One man's breeding opinion

I'm not a prolific breeding stable.

In fact, I have only two homebred horses that are currently racing. Therefore, there are other stables whose opinions may carry more weight on this subject.

I also have three yearlings who will join the ranks of racers next season and three the season following that. A grand total of eight homebred horses. Hardly enough to make me an authority on breeding.

And yet, I'll forge ahead.

Currently, my hombred racers are the filly Nova and the colt Kid Flash. Nova has a record of 19-6-6-2. Kid Flash checks in at 6-0-1-3. Their combined record is 25-6-7-5. Pretty good. It works out to 72% in the money (not counting any 4th place finishes).

I'll admit that the good results are based on a very small sample. But, I'm encouraged enough by the race results, and the AR's of my younger horses, to continue breeding with the very simple formula that I follow.

When looking at a prospective breeding pair:

I don't care at all about their Maturity, Ratability, Traffic Ability, Weight Carrying Ability, or Recovery Time.

I pay very little attention to their Consistency, Length of Performance, or Resistance to Injury.

I do look at their Running Styles as an idle curiousity.

For me, it's all about Speed, Surface, Distance and Acceleration.

I look for striking similarities of the Sire and Dam's abilities in these areas. I will not mix a dirt lover with a turf lover, I will not match a sprinter with a router, I will not combine good and poor acceleration, and obviously I'm always looking for speed. Period.

I really prefer that these four attributes are exact matches whenever possible. In this manner, I feel that I'm building on their strengths rather than watering them down.

Speed, Surface, Distance, Acceleration. In my opinion, the four building blocks in breeding a champion foal.