Sports news from racingfigures.com / breeders/breeding

Jim Squires estimates: The best guess is that even with his modest pedigree (by Boundary out of Mien) and short career, Big Brown will command $125,000 to $150,000 for the first two years, maybe more. This assures that 2011 and 2012 yearling sales will be flooded with 60 to 70 yearlings by an unproven sire. Yet these babies will need to average $300,000 to $450,000 to be considered profitable in a sport where hardly any racehorses ever earn that money. The marketplace, hardly reasonable ......

Here's an idea from T.D. Thornton for healthier horses: Starting with foals born in 2009, in addition to the established [select sale] requirements, horses must also be documented as steroid-free to qualify for a select sale. It's all about changing the incentives ......

An oldie but goodie from December 2006 (please ignore the typo in the first paragraph, LOL)....

"[Eight Belles broke down] right where Raise a Native was the weakest, right in the ankles, and everybody acts like they don't know what caused this filly to break down. It's written right there for everyone to see! Except they refuse to see it. To admit it is to address the fact that all these stallions that are bred like that, that all the yearlings that are bred like that, are potential accidents waiting to happen."...

I've read a lot of chastising of Michael Ivarone for him having stated that Big Brown would likely not race as a four-year-old. Personally, I appreciate the honesty and sparing us the song and dance. Remember Smarty Jones and the hoopla that surrounded him? His owners swore from here to doomsday that their Elusive Quality colt would race at four. He didn't. Three Chimneys stands Smarty Jones, War Chant, and Point Given, three horses that did not race at four. Three Chimneys is one of two breeding operations (along with Coolmore's Ashford Stud) believed to be in line to acquire...

Owners will announce stud deal on Thursday....

... as it was in 1984, when the Queen toured the Bluegrass looking for suitable studs for her broodmares: Spendthrift Farms Owner Brownell Combs II explained the attraction of the area. "This is where the stallions are," he said, "and the semen controls the industry." I came across the article linked above while searching for more information on Spendthrift, which is the subject of a new book by Mary Marshall, "Great Breeders and Their Methods: Leslie Combs II and Spendthrift Farm." The book suffers from workmanlike prose but is redeemed by its accidental timeliness, since Marshall recounts in painstaking detail...

To change the breed, change the tracks, writes Jay Hovdey in his latest column (DRF+): Remodeling the breed will be a slow process, but first it will be necessary to increase the incentive to produce a different product; otherwise, the cruel realities of the unfettered free market will lead to racing's own version of the subprime mortgage disaster. The solution is already out there, waiting to be spread. Perfecting and adopting the technology of engineered surfaces -- a combination of natural and synthetic material built to drain moisture and cushion impact -- is the only way to prompt a change...

... to sell well at auction: To take just one example, the racehorses that descend from the popular sire Mr. Prospector make, on average, 30 percent fewer starts in their careers than do horses from other sire lines.... The progeny of that other supersire, Storm Cat, show similar, if not quite so extreme, fragility. A committee is at work on a durability stats database for breeders, but disagreements hinder its development. Related: Superfecta asks, "Who would you geld today?"...

"We need heroes," Jackson said. "And since we need them so badly, we've decided to race Curlin this year. We want to give the fans and the industry what we need."...

"Last year ... saw what will almost certainly be the last graded-stakes winners descending tail-male from Secretariat (Take d' Tour) and Affirmed (The Tin Man) ... Since the turn of the century, several historic sire lines have produced what will likely be their last American-bred graded winners."...

Estimated combined price Darley paid for Street Sense, Hard Spun and Any Given Saturday: $100 million (TDN). Sheikh Mohammed's stable has also scooped up European runners Teofilo and Authorized, and this past weekend, Arc-bound Manduro and a percentage of Invincible Spirit. "The extent of his outlay in his quest for...

For War Emblem, standing at stud in Japan. The 2002 dual classic winner failed to cover a single mare during this year's breeding season and Shadai Stallion Station officials are running out of patience with the fussy stallion. "We don't have so much interest to improve him now. We have...