TrueNicks : Hypothetical Matings, Pedigrees and Breeding

A Date for Delta: Mating Royal Delta

Alan Porter — Fri, 06 Sep 2013 15:25:00 GMT

Alan Porter analyzes potential stallions for champion mare Royal Delta using statistics from the Key Ancestors report....(read more)

Black Caviar's First Mating: Is Redoute's the Right Choice?

Alan Porter — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 21:05:00 GMT

Which stallion will have the privilege of serving Black Caviar in her first season at stud?...(read more)

Gary Hadden Discusses Mating of Reckless Abandon

Ian Tapp — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 21:00:00 GMT

Bloodstock consultant explains his reasoning behind the mating that produced undefeated Prix Morny (Fr-I) winner....(read more)

Taking Charge of the Pedigree

Alan Porter — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 20:45:00 GMT

Florida Derby winner gives us an example of genetic affinities within the entire pedigree....(read more)

What's the Difference?

Alan Porter 1 — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:30:00 GMT

A TrueNicks user asks why there are sometimes differences between the ratings shown on the new TrueNicks Stallion Affinity Report and individual nicks....(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)

Reader Q&A: Cost vs. Quality

sgillies — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 16:16:00 GMT

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 give a similar nick rating. I have a...(read more)

Gold Edition: Report from Australia, Part II

admin — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 07:02:00 GMT

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 stud career. Combining Machiavellian with Danehill - sire of Gold Edition - gives a rather unique mating, with three crosses of Northern Dancer's dam, Natalma (through three different sources), and a fourth cross of her dam, Almahmoud, via Halo. The Street Cry - Gold Edition match returns a nice A+ TrueNicks rating.

Smart Strike is a half brother to brilliant Danzig daughter Dance Smartly. Not surprisingly, he's done extremely well with Danzig-line mares, the cross yielding five stakes winners, four of them group/graded, and two grade I, for an A+ TrueNicks rating. With the ability to sire outstanding turf horses, and to get quality runners over a wide range of distances, he looks a very nice fit here if Gold Edition's owners were to consider stallions outside the shores of Australia.

If one had to nominate the best living son of Mr. Prospector, it would be the veteran Kingmambo, whose cross with Gold Edition scores a TrueNicks A and who has five stakes winners out of Danzig-line mares, including graded winner Tarfah out of a mare by Danehill.

Two Mr. Prospector-line horses that stood briefly as shuttle horses in Australia before their merits were really known are Mr. Greeley and Distorted Humor (TrueNicks, SRO). Mr. Greeley left behind Oakleigh Plate (Aus-I) winner Miss Kournikova from only a handful of Australian-sired foals. He's proved to be a particularly good sire of turf horses, with three European group I winners. He rates an A+ with Danzig-line mares, the cross providing four stakes winners including graded scorer Greeley's Galaxy.

Distorted Humor sired two Australian crops, getting nine stakes winners from 95 starters. The rating here is an A based on the Forty Niner/Danehill cross that produced two stakes winners for Forty Niner's son End Sweep.

Coolmore sire Giant's Causeway never produced the results in Australia that he did in Europe and the U.S., but for the record, two of his four Australian-sired stakes winners, graded scorer Murjana and Juste Momente, were out of mares by Danehill. With only nine starters on the cross, this warrants an A++.

Making the transatlantic journey from the U.S. to Europe, we look again to Coolmore, finding a promising match who is proven with Danehill in both hemispheres: Sadler's Wells' son Galileo (IRE). While considered a shade disappointing in Australia, he has European champion 2-year-old Teofilo (IRE) and Australian stakes winner Banc De Fortune (AUS) out of Danehill mares, giving the Galileo-Gold Edition mating a TrueNicks A++.

The most likely European alternative might be the Cheveley Park Stud stallion Pivotal (GB). One of Europe's best sires, the grandson of Nureyev earns a B+ when matched with Gold Edition, but a look at TrueNicks' unique list of the best horses bred on the cross shows that he has sired classic winner Saoire (GB) out of a mare by Danehill.

In all there are some very interesting choices to be made for the owners of Gold Edition. If they choose to remain in Australia, stallions like More Than Ready (TrueNicks, SRO) and Hussonet look the best choices, while overseas stallions like Smart Strike, Kingmambo, and Pivotal - all world class sires - look likely options.