Roxyken’s 1000 Point Challenge – Breeding

As you know by now I have taken up Roxyken’s 1000 breeding point challenge with my BBRS5 stable. I am going down the path of breeding my way to a 1000 points. So this means truly cheap runners, bargain bred runners of which I am a little familiar. I wanted to walk through the process I go through when breeding bargain runners. For the new player there is not a lot of documentation on approaches to breeding in the sim or references to resources you can find outside the sim that help one to learn about sires. Ask any player though and you can find a wealth of information.

I do not think any one approach to breeding is necessarily better than another. I look to real life for approaches to matching pedigrees but I experiment a lot. You have nothing lose experimenting with cheap sires. I am not a huge fan of second or third generation inbreeding however I find success inbreeding in the fourth and fifth generations of pedigrees . I like complete outcrosses and learning about sire lines and sires.

I mention sire lines quite a bit so let me explain how I am using that terminology. When I say sire line I am referring to a set of sires that are sons or grandsons of certain sires. Some of the most popular are Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector, Seattle Slew, Secretariat, Turn-To, Ribot , Blushing Groom and In Reality to name a few.  Sons of Northern Dancer can be considered sire lines such as Sadler’s Wells, Nijinsky II, or Danzig. Roberto is a son of Hail to Reason who is a son of Turn-To that has produced Kris S, Dynaformer, Lear Fan and Red Ransom. So Roberto is part of the Hail to Reason or Turn-To sire line but can also be referenced as a the Roberto Sire line in reference to his prominent sons. Confused yet?

The way to look at it is if a sire has produced several sons that have gone on to be sires you could refer to that as a sire line. Mr. Greely does not have a prominent son as a sire but he has several sons standing a stud. You could refer to this as a sire line when talking sires in the sim.

One approach I will use will often use are crosses that worked in real life. As an example Storm Cat X Seattle Slew and Storm Cat X Alydar worked in real life. So in the sim I might look for a son of Storm Cat and pair him with a son of Seattle Slew or Alydar.  I use this approach when I do not want to spend a bunch of time creating the runner.

Another approach is taking a dam sire that is solid and choose sires based on the dam sire. I used Czaravich many times because he has produced stakes winners as a dam sire and is priced near 50 points. So I could use a 30 point or less sire with a 40 point or so dam’s dam sire and get a horse that costs 100 points or less in the old sim. I switch up the dam sire choice from time to time.

Using bargain sires that have awesome pedigrees is another approach. Cien Fuegos for example is Seattle Slew x Alydar x Sea-Bird. So you find these cheap sires with pedigrees stacked with big time sires. I have not been hugely successful in these breedings however it’s fun to see how many big time sires I can squeeze in a breeding.

Another approach is finding a sire I have connected with in some way. Gold Legend was a sire I really liked, I used Zeditave quite a bit, and I recently bred a couple to Rebel King, his first two winners in the sim. Something stands out to me such as pedigree or race record or records in producing in real life. For Rebel King I was attracted because he had not produced a sim winner and that was enticing. So sometimes it’s just about finding a sire you like.

I am always looking for an edge so I use real life resources to potentially give me that edge or stumble across a sire that produces in real life but is ignored in the sim. Here are some of the resources I use or have used to help me decide on what sires to choose.

 

Resources

Google search can be your best friend when researching or learning about breeding, bloodlines, or sire lists. I have some go to websites that I use quite a bit to help me select sires and this is the best way for a US based player to sometimes find information on sires that stand outside the US.

Pedigreequery.com is a nice resource. I like to use it for older sires because it tends to have information on the sire’s race record, key races they won and you can look at a sire’s progeny. I like this because you can see what bloodlines were used in real life.

Bloodhorse.com is great for every day information but I like the sire lists and stallion roster. The sire lists can even be broken down by state so if you want to know who the top sire in New Mexico is you can find that information. The stallion roster allows you to look up sires that gives you race record information, top runner information, links to the website of the farm where the stallion is standing and even some statistical information like average winning distance, and number of stakes or graded stakes winners the sire has produced.

Keyranch.com/breeding_101. I have always thought this little farm’s website in Texas provided a great way to get familiar with ideas and terms you read about in the real world of breeding. It’s just three pages of reading with links for more information and I think some things discussed like nicks and inbreeding are useful when putting pedigrees together in the sim.

 

Prospector Day

When a new stable is started the stable has 50 breeding points. When I started my stable (bbrs5) I bred a 30 point runner to get started. I used the crosses that worked in real life approach here. I wanted to aim for a dirt runner with miler speed. I am from Texas and use a lot of Texas based sires in the game so the first runner I bred I wanted to be based in Texas. I settled on Day of the Cat. He is a little used sire but has an outstanding pedigree. (Storm Cat x Damascus X Dr. Fager). He was not much of a runner and to this point in real life he only has one stakes placed runner.

In looking for dam sires to pair with Day of the Cat a Mr. Prospector line sire made sense. It does not take much reading or research to learn the Mr. Prospector x Northern Dancer cross was a great combination. I found Prospector’s Bid. He was not a great runner or sire but his pedigree seems to fit. Now for the dam’s dam sire I looked at another sire line that mixes well with Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector and that is Bold Ruler. The Bold Ruler line produced Secretariat (son) and Seattle Slew (great grandson). I settled on Singh. A son of Bold Ruler that was a G1 winner. He was ok as a sire. There is good speed and some stamina in the pedigree.

I started Prospector Day in a maiden allowance. As expected he got trounced. In his second start I moved him out in distance and put him in a 50k maiden claimer. He was over matched here as well and I wonder a bit if the distance is near his limit although you never really know. In his third start I droped him down again in a 12.5k maiden claimer back in a sprint. He ran a little better so it’s time to try the turf next time out. He has not earned any breeding points.

 

Sankara Mist

My second breeding for the stable I wanted to try a different strategy. I looked at local bred races. So what I did first was look at races coming up in the next week for different areas. I found an area that had races for both colts and fillies and very few runners it seems. Let me introduce you to India bred runners. This region has races at many tracks and includes runners bred in several different countries. I just started to look through the list of sires to see if any of the sires listed jumped out at me. I found one I liked.

Did you know Major Impact is the last son of Roberto still at stud? I did not at first but when I realized that it was an easy choice.  I felt like Northern Dancer lines fit well with Roberto so chose Northern Passage a son of Northern Dancer to be the dam sire. I linked Singh as dam’s dam sire again here using the son of Bold Ruler to finish out the pedigree.

This three year old filly was a debut winner in state bred company. That win earned the stable 50 breeding points. She followed that up with a seconds in a pair of claiming races earning another 57 points. She is slow posting mid 50’s speed figures but has not run in a field larger than 4 runners. She cost 30 points to breed and has earned 107 points for a 77 point profit and we are just into March.

 

Wichita Nights

I again was searching the ranks of lesser used state bred areas and landed on looking at a list of Kansas sires. I found Liginsky a son of Nijinsky. He has an understated but good pedigree and had a couple of wins on the track. I decided to pair him with a Blushing Groom line sire. My search landed me with Raphane a son of Rahy. He was a group 3 winner with a solid pedigree. For the dam’s dam sire I looked at the Roberto line sire and settled on Celestial Storm. He was a group 1 winner solid pedigree and this pairing of sires gives the pedigree a 5 x 5 inbreeding to Ribot. Inbreeding to Ribot is solid and not often considered. I was choosing sires with an eye towards the turf.

Wichita Nights made her debut on the turf in Arkansas and ran a solid second earning 40 points. So anything she does moving forward is profit. She races this week and is currently the only entry in a state bred maiden race. So she should earn this week.

 

Rock Quest

After Wichita Nights I wanted to stay in this same region and went to Arkansas. I found High Cascade who is an ok sire in the region. He is by Woodman out of a Nijinsky mare so a good pedigree. I wanted a turf runner so found a sire from the Blushing Groom line in Beau Quest. He is a son of Rainbow Quest . For the dam’s dam sire I looked for a line that had mixed well with Rainbow Quest and came up with Keen a son of Sharpen Up. I feel like there is a lot of turf influence in the pedigree with Woodman, Nijinsky, Rainbow Quest, Sea-Bird, and Sharpen Up in the pedigree.

This filly debuted in a state bred maiden claimer against the boys. It was a field of four and she ran solid finishing second by half a length. The second place finish was worth 40 points so she is already in the profit column. She will race again next week.

 

Brasheer

I have liked German sires in the past and after looking at the sires available there I found a possible gem. Areion will not dazzle you with pedigree however he is one of the top sires in Germany. His sire Big Shuffle has been the leading sire 6 times in the last 11 years. Areion was top sire in 2010 and 2013, I believe a sim upgrade is likely on the way.  I looked at some pedigrees of his top runners and found where Surako produced a really good runner and in the sim he was cheap. I wanted to add a more known sire line in the dam’s dam sire slot so went with older sire Yeats by Nijinksy. This creates a 4 x 4 inbreeding to Nijinsky.

This three year old colt made his debut at a mile on the turf in state bred company. He finished last but that was 5^th so earned 10 points. I have dropped him into open maiden claiming company for his second start in a field of six. He is the longest shot in the field this week.

 

Deceptive Measure

For this breeding I explored the working of sires standing in Turkey. There are several known sires that are now standing in Turkey. I actually found a Turkey sire list with current data. I was not too interested in an old US based sire so went with Bosporus. He is a son of Night Shift who finished second in earnings to Unaccounted For on Turkeys Sire Stat list. His progeny had 133 wins in 2013 which was the most of any Turkish sire.

For dam sire I wanted to go a different way looking for some older sire lines. I went with a son of Habitat, Bassenthwaite. In the dam’s dam side I wanted to go back to the Northern Dancer line and settled on Plain Dealing. It creates a 3 x 4 inbreeding to Northern Dance which I am not huge on but I thought it worked well with this pedigree.

Her debut was in a 25k maiden claimer in a field of five. She was ok running fourth earning 20 breeding points. I am dropping her back in distance and up in class in a state bred race. Currently the field is four runners so should be a short field so should earn some more breeding points.

 

The others

I will be breeding over my existing runners ever so slowly now that I have built up some breeding points. Yearofthesnake broke her maiden a couple of weeks ago. She has earned 52 points for the stable so far. Victory is Life has earned 12 points, and Classic Sidney has earned 7 points. I only have 2 wins in the stable but I have earned 288 breeding points and we are half way through month 3.