Breed to Win
Is there a difference between breeding TO sell and breeding AND selling? And if so, does it matter?
The strategy of breeding to sell, as opposed to breeding to race, has become a social media boogeyman for problems in the Thoroughbred industry. Breeders who breed with the intention to sell the resulting offspring are grouped together and vilified for their perceived short-term objectives, as well as the perceived negative impact of their actions on the breed. Most recently, the concern over the impact of breeders’ short-term vision on stallion booking was highlighted by the Thoroughbred Daily News.
In my opinion, there is a key difference between breeding TO sell and breeding AND selling. When decisions are made based on perceived marketability as a weanling/yearling, or how quickly they’ll breeze a furlong as a two year old, it shouldn't be a surprise that the benefits are short term at best. As a breeder, if we only focus on the individual financial benefit of choosing a particular stallion for the subsequent offspring, as opposed to the long-term impact on our mare, most mares will end up “failing,” without ever having a fair shot. While breeding to a commercial freshman sire may get you a strong return in the sales ring, that stallion is most likely not going to be successful long term. Alternatively, you can make the short-term sacrifice of a less commercial but solid sire to give your mare a chance at producing talent, and if you are successful, you will be rewarded with better sale results for a longer term. When you breed knowing you will sell, but not for the purpose of selling, your focus is on the big picture.
At BTE Stables, we breed AND sell. In order to sustain our operation, we rely on the income from selling the majority of the horses we breed. Though we race some, this is generally done because there is not an acceptable sale option for said horse or occasionally to retain a filly from a family we wish to further develop. When making decisions regarding stallions, we are looking to create an exceptional racehorse. The commercial benefit may not be realized with that particular foal, but will hopefully be realized further down the road, with the increased value of the mare’s subsequent offspring. In an extremely fickle commercial market, it is a delicate balancing act to maintain profitability and breed for the long term.
As such, there are commercial sacrifices. Some stallions represent tremendous value when breeding to create a racehorse, but these same stallions are not always commercially respected. When we are selling our weanlings and yearlings, we are not just trying to make whatever money we can. We want our horses to secure quality racing connections, for their own good as well as the long-term benefit of their dams. While we can offer horses that would sell, and may even sell for more, through public sales at Keeneland or Fasig-Tipton, we are more concerned with securing them good connections and are therefore willing to entertain private sales to respected parties.
In pursuit of that goal, we are launching a private sale page and email list. If you would be interested in being notified of BTE Stables yearlings being offered privately, please sign up at here. These are horses by stallions standing in central Kentucky, out of mares we own and are continuing to breed, from families we believe in. They have been raised to be racehorses, and we want to see them have every opportunity for success, even if that means leaving money on the table now. Horses will be offered with full transparency of medical history and any corrective procedures, as well as any available radiograph or scope reports from our world class veterinary team.
Our goal is to see you in the winner’s circle with an intentional BTE bred and raised runner.
