Racing ability of broodmares of great horses

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by trackrat59

I often thought about how Somethingroyal had only raced once. It's interesting that what makes these mares so super special is the ability to pass along greatness even though they were not runners themselves.

It seems that there are many more mares like this than those that were great runners and passed their abilities directly along to their offspring.

There are at least as many unraced,non-winning mares bred than there are race winning broodmares. It doesn't mean they are better producers.

Take the dams of the last twenty horses of the year.
2 were unraced
2 were maidens
5 were winners
8 were stakes winners
1 G1 winner
1 G2 winner
1 G3 winner

Over half of these broodmares were stakes winners. Stakes winning broodmares are outnumbered at least 10-1 by all broodmares yet over half of the last twenty HOY are represented by stakes winning mares.