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Originally Posted by Sightseek
Seriously, do you really feel as if he's lived up to expectations?
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Depends on what your expectations were. If you were wanting rafts of precocious, sprinting 2yo winners, well tough luck - he never won a race at less than 8f and he ran like a natural stayer. He may have gotten 'elite' mares, but he may not have gotten the type of mare who best suited him; this a mistake many commercial breeders make - choose a stallion for the catalogue page instead of taking all factors into consideration. He had iffy feet - did these 'elite' mares share this trait? Recipe for disaster. 'Elite' often means they produced or are closely related to classic-type horses themselves, which is a great recipe for a St. Leger winner, but not for the US racing program. (This was the problem with Secretariat's early stud career; he needed speedier types, like Lady's Secret's dam.)
My point is, it is entirely too early to write off Empire Maker as a possible sire for a classic-winning type horse.