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Quite often in catalog pages you will see a nick where a full brother has been used in preference to another. We decided to take a look at the raw data and see what it says in practice. Is it in fact just a matter of names on the page, or is class really that important? There are a lot of circumstances where replacing full brothers in various positions is almost...
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It goes without saying that it takes an exceptional individual to win Eclipse Awards in three successive years. Among fillies and mares, the feat has only been achieved twice, by Zenyatta (2008-10) and Azeri (2002-04), although Susan's Girl was champion 3-year-old filly of 1972 and then champion older mare in 1973 and 1975. Looking back to the pre-Eclipse Award...
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Today brought the news of Black Caviar's retirement from racing. The big question now is which stallion will have the privilege of serving the great mare in her first season at stud? But first, to reflect on Black Caviar's remarkable record, her unbeaten 25-race career included 15 group I victories and spanned six consecutive calendar years. She was the world...
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This week we launched a few of our newest TrueNicks features. When you run a TrueNicks hypothetical mating with one of our 700+ subscribed stallions , you'll see that the page header contains quick buttons to Email, Save, or Print the report. There are also buttons to Tweet, Google+, and Facebook recommend the mating. Here's how the entire header looks: A few...
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Last weekend was an exciting one for bloodstock consultant Gary Hadden ( haddenbloodstock.com ). Gary recommended the mating that produced Reckless Abandon, a son of Exchange Rate ( TrueNicks , SRO ) who won Sunday's Darley Prix Morny (Fr-I) and solidified himself as the top European 2-year-old. The colt previously took the Norfolk Stakes (Eng-II) at Royal Ascot...
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The most recent weekend saw two Kentucky Derby (gr. I) preps with $1 million purses, and both resulted in upsets. The Florida Derby (gr. I, video ) seeing longtime Derby favorite Union Rags and the well-regarded El Padrino finish third and fourth, respectively, behind gate-to-wire scorer Take Charge Indy. The Louisiana Derby (gr. II, video ) fell to another pacesetter...
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Tapit Photo: Gainesway Jerry and Ann Moss announced today that 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, who foaled a colt by Bernardini ( TrueNicks , SRO ) on March 8, will be bred back to Tapit ( TrueNicks , SRO ) in 2012. The Mosses already have some familiarity with Tapit, having raced 2011 Lady's Secret and Las Virgenes (both gr. I) winner Zazu . Out of the Mr. Greeley...
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Uncle Mo Earlier this week I got a phone call from a breeder who wanted to discuss a potential mating of his mare with Uncle Mo ( TrueNicks , SRO ). The mare (an exceptional racemare and a grade I producer) was foaled in 1990, meaning that she would produce the Uncle Mo foal at age 23. Uncle Mo will be 5, so that's an 18-year difference. This got me thinking...
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We recently unveiled a new header on TrueNicks.com when you run a hypothetical mating report. The new features include quick buttons to email and save a report, plus social media options for Twitter, Google+, and Facebook. Email The email tool allows you to quickly send the PDF of the TrueNicks report to clients and friends. You can include multiple recipient...
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Now with the breeding stock sales nearly completed, breeders are in the process of finalizing their breeding decisions for the 2012 season. We've seen a big increase in the number of TrueNicks reports run in the past 30 days—102,551 to be exact, compared to 71,422 during the previous 30 days. Always popular during the breeding season is our Broodmare Analysis...
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In the press conference following Goldikova's defeat in the 2011 Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. I), trainer Freddy Head indicated that owners Wertheimer et Frere would be sending the mare to Galileo next season. Of course, Goldikova has a group I-winning half sister, Galikova, by that sire, so it would seem a wise choice. As you'll see in the TrueNicks Enhanced Report...
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As today's breeders and buyers of racehorses become increasingly savvy, they demand more information when making decisions. Our TrueNicks customers have asked for more, and today we are proud to present the new TrueNicks Enhanced report. The Enhanced report adds a second page of multiple cross-specific data points. Through the end of January, 2011, we are offering...
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Russell asks : Why are the ratings found in the Stallion Affinity Report not the same as the ratings obtained by running an individual mating? As an example, Storm Cat over Yonaguska gets a TrueNicks rating of A+ according to the sample affinity report shown for Storm Cat. I ran my Yonaguska mare, Bella Cherokee, with Frost Giant using the TrueNicks link on the...
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With close to 500 responses, the TrueNicks community overwhelmingly picked Horse of the Year Curlin to top the potential matings for super mare Rachel Alexandra. Some would say that it was an unsurprising result given the ownership of the two horses, but it was a very competitive voting process and there were a number of stallions who were well regarded by the...
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Ok, so we have run the feature a little longer than we'd planned, but we figured that with Rachel Alexandra's outstanding win in the Haskell Invitational (gr. I) on the weekend, it was worth a little more time for readers to come up with some suggestions for us to consider before we start creating the shortlist for the mating analysis product. If you haven't...
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With a year and a half of the TrueNicks blog and 300-plus posts behind us, it has not escaped our attention that there are some passionate horsemen and pedigree analysts who frequent this corner of the Web. Indeed the "TrueNicks Community" has at times both intrigued and informed us and we are certainly thankful for this community that has given us some great...
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Before being made available to the public, TrueNicks was tested on a group of more than 100,000 horses. That study firmly established a correlation between a high nick rating and success at stakes level: in fact, while only 13% of the population earned a variant rating high enough to qualify for a rating of A or better, 37% of stakes winners achieved that rating...
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Reader's question: My mare Pebbles Delight has an A++ wih Corinthian. She has been accepted to his book for 2009. However, since she doesn't have a lot of black type up front, I probably won't make any profit on the resulting foal. What are your thoughts on this mating? I love the mating, but my pocketbook needs to rule rather than my heart. Sally. Byron's reply...
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A week or so ago we had an interesting post on this site from Scot Gillies in regards to a "dream mating" for your favorite mare. There was a lot of ideas, some of them very well reasoned, from a number of readers with some suggestions for various mares to visit various stallions. In some type of continuation from that post, I read with interest today that the...
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I don't own Hasili (IRE) ( pedigree ). To provide a quick recap of that mare's record as a broodmare, I'll just say she got off to a "slow" start with Dansili (GB), her first foal: he was merely a multiple group II winner. The five foals following -- the mares Banks Hill (GB), Heat Haze (GB), and Intercontinental (GB), and the stallions Cacique (IRE) and Champs...
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Question : My question is whether there a much greater risk factor when considering between two stallions that differ in the fact that one has many proven mares and was a very good performer himself, while the other is a young stallion that is well-bred but has never raced because of an injury, and doesn't yet have a large number of offspring? The two stallions...
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Amy from Lexington asks Alan: I work for a small farm in Lexington and have been helping to plan matings. I really enjoy pedigree research and learning all the theories behind different nicks / crosses inbreeding / outcrossing, etc. The main problem I have run into had been finding a way to figure out what lines broodmare sires cross with. I was hoping you could...
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Yesterday brought the news that champion 3-year-old filly Rags to Riches was to be retired and bred to Giant's Causeway. The match of the history-making Belmont Stakes (gr. I) heroine with Storm Cat's leading son is one that should create a tough runner, and a horse that will have no problems with classic distances. Of course, we couldn't resist running it through...
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Darley announced this week that two-time champion Ashado, whose $9-million price at Keeneland's November sale in 2005 was then a record for a broodmare or broodmare prospect sold at public auction, will be bred this year to Street Cry (IRE) ( TrueNicks , SRO ) (a stallion who is subscribed to TrueNicks complimentary hypothetical mating reports). This will be...
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Continuing on yesterday's search for the best potential matches for recently-retired Australian sprint star Gold Edition (AUS)... Broadening our scope to look to other parts of the world raises a number of intriguing prospects. Starting in the U.S., we have Street Cry (IRE) ( TrueNicks , SRO ), the Machiavellian son who has made such a sensational start to his...
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