Danbird

About time I talked horses and not poker - and what better day to do it than when having a losing day on the tables.

Signed up today for our mare Flo (Flo's Choice) to visit Danbird as her husband for this year ! He stands at Beechwood Grange Stud, near York. The stud is also near where Flo lives (which is near Castle Howard) so she won't have far to travel this year. If you didn't know the mare always visits the stallion as if he is busy he may have to cover 3 or 4 mares a day so he can't be wasting energy travelling about ! Flo has visited stallions in Newmarket the last 4 times which is a 4 hour journey. This time she will only have to wait 30 minutes !

Danbird is a 'first season sire' in the UK this year although he has covered some mares in his native Australia over the winter. It is currently fashionable to have a foal from a stallion's first crop as they often sell better because the stallion has not yet proven that his kids cannot run !

A lot of stallions cover mares in Europe in our Summer and Australia or New Zealand or South America in our Winter. Whe I first got interested in horse racing a 'full book' for a stallion was 40 mares a year. Limits are now set at around 100, if at all, and with dual hemisphere covering some stallions are getting 300 mares a year. The problem is supply often exceeds demand and unless your mare adds real value to the offspring, having a foal by a decent stallion is not enough in itself if there are 100 others by the same stallion on the market !

Racehorses are always conceived on a 'natural' service - artificial insemination is not allowed if the resulting foal is to be registered to race. The covering season for racehorses is middle of February to the middle of July. The mare carries for 11 months and 1 week approx and all racehorses have an official birthday on 1st January so conceiving in February should mean a January foal the next year. You do not want a foal born in December because it would officially be aged 1 when it is only a few days old ! Very few foals are registered as having been born 1st January, but comparatively there are lots on the 2nd or 3rd !

An end of May covering is late enough if you are trying to breed a speedy 2-year-old because when the flat season proper starts (on turf) in March of its second year it will be racing against horses that are several months older and consequently stronger. Doesn't matter at all a year later when they are 3 as a late foal will have caught up, but it can be a big advantage in early season 2-year-old races if you had a January or February foal.

Flo (bless her) usually gets in foal at the first time of asking so hopefully she will do so again. This year's husband can be found here http://beechwoodgrangestud.com/danbird/danbird.htm