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We've reached back into the time vault and unearthed a TrueNicks webinar that we filmed back in 2009. While it is over three years old, much of what we talked about back then is still relevant today. Enjoy! Click here to download the "Top 10 Myths About Nicks in Thoroughbred Breeding" whitepaper .
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While there is no doubt that nicks tend to run in sire lines, we've also often found it profitable to consider the dam of a stallion when attempting to predict potential crosses. For example, when Smart Strike ( TrueNicks ) retired to stud, we noted that he was a half brother to champion Dance Smartly, a daughter of Danzig. Since Smart Strike was a Mr. Prospector...
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A little over two years ago, we looked at the cross of Galileo with mares by Danehill . This was fast becoming a European mega nick, having—in the space of three weeks—been represented by Frankel, who had just taken the Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-I) in breathtaking style; Golden Lilac, successful in the French One Thousand Guineas (Fr-I); and Roderic O'Connor...
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While he is now considered an "elder statesman" of the Coolmore Australia stallion roster, there can be no doubt that Encosta de Lago (AUS) ( TrueNicks , SRO ) is one of the premier stallions standing in Australia this year. The son of Fairy King has amassed a sensational record at stud with 6.3% stakes winners to foals and 7.6% stakes winners to runners (up...
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The wins of Orb in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and Princess of Sylmar in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) further solidified the pensioned Lane's End stallion A.P. Indy as the premier sire line source of classic speed in the North American Thoroughbred. Indeed, with Normandy Invasion (by Tapit ( TrueNicks , SRO )), Dreaming of Julia, and Revolutionary (out of an A.P...
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This morning I spoke briefly with Brereton Jones of Airdrie Stud, who alerted me to a homebred filly of his with a very clever name. She is by Airdrie stallion Proud Citizen ( TrueNicks , SRO ) out of the winning Langfuhr ( TrueNicks , SRO ) mare Saramar—the exact same cross as Mr. Jones' Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) winner and champion 3-year-old filly Proud Spell...
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Pedigree historians have long been suspicious about the exact parentage of the 1880 Epsom Derby winner. The record books will tell you that the winner was Bend Or , a son of Doncaster out of the Thormanby mare Rouge Rose, bred and owned by the 1st Duke of Westminster. However, not long after the 1880 running of the Derby, the owners of the runner-up, Robert the...
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Recent discussion of the pedigree of the Australian supermare Black Caviar focused some attention on Tom Fool, whose son Silly Season is doubled in Black Caviar’s pedigree. Since he was a foal of 1949, Tom Fool will now, to many, mean little more than a name that is found in the more distant removes of modern pedigrees. But, if you want to know how good Tom Fool...
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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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One of the key parts of the TrueNicks calculation is that it does not calculate a nick based on stakes winners being produced out of the same mare. As good a mare that Cee's Song is, her results are effectively counted as one effort on the calculation of Relaunch with Seattle Song mares for example. However, Truenicks does calculate ratings where from two different...
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We were interested to note the victory of Apapane in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), the most important contest for two-year-old females in Japan. The race has been won in recent years by such stars as Buena Vista and Vodka, and Apapane was scoring for the third straight time in four starts. Apapane (TrueNicks rated A++ ) is by Kingmambo ( TrueNicks , SRO...
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Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey have done a tremendous job with their stallion, Catienus, a Storm Cat son whom they claimed, then sent out to win a minor stakes, run second in the Suburban Handicap (gr. II), two renewals of the Saratoga Breeders' Cup Handicap (gr. II) and place third in the Whitney Handicap (gr. I). Catienus has never been a fashionable stallion, but...
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Sea the Stars has rightfully dominated the headlines from Europe but the other story of the weekend was the remarkable performance of horses bred and owned by the Aga Khan. We'll start with the 2½ mile Prix du Cadran (gr. I), which went to Alandi (TrueNicks A ), who is by Galileo out of the stakes winning Darshaan mare, Aliya, and is one of no less than five...
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Jeri from New York asked: I'm pleased to see Empire Stud signed up! Could you ask Alan Porter if there is any value to tying to inbreed to Alydar. I do not see his name come up in pedigrees anymore and I have mare by Western Expression whose bottom has Alydar mate of third dam. I may be going back to far, but I could not help but think of the great horse himself...
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Here's a mating which we think represents a first. When Ingrid the Gambler (Johannesburg - Pretty Livia, by Forest Wildcat) took the Wishing Well II Handicap Feb. 10, she became what is almost certainly the first stakes winner (in fact, the first stakes horse) by a Storm Cat-line stallion out of a Storm Cat-line mare. As students of pedigree know, the cross of...
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In a race that saw highly-rated ex-U.S. runners Etched and Numaany finish fourth and fifth, the Honour and Glory colt Honour Devil maintained an undefeated record with a half-length win in the Gulf News UAE Two Thousand Guineas (UAE-III). Foaled in Argentina, Honour Devil won his sole start in his native country in 2006, and in his only other career outing, he...
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Diane, a broodmare owner in California, wrote in to suggest an addition to my earlier comments about Sunday Silence and his stallion sons. In addition to Silent Name ( TrueNicks , SRO ) and Hat Trick ( TrueNicks , SRO ) (JPN)-Sunday Silence sons who willl be commence their stud careers in Kentucky in 2008-she drew my attention to Austinpower (JPN) (Sunday Silence...
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Click here to read part I Things get really tricky for a system when lack of opportunity forces a default to deeper generations for analysis (which happens less frequently with TrueNicks than with hypothetical systems that depend on a much smaller-and problematically incomplete-sample size). It's one thing, for instance, to rate Storm Cat when mated to mares...
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