In the olden days, the axiom was that you breed a young, unproven mare to an older, proven stallion, and an older proven mare to a young, unproven stallion. That way, a breeder could tell which parent was to blame if the offspring turned out to be lousy and cull the appropriate animal. Naturally because of genetic variation, the breeding has to be repeated at least a couple of times to fully test it.
Nowadays we see far too many unproven mares bred to unproven stallions, merely for big bucks in the auction ring. Then when the offspring run well (or badly) they both get the credit (or blame) and nobody knows which one is worth keeping. Then there are those mares who can produce runners even 'if she was bred to the teaser' and can make a bad stallion look good. And of course, hardly anybody repeats matings anymore - you have to go to the lastest 'flavor of the month' stallions to bring the biggest auction prices.
Believe me - I have friends who advise breeders and it's like pulling teeth to get them to send their best mare, who has had a good SW by a so-called second tier stallion, back to that same stallion. They feel it's so old news; they want the hot young stallion for their mare, the one that was making headlines most recently, not the proven commodity.
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