What type of mare would you breed to Drosselmeyer?

I've known Drossy personally since he was an unraced 2 YO. Conformation-wise, Drossy is on the small side of average, but he has the well-balanced body of a typical son of Distorted Humor. Despite many handicapper's opinions that he's a "plodder" Drossy has a high cruising speed, but doesn't quicken as fast as other horses (he's somewhat lazy).

Drossy's sire Distorted Humor is a young sire and only two of his sons at stud have produced foals of racing age. They are Flower Alley and Any Given Saturday. Distorted Humor's son Cowtown Cat will have runners on the track in 2012 and they may be more precocious than the offspring of Flower Alley and Any Given Saturday. His sons Justenuffhumor entered stud this year and Regal Ransom and Drossy will stand their first year in 2012. So far, Flower Alley, Any Given Saturday and Cowtown Cat haven't been all that spectacular at stud. Flower Alley, with 2 crops of racing age, has just 9% lifetime 2YO winners, 2 graded stakes winners and 13% winners overall. Any Given Saturday also has 2 crops of racing age, 9% lifetime 2YO winners and just 9% winners overall and no stakes winners.

A popular method of determining which bloodlines will work with a new stallion is to look at the best winners of that stallion's sire. Distorted Humor is proven with mares from the Raise A Native sire line through Seattle Slew (and his sons A.P. Indy & Capote) and Alydar. Drossy is inbred to Northern Dancer 4S x 5S x 5D (4 & 5th generations on his sire's side and 5th generation on his dam's). Northern Dancer's sons Storm Bird, Nijinsky and Danzig are found in the third and fourth generations of Drossy's pedigree. While Drossy has quite a bit of inbreeding to Northern Dancer, it's far enough back in his pedigree not to be a concern as unlike the Mr. Prospector sire line, Northern Dancer blood tends to hold up well with inbreeding. Bloodlines to consider would be those of the same distaff lines as Northern Dancer, such as Halo (St. Ballado, Red Ransom), Arctic Tern, Machiavellian, Jules and Cannonade to name a few. Drossy may also mix well with sons by Nearctic (Northern Dancer's sire) Icecapade (Wild Again, Wild Rush, Clever Trick), and Briartic. Drossy has a strain of Danzig in his pedigree, so breeding to mares by Lyphard, who are bred on a similar cross to Danzig, could be worthwhile. Other bloodlines, and this isn't an all inclusive list, that should be considered are descendants of Ribot, Damascus, Buckpasser, Blushing Groom (Woodman, Mt. Livermore) Deputy Minister (Silver Deputy, Dehere), Roberto and his sons Dynaformer and Kris S., etc.

In short, I would breed a mare from any of the above bloodlines to Drossy. Conformation wise, I'd want a mare that was a bit larger, maybe less refined, but certainly one with a bloodline indicating that she has a miler to middle distance pedigree. Drossy could do well with sprint mares, as long as they aren't stout, quarter horse types. Given Drossy's stature, the foal resulting from this breeding could be very quarter horsy as Drossy's damsire, Moscow Ballet, was quite stocky. Drossy has a mix of dirt/turf influences in his bloodlines. His offspring should be versatile over all surface. Drossy himself wasn't especially precocious, as he needed four starts to win his maiden in November of his 2YO season. He may follow in the hoofprints of the other sons of Distorted Humor at stud, with a relatively low number of juvenile winners that will be slow to mature, although individuals from win-early distaff families may do well.

I would not breed him to a sprinter. I'd stick with a middle-to-classic distance mare. But I would look for one with some early speed. JMO--I am no expert.