Any advice for the 2009 breeding season for my mare??

[vallygirl927]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions for breeding to me mare. She has produced one foal so far, who will be two years old next year. Her sire is Urgent Request...does anyone know of any good stallions that would compliment her sires breeding???

I am located in California, so would prefer to have her stay here, but any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks!!

[springboro]

if you're looking for a race horse producer, get a different mare. I'm assuming you mean the mare you have previously asked us about, Sue's Star.

http://www.barretts.com/CATALOG/catjan07/pdf/230.pdf
this pedigree is completely empty of black type

do not breed this mare for a racing prospect.

as always, my opinion... but there is ZERO market for her foals and you'll have to do all the work to get the foal to the track. AND... based on the pics of the first foal, that will be some work.

sorry to ruin any dreams.

[vallygirl927]

That barretts page does not belong to my mare. Get your facts right before you "ruin any dreams".

[springboro]

the Barrett's page is your horse's female family. I use it to illustrate the lack of black type.

[vallygirl927]

if it wasn't for the fact that my mare's sire won nearly $1,000,000, I agree that her pedigree would be devoid of any potential, but we all have different breeding theories and it's possible her sire urgent request could become a good broodmare sire, just like his great sire rainbow quest who was the #1 broodmare sire in europe. i bred my mare to a cheap stallion, thus I got a cheap looking colt as many of you have alluded to me but i'm willing to give her another chance with a better stallion this time around. but thanks for your opinion.

[LB]

That barretts page does not belong to my mare. Get your facts right before you "ruin any dreams".

springboro's post may have sounded a bit harsh, but he was trying to be helpful. It costs a lot of money to get a horse to the races--and you end up paying the same amount to train/race a cheap horse as you would to bring along a good horse.

Unless the mare you're talking about is not Sue's Star, the Barretts page posted above is your mare's page. The only difference is the sire, which really doesn't make that much difference at all.

[kimberley mine]

if it wasn't for the fact that my mare's sire won nearly $1,000,000, I agree that her pedigree would be devoid of any potential, but we all have different breeding theories and it's possible her sire urgent request could become a good broodmare sire, just like his great sire rainbow quest who was the #1 broodmare sire in europe. i bred my mare to a cheap stallion, thus I got a cheap looking colt as many of you have alluded to me but i'm willing to give her another chance with a better stallion this time around. but thanks for your opinion.

Hi Vallygirl,

Rainbow Quest was indeed the #1 broodmare sire in Europe for a bit, including horses like North Light (by Danehill), Marcus Andronicus (by Danehill), Powerscourt (by Sadlers Wells), Footstepsinthesand (by Giant's Causeway),Kris Kin (by Kris S) and Tam Lin (by Selkirk). Not only are these horses by powerhouse stallions, if you look up their pedigrees, you'll find that their mare lines are similarly top-notch.

Regarding your mare's sire, he ran well, but when he went to stud, he did poorly enough to be exiled within 4 years to Scotland and then to France, where I suspect he's covering chasing mares. Broodmare sires like Tunerup, who make big improvements on their mares, are fairly rare, and the likelihood of Urgent Quest being another Tunerup is vanishingly small.

With all that in mind, you're looking at spending at least $20,000 between stud fees, mare care, vet care, breaking, and training to get a foal out of this mare to race. You can go to the sales and buy a decent yearling from a proven racehorse sire for less than that, in some cases much less than that. Since you can see what you're going to get, your chance on (a) getting to the races (since I assume that's what you want) is higher and (b) your chance of not going broke getting there is higher.

[vallygirl927]

Yeah I'm considering saving and buying a yearling or a different broodmare from one of the barretts sales next year. Thanks!