madelyn wrote:I must admit I was mystified to see these stallions in KY At All and I think maybe Calumet has figured out it is not a good spot for them. I was always intrigued by Snapy Halo - unfortunately the few foals I saw that were by him weren't much.
Snapy Halo underlines how good intentions mean very little if you have bad execution.
By the time Snapy Halo went to stud in Australia, his full brother Sebi Halo was already champion freshman sire in Argentina. By the time he came to the US, Sebi Halo was an established good-quality stallion with a reputation for siring very fast sprinters. If you look at his race record, it's pretty obvious why....he was a 5f turf sprint specialist. The majority of his runners and most of his stakes winners won at 1000 - 1200 m (5-6 f). He did get an absolute top-shelf mile to 9f mare in Seas Albada, out of a long-winded Colonial Affair mare, and she's very obviously the exception who proves the rule.
Also by the time Snapy Halo went to stand in Kentucky, Sebi Halo had enough good offspring running to see what was working for him and what wasn't. Interprete (by Farnesio) was top of the list, followed by Cure the Blues son Incurable Optimist, and Colonial Affair and Contested Bid, both who descend from sons of Ribot carrying both Alibhai and Princequillo. There's plenty of those bloodlines in North America, so one might try to get Snapy Halo a mare book with:
* Candy Ride and his sons, who are the main sources of Farnesio (sire of Interprete) in the USA
* Descendants of Candy Girl other than Candy Ride
* Better-performing/winning daughters of Invasor, whose dam is a daughter of Interprete
* Female-line descendants of Bayakoa, who is bred on an inverse cross as Interprete
* Forestry, a speed source whose female line combines a son strain of Ribot with a close relation to Cure the Blues, and his son Discreet Cat whose female line reinforces that
* American Chance, who is a genetic sibling to Incurable Optimist
* Broad Brush, who is a reliable source of Ribot and who has generally done well with Argentinian mare lines
* Descendants of No Class, who is a genetic sibling to Ringaro's dam
* Rahy or Leroidesanimaux, as the Empiric family has had good success with stallions from the Blushing Groom line (Gr-1 Rio de la Plata, El Expreso, Equal Stripes, etc)
So, whose daughters did he actually see?
* AP Indy and his sons/grandsons Bernardini, Majestic Warrior, Sky Mesa, Tapit, and Pulpit
* Dynaformer, Arch, Rock Hard Ten, and Red Ransom (and an Unusual Heat daughter of a Dynaformer mare)
* Vindication
* Tiznow
* More Than Ready
He saw two Smart Strike mares, and one of them is a stakes-placed 4-time winner. The other was injured and retired after clipping heels in her first and only start. His one and only foal from a Broad Brush mare won 4 times and earned enough money to be worth keeping in training. His lone foal from a Pulpit mare ran out over $90k on the track. Pulpit, alone among AP Indy sons, seems to have good success with Southern Halo (
not More Than Ready, Southern Halo own daugthers) and has had notable success with other Argentinian lines, notably Potrillazo and Lord at War. His 2nd dam Narrate and Southern Halo's 3rd dam Shama are genetic siblings, and they're both similarly bred to Interprete's broodmare sire Liloy (FR). This pattern doesn't seem to be active in other AP Indy sons with that breeding (notably Bernardini). So, okay, that worked.
But as for the rest, why? Why would you breed a horse whose only performed at a mile, whose brother excelled at 5f and is siring horses that excel at 5f, who is out of a mare who excelled at 5f, and whose full sisters are producing graded stakes winners at 5f, to hard-core stamina lines like Dynaformer and Tiznow and AP Indy? Why? Why would you breed a horse like Snapy Halo to a Red Ransom mare? And why, when by the time he arrived in the USA he had foals in Australia, so one could evaluate their type? (As in, "not stayer".)
The only thing I can come up with is that the owners wanted to breed Classic Horses and Put Stamina Back In The Breed, and didn't notice that the specific horse in front of them was unlikely to ever do that.
If he had stood in Florida or Louisiana for both thoroughbred and quarter horse mares, for a much reduced fee ($1000 list price with a 50% off sale), and his mare book was better screened, he probably would have had more success.