What’s In A Broodmare?
HAVE YOU EVER CAUGHT LIGHTNING IN A BOTTLE?
Scrolling down through the list of “A-Ranked” mares is kind of like me sitting on my couch watching The Real Housewives of New York… they’re all rich and beautiful… but are their offspring living up to their mammas’ legacies? Does a breeder have a large advantage when he or she uses an A- or B- or even C-ranked mare? Or can a G- or H-ranked mare be just as suitable? There are few trainers in the Sim that have mentioned that a mare ranked less than F- shouldn’t be allowed to be bred to. Hmm… If that were really put into place then millionaire fillies Wild Cat Tales and Kiki’s Moon Dancer would never have graced the Sim’s tracks. This will be the first of many parts to a long “meta-analysis” of the Sim’s broodmare band.
Currently, in the retired mare pasture, there are 83,909 broodmares divided amongst the Sim-community. That collection of mares is divided into 8 hierarchal classifications that are dependent on how the racemare performed on the track. Here’s how the cookie crumbles…
A-ranked mares à 92 (0.1%)
B-ranked mares à 406 (0.4%)
C-ranked mares à 1119 (1.34%)
D-ranked mares à 1394 (1.66%)
E-ranked mares à 2968 (3.54%)
F-ranked mares à 6331 (7.55%)
G-ranked mares à 32955 (39.3%)
H-ranked mares à 38644 (46.1%)
TOTAL = 83,909 mares
H-RANKED
An H-ranked mare could be a filly that never ran in a single race or it could be a mare that ran 50 career starts with over $100,000 in earning, but nary a victory.
I skimmed through the 439 H-ranked mares … that’s just a measly 1.1%! The top earning H-ranked mare (10yo Christy Son by Miesque’s Son) earned $109,000 in 33 career starts (and zero trips to the winner’s enclosure). Of those 439 mares, 122 are still barren having never been given the chance to produce a single foal. You may be thinking right now, “Yeah, well I wouldn’t want to waste my hard earned (breeding points/credits) on a mare sired by Norman Pentaquad – I’d get something with 5 legs!”
Well, Ladies and Gentlemen, a lot of those unbred mares are sired by the likes of:
- Woodman (Champion 2yo)
- Forty Niner (Champion 2yo &
- Conquistador Cielo (Horse of the Year & Belmont Stakes winner)
- Sunny’s Halo (
- Strike The Gold (
- Empire Maker (
- Kitten’s Joy (Champion Turf Male)
- Redoute’s Choice (Champion 3yo Miler in
- Seeking The Gold
- Encosta De Lago
- Storm Cat
- Gone West
- Rahy
Need I go on? To recap, I looked at 439 H-ranked mares & 122 were unbred. Okay, so moving on. That brings us to 317 mares that have had any where from 1 to 5 foals. Of those, 54 mares have produced at least 1 foal that has been at least stakes placed à that’s 17%. Twenty-seven (8.5%) mares have produced a stakes winner; three (0.9%) have produced a graded winner.
Autumn The Storm (14yo by Storm Cat), Rapid Fire (10yo by
Rapid Fire is the dam of 5 named offspring in the Sim. One of her foals, a 4yo filly by Storm Cat is stakes placed on the turf. Her crowning glory, however, came in her 2nd season as a broodmare when she was sent to Tale Of The Cat. The coupling produced the 6yo filly Wild Cat Tales. Wild Cat Tales has been victorious in 16 of her 37 trips to the track, earning $1.8 million. She won two G1s, two G2s, and a G3 as well as has been in the money on several other occasions (including a 3rd in the 2006 Breeder’s Bowl Distaff-G1).
Autumn The Storm is the dam of only 2 offspring thus far (an 8yo and a 5yo). Her first foal was her big-hitter. That season she was sent to Forty Niner. The end product was Kiki’s Moon Dancer. Kiki’s Moon Dancer won two G1s and one G2 as well as has been in the money in seven other G1s & G2s including a 3rd in the 2003 Breeder’s Bowl Turf Distaff-G1. All together she was in the money in 20 of her 44 races and earned nearly $1.7 million. Kiki’s Moon Dancer is now retired and A-ranked. She has produced 3 foals of her own, the best of which is stakes placed at present.
Miss Cat has produced just 2 foals to-date (a 10yo and a 4yo). Again, this mare’s first foal to drop was the overachiever of the family. Sired by Nureyev, the foal was named Crypt O’ Night. Crypt O’ Night won 9 of his 45 career starts including the 8F Black Velvet Turf Stakes-G3. The colt was in the money in 21 of those trips and earned over $427,000. The son of Nureyev and Miss Cat is now retired and C-ranked. He is the proud papa of 5yo Gone West colt Crypt Robber who is a stakes winner. Miss Cat’s other foal, the 4yo Crafty Prospector colt named He’s Crafty isn’t doing too shabby, either. He has recently found new life in the turf sprint division, trying to play with the big dogs. He’s Crafty is definitely one to keep an eye on.
I’d also like to briefly mention:
·
· Storaki (9yo by Miswaki) who has one runner that is a stakes winner and graded placed and another that is stakes placed.
· Unknown Forbes (10yo by Sadler’s Wells) who, out of 4 foals, has 1 stakes winner and 2 that are stakes placed.
· In Front Door (6yo by Elusive Quality), Dance Numbers (8yo by Polish Numbers), and Secret Aggie (13yo by Slip Anchor) are one for one in that their lone foal is also a stakes winner.
· Sarek (6yo by Mr. Greeley) has produced 2 foals, one is a stakes winner and the other is an unraced 2yo.
· Sister Sarah (10yo by Kingmambo) has produced 2 foals, one is the upcoming graded placed/stakes placed turf miler Kiwi Mountain.
I could keep going, but like I said earlier, there are 54 mares in this category that have produced at least 1 stakes placed foal. There could be a good handful of additional mares in this category that have produced a graded winner or multiple stakes winners or any other combination, but for my time convenience I had to draw a line at 439 mares. J Stay tuned for the next article to follow… It ain’t nothing but a G-thang.
P.S. There is a nice table of all 54 H-ranked broodmares if anybody is interested. Email: kbsweet@hotmail.com.
** Keely **