Second Year Sires
It’s been a while since I did a BTB article on breeding, so I felt it was time for another. I wanted to look at second year sires that are producing well. I narrowed my selection down to three second year sires that I felt could be used at a very fair cost. I tried to give one breeding suggestion on the more costly side, and one breeding suggestion that would be cheap or good value. I have found most weeks you can wait until Saturday to breed any of the following sires, so no need to rush and breed on a Tuesday or Wednesday. The three I have provided have produced some very good Sim results. I am sure if you take a look closer at their Sim stats you will not be disappointed, so make sure you check out there sire page, and good luck to you all with your newly bred horses.
First Samurai (
It’s not surprising First Samurai makes this list. He is a beautiful 16.1 hand chestnut with exceptional pedigree. His racing career was outstanding as a two year olds as he made five starts with four wins and one third while earning $682,575 in earnings. At three he made three starts with a win and a second place finish. In eight career starts he finished first five times and only once out of the money. His $915,075 in career earnings was no chump change. He managed to beat Henny Hughes in both his grade one victories as a two year old in the Champagne Stakes and Hopeful Stakes.
Now at stud First Samurai is fetching a lofty 40k stud fee. With a lofty fee anything less than a few impressive runners on the track I think would be disappointing. For now all we have to go on is his Sim results, and those results don’t disappoint. First Samurai has been very good in his first two years as a Sim sire. Last years crop has netted over $3 million in earnings already. This year’s crop has already topped $1 million with earnings with Osotogari topping the list of stand out runners. That fine colt bred by Ontarget has already earned a whopping $378,200 in earnings. Last time out he ran a blistering 93 speed winning the G3 Cryogenic ‘s Juvenile Stakes. Osotogari isn’t the only stand out runner by First Samurai either. He already has seven regular stakes winners and three graded winners. That is impressive for a sire that often goes fairly cheap late in the week.
Breeding Ideas: The first option is a fairly straight forward idea that should work nice. The second is a cheaper end of week play using Thirty Six Red who has been a solid real life broodmare, but get’s little usage in Sim. Thirty Six Red was sired by Seattle Slew, and Sovereign Dancer is a very much underused quality DDS that often goes late in the week. The latter is a long shot, but at some point you got to believe Thirty Six Red is bound to have a solid runner as broodmare sire.
First Samurai x A.P. Indy x Buckpasser
First Samurai x Thirty Six Red x Sovereign Dancer
Cacique (Danehill x Kahyasi x
Cacique made 18 career starts with seven wins, five placed finishes, and 1 show. He earned $1,462,331 in his career. He finished in the money in nine grade one races. His last G1 winning run came in the 2006 Man O War stakes. He now stands at Banstead Manor Stud in
Cacique has already left his mark on the Sim. His 2007 crop has earned over $5 million. Now this year’s crop looks to be dominant as well, while already earning over $1 million thus far. This year’s crop includes four regular stakes winners and two graded winners. Stand outs this year include Hannah’s Flyer, Oropendola, Cackle Duck, Mikasa, Altyr, and the ever solid Machi Machi. Cacique has been best when throwing out turf running horses, so that seems to be the way to go. Sadler’s Wells line has been a very effective choice for dam sire. Hannah’s Flyer is broodmare sired by In The Wings, as is another fine runner in Rebecca’s Wish. A.P. Indy has also been very effective, as well as the Hail to Reason line. Cacique seems to be pretty versatile, and has consistently shown he can produce high quality runners. This makes Cacique an excellent choice of sire.
Breeding Ideas: Keeping with the A.P. Indy theme for breeding ideas seems to work here. The game dam by A.P. Indy Undefeated Season has a brilliant runner in Crezzino. I love the idea of putting A.P. Indy x MR. Prospector on the backend. For a cheap play I like giving a try the Hail To Reason nick that has been solid by using Southern Halo.
Cacique x A.P. Indy x Mr. Prospector
Cacique x Southern Halo x Habitat
Henny Hughes (Hennessey x Meadowlake x Storm Cat)
Henny Hughes made ten career starts and earned $1,124,820 in those starts. Six of those starts came at two and four of those starts came at three. He lost out to Stevie Wonderboy in the Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, beating First Samurai while finishing second. He also finished second to First Samurai in the Champagne Stakes. First Samurai and Henny Hughes had there battles. Twice Henny Hughes finished second to First Samurai, and once he bested him at two. At three Henny Hughes would go on to win Vosburgh Stakes, and Kings Bishop Stakes, as well as the G3 Jersey Shore Breeders’ Cup Stakes. In Henny Hughes ten races he won six and came in second three times. Not bad at all for the beautiful looking sire whose stud fee is now 40k.
In the Sim Henny Hughes just keeps on making noise. He has been a excellent sire to say the least so far. He also has his own cult following I believe led by Desperado. A bandwagon I couldn’t resist jumping on, as I have already bred a few myself. Desperado is the king of Henny’s though with fine runners such as Henny Again, and All About Henny. Simond5 has an excellent Henny named Howard’s End. You can read about Howard’s End and Henny Again in last weeks race coverage of the Bluegrass Cup Sprint. Make sure to check out his sire page, as his numbers are very solid.
Breeding Ideas: Well I love a good Henny, so here is the fun part. I would love to see someone use Affirmed at DS with Henny. Heck I just was looking at a horse with Sovereign Dancer for DS. I think he might make a real nice DDS behind Affirmed, and I simply like Sovereign Dancer a lot. If you want to upgrade Sovereign Dancer try any of the successful DDS Northern Dancer line sires. For the other suggestion I consulted master Henny expert Desperado. He seems to like the Gone West line an awful lot and Wild Again with Henny, so I went with that. One thing is certain, a well bred Henny usually runs pretty fast out the gate, so good luck.
Henny Hughes x Affirmed x Sovereign Dancer
Henny Hughes x Mr.
References
http://www.pedigreequery.com
http://www.bloodhorse.com
And as always the sim!