First, some old business.  The results of last week's poll ("We Are Family") asked if/when a horse's female family influences your purchase decisions.  Not surprisingly (you're reading a pedigree blog, after all), most of you said the family affects all purchase decisions, and the rest said it affects decisions on specific types of purchases.  View the full results here.

And now moving on to Big Brown's dominating performances in the first two classics.  I'm going to put up a poll -- but it's not as simple as "will he win the Triple Crown?"  You can probably find that question in a hundred other places. We'll tackle a different topic.

As you've heard (or read on BloodHorse.com), Big Brown will retire sometime this year to stand at Three Chimneys Farm. For the sake of this week's poll, we're going to assume that Big Brown wins the Belmont and retires immediately afterwards. So the question is, what will be Big Brown's 2009 stud fee?

Please answer the poll with the assumptions in mind -- but I'm looking forward to your comments about all things related.  Will he actually win the Belmont?  How do you like that his retirement was "announced" prior to the Preakness?  Do you think Big Brown will go on to run past the classic season? (Maybe a match-up with Curlin in the Breeders' Cup?)  Would a Triple Crown be good for horse racing's public perception?

Make sure to have your vote counted in this week's poll, and then share your thoughts below!

Eight Belles.  We all send condolences to her connections, whose dreams were shattered only moments after such an exhilarating performance.

The event will be examined from every angle over the next many days:  industry insiders will whisper about the breakdown of "another" high-profile runner from the Unbridled line... anti-racing advocates will lob accusations about training methods and overly-medicated racehorses... Thoroughbred fans and animal lovers will mourn.  I will end my comments about Eight Belles here by saying it is an upsetting loss and one that we all hope will not be repeated.

Big Brown lived up to his hype and looks to be a strong shot at the Triple Crown. It won't be an easy road, though -- if he gets through the Preakness (against fresh competition), he still has the biggest hurdle in front of him. The Belmont Stakes (gr. I) is probalby my favorite of the series and is known as a giant killer.  If he does make it, his owners will be able to set his stud fee somewhere in the stratosphere -- and it'll probably be worth it.  (He's going to need some outcross blood -- and amazingly, Mr. P is a total outcross in the first five generations, and Seattle Slew/A.P. Indy returns only a duplication of Round Table. He'll have a lot to work with, without looking too far!)

Poll results:

• Two weeks ago, we looked at juvenile racing ("What are the effects of racing 2-year-olds?") and more than half the answers included loss of soundess in the breed, more breakdowns, and loss of stamina in pedigrees. On the positive side, track handle and overall interest in the sport scored some points.  See the full results here.
  
• Last week, readers shared their choices for best pedigree of all Derby runners.  One out of five selected Colonel John (pedigree), followed by Adriano (pedigree) and Monba (pedigree), all above 10 percent.  We fared poorly: Colonel John placed sixth, and Adriano and Monba were the last across the finish line.  See the full results here.

We Are Family:  And finally, the new poll for this week:  Does the female family influence your purchase decisions?  Vote here!

A few minutes ago, I posted some notes about Saturday's Kentucky Derby and name my favorites. 

I'd like to know who you think should win it, based solely on pedigree.  Check out this week's poll.

A recent poll asked The Five-Cross Files readers "Are you a horse owner?"  It turns out that 2 out of 3 readers own at least one horse, and apparently several of you guys own a bunch of ‘em.  Of those non-owners, half of you have had horses previously.

Not surprisingly -- this is a breeding/pedigree-oriented blog, after all -- the largest response was from owners of breeding stock.  58.3% of you, actually.

You can view full results of the poll here.

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This week's poll is timely, since we're finishing up the 2-year-olds in training sales.  We're looking at 2-year-olds and trying to decide whether juvenile racing has a positive or negative effect on the Thoroughbred industry.  Make your opinion known: vote here.

In a recent poll, readers responded to  the question "Do you anticipate fewer mares bred in 2008 due to the market downturn?"  By a small majority, the answer was "No." 

• 28.95% of responses indicated "No, the market really isn't so bad," which was punctuated quite nicely by last weeks' record-setting OBS sale of 2-year-olds in training.
• Nearly a quarter of readers felt that the number of mares bred would not fall, because "breeders haven't yet learned a lesson." 
• More than one out of five poll responders - 21.05% -- said they personally would breed fewer mares this year.  Another 23.68% said that they believe the industry as a whole will see fewer matings.

Full poll results may be viewed here.

The poll was inspired by a disappointing yearling and mixed sales season, and the conventional wisdom  that it could have been worse; many sales averages during the fall and winter were helped considerably by overseas buyers who came to U.S. sales to take advantage of the weak dollar. With luck -- it'll take plenty! -- the market will prove that it's starting to rebound.

This week's poll asks readers of The Five-Cross Files about their horse ownership.  View the poll and vote here. Don't forget, you can always comment on the poll question and share your wisdom or questions.

A signifcant plurality of readers -- 47.62%, to be specific -- responded to my recent poll that the dam or female family is the most important "weed-out" data when examining a sales catalog. It's sure the way that I go myself.  I actually keep a list of mares that I watch for each time a new catalog comes out.

Most of the mares that interest me are descended from specific blue hens.  I have a thing for the female-line descendents of Aspidistra (family 1-r) (think her own produce Ta Wee and Dr. Fager plus of course Unbridled, an RF horse, through Magic) and Imperatrice (family 2-s) (Secretariat through Somethingroyal, Cure the Blues through Speedwell). There are several other families I also like; my preferences usually stem from liking one horse a whole lot and then researching his family to find that it's done well above average historically. Still hoping to see more from the Continue line (family 1-n) that gave us Swale's dam, Tuerta.   I've spent many hours putting together a Virtual Stable of all the current runners and new 2-year-olds descending from my favorite mares, so I always know when they're entered to run and when there've been catalog page improvements.

I wouldn't rule out a mare simply because she wasn't already on my list, but in bigger sales, it might make the difference between a page that I pore over and one that I skip by.

A fair number of respondents chose sire / sire line as the item they first notice when looking through the catalog.  For commercial sales, this is a no-brainer.  If the sire isn't commercial or if he's not currently in vogue, any of his offspring -- be they weanlings, yearlings, and horses of racing age, or even broodmares -- will be overlooked by most auctiongoers. 

 You can view the complete poll results here.  Or vote in this week's poll:  Down Market.