{"id":228,"date":"2005-08-12T10:39:29","date_gmt":"2005-08-12T10:39:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blacktypebugler.com\/?p=228"},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"oldbtb_5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/?p=228","title":{"rendered":"From The Dog House"},"content":{"rendered":"

What do most Sim trainers have in common? Probably a deep rooted desire to breed a champion runner in the Dirt Classic division. Like it or not, that\u2019s where the glory is. While the 3yo turf milers and marathoners can run in relative obscurity until they win 2 or 3 G1’s in a row, runners aiming for the Bluegrass Derby are profiled weeks before the race is to take place. The Derby prep races are even discussed by those who don\u2019t have any runners in them. So if you really want to make your presence felt, the\u00a0Triple Crown races are\u00a0where it\u2019s at. <\/P>

With that in mind I thought I\u2019d examine the pedigrees of those runners who made an impact in this division over the past several years. Is there a trick to breeding these dominant horses? Some kind of secret tactic? In order to find out I looked at the top 5 finishers in all 3 Triple Crown races for the first 7 years. Why the top 5 you ask? Because you don\u2019t want to just qualify for the Derby, you want to make an impact once you’re there. Who wants to get there only to finish up the track? So here are some thoughts on the pedigrees that have produced Triple Crown success.<\/P>

There have been 67 different sire x dam-sire combos to finish in the top 5 of a Triple Crown race during it\u2019s 7 year history. Want a guaranteed combo that has appeared over an over among those 67? Sorry, you\u2019re out of luck. No two horses finishing in the top 5 in those 21 races have shared the same sire and dam-sire cross. This was surprising to me as I went in thinking there would be several duplicate pedigrees. But there are so many talented sires out there the odds are stacked against the same combo making it over and over again.<\/P>

But surely there are a couple of sires that have expressed a dominance among these runners, right? Maybe there is, maybe there isn\u2019t. Storm Cat has sired 5 of those 67 runners, with Sadler\u2019s Wells siring 4 of them. Does that mean you should go out and fill your stables with offspring of those two sires? Not really, it just shows what the sire stats show, that those are two of the most productive sires in the sim. But even those top of the line sires do not have a runner make it into the top 5 each and every year. They don’t even get a Triple Crown runner each and every year. Want to know something that still surprises me? A.P. Indy has not had a single runner to finish top 5 in a TC race. While his offspring have shown an affinity for dirt routes, none have reached the pinnacle. Perhaps that means he’s overdue and will sire multiple TC runners in the next couple of seasons?<\/P>

But what if you think that Storm Cat or Sadler\u2019s Wells is the way to go, who should you breed them to? There doesn\u2019t appear to be a definite answer. The dam-sires used with Storm Cat have been Mr. Prospector, Key To The Mint, Forty Niner, Sadler\u2019s Wells, and Pine Bluff. The ones used with Sadler\u2019s Wells have been Mill Reef, Nijinsky, Gone West, and Blushing Groom. The only pattern that can be seen from those examples is to pair them up with another top level sire.<\/P>

What about inbreeding, surely that will help you make it to the promised land? Nope, that\u2019s not going to help you either. In this case I\u2019m defining inbreeding as having both the sire and dam-sire in a pedigree come from the same male family. And while you see a couple of examples of that type of inbreeding in the paragraph above, those are really about it. And those examples can be explained as being successful because they are top sire x top sire, rather than because they\u2019re simply inbred.<\/P>

What about copying pedigrees from real life Triple Crown runners? Forget about it. There have been no runners finish in the top 5 who have been bred from Maria\u2019s Mon, Our Emblem, Distorted Humor, or Elusive Quality. So don\u2019t rush out to breed to Holy Bull thinking he\u2019ll be the next big thing in the sim. This is one area where real life is reflected by the sim. After the TC races have been run, and you look at the results, it\u2019s sometimes quite surprising to see the sires who\u2019s offspring made an impact. Chances are that those 5 sires listed above may never have TC success again. And those sires must have continued success in Graded events for their Sim counterparts to have their abilities upgraded. So there\u2019s no rush to copy real life combo\u2019s if you want to get to the Sim glory land.<\/P>

Don\u2019t think you\u2019ll ever get to the top of the Division because you can\u2019t breed expensive combos for BP\u2019s, or don\u2019t have the credits to go sire shopping on Sunday night? Well there is hope out there for you. Almost half of the pedigrees in this group could have been bred for a very manageable price. Distinctive Pro, Benny The Dip, Storm Of Angels, Man Of Power, Announce, Housebuster, Stutz Blackhawk, Northern Taste, McDuck, Regal Classic, Pleasant Tap, Menifee, Five Star Day, Macho Uno, Kris Kin, and Hansel have all had runners finish top 5 in a TC race. But don\u2019t think you can just throw together a bargain combo and pray. While those sires can be had for a very reasonable price, in almost every case they were paired up with a talented Sim dam-sire. But if you can\u2019t afford to use Storm Cat, or Sadler\u2019s Wells, or that type as a sire for 450 BP\u2019s, you can always use them as the dam-sire of your combo for a couple hundred BP\u2019s less. Pair them up with your favorite sire and take your shot.<\/P>

What will give you the best\u00a0chance at having a dominant Classic Division runner? Be smart about your breedings. While copying other successful breedings does not insure success, it sure can\u2019t hurt to do some research. If you\u2019re looking to breed using Forty Niner, then look at his talented offspring and see what\u2019s been working. Chances are you\u2019ll see a handful of sires that show up time and time again in his successful offspring. So use one of them, or another sire that has a similar pedigree. <\/P>

But the cold hard facts are that\u00a0there’s nothing definite that you can\u00a0do to insure you\u2019ll make it there. Some of the top trainers in the Sim have never even had a runner in a Triple Crown race. But keep plugging away, breeding using at least one talented sire in either the sire or dam-sire spot, and some day you could get lucky enough to get there. Because if I can get a runner there, any of you could too! <\/P>

And that\u2019s the story this week, from the Dog House. <\/P><\/FONT><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Care to breed a Triple Crown champ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":63,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-breeding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/63"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/btb.ehorseracing.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}