Mahubah--A Question?

LB · Postby LB » Tue Jan 20, 2009 4:23 pm

I love your Kingmaker (Northern Dancer) and Gold Rush (Mr.P) books and I hope there's another stallion-specific book in the works. If you don't mind my asking, who will you be profiling next and how much longer do I have to wait?

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 3:38 am

I don't have anything horsy in the works right now other than a stallion profile on Indian Charlie which will run in Blood-Horse next month; the economic slowdown has hit my publisher as hard as anyone, and I won't even be doing the pedigree side on the Derby Dozen column this year because of budget cutbacks. Such is the life of a freelancer. I'll let y'all know if something else comes up; in the meantime, I've time to work on that fantasy novel that I've been wanting to write for years.

LB · Postby LB » Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:00 am

Thanks for the answer. I'm sorry there won't be a pedigree side on the Derby Dozen this year; that was always my favorite part. I'll look for the Indian Charlie profile.

Bill from WA · Postby **Bill from WA** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:33 am

Hi Mahubah

Have you ever considered a book on Marcel Boussac? I think that would be an interesting project. I would certainly be on a buyer's list.

Bill

Postby **Roguelet** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 9:39 am

I still vote for American Classic Pedigrees, Volume II. :wink:

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 4:28 pm

I've tried to get Eclipse Press interested in a bio on Colonel Bradley and the Idle Hour breeding program, but so far no luck.

radrider · Postby **radrider** » Wed Jan 21, 2009 8:24 pm

Just out of curiousity, what is your opinion on Indian Charlie as a sire? I think he' s a terrific outcross and I remember him running in the Derby.

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 3:36 pm

He's a good stallion, moves his mares up nicely and has about 52% winners and close to 9% stakes winners from his first seven crops (3yos of 2009 and up). I'd like to see a bit higher percentage of winners (I'm old fashioned -- I think of 60% winners as a good benchmark for a quality stallion), but he's right up there with most of the better stallions of the last few years, so can't really gripe. And he's earned his way to where he is with the help of a fairly modest assemblage of mates.

zinn21 · Postby **zinn21** » Thu Jan 22, 2009 4:19 pm

I've tried to get Eclipse Press interested in a bio on Colonel Bradley and the Idle Hour breeding program, but so far no luck.

That would certainly be something I would like to read. I would love to know their approach. Did Idle Hour mate based strictly on pedigree or did they spend a lot of time matching up mares based on physical makeup/disposition/toughness etc.

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Fri Jan 23, 2009 5:57 pm

I'd like to research more of that myself. I know Bradley and his farm manager, Olin Gentry, took a lot of time meeting every autumn to plan the following spring's matings, but I don't know what criteria they used. I know Bradley was rigorous about culling substandard stock and physical criteria were certainly used for culling; I just don't know how much weight they gave to conformation in planning matings. Certainly, Bradley liked a specific type of horse, a rather compact, neat animal as was typical of the Domino/Ben Brush bloodlines; one of his objections to bringing in the Fair Play/Man o' War line until War Admiral came along was that most of the Fair Plays were big, rangy, rawboned types that didn't suit his taste. (Colonel Bradley also felt that as a group they were too prone to sulking and therefore unreliable, a trait he despised in both horses and men.)

Marcel Boussac would also be fascinating, as Bill pointed out, but since I don't read French, I'd be badly handicapped in trying to make use of original newspaper accounts, interviews, and such -- and I suspect the main repositories of such would be in France.