Breeding
 

A lengthy and thought provoking article by the mother of Reines-de-Course, Ellen Parker.
The Softening of the Thoroughbred Runner

http://www.reines-de-course.com/breeding.htm

Damn.

I thought this thread was going to have naked women in it.

Thank you for posting this. It's an interesting perspective, and I'd like to read more, from both those of similar opinions and from those who disagree. It's not as if I'm in a position to do anything about it, but as a fan I'm interested in anything that can or should improve breeding.

"I quoted New York Post turf writer Ray Kerrison: “Breeders don’t breed to race anymore. They breed to breed, because that’s where the money is.

“The result is that the tracks have nothing to promote, the public nothing to excite their interest.”

Hall of Fame trainer P. G. Johnson agreed. “They’re breeding catalogue page to catalogue page."

BloodHorse published a report called, "Losing the Iron Horse?" Their stats showed a remarkable drop in the number of starts of horses from the 1950s to the present day. After the statistical analysis, they assembled a group of breeders. As one might imagine, there was not a consensus among them, but I would bet that their thoughts are pretty well mirrored by breeders all over. Breeding for selling over winning, breeding for quick-maturing speed over soundness, with an emphasis on getting 2-year-olds on the track, was repeatedly cited. "Sadly, commercial breeders now are not horsemen or educated, and their idea of planning a mating is going through The Blood-Horse auction guide and seeing who had the highest weanling average. That's not planning a mating."

Also mentioned more than once was the idea of adopting the International Racing Federation's zero tolerance no medication raceday policy, which makes sense to me.