Empire Maker v Vindication v Mineshaft

[Betsy]

It's hard to tell whether Mineshaft was truly a late developer or not since he started his career on grass. He may have been a TC contender had he raced solely in the US. We'll never know. I'm extremely confident that this guy will be a huge sire success - with his pedigree and ability? I'm not so sure that he won't be capable of siring good 2 year olds.....

I do think Sky Mesa will be a wonderful sire........and his yearlings show that people agree. I agree with John Ferguson - he also has every right to sire good grass horses. Pulpit is a very fine turf sire.

[Danzig]

tough call between the three. lane's end will do right by mineshaft, they know their business there. of course juddmonte has the mares to send to empire maker, so he's got a heck of a shot. and of course there's vindication with the precocity he showed.

gotta pick one tho...so i'm going with mineshaft.

[dalakhani]

Empire Maker

Far and away the best book of mares.

[slotdirt]

Point Given had a fantastic book of mares his first year at stud, and none of his runners really developed until their 3YO years. I'd reckon the same will be true for Empire Maker.

[dalakhani]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Point Given had a fantastic book of mares his first year at stud, and none of his runners really developed until their 3YO years. I'd reckon the same will be true for Empire Maker.

Youre probably right...but...Point Given isnt nearly as well bred as Empire Maker and his book, although nice, isnt anywhere close to what Empire Maker got his hooves on.

Again, you are probably right though about the babies developing later, although, the unbridleds can tend to be precocious at times regardless of size.

As much as I loved Vindication, I think his babies are going to have soundness issues. As fragile as he was, it's hard to imagine his babies NOT being unsound. I do think that he will have some early bloomers though.
Empire Maker got an AMAZING first book, he is being very strongly supported, if he doesn't have multiple graded stakes winners out of his first crop, I'll be shocked.
Mineshaft is another that I think will have a very nice crop. I wouldn't hold his 3 year old season against him, he obviously never took to the grass. Once he came back here he was golden. Farish sent Mineshaft to Europe as a "gift" to that country. He obviously thought he was going to be a dominant three year old. I would venture to guess that had he stayed over here, he would have been among the top of his class.

Candy Ride? Who in their right mind would breed to him? He couldn't even hold himself together long enough to actually have a campaign!