Disappointing Modern Broodmares

[Slewfan2]

I will never understand what they were thinking breeding Rags To Riches over and over again to turf stallions! It just made absolutely no sense, even to amateurs with just a pittance of knowledge about potential crosses! Rags was probably more born to win the Belmont Stakes than any Belmont winner we've seen in 50 years! Remember how Secretariat had detractors that insisted that a Bold Ruler couldn't get a mile and a half! She had classic distance dirt in her bones! We hear about mismanagement with racehorses all the time, but this mismanagement in the breeding shed just takes the cake! And it was Coolmore for C*****'s Sake!

Yes! And Indy is a great BMS ….its hard to believe they screwed up so badly. Rags deserved so much better..

No, they didn't "screw up"! For some unfathomable reason, they did this on purpose. If there had been just one breeding to Galileo or Henry the Navigator, I might have chalked it up to an experiment that just didn't work. But they kept going back to the turf at least 3 or 4 more times! I really wonder if there wasn't a lot of hubris involved.......we know what we're doing and we're going to be proven right!

Guess what! They weren't!

So yeah, they screwed up - deliberately, but they still screwed up. And yes, of course it was about pride. Thru didn’t look at the best crosses that would work - they just wanted to send all the best mares to Galileo.
Ugh, I’m so angry at them now, all over again

[Slewfan2]

She can't if they don't name them or even try. That is the most baffling thing about her broodmare career. Why weren't any of them named or even tried on the track? Her first filly by Giant's Causeway was supposedly special but got injured early and was retired. Her 3yo grand daughter, Gilded Edge, broke her maiden earlier this week at Monmouth, took her 3 tries but at least she did.

Is that Opulence you’re referring to?

I hate to say this, but maybe they saw early on that her foals weren’t going to be runners, and they didn’t want her to get a bad rap so they didn’t bother ?

Yeah Opulence was supposedly injured early and retired. I think?
Then why not just pension her, why keep breeding her to top stallions? Its just baffling to me.

She was….such a shame

That’s a good point. Maybe they tried, but the foals have been unsound? Then again, shouldn’t they still name them?

[mahubah]

Maybe this thread should be titled something more like "most disappointing broodmares." Worst? You can't really judge that for several generations, as more than one great-running but poor-producing mare has had her record redeemed by the produce of her daughters or even granddaughters. Take 1935 American champion 3yo filly Black Helen for an old-time example; a full sister to two-time American champion Bimelech and one of five stakes winners out of the fabulous La Troienne, she couldn't come up with a stakes winner from 12 foals, but six of her daughters were stakes producers and four bred on through future generations, particularly Be Like Mom and Hula Hula.

[Thumbsucker]

Maybe this thread should be titled something more like "most disappointing broodmares." Worst? You can't really judge that for several generations, as more than one great-running but poor-producing mare has had her record redeemed by the produce of her daughters or even granddaughters. Take 1935 American champion 3yo filly Black Helen for an old-time example; a full sister to two-time American champion Bimelech and one of five stakes winners out of the fabulous La Troienne, she couldn't come up with a stakes winner from 12 foals, but six of her daughters were stakes producers and four bred on through future generations, particularly Be Like Mom and Hula Hula.

I would agree with this, because it is what I was talking about. Stallions have many more times to find nicks that work for them, and mares have so few opportunities if the people breeding her don't really take her into consideration when she's bred. Breeding farm that own broodmares don't seem to want to put in the work to make broodmares as successful as stallions. The mares are just a vessel for the success of the stallions.