Case Study: Blame’s Potential As Broodmare Sire
I have always been a fan of Claiborne Farm’s Blame as a producer of good racehorses. But, in performing weanling and yearling sales analysis, I began to see his name appear more as a broodmare sire. I also saw a familiar female family pattern in his pedigree that I have consistently relied upon in identifying good broodmare sires. Over the years, the growing list of top broodmare sires that I identified early on as having this female family pattern include:
- Bernardini
- Congrats
- Dixie Union
- Harlan’s Holiday
- Flatter
- Kitten’s Joy
- Malibu Moon
- Mineshaft
- Pulpit
- Scat Daddy
- Sky Mesa
- Street Cry (IRE)
- Sunday Silence
- Tapit
- Unbridled’s Song
- Wild Rush
- Yes It’s True
Good broodmare sires by anyone’s standards! Hopefully, I can also get in on the ground floor with Blame mares and capitalize for my clients and myself.
Broodmare Sires and Female Families
If you are unfamiliar with focusing on female families and how they are the starting point in analyzing pedigrees for breeding and/or buying, please read the following to help make more sense of this post:
“Are Female Families Really That Important?”
“Case Study: Buying Broodmares & Selecting Stallions”
To recap:
- Runner Female Family Numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5
- Sire Female Family Numbers: 3, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13 & 14
- Female Family Number 3 serves as a dual-qualifier
- There are 8 female families represented in the 3rd generation of any given individual. Four female families from the sire and dam, each. Among those, OPTIMAL Matings have a minimum of 1 sire family and 4 runner families.
- One pattern seen most in consistent racehorse sires is at least 3 runner families. One sire family is a bonus. This helps to create compatibility with a broad base of mares to achieve the above OPTIMAL Mating pattern.
Blame
Blame’s contribution to the 3rd generation of any given individual is represented by female families A4 and 5H. Both are runner female families. This will obviously always be a constant for Blame mares. All of this goes towards completing the minimum overall OPTIMAL Mating requirements of 1 sire family and 4 runner families. In Blame’s case as a broodmare sire, only 2 more runner families are required. Those can be obtained from the 2 female families from the dam of the Blame mare or from the 4 families in the 2nd generation of the stallion being bred to.
Please note how the female families continue along the bottom of each individual until a male is produced.
Even if just one runner family is added from the dam of the Blame mare, the pattern is established for what is seen in most consistent racehorse sires: 3 runner families.
As of 2020, there are only 32 broodmares sired by Blame that have had 41 registered foals of racing age. Those numbers are expanded by 76 broodmares sired by Blame that have 139 registered foals overall. A growing trend. We will soon start to see Blame broodmares more and more in sales catalogs and on the racetrack. Get in now!
Whether you are new to the game, experiencing more losses than wins or just looking for a new approach, I am confident that I can help you breed or buy a better racehorse. To find out more about OPTIMAL Matings and how they can help your program, please subscribe to my Blog/News page HERE to receive future information on complimentary mating recommendations, sales short lists, stakes winner pedigree analysis, news on personal client success and any other random thoughts or ideas that I may have. Also, receive a complimentary copy of my report “Blind Luck or Designed Luck? – How A Kentucky Derby Winner Was Bred” sent directly to your inbox.
For inquiries or more information about Shepherd Equine Advisers, please contact Clark Shepherd at 859-321-6618, or by email at clark@bloodstock-agent-ky.com.
I would love to hear any comments or questions that you may have. Please submit them below. Maybe we can address them in a future post!