee a good price but provide no assurance the individual will ever want to run farther than a quarter-mile, or remain sound long enough to earn back his purchase price. It would be of some help to buyers and sellers of young horses if there were a numerical scale that rated certain of the horse’s other qualities in the same way the speed figure does.

One small step that could be taken to provide some indication of stamina in a pedigree would be to make greater use of the statistic “average winning distance.” AWD is seldom encountered in the American horse literature (it can be found on bloodhorse.com’s Stallion Register Online), never in sale catalogs.

Similarly, the number of starts made by each of the runners in the first two or three generations of a pedigree could help to identify the families that turn out tough runners. Horses that fail to earn black type nonetheless contribute soundness (or unsoundness) to a pedigree, and that important fact ought to be recognized.

Federico Tesio, the brilliant Italian student of pedigrees, who more than anyone else put his ideas to practical use (he was the breeder of both Nearco and Ribot), considered that the aim of the breeder was to produce a racehorse that “over any distance could carry the heaviest weight in the shortest time.” Success in meeting this standard could be measured by the use of tools no more complicated than a stopwatch and a set of scales. But the horse is a complex machine, and his performance is likely to be influenced by factors that these simple tools cannot measure.

Since Tesio’s time (he died in 1954), it has become almost routine to use the laryngoscope, radiographs, and ultrasound to check sale horses for abnormalities. However, to date, these diagnostic techniques serve merely to locate animals whose sale may be voided. No scale has been developed by which objective scores that are generally accepted can be assigned. Many experienced horsemen feel the links between racing performance and the data from these sophisticated instruments are not fully established. More research is evidently needed before some of these powerful tools can be used to a breeder’s best advantage.

More daunting still is the challenge posed by the “good sense” factor. It has long been recognized that a balance between brilliance and toughness is desirable in a racing animal. The theory of dosage as developed by Franco Varola and others is an outgrowth of that idea.

Dosage theory has been useful in planning matings and focusing attention on the need for balance in a pedigree. The temptation to use dosage as a handicapping tool proved irresistible, which led to some undeserved loss of credibility. However, the basic principles of the theory remain valid.

Keeping always in mind that the racecourse is the proper venue for testing Thoroughbreds, breeders should aim at the production of runners whose performances reflect the right balance among toughness, speed, and good sense.

Martin Stiles, and his wife, Martha, bred group winners Hardgreen, Castle Green, and Canadian champion Buckys Solution at Stockwell Farm in Bourbon County, Ky.

Cash Flow - by Martin Stiles

Blood-Horse Staff — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:32:00 GMT

"Why are Thoroughbreds not as tough as they used to be?” That is the question of the day, being asked by racing columnists, editors, and punters. It should surprise no one that the answer turns out to involve money.

At Keeneland a year or so ago, I watched a 5-year-old mare win a maiden race while making her first career start! Her owners were on cloud nine, and so was her trainer. They had every right to be proud. If I had owned that mare, she would never have made it to the races. I can’t afford to pay training bills for four years with no money coming in.

As I pondered this unpleasant fact, it occurred to me I knew the answer to the question of the day. The reason today’s Thoroughbred is not as tough is that there has been a change in the direction of cash flow in the racing world.

In its earliest days, the Sport of Kings was conducted by and for sportsmen who poured money into the game. In recent times, the amateurs, defined as those who play for the love of the game, have become outnumbered by the professionals, defined as those who make money from the game. (Don’t forget the tax man, who preys on both but is especially tough on the former.)

Of course every owner, rich or poor, then and now, tries to win to defray costs. But the breeders who brought us Man o’ War, Secretariat, Northern Dancer, and Buckpasser did not expect to make a profit from their horses. These people served as a conduit for money that flowed from business and industry to the kingdom of the horse. Fortunately, a few of these men, or their heirs, are still with us.

In his book The Great Breeders and Their Methods, the late Abram Hewitt devoted a chapter to each of 27 individuals (or families) who were responsible for producing so many of the classic winners in the late 19th and 20th centuries. Only a handful of them were individuals for whom horses were a livelihood. A few (Tesio, the Hancocks, John Madden) were professional horsemen in the very best sense of the word. But the majority were people who had made (or inherited) a fortune earned in commerce, and who used their money to support their passion for the Turf. Thus money flowed in the direction of breeding farms and racing stables from Wall Street bankers, railroad tycoons, and the purveyors of baking powder and cosmetics, inter alia.

After World War II, with the spread of pari-mutuel wagering, money began to flow in other directions, and at a faster rate. Takeout from the pari-mutuel pools became a source of cash for purses and for state governments, whose support was needed if horse racing was to be allowed a monopoly on gambling. (The story of how that monopoly vanished is well known and need not be repeated here.) Increased purse money made it possible for owners to earn enough to replenish their racing stock. The result was the rapid development of a market for young Thoroughbreds. The value of yearlings sold at auction in North America increased approximately one hundredfold between 1950 and 2000.
Market breeders learned to tailor their product to the tastes of the buyers. Therein lies a key element in the story.

Horses that are bred for speed, especially if that breeding is confirmed by some very fast works at a 2-year-old sale, seem likely to reward their owners as early winners. Colts who fail to show 2-year-old speed are often gelded before they have an opportunity to perform at longer distances. Some of the runners who pass these early tests are tough enough to train on, and they become successful runners in the classic mold. But “class” has always been a rare commodity and will continue to be so. What happens to the runners who do not make it to the top?

There are plenty of opportunities for horses with distance limitations to win sprinting, and it is not unknown for a good trainer to coax one of them into winning important races. (One remembers Bold Forbes and Laz Barrera.) But the horse that lacks the speed to win sprinting may have few chances to do his thing. No owner wants to have a barn full of 5-year-old maidens with no place to run.

Badly needed is a way to reward toughness and stamina in horses of mid-class. The New York Racing Association has begun a series of distance races that would appear to accomplish that goal. The Steven Duncker/P.J. Campo plan deserves the support of horsemen everywhere.

Martin Stiles, and his wife, Martha, bred group winners Hardgreen, Castle Green, and Canadian champion Buckys Solution at Stockwell Farm in Bourbon County, Ky.

Final Turn : martin stiles

Good Sense - By Martin Stiles

Cash Flow - by Martin Stiles