If YOU were looking for a mare to buy (thoroughbred) for breeding?

If you live in North America go to the Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton websites, call them and request to be put on the catalogue mailing list (you can also look at pedigrees and results from past sales on the site). They will send you the sales catalogues when they come out (the next big breeding stock sales are in November, catalogues come out in early October). Look through the catalogues and pick out the pedigrees (and who the're in foal to) of mares that you like on paper, then see what they sold for in the end. Or if you live close to Kentucky head down to the sale and look at some of them and watch them go through the ring. Once you think you've figured it out, prepare for the next sale and buy one. Don't forget that the quality and prices of the sale go down with every book, so if you only have $1-10k to spend don't bother looking in the first 4 or 5 books at Keeneland, focus on the last 4 days of the sale.

Bold Ruler (who was a grandson of Nearco, as was Northern Dancer) is indeed well sought after as a main bloodline for a broodmare, two of the greatest racers from that breeding line (seattle slew, secretariat) did not sire great champion sons but more productive mares, unlike the Northern Dancer line which is still producing top sires thru his sons and sons sons Storm Cat, Danzig, Nuryev, Danehill, Lyphard, Sadlers Wells and more a virtual whos who of sire line breeding... but of course a Northern Dancer offspring who has the above listed in their grandsire or great grandsire breeding lines would be outstanding if bred back into a AP Indy, Mr Prospector (which in his sire line has nasrullah son of Nearco, the sire line for the slews and secretariats), slew, secretariat, sunday silence, or even inbred back into any of the ruler sire line/northern dancer mix sires... the resulting horses would be well bred for speed as well as stamina (I would aim for distance , surface versatility (dirt, poly or grass) and prefer for the horse to have great ability to run long, the longer the better, esp on the new synthetic surfaces which dont cater to speed only...

"smart, beautiful, affectionate... Not necessarily a money winner..."

Are you breeding a pet or a racehorse?

I choose my broodmares based on their performance. But, performance and pedigree go hand in hand. I only breed and buy Black-Type mares.

My broodmare band consists of daughters or grand-daughters of Mr. Prospector, Kris S., Danzig, Seattle Slew, Relaunch, Private Account, Rahy and Affirmed. [They go back to Nearco, Polynesian, Princequillo,Mahmoud, Turn To, etc.] My girls are all older but produce well with the right cross.

My granddaddy always said, "Breed the best you've got to the best you can get to."

Bold Ruler was Secretariat's sire and goes back pretty far. So finding a mare with Bold Ruler only a few generations back would be difficult. Secretariat was know as a sire of mares and you could probably find some recent Secretariat lineage. That would be my choice.

Generally anything with Mr. Prospector is a great breeding line. Gotten many nice horses out of him and my TB breeder connections agree.

Nearco for sure !!! By far the best