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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Tight market for top-quality mares


Recently on the PF Forum, Donny of Chiquita Lodge posted his desire to obtain a "top-class" broodmare, and his willingness to part with up to $5,000,000 in order to meet that objective.

By top-class and for that kind of money, I'm assuming he means someone of the Chatterbox - Promised Land - Flow Diagram - Scenic Sheba - Southern Charm variety. Even for $5M, it may be very tough to pry a mare of that ilk from it's current owner, unless you happen to be very friendly with someone who is about to leave the game or get out of the breeding business.

Fortunately, there is another slightly less celebrated level of broodmare which may be able to deliver quality foals nonetheless. That is the level of broodmare that Otsego Farms employs.

Oh, I have tried my hand at acquiring a super-mare. Perhaps I wasn't determined enough. Perhaps I was simply too cheap (Yeah, that's probably it). In any event, I've been unable to get one, so I've had to make do with mares I've raced, or bought off the rack.

I bred and raced Nova (Housebuster x Raging Fever) and she was extremely talented and on-paper, appears to be my best broodmare. With only $1.7M in earnings though, she is far off the pace of the super-mares, even though her overall PSR achievements are probably as good as any of them.

I've tried to improve my band of broodmares this year by getting quality mares at reasonable prices. A couple that I bought recently at relatively modest cost are Second Strike ($500K) and Ace Of Grace ($690K).

Second Strike specializes on dirt at the 8F-9F range. She has gone over 100 PSR 14 times at these distances and looks like a great match for War Machine in the breeding barn.

Ace Of Grace has legitimate 16F ability, having raced that distance 7 times, four of which went over 100 PSR. It looks to me that she can produce nice routers. Union Jack and Nightwing are future studs from Otsego Farms and I have hopes that she can visit the likes of Memcay, Thunder Arctic, and A Bus in the future as well.

These mares, along with Shattered Record, Affirm Gal, and In Spirit, form the core of my breeding operation.

Superstars when they raced? Nope. But thay are solid and fully capable of producing successful foals.

Could I spend $5M on a mare. Yes. Would I? Nope.

Did I mention that I'm Dutch on my mothers side?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hahaha ive tried this before aswell and no dice either , no-one wants to give up good mares so the only way is to breed your own


Foxie

Jim Webber said...

My other mares, Immortal, Flawless, The Reflex and Monsoon round out my band of breeders going forward.

Anonymous said...

Its ok Sir Jim ill give u some betta mares in a few seasons ... After i build mine up ill be giving some away


Foxie

joshkayll said...

I just bought a horse from EV, she was a very good 2yo. I was looking for a horse that I could race a bit for the end of the season before becoming a good broodmare prospect.. I think if she passes on her ability she will have a few top class foals. Her name is Quarterview. That's the best one I could find. Hopefully she turns out decent..