Malabar Man and Like A Prayer are gone and the new boys are Hambletonian winner Broad Ban to New York, Kentucky Futurity winner Manofmanymissions likely headed for Ontario and Canadian Trotting Classic winner Daylon Magician also to Ontario. Four year old Temple Of Doom, whose big moment was winning the Zweig Memorial at three, is headed for Indiana.
Breaking into the big leagues as a sire is no easy feat even if you have the best of racing credentials. Just as Chocolatier or Glidemaster, whose first racing crops have been spotty at best and even Crazed whose first crop has yet to race but based on his yearling prices he too was basically rejected at the yearling sales in 2011 despite having, what I considered at least, some very well pedigreed yearlings.
The crash and burn of highly touted stallions often is the result of their connections not giving enough thought to what the right mares should be for that crucial first crop. The tendency is to throw open the doors and invite anyone in resulting in a first book of randomly bred mares. The results are predictable and the breeders get the 4-5% success rate that is choking our breeding industry. As I pointed out to one sire owner from Indiana who wanted to know what to breed to his new stallion - you are at least asking the right questions. Some would contend that there is no real answer but for those of you with some pedigree matching experience there is a way to get headed in the right direction with a new sire.
History repeats itself and so it is with stallions. The maternal lines of the sire dictate his future pattern of success and every sire that stands has a similar sire that has preceded him and has foals racing that will serve as a model. Lets look for such a model for the four trotting stallions already announced.
Broad Bahn is by Broadway Hall from a mare by Donerail that is inbred to Speedy Crown maternally. The temptation is there to follow the path of Donato Hanover,whose dam is also by Donerail,and breed to the Valley Victory line, a pattern that produced many of Doanto Hanover's best to date. There is a significant difference though since one of the keys to Donato's best was also Super Bowl maternally and in fact his very best was from a mare by Toss Out, son of Super Bowl. Since the dam of Broad Bahn is both line bred and inbred to Speedy Crown he has two basic ways to work with. Mares that return two lines of Speedy Crown to him or mares with no Speedy Crown at all. Now you may think the latter is an impossible feat given the widespread presence of Speedy Crown in today's pedigrees but take a look at Circles form the first crop of similar sire Majestic Son. He too has a double Speedy Crown dam and Circles is from a mare with no Speedy Crown. His second best Miss Majestic is from a mare that is inbred to Speedy Crown as is his third best Majestic Taglet. In the 2011 Stallion Finder you will find several other similar sires like Duke Of York whose best, Define The World, is from a mare inbred to Speedy Crown and whose second best is Sergeant York with no Speedy Crown maternally. Chip Chip Hoorays top two are also from double Speedy Crown dams.
Manofmanymissions may well be the answer for all of those Angus, Conway and Andover Hall mares that have been struggling to find partners to date. His dam is by Garland Lobell which gives him a direct maternal connection to the Noble Victory line mares and in addition his second dam is by Super Bowl, a feature of many of the best by those three sires.He falls in the category of a small number of sires with Noble Victory-Super Bowl maternal combinations which includes Like A Prayer, whose best Godiva Hall, has no Speedy Crown maternally and also combines Super Bowl and Noble Victory lines in her dam, Even minor sires in this group like Lockkeeper, Earl Of Stormont, and Village Barrister follow the pattern in their best and offer support for the profile. The profile calls for non Speedy Crown line dams but also will accomodate mares which are inbred or line bred to Speedy Crown in the flip side of the situation with Broad Bahn. Because of the importance of Super Bowl you will also find Super Bowl (Stars Pride) line mares with Speedy Crown line 2nd dams that will work since that is the combination in the dam of Yankee Glide, sire of Manofmanymissions.
Daylon Magician, like Broad Bahn, has a dam inbred to Speedy Crown which should come as no surprise because his sire Kadabra has a double Speedy Crown line dam himself. The dam of Daylon Magician is by Super Pleasure, however, which changes the forecast profile considerably. The maternal lines he offers are Super Pleasure (Super Bowl) and Jazz Cosmos (Speedy Crown) and as such he will be a very easy sire to fit to with a broad spectrum of mares. Daylon Magician will be in the same category as Malabar Man and Classic Photo since both are Stars Pride line sires with Stars Pride - Speedy Crown lines maternally.You could also include Cincinnati Kid, an up and coming Indiana sire, in the hunt for a pattern to follow. Malabar Man's best was from a Valley Victory line dam with Speedy Crown and Super Bowl combined maternally, a recurring theme for the best for that sire. Take My Picture by Classic Photo showed exactly the same being from a Muscles Yankee mare with Speedy Crown and Super Bowl maternally.
Indiana breeders will have their own version of Manofmanymissions in the form of Temple Of Doom, another son of Yankee Glide and also with a dam by Garland Lobell and second dam by Super Bowl. Look for the same profile, not just because I said so but because it is a proven fact that sires with similar maternal lines will breed successfully to similar mares.
As further new sires are announced I will try to give you some profile hints but if you use the Stallion Finder available on this site you should be able to figure them out for yourselves - it is not rocket science. If you know of any other new sires please pass them along so I can include them in the 2012 Stallion Finder which I hope to have available by mid December.