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Vicky,
To answer your question's here are my thoughts (these are very subjective questions):
I'm guessing this is pretty much like real life...breed two decent horses together, and cross your fingers. In fact, I have often wondered what would happen if we followed the top sellers of every sale; I mean with live horses. Would they, overall even make back their purchase price?
Top horses will pay for themselves and many others (duds). For example, my 3yo Mr Gm has netted my stable about $166k in profit. That pays for a large chunk of duds and doesn't take into account the future value of breeding (fees) and other good offspring (I hope). I claimed his father (Go Mobile) for $100k and was able to grind him down to a loss of only $10k before retirement. In retirement, he earned probably upward of $300k in breeding fees. On the flipside, I've had a few claimers for $50k and above that haven't been very good, so it is certainly high risk, but high reward.
Personally, I track every horse's gains and loses just to ensure that I'm not hanging on to a horse too long or running it too high. With a good horse you can pay for an entire breeding group so certainly run a horse where it belongs and not where you hope it may run well. If a horse can collect a check at a certainly level, I'll generally leave it at that level, unless you change something around and think the horse may be better.
It can be frustrating...but knowing this...I breed a few (this is my 3rd season here) and then work with them. I have bred two nice ones out of about ten or so. Can you more experienced people comment on this? I'm guessing this is about right.
It depends on your definition of a "nice" horse. If you look at a mare like Black Velvet Band, she put out two stud runners (Blackfish Hunter and Flash Dancer), but the rest seem sort of ordinary to poor (although a couple are on hiatus). I would say that she's a good breeder, but others may disagree. Personally, I like a breeder to be able to put out multiple nice runners (high level claimers to stakes types) and a similar amount of mid level claimers.
You have some very nice babies, but can you guess (or maybe you keep records) how many nice babies you get, for every piece of crap? Just wondering. Thanks guys! (and gals)
I've bred about 45 this season and I suspect about 8-10 of them will not make it more than a couple of races before retirement. With good breeders, I would think you should have something like 20% elite horses ($75k and up), 33% upper - mid level types($50k - $20k) and 33% lower level types($10k to $2k) and 14% duds (retired before 10 races). These are just some rough stats that I ran based off some of my better breeders and is very subjective. I would think if you are getting over 30% horses that can't break 1:10 then you may want to improve your breeding stock.
I hope this helps,
Good luck,
Jamie
To answer your question's here are my thoughts (these are very subjective questions):
I'm guessing this is pretty much like real life...breed two decent horses together, and cross your fingers. In fact, I have often wondered what would happen if we followed the top sellers of every sale; I mean with live horses. Would they, overall even make back their purchase price?
Top horses will pay for themselves and many others (duds). For example, my 3yo Mr Gm has netted my stable about $166k in profit. That pays for a large chunk of duds and doesn't take into account the future value of breeding (fees) and other good offspring (I hope). I claimed his father (Go Mobile) for $100k and was able to grind him down to a loss of only $10k before retirement. In retirement, he earned probably upward of $300k in breeding fees. On the flipside, I've had a few claimers for $50k and above that haven't been very good, so it is certainly high risk, but high reward.
Personally, I track every horse's gains and loses just to ensure that I'm not hanging on to a horse too long or running it too high. With a good horse you can pay for an entire breeding group so certainly run a horse where it belongs and not where you hope it may run well. If a horse can collect a check at a certainly level, I'll generally leave it at that level, unless you change something around and think the horse may be better.
It can be frustrating...but knowing this...I breed a few (this is my 3rd season here) and then work with them. I have bred two nice ones out of about ten or so. Can you more experienced people comment on this? I'm guessing this is about right.
It depends on your definition of a "nice" horse. If you look at a mare like Black Velvet Band, she put out two stud runners (Blackfish Hunter and Flash Dancer), but the rest seem sort of ordinary to poor (although a couple are on hiatus). I would say that she's a good breeder, but others may disagree. Personally, I like a breeder to be able to put out multiple nice runners (high level claimers to stakes types) and a similar amount of mid level claimers.
You have some very nice babies, but can you guess (or maybe you keep records) how many nice babies you get, for every piece of crap? Just wondering. Thanks guys! (and gals)
I've bred about 45 this season and I suspect about 8-10 of them will not make it more than a couple of races before retirement. With good breeders, I would think you should have something like 20% elite horses ($75k and up), 33% upper - mid level types($50k - $20k) and 33% lower level types($10k to $2k) and 14% duds (retired before 10 races). These are just some rough stats that I ran based off some of my better breeders and is very subjective. I would think if you are getting over 30% horses that can't break 1:10 then you may want to improve your breeding stock.
I hope this helps,
Good luck,
Jamie
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