Horse Racing Forum - USA Thoroughbred Races

El Prado was added as a Chef de Race in October and Awesome Again was added in September.

I don't understand how Storm Cat hasn't been named a Chef de Race. Though I don't know the criteria that goes into being named one. Does a stallions offspring have to show a definitive liking for a certain distance? I know a stallion can be named in 2 categories. If his offspring are spread all over the distance spectrum, does that mean he wont be named a Chef de Race? I also know that his son's foals and his daughter's foals also have a say in it.

Complete List of Chef de Races

Flanders wrote:El Prado was added as a Chef de Race in October and Awesome Again was added in September.

I don't understand how Storm Cat hasn't been named a Chef de Race. Though I don't know the criteria that goes into being named one. Does a stallions offspring have to show a definitive liking for a certain distance? I know a stallion can be named in 2 categories. If his offspring are spread all over the distance spectrum, does that mean he wont be named a Chef de Race? I also know that his son's foals and his daughter's foals also have a say in it.

Complete List of Chef de Races

Yeah, that's all being a chef-de-race stallion really means. It's to make numbers that try to help predict any given horse's distance ability based purely on their pedigree. It's a set of five numbers called the dosage profile or DP. For example, I just took a quick look at Storm Cat's pedigree on PQ.com and his is 11-8-10-1-0. Each number represents one of the five groups: Brilliant-Intermediate-Classic-Solid-Professional. More speed on the left, more stamina on the right.
There is more to it than that, including two more numbers (the dosage index and center of distribution) but it's been so long since I've actually acknowledged dosage etc exists, that I don't remember how you come up with them or how to explain exactly what they mean...though I'm pretty sure the higher both numbers are, the less stamina the horse's pedigree says it should have.

In regards to Storm Cat, when Giant's Causeway was made one (he was made a Classic chef-de-race in 2010), it had a graph that showed exactly why Storm Cat will never be one:



Storm Cat's offspring just didn't favor a particular distance enough.

Thanks Allspice! I'm with you, I haven't paid attention to dosage for a long time either. I used to know how to calculate dosage index and center of distribution. I actually ran across the site when I was searching for something else.

Flanders wrote:Thanks Allspice! I'm with you, I haven't paid attention to dosage for a long time either. I used to know how to calculate dosage index and center of distribution. I actually ran across the site when I was searching for something else.

You're welcome. I used to be really into this kind of stuff too, but I'm more of a casual fan now.

Before I saw that graph I thought it was a travesty Storm Cat wasn't one. I didn't think his foals were that versatile...though that really shouldn't have been a surprise now that I think about it.
Other stallions missing that I thought would be there are Danehill and Seeking the Gold.

If I understand what I'm reading here correctly, if a stallion (like Storm Cat) is versatile enough to sire good runners who can get a variety of distances, he's punished for that by NOT being named a Chef de Race?
Do I have that right?

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:If I understand what I'm reading here correctly, if a stallion (like Storm Cat) is versatile enough to sire good runners who can get a variety of distances, he's punished for that by NOT being named a Chef de Race?
Do I have that right?

Its not a punishment though. Dosage is a tool to predict what distances a horse will most likely run well at. Chef de Race's are stallions whose foals exhibit concentrated favoritism to one or two distance types. Storm Cat was able to produce enough runners at all distances that he can't be assigned to one or two categories.

I did understand the dosage specificity...I was just being a bit tongue-in-cheek.