Perhaps one area of the horse industry that still has the biggest cloud of uncertainty surrounding it is the art of mating mares with stallions.  It is also an area of horse ownership that is not lightly undertaken.  As such many breeders have a hard time seeking help outside of their own opinion to breed a top class horse.

The best breeders of the past century didn't have computers at their disposal to examine their mating choices.  With the availability of such schemes as computer "nicking" programs, it has to make the present breeder wonder why these programs have not bred large quantities horses that rival the greats such as Man O' War, Secretariat, Phar Lap, Forego, Ribot and so on.  Masters of the art of mating stallions to mares recognize not only definitive patterns that appear throughout the ancestry of the potential resulting foal, but they understand the plan must place strong value upon the physical mating being designed on paper. 

The fact is, most breeders struggle to breed race horses that win at the graded stake level.  Another fact is that most commercial tools available to breeders are based upon historically successful crosses that take into account only fifty percent of a horse's ancestors and sometimes less.  These tools cannot predict future nicks.  One of the most important facts breeders need to realize about such commercial "nicking" programs is that specific horses can improve thier own mating grade on a weekly basis.  For example, Quality Road won the Fountain of Youth S. as a C+ nick rating (this is obviously the highest rating grade the breeder would have seen upon mating his mare), yet one race and just thirty days later, he rated an A according to the same nicking program.  This flaccid characteristic of such programs begs the question, "Could You Have Bred That Horse?"  Kris Stuebs, interested in the Grade 1 performance of a C+ rated horse, checked the mating, and not surprisingly discovered the pattern he displays in his mating is highly desirable.  In fact, Kris uses a grading system of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest attainable grade.  In her first review of the mating that produced Quality Road, she graded the mating a 9.5 on a 10 scale.  With all tools at hand, the average breeder would never have mated the dam of Quality Road to Elusive Quality, however, with the information provided by Kris Stuebs, the average breeder would have most certainly had Elusive Quality on their list to consider for this mare.  You can learn more about such matings each week with the Kris S. Bloodstock weekly weblog. 

With this in mind, yet another important absolute fact is that nicking programs give no insight whatsoever to the physical mating of the proposed sire and dam.  Such knowledge is only obtained by close inspection not only the sire and the dam, but a good knowledge of the progeny of both if at all possible.

What is a breeder to do?

Breeders are best armed with information.  There are books at our disposal that lead us all down the right path.  However, none of these books gives a definitive map to successfully breeding a champion racehorse.  However, what can be gleaned from the information at hand is evidence of previous success and the consistent patterns that emerge from this information.  These are patterns beyond simple sire to sire "nicks", and are organized ancestral patterns that can be observed and analyzed by a seasoned pedigree analyst.  Successful breeders emulate these patterns and carry them forward to new, younger generations and as such are able to carry on the highest class race performers with new sires and younger mares within the breed.

Armed with such information, Kris Stuebs has helped a number of high profile breeders improve their breeding program.  The breeders include:

The structure of Kris S. Bloodstock mating services offers breeders the highest level of advice at no cost to the breeder.  With an agreement to enter into the mating services offered by Kris S. Bloodstock, mare owners will receive:

- Complete Conformational Analysis of Mare - If the mare is located outside the Lexington/Bluegrass area, the conformational analysis will be done with photographs provided by the owner.

- A Listing of the Best Sires for Your Mare - You will receive a manageable list of several stallions that offer your mare the classic patterns used by the best breeders.  The list will be kept  within the stud fee range you desire to invest in.

- The Joy of Making Your Own Decision - Using the Kris S. Bloodstock mating services, you retain the pride of breeding your own horses, but gain the edge of using information specific for all aspects of your mare to breed a high class racehorse.

- Conformational Analysis of Stallions Recommended - Recommended stallions will physically suit the mare submitted for mating analysis.  If a stallion stands outside the Lexington/Bluegrass area, analysis will be offered based upon the stallion's progeny conformation or with conformational photographs of the stallion. 

- No Invoices EVER* - In exchange for the information offered by Kris S. Bloodstock (to include personal inspections when necessary, written analysis when requested and travel required to do so), the mare owner will agree to allow the stud fee commission payable by the stallion farm be issued to Kris S. Bloodstock agency. 

*Commissions unpaid due to the failure of a mare owner to pay a stud fee in a timely manner will be charged to the mare owner directly by Kris S. Bloodstock.