Taking The Next Step

So you’ve already begun you’re career at Newturf and you’re enjoying some success with claim horses, but you long to join the ranks of the elite owners who are winning at the top level. What’s the best approach to get there? Well, if you’re ready to crack open the bank vault, you can always look at the sales ring or make private deals with established owners. But what about the owner who is on a restricted budget? Can they really afford to spend over 20 Euros on a single horse whose career is fleeting and may not return the investment set forth? Instead, my suggestion is to develop a good in house breeding program.

Newturf.comThey key to such a program is the fillies and mares. While there are plenty of good public studs available to use, there are fewer females out there who can produce good foals time and time again. Your main focus on purchasing females should be the following four things: total squares, genealogy, type of development and talent on the track.

The first factor is probably the most important part of the equation. You absolutely need to make sure your filly or mare is at least at 9 squares in both speed and stamina. Of course 10 squares are the optimal preference. It is recommended that the Flexibility be up there as well, but you can get away with a 7 or 8. Breeding a female with anything less then 9 squares in speed and stamina is a recipe for disaster. You do not want your foal to inherit a lack of ability.

Once you’ve found a female with the minimum requirements for squares, check the bloodlines via the Genealogy tab. Does she come from a good line or a poor line? Check the earnings of her predecessors and see how they fared in higher class races. If she comes from a poor line, chances are she won’t produce any useful foals.

Type of development. A few things to consider here is how your filly or mare will match up with the stud you are considering pairing her with. Look at the green squares for each horse. Your focus here should be matching a similar pair in terms of green squares. Example: your female has the following green squares, 3 speed, 3 stamina and 2 flexibility. You need to find a stud that has a similar pattern. The previous example is what we refer to as early developers. You do not want to match your broodmare with a stud who has 1 speed, 2 stamina and 2 flexibility in green squares. That stud is considered a late developer, and such a mismatch will likely produce a poor foal. Another factor in the match up is the preference of the parents. Did the stud excel in sprints or long distance races? Matching a sprinting mare with a routing stud is probably not a sound idea.

The last factor to consider is your broodmare’s performance as a racer. While it is definitely preferable to have a female with a good on track record, this is one area where you can get away with a poor past race history. Some of the good broodmares at Newturf have recessive genes, which basically means that they themselves won’t run very well but may still pass on talent to their foals.

Well that’s all for now. Hope to see you on the track at Newturf!

Mike
Ontario Racing

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