Does one good horse make a stallion a good stallion?

[Keith]

I was considering Strategic Mission but does one good horse really make a stallion worth breeding to in the long run? Strategic Mission does not have many foals on the ground for whatever reason. Sweetsouthernsaint has more than one good horse and I saw a mare for sale bred to him offered for $5,000. She is the dam of my Siphon mare and she is in Florida. She is due to foal very soon and she was probably worth the money. Miss Diana A. has nice runners especially if they are colts or by decent stallions but she has no stakes winners. Here are some of the stallions I could breed to locally

Versify by Seattle Song-Beau Cougar by Cougar II
Sundance Ridge by Cox's Ridge-Royal Suite by Majestic Prince

Siphon had a big horse or two in his first two crops and people sent there good mares to him and now look that overall he does not sire alot of stakes winners.

Look at Our Emblem who had a couple of very good runners including War Emblem but we need to tend to look at a stallion as a whole and focus more on all the runners. Stallions are promoted on one or two good runners but when it comes to breeding we need to do our research and look at every runner a sire gets.

I have a very limited budget but what are ones thoughts on breeding White Wedding to Versify?

I would be line breeding Ribot 5x5, Flower Bowl 5x5, Princequillo 5x5

He is unproven as he has been used for breeding sport horses. On the other hand I have thought about breeding to Sundance Ridge who has had decent state bred stakes horses in Mass not being bred to the best of mares and if I bred her to him I would be line breeding Royal Charger 5x5, and Nasrullah 5x5 and considering they are both 3/4 brothers.

Here are some other stallions

Take Arms by Honour and Glory-Slide by Smarten
Storm of Angels by Storm Cat-Love From The Air by Deputy Minister.

I could breed Lady Wrong Song to Storm of Angels and line breed Northern Dancer 4x4x5 but I am not high on Storm of Angels as a sire eventhough he is a son of Storm Cat. It is easy to get caught up in pedigree and with a horse who sires the big horse but I always think it best to breed to a sire who sires alot of hard knocking horses and gets a a very good one once in a while. I have a season to Hunting Hard I may not use and if anyone is interested they could have it for free.

Keith

[Sysonby]

You didn't indicate if you are breeding for a statebred program but whatever program you are breeding for you need to get the offspring to the track and you need winners. So FWIW when I evaluate a stallion, I assume I won't get the best and I won't get the worst. I'll get something in between so I look at the medians and see if I'm happy with that. I want decent percentages making it as racehorses. I probably wouldn't breed an unproven to an unproven because I want some kind of yardstick to measure the result by.

I'm not familiar with the stallions that you named so I can't be more specific but I also have a limited budget and that's how I approach it. So far I've been happy with the foals but I've also had some bad luck so the jury is still out.

Again FWIW

[ragsdaj]

lady wrong song & white weding are the names of the mares?

[Keith]

White Wedding and Lady Wrong Song are the names of the mares and both are unproven mares. I do have a yearling by Tri Line out of Lady Wrong Song.

Keith

[caladon]

Strategic Mission covered very few mares according to what I have heard, due to a farm accident a few years back; he only 18 had two year olds of 2005. In 2005 he covered 29 mares. He had I think he will be getting more and better mares and have looked at him seriously myself. He has a lot of class top and bottom and was no slouch as a racehorse which I really like. Ran until 6 and banked over 400K with signature Mr. P speed. I like the mating with both of your mares; but would also encourage you to look at Lady Wrong Song with Fast Play who stands at the same farm with SM. Looks like a winner! Good luck!

[ragsdaj]

likewise, after looking at strategic mission I wouldn't be afraid to use him. I like him more for Lady Wrong Song, for his Damascus and Buckpasser. I think it is a good pairing with White Wedding too, but I would look at Ormsby close for her. Ormby has two progeny from Cormorant that have earned money.

[LaTroienne]

SM's son just won a grade II..

See here... http://tcm.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=33157

[trackgal]

"Strategic Mission" happened to be one of my favorites in the morning, he did what ever was asked of him and did it with a wonderful attitude,
Not a big horse but big in heart, does anyone know what kind of "accident" he had on the farm?

[caladon]

I don't remember exactly what the stallion manager at Liberty (where he is standing now) told me but it was some type of breeding shed incident that prevented him from covering mares for the rest of the season when it happened a few years back. By the way, I have done well with Ormsby breeding two winners as 3,4 year olds. One was out of a Personal Flag mare and one from a Spend A Buck mare. However, he has been sold an no longer stands at Sugar Maple Farm, just an FYI