Oh, Brother! A Look at Full Brothers in Pedigrees

Byron Rogers — Fri, 23 May 2014 14:30:00 GMT

Full brothers are often used in nicking patterns as substitutes for one another, but why does one nick work with one brother and not another?...(read more)

Quite Contrary Exceptions

Alan Porter 1 — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 19:42:00 GMT

Alan Porter identifies cases where a poor overall sire line affinity can be improved by other pedigree patterns -- a process aided by additional tools included on the TrueNicks report page....(read more)

READER Q&A - Should I Breed My Mare?

Byron Rogers — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:37:00 GMT

Byron takes a reader's question and dispenses his opinion about matching class and quality in Thoroughbred mating decisions....(read more)

Research is a Mare Owner's Best Investment

admin — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:03:00 GMT

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 shed some light on finding a good approach to look at a mare's sire and gather information on what that horse has accomplished as a broodmare sire, and with what lines he has made those accomplishments. I would appreciate any advice you can give me.

I also wanted to tell you that I love your website. It is very informative, and makes for an easy read. Thank you for your time.

Alan responds: Hi Amy, thank you for your question.

The Jockey Club's equineline.com has several products that will help you analyze a mare and find out the stallions that have worked best with her broodmare sire.

Product 61 (view sample) gives all the foals out of mares by a broodmare sire, along with the sire of those foals, and their race records (including whether or not they are black type performers). Product 62 gives the best performers out of a mare by a chosen broodmare sire, along with their sire.

Another report, product 91 (view sample) allows you to enter a mare and obtain a list of all sires out of mares by her sire, and number of foals, starters, winners, black type winners, total earnings and AEI, all with percentages.

Using these products will enable you to tell the sires that have worked with the broodmare sire. From there it is possible to consider one of the stallions that have worked, or another horse from the same sire line (The Blood-Horse Stallion Register lists stallions by sire, and has charts of stallions arranged by sire lines).

Of course, when the possible horses have been selected, the potential matings can be run on TrueNicks hypo-mating (with many leading commercial stallions subscribing to give breeders complimentary access to nick ratings, and others available for a $20 report fee - a wise purchase when considering that most stud fees are five figures).

In the coming months TrueNicks will be releasing products that enable a broodmare owner to enter a mare and obtain a list of stallions in a chosen price range and location, sorted by TrueNicks rating.

TrueNicks : Hypothetical Matings, Other Breeding Theories

Oh, Brother! A Look at Full Brothers in Pedigrees

Quite Contrary Exceptions

READER Q&A - Should I Breed My Mare?

Research is a Mare Owner's Best Investment