zenyatta will make a great mother

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horse breeding, maternal instinct in horses, transition from racing to breeding, zenyatta

In response to yesterday’s post about the dam of Here Comes Ben (by Street Cry), a contender for the BC Sprint, Lakotasblaze wondered what the transition from racehorse to broodmare would be like for Zenyatta.

It will not, for one thing, be too rapid. Even after her racing career closes on Saturday, she will remain at the track to be let down, given activity and exercise but in decreasing amounts and intensity. Turning a thoroughly tuned up racehorse out without preparation is dangerous; many can be a risk to themselves through sheer exuberance.

Once the mare has had a bit of time, whether days or weeks, to let down and relax and begin to change her focus from racing to grazing, then she will be shipped to the farm where she will become accustomed to pasture life again.

In this case, she will presumably go to Mill Ridge Farm south of Lexington, just a few miles from where Zenyatta was born and raised at Winter Quarter Farm. There the farm crew will work with her to give the big mare as much activity as possible while allowing her to make a smooth transition into the more sedate life of a broodmare prospect.

Depending on how rapidly her body accepts the change in climate and routine, Zenyatta will be sent to breed sometime next year, probably in February or March, to the stallion the Mosses choose for her.

Most young mares off the track are fairly easy to get in foal, and about 11 months later, most produce their first foals.

Lakotasblaze asked, “would she be expected to nurse and mother her own foals or would a nurse mare be used so she could be quickly rebred? Does it make any difference to the mare who gave birth? Is one method more beneficial to her?”

Except in cases of danger to mare or foal, Thoroughbred mares raise their own foals and are typically rebred within 30 days. It is sometimes a shock for mares to see this young critter making demands on them, but the great majority respond to motherhood with enthusiasm and a strong sense of protectiveness for their new foal.

Zenyatta has such a strong sense of independence that she will make a great mother and should produce large, vigorous, and athletically progressive foals. But when the time for weaning rolls around, she will no doubt be ready for the rowdy youngster to get along.

The cycle will continue, and the great mare’s foals, year by year, will join the parade of young prospects who will attempt to scale the heights of racing’s legends. In their case, one of them is Mom.

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quality road a star for breeder’s program

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ajina, allen paulson, alydar, blame, chris baker, elusive qualiity, horse breeding, keeneland september sale, kobla, metropolitan handicap, mr. prospector, native dancer, ned evans, paulson estate, quality road, racehorse management, raise a native, santa anita racetrack, size in the thoroughbred, spring hill farm, strawberry road, thoroughbred conformation, thoroughbred pedigrees, todd pletcher, whitney stakes, winglet, woodward stakes

The following article appeared earlier this week in Paulick Report.

The long and winding road leads to “quality” for Ned Evans of Spring Hill Farm in Virginia.

One of the premier owner-breeders in America, Evans bred and races Woodward Stakes and Metropolitan Handicap winner Quality Road, who will be one of the favorites for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Unbeaten this year, except for a narrow defeat to Blame in the Whitney Stakes last month, Quality Road is a big, grand-looking colt. He has always been a nice animal, and Chris Baker, who manages Spring Hill Farm for Evans, said that “Quality Road was remarkable in that everything he did was unremarkable. That’s a good thing. He never had illness or issues or any trouble to make you take note.”

A big colt with a very good family (five-cross pedigree), Quality Road would seem a natural prospect for the top end of the commercial market, but Baker said that didn’t work out. At the time of the Keeneland September sale, the colt was growing, rather than maturing, and he went unsold at $110,000.

Baker said, “As a yearling going into the sale, he wasn’t at his best, being a sort of old-fashioned type of horse, long and leggy, and we didn’t send him to Aiken [to be put into training] till December because he was a leggy, immature colt. Inasmuch as he was an impressive colt, he wasn’t one who had the most commercial appeal as a yearling.”

Neither Evans nor Baker thought any less of Quality Road for not being spot on when the sale came round. They knew the back story.

The colt had always been big. As a foal, Baker said, “Quality Road was born March 23, 2006, weighed 143 pounds, and stood 42.6 inches tall at the withers. When we weighed him the last time at the farm on November 29, 2007, before shipping him to Aiken, he was 1,240 pounds and stood 66.9 inches at the withers.”

That is a thumping big colt.

And he takes no prisoners. Quality Road is uncommonly big and strong, with a competitive spirit to match. Those excellent qualities led him into a much-publicized scrap with the gate crew at Santa Anita before last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic that resulted in Quality Road being scratched.

That televised image is the most common memory of the colt for many people. Yet Baker said that Quality Road “was never tough, just a playful colt. He was never difficult because everything was so easy for him.”

In the aftermath of that showdown at Santa Anita, trainer Todd Pletcher and the team around Quality Road went into action to restore the colt’s peace of mind and composure at the gate. It has worked brilliantly. Baker said the remarkable thing is “how traumatic that was and how much Quality Road has done to come back and load efficiently and quietly and stand well, even when Haynesfield was having a panic attack in the gate before the Whitney. I don’t think many horses would have overcome that event as well as this horse has, and I believe it speaks volumes for the horse’s mind and natural athleticism.”

Quality Road has not put a foot wrong this year and, with every start, has elevated both his standing as a premier member of the colts in the 4-year-old and up division and as a stallion prospect of a very high order.

His size, good conformation, and speed are major recommendations to breeders. And Quality Road is one of the very best racers by his sire Elusive Quality, a freakishly fast son of Gone West. This is the excellent male line of Native Dancer through Raise a Native and Mr. Prospector, and if anything, Quality Road’s female family is even better.

His dam is the Strawberry Road mare Kobla. She is a full sister to Ajina, champion 3-year-old filly of 1997 and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Distaff, CCA Oaks, and Mother Goose.

Their dam is graded stakes winner Winglet (by Alydar). She is a Grade 2 stakes winner bred and raced by Allen Paulson, who also bred and raced both Ajina and Kobla.

Kobla was among the fine stock that the Paulson estate sold at the 1999 Keeneland November sale, where Evans purchased the mare, in foal to Mt. Livermore, for $1,050,000.

Although Kobla has been a “hard-luck mare,” among the Spring Hill broodmares, she caught the brass ring by producing Quality Road. The mare also has a 2-year-old half-sister to Quality Road by Tale of the Cat named Kobla Cat and has a weanling full brother “who is a striking physical,” Baker said.

Kobla was bred to Elusive Quality this year but is not in foal. Despite that disappointment, I believe that Spring Hill will send the mare to Elusive Quality again because it is a road worth taking.

back in the ussa

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horse breeding, select yearling sales, travel

How do you get jet lag going north? Well, if returning to the Bluegrass from the frosty grass of Argentina gives an indication, it causes one to fall asleep at the computer in the middle of the day. Talk about a pain in the neck.

Anyway, I am returned to my normal haunts, minus my erstwhile cheery disposition, but that too will return.

I find from the evidence of my email inbox that great things are afoot. People are beginning blogs of their own, books are being finished and put through the presses, and young horses are progressing toward the premium sales of yearlings.

Ahhh! The joys of summer.

It hardly seems possible that in less than a week, we will be participating in the great swarm of commerce that is the Fasig-Tipton July sale of selected yearlings. I can almost smell the horse manure.

What joys indeed. See you there.

destroying the average

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change, economics, horse breeding

Once again, the blogs at R2 Collective have struck the brass ring in a link to Seth Godin’s blog. Seth Godin concludes in a post about “what will save the status quo” that nothing will preserve what was.

Change is inevitable. From the time of the caves of Lascaux with cavemen painting bison and horses on the walls, it has always been so, but there are times when the pace of change slows, allows the sturdy gallopers to forge ahead and believe they too might win the race.

Godin, however, notes that “Every revolution destroys the average middle first and most savagely.”

This is precisely the predicament of the horse business in Lexington at present. Breeding in most regional markets is fairly safe and well protected by various programs. Breeders at the top of the tree will prosper as always because the best horses are always in demand by someone.

But the breeders and the horses taking the brunt of the damage in the current economic revolution are those stallions standing for $25,000 and less in Kentucky, where there is no safety net, stallion awards program, and so forth.

The breeders who primarily support these stallions are almost entirely commercial breeders, producing good athletes for the racing venues in New York, California, Florida, and elsewhere.

We cannot reverse the change that has already come. We can, however, learn from it and perhaps find new ways to breed horses and participate in racing with greater enjoyment and success. Given the antics of politicians and the predatory behavior of neighboring states, we really have no other choice. Good luck to us all.