Do our top racemares become our top broodmares ?

The hoary old chestnut of why a lot of our top racemares have not gone on to be as dominant in the broodmare barn as they were on the track is a question often raised with us by breeders and it is one in our view that needs to be looked at from an historical prospective to get a better understanding of where we are today with regards to the performance of our top racemares in the broodmare barn.

As recently as 25 to 30 years ago, the average yearling sale buyer would cast a weary eye on the progeny of a lot of our top racemares as their record once they became broodmares was less than flattering in the main.

The rationale at the time was that the consistent hard racing at distances further than a mile at the top level took its toll on the mares long term health which subsequently affected their breeding output.

When you look back at the racing careers of some of our champion mares from the 1980s and 1990s such as Hilarious Guest (73 starts) and Bonnies Chance (75 starts) who have both been poor in the broodmare barn, you would quickly reconize that they raced a lot more often than our top mares do today.

The oustanding racemare from the early 2000s in Elect To Live (35 starts) only raced half as many times and has done a fine job in the broodmare barn with Gotta Go Cullect and Gotta Go Harmony both very smart juveniles.

Another top racemare from that era was Nearea Franco (35 starts) who has already produced the brilliant three year old filly,Nike Franco 1:52.6 while Chiola's Lass only faced the starter 17 times when winning ten races on the track and has gone on to be a sensation as a broodmare producing standouts such as Allegro Agitato ($529,980) and Skyvalley ($322,676)

So todays top racemares would seem on the whole to have a much better record in the broodmare barn than their contempories from the 1980s and 1990s.

As a result of researching this article one other very interesting trend soon became apparent.

That was the success of racemares who had been better than average on the track but not topliners.

Mares in the main who had won anywhere from three to eight races who were well bred were doing an outstanding job in the broodmare barn.

Looking at this years catalogues at both sales, their are a multitude of yearlings from such mares who are beautifully bred and were pretty handy on the track as well.

A good example is Lot 122 at the Australasian Classic Yearling Sale at Karaka on February 22nd.

Named Purest Silk, she is a daughter of Rocknroll Hanover from the very smart racemare Veste 1:57.1 ($106,024) who won three of her eleven lifetime starts including the Caduceus Club Classic at two.

Veste is a half sister to both Callenberg and Conversion who have both won their last two starts in the manner of horses going places in a hurry.

The second dam Coburg 1:56.8 ($201,312) is a half sister to seven winners including the champion Stunin Cullen 1:54.1 ($1,493,716) while the third dam is the 2010-2011 broodmare of the year in Vicario.

A smart race winning mare with a great pedigree,Veste looks typical of the mares that are becoming our top producing mares at the moment.

The filly being offered for sale is a lovely strong bodied individual and ticks all the boxes for us.

So getting back to the question we asked at the start of this article.

In our view our top racemares are doing a far better job in the broodmare barn in 2016 than was the case as little as twenty five years ago and we think one of the main reasons for that change is the reduced amount of races that they now compete in. 

Harnesslink Media