Horse breeding analysis is the key to unlocking one of racing's toughest puzzles...

Laurie Ross

Two-year-old maiden races!

Horse breeding apart, trainer stats and workout patterns are helpful, but if the handicapper knows little about pedigree, which horses are most likely to be precocious or are best suited to the surface or distance, they are at a big disadvantage and will miss out on some big payouts.

Horse Breeding Expert

Laurie Ross has spent many years analysing the pedigrees of newcomers in the world of horse racing in the United States. She has written books on Freshman Sires and now works for Horse Racing Nation, the online horse racing website.

She also runs her own website Ironmaidens Thoroughbreds

By studying pedigrees she is able to assess how a horse is likely to develop and the likelihood of their becoming juvenile stakes winners or triple crown contenders.

She also assists medium sized breeding and training operations She providing broodmare breeding reports and sales catalog analysis.

She has created a comprehensive guide for handicappers to learn about new sires and what to expect from horse breeding and their first crop of runners.

In the E-Book you will learn:

• Dirt, Turf or Synthetic tendencies

• Insight into whether or not offspring are likely to be sprinters or routers

• Exclusive information on the quality of the horse breeding pedigree and whether or not these genes are likely to be passed on

• Two free updates, one before the Breeders’ Cup and an end of year summary focusing on the Derby trail.

Santa Anita Racecourse

How To Rank Sires

1. Money earned by progeny

2. Number of winners

3. Number of stakes winners

4. Compare the number of winners with the number of runners

Checking some of the 2014 crop of top sires we have:

Brave - famous for being the only horse to get the better of Zenyatta. He was a late starter as a 2yo, developed as a 3yo and as a 4yo winning Champion Older Horse prizes.

He stands at Claiborne Farm, has sired 76 2yo's of which 24 have raced (34%) with 6 of those winning (8%) of which none were stakes winners although 3 were placed.

However his offspring are likely to improve with age as they are bred for longer distances - 1m to 1 1/4m and act on all surfaces especially when the going is sticky.

Eskendereya - has one of the best pedigrees of this years crop as his sire was Giants Causeway, regularly featuring in the top 5 sire lists. Stamina characteristics are further enhanced by Eskendereya's damsire, Seattle Slew, a triple crown winner.

He stands at Taylor Made Stallions, has sired 104 2yo's of which 39 have raced (38%) with 6 of those winning (6%) of which none were stakes winners although 1 was placed.

His offspring are likely to improve with age as they are bred for longer distances - 1m and act on all surfaces especially dirt and turf.

Summer Bird - Winner of the Belmont Stakes and hailed as Champion three year old. His second damsire, Alysheba won the Breeders Cup Classic and the Kentucky Derby.

He was exported to Japan and died in 2013, has sired 93 2yo's of which 27 have raced (29%) with 8 of those winning (9%) of which none were stakes winners although 1 was placed.

His offspring racing in the US have plenty of stamina and could well end up competing in the Triple Crown.

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