Stallion Spotlight

What I’m going to do is Spotlight Stallions who have been overlooked for one reason or another and should probably be given a shot. Now I don’t profess to be an expert but I have been around horse racing for 50 years and have played this game since 1998. I feel with that experience I can at very least give the new player a little insight to what will give you a chance at long term enjoyment and hopefully success with your sire planning.

It is my opinion that breeding horses in the game is simply like playing the stock market! The process can be electrifying and humbling all in the same day. The mare is the known product and the sire is the investment. Sim sires can humble you quickly by making your Grade One winning mare throw a claimer. That is probably the most frustrating part of the breeding game. So it is really important that your breeding selections are well thought out. If your breeding a scratch bred horse (credits or pts) it is imperative that you look at the breeding lines of all horse in use. Although the sim does have some graded stakes winners with real close inbreeding it’s not really a good choice for success. The norm is not closer than three generations back but I go for four generations or more. That will open you up to a lot more sire’s to use. Another thing that will open the game up for you is to absorb everything you can about breeding lines. There are a lot of books that cover this very process. A good tool to bookmark is the site Bloodhorse.com which has all kinds of wonderful information. If you want to dig into the female side there is another site Bloodlines.net which through research have dug deep into the female side of thoroughbred families.

The first Sire that I would like to look at is Animal Kingdom who has had recent success with Armoured Animal who was the 2 year old filly turf champion in 2021 when she won three Grade One’s highlighted by the Breeders Bowl Juvenile turf. She made over 1.4 million with most coming in her two year old season. She was retired in 2023 and was bred to War Chant.

Animal Kingdom offspring are usually late bloomers and get better with distance. They usually come on late in their three or early four year old season. They can excel on all surfaces but lean toward the turf. Distances of 10F to 12F are common as they mature. Animal Kingdom line is very turfy and full of Classic influence most notably he has a 4 X 4 cross with Lyphard who was one of Northern Dancer’s star runners. Lyphard’s champion son Dancing Brave is also part of Animal Kingdom’s pedigree. Another distance and turf influence is French Champion miler Blushing Groom who is a name still found in many pedigrees of American horses. Blushing Groom was a robust colt who was short in stature but speedy with a big heart. He was sent to America where he started his stud career and was served many leggy and long winded mares that produced progeny that could get 10F to 12F on all surfaces. One of his sons was Argentine champion Candy Stripes who sired both horse of the year Invasor and 2005 turf champion Leroidesanimaux, the later who sired Spotlight Stallion Animal Kingdom. Blushing Groom also became a very good broodmare sire with his daughters producing Awesome Again, Macho Uno, and the great race mare Goldikova to name just a few.

When Animal Kingdom breeding is looked at closer you can see that his Sim career has far out-shined his actual real life stud success. This may be the reason he was little over 200 bp’s earlier in the week. Even though the success is there in the sim some breeders can be leary because of his lack of real world success as a sire. That coupled with the fact his offspring can mature slowly might add to the negativity that surrounds this sire. I think with a little patience you may be fairly rewarded for your investment. With that said, I would not send my grade one winning mare to this stud. Here are a couple of reasons why I would probably avoid breeding with a prize mare. He can sire turf or dirt which means that your prized turf mare may produce a dirt horse. I think this is what holds this Sire back in real life and in this game. Another negative is that his pedigree traces back to Argentina rather than blueblood lines that have a long history of success. The problem is that you can’t scoff at the sim success that he has managed to grind out over the years. His Numbers don’t lie, 993 runners he sired 66 stakes wins with 23 being of grade/group classification. Those are some high end numbers. His numbers as a sim Broodmare Sire have really struggled with only 595 runners getting 20 stakes wins with 3 being of graded or stakes quality. In conclusion what I’m trying to say is he may just surprise you with a real gem at little cost. Whoops! not this week as I just paid up the 201 BP’s and will soon have my first Animal Kingdom offspring.