Standings Soon

Just wanted to let everyone know I'll start posting standings sometime in the next few weeks as more of the horses get to race.

Two More Picks

Two more picks for me:

One is the Langfuhr-Coral Sea colt who was just sold. (Tier C)

The other is Man of Iron, the Giant's Causeway-Better Than Honor colt. (Tier A)

Two more workouts

Arabian Peace and Closing Prayer (both of Winterwood Stables) both worked out on Friday.

Royal Captive

My twelfth pick, and first Tier D - Royal Captive, colt by Royal Academy out of Captive Island.

First Entry - Cat Dreamer

Cat Dreamer from Turn of Foot Stables is entered in a two furlong California Bred MSW tomorrow.

I doubt I'll be able to keep up with updates on all the notifications, so if each of you wants to periodically send me updates I'd be happy to post them...or just include them in the comments section for your stable or a recent post, and anyone who is interested can look there.

First Workout - Flashy Flyer

I've got everyone's picks in my Equibase Virtual Stable, and the first workout notification just arrived! Flashy Flyer from Turn of Foot stables worked three furlongs in 40.60 (breezing) at El Primero Training Center. I was going to make fun of how slow the work was, until I noticed that it was the fastest of seven at that distance!

The "Lindsay Rules"

Two new rules based on questions that Lindsay asked:

1. If the sire is deceased, use the fee from his final year at stud.

2. If you can't find a stud fee published for the sire, then his offspring count as "Tier A", even if the fee would obviously be lower.

Four More Picks

Here are my next four picks. This should bring my total to eleven so far (3 Tier A, 3 Tier B, 1 Tier C, 3 Tier E, 1 Tier F).

Sweet Thoughts - filly by AP Indy out of Sweet Catomine
Courageous Cat - colt by Storm Cat out of Tranquility Lake
Chiluki's Song - filly by Elusive Quality out of Chiluki
Striking Example - filly by Empire Maker out of Sightseek

As you can see...I like mares who were successful on the track themselves. I'm especially excited about Courageous Cat...full brother to After Market and Jalil.

Inexpensive Sires

I'm going to be using a pretty simple formula for my Tier F picks. I'm looking for inexpensive sires who were in the top 100-150 sires of at least two of the past three years. Then selecting their offspring by stakes winning mares. I realize that there are at least three problems with this approach:
1. Most of the cheap sires who made the top 100 are in states with generous state-bred races, which inflates their apparent success as sires.
2. Most of the stakes winning mares they're bred to actually only won restricted stakes.
3. The apparent 'consistency' exhibited by these sires over 2 or 3 years may be an illusion that's a result of the fact that the same offspring are still running for several years.

Moving on to my first Tier F pick - Leopard Strike, a colt by Tactical Cat out of Noble Strike. At least his grandsires (Storm Cat and Smart Strike) aren't bad!

Also going to mention another rules clarification here - if a selected horse turns out to have died prior to being picked, an alternative pick will be allowed. I've already had three near misses with this as I researched the 2006 foals of Personal Ensign, Inside Information, and My Flag.