Thoughts On Future Breeding Changes (Written by Tntfarms)

Article written by Tntfarms.

It seems The Sim is in for a number of new and exciting changes in the future and according to Mike there will be a new approach to breeding.

The reduction of too many too well bred horses is interesting, since many players believe that the odds of getting a good or decent runner using an obscure or not too well known sire, is very slim. One surefire way to reduce the number of bluebloods is to make it worthwhile to breed to lesser known sires. Let’s take an example from the real world.

Here are two sires with 5 crops each.

Aptitude has been nothing short of appalling at stud so far. Even with the support of a world class breeding organization like Juddmonte behind him he still continues to fire blanks. On the other hand Put It Back is off to a red hot start and his stud fee should continue to rise if his progeny continue to do this well. [Now many breeding insiders predicted that Aptitude would be a bust even with the backing of Juddmonte because he had very little speed. Generally the fastest horses make the best stallions especially in the American market where speed sells. Put It Back on the other hand was a very quick sprinter for Allen Jerkens.] We see this very often in the breeding industry, where some stallions do way better than expected, given their book of mares – and then there are the flops like Aptitude and Came Home who drag their mares down considerably.

In reality I don’t believe there are ten living sires internationally who can be considered elite by the worldwide breeding industry. (We’ll see Next Article) And by elite I mean very good for a very long time and not necessarily a sire of sires which is the real benchmark for a stallion.

Now in The Sim (which we cannot compare statistically to the real breeding world, but it’s fun to do it anyway) it seems there are no hidden diamonds among the sire ranks. Maybe there are but players are not willing to search. It seems there are the elite stallions many of whom are way overrated, and then everyone else seems to be hit or miss. To be fair, many of these sires are rated by the game before there is any empirical evidence on who is good and who is not, but maybe every year there should be a few surprises among the cheaper freshmen stallions in the game.

Here are some other sires making noise in the breeding industry who players could use more often or should I say who demand more respect in the future. Is this a result of these sires being under used by players or perhaps a result of not being well rated by the game?

On the other hand there are those sires in The Sim that are producing Stakes runners at an amazing rate. As a result we have “too many too well bred” horses, because players believe the only way to success is to use these sires. Here are a two sires that are not as good in the real world as players think.

Here is the thing with Giant’s Causeway. In the real world his numbers are solid, especially with 23 graded winners and 8.4% stakes winners. However only 55% of his starters are winning and as a result his earnings/starter is not what many would expect. Disastrous numbers for a $125,000 stallion covering some of the best mares in the world. If you check carefully you will see his progeny are not selling as well these days because the word is out.

Is there a more enigmatic sire than Johannesburg? His starters are winning at an appalling 45% and his earnings/starter is as bad as it gets for a $65,000 stallion. Yet he has produced 9 graded winners. Still very poor numbers given his book of mares.

There are other sires in both categories too numerous to mention right now.

I don’t know what Mike has in mind to reduce the number of “too many too well bred” horses as he put it, but as always I look forward to the changes.