In the latest Housatonic Recommended Mating, we are throwing the “nick” rating out the window — for some very good reasons — and will be sending the recent acquisition Starr Gate to the intriguing young sprinter Buffum. Despite being by Mineshaft, who himself crafted a Horse of the Year campaign at 4 with seven two-turn… [Read More]

Our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating features the recent acquisition Rockport Dancer, a precocious and hard-knocking mare from a deep and talented female family, who will visit the Eclipse Champion 2-year-old and leading veteran sire Macho Uno in Kentucky this spring. As a young black-type runner just beginning her breeding career, we were anxious to send… [Read More]

The five-for-five winner-producing mare Rough Water features in the next of our Housatonic Recommended Matings, and she will be another to visit the promising freshman sire Irish War Cry. New to stud in 2019, Irish War Cry is a son of Curlin, one of the top handful of sires in the country, and probably the… [Read More]

The latest Housatonic Recommended Mating features Boston Mine, a half-sister to a Puerto Rican champion by Eskendereya, who will visit Eskendereya’s brilliant first-year son Mor Spirit at Spendthrift Farm. In addition to that Puerto Rican sensation named Pure Lemon, Boston Mine (by Horse of the Year Mineshaft) is a half-sister to stakes winner Crafty Unicorn… [Read More]

Weigelia might have a bit of an off-beat pedigree, but he was a stone cold runner and he has sired nothing but the same in his limited opportunities as basically a house stallion at WynOaks Farm in Pennsylvania — we believe he will make a fantastic first partner for Kuznetsov in the latest Housatonic Recommended… [Read More]

Our favorite tactic in planning matings for a mare is to find something that has already worked with her female family and find the best option for trying to duplicate that — for Winning Bet, that means a 2019 visit to Giant’s Causeway’s fantastically-bred son Imagining in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. It is somewhat shocking… [Read More]

We purchased Kitten’s Peak for a client last January while she was in foal to the promising young stallion Fed Biz, and the mare was subsequently bred back to popular first-year sire Cupid for 2018.  In 2019, Kitten’s Peak will head to another son of Tapit when she visits the classic winner Tonalist in a… [Read More]

Magical Point, a daughter of Horse of the Year Point Given and from the fantastic Maryland female family of Illeria, will visit the impeccably-bred, incredibly-fast Redesdale this year during his first season at stud, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. Magical Point is a half-sister to the stakes winner Candida H., both of them out of… [Read More]

Our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating is one of our favorite kind, when the “nick” is a good one and the mare’s female family has also worked with horses related to the stallion.  In this case, both of those factors will be present when Miz Magician visits the impeccably bred and incredibly fast incoming New York… [Read More]

In 2019, Tuxedo Annie will visit the court of Blofeld in a Housatonic Recommended Mating, for many of the same reasons that we set out a year ago, before we had to switch her at the last minute to Imagining.  Most interestingly, this mating will result in 8x7x5 line-breeding to Tuxedo Annie’s fourth dam, the… [Read More]

Our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating features Pinkprint, a daughter of Maryland’s legendary stallion Not For Love and a half-sister to last year’s Breeders’ Futurity-G1 winner Knicks Go, who will visit the veteran leading sire Tiznow. Given his long-standing record of success as a sire, Tiznow would make sense as a mate for just about any… [Read More]

The big, beautiful, hard-knocking race mare Smile Big will be mated with the epitome of a slam-dunk stallion prospect when she visits Mendelssohn in the latest 2019 Housatonic Recommended Mating. Smile Big’s looks can be inferred from the fact that, despite being a daughter of Big Drama out of a mare with no black-type, she… [Read More]

As the calendar turns to 2019 and all Thoroughbreds turn a year older, we want to say thank you to all our clients and friends who made 2018 the best year yet for Housatonic Bloodstock, and best of luck in 2019! We are looking forward to a big crop of 2019 foals bred from Housatonic… [Read More]

One of the more intriguing young stallions in the Mid-Atlantic region at the moment is Buffum, a son of Bernardini at Northview Maryland, and we are excited that the stakes-winning La Wildcat will be bred to him in 2019 in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. La Wildcat is a multiple stakes-winning sprinter by the similarly quick… [Read More]

For a set of owners looking to maximize their chances of having a commercially sale-able foal on a limited budget, we are excited that they have chosen the exciting first-crop stallion Mor Spirit for their young Speightstown mare Innyminniemineymoe, in our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating. An $85,000 yearling-turned $650,000 2-year-old in-training purchase, Mor Spirit broke… [Read More]

Perfect Gleam, a granddaughter of Broodmare of the Year Anne Campbell, will be our sixth Housatonic Recommended Mating for 2019 featuring the outstanding value sire Munnings at Coolmore America. Perfect Gleam’s dam, the Halo daughter Halo’s Gleam, is a half-sister to a pair of Grade 1 winners that both finished 2nd in the G1 Kentucky… [Read More]

First-year Kentucky stallion McCraken was a brilliant racehorse and is the most precocious son of Ghostzapper to come along, which we think makes him an excellent candidate for sire success — he will be the first mate for the two-time winner Another Secret in our latest Housatonic Recommended Mating. McCraken started his unbeaten juvenile campaign… [Read More]

The fifth Housatonic Recommended Mating for 2019 that features our favorite Kentucky value sire Munnings is for the five-time winning Successful Appeal mare Thicket. We have made it quite clear numerous times how highly we think of Munnings as a stallion, and with his stud fee reduced to $20,000 in 2019, he has to be… [Read More]

Having previously been bred to Mr. Prospector-line stallions from the Unbridled, Forty Niner and Smart Strike branches, the stakes-placed Rock Slide mare Lucy Boo will try the Gone West branch of the Mr. P sire-line in 2019 when she visits Munnings in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. Rock Slide is a full-brother to Horse of the… [Read More]

Given that he is probably the most accomplished racehorse to retire to stud in Maryland in some time, we are excited that the six-time winning Flatter mare Not Me But U (whose seventh dam is none other than the foundation broodmare La Troienne) is going to visit Dortmund in 2019 in a Housatonic Recommended Mating…. [Read More]

Given that the best horse appearing close-up in Paluxy Princess’s pedigree is the Grade 1-placed stakes winner Achiever’s Legacy, by City Zip, we are ecstatic that she was accepted into the first book of City Zip’s best racing son Collected for 2019, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. Collected is a fascinating stallion prospect for Airdrie… [Read More]

As we laid out a year ago when planning her first mating, we believe that Littlemissperfect should have her greatest success as a broodmare crossing with Storm Cat’s descendants, and for 2019 she will visit Mor Spirit, a brilliant first-year representative of that sire-line, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. An $85,000 yearling-turned $650,000 2-year-old in-training… [Read More]

The one-time $170,000 2-year-old in-training purchase Notassharpasuthink has a lovely weanling filly of 2018 by Speightstown’s promising New York freshman-sire son Central Banker that was purchased in utero a year ago, and after she delivers her Fed Biz foal next spring she will head back to our favorite Speightstown stallion Munnings, in a Housatonic Recommended… [Read More]

As much sense as we thought Munnings made for Mo Light last year in her maiden voyage to the breeding shed, our belief in this particular match has only increased in the intervening year, and she will be bred back to Munnings a second time in 2019 in another Housatonic Recommended Mating. We have mentioned… [Read More]

I’m Engaged will visit a Mr. Prospector-line stallion for the first time in 2019, when she heads to the court of one of our favorite up-and-coming sires, Munnings, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. We have mentioned repeatedly how highly we think of Munnings as a stallion, and with his stud fee reduced to $20,000 in… [Read More]

Unlike the first two mates of her breeding career, who were both turf-oriented Roberto-line stallions in the form of Dynaformer’s sons Temple City and Point of Entry, the Juddmonte-bred Harlan’s Holiday mare Gosling will visit Irish War Cry in 2019, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. New to stud in 2019, Irish War Cry is a… [Read More]

The hard-knocking, later-maturing Include mare Participate will retire to the life of a broodmare in 2019, and is slated to be a part of the first book of mares covered by the brilliant new Maryland stallion Irish War Cry in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. This pairing is one that will hopefully inject a bit of… [Read More]

Given that the cross of Great Notion with daughters of Not For Love has so far produced four stakes winners from just 23 foals of racing age, he was a slam-dunk decision as the 2019 mate for Wild For Love in this Housatonic Recommended Mating. As the best stallion in Maryland for the last few… [Read More]

The easiest matings to plan come when a mare has already had considerable success with a particular sire or sire-line and there is a suitable similar option to which she can return again — which is exactly the case in sending Waveland to Jump Start for 2019, in a Housatonic Recommended Mating. Waveland’s first foal… [Read More]

The most exciting mating plans are those where a mare’s female family has had success with a certain sire-line, and that sire-line also happens to nick strongly with the mare in question — which does not happen as often as you might think.  But in the case of the stakes-placed mare Campaign Vows, that is… [Read More]

This past weekend’s Maryland Million program at Laurel Park highlighted yet again why Great Notion has to be considered the best sire in Maryland at the moment.  Great Notion’s offspring collected three victories on the card, including one exacta finish and another race in which his runners finished first and third.  This trio of wins… [Read More]

We are excited to have been asked to choose a “Buy of the Day” for the select Day 1 session of the 2018 Keeneland September Sale, for which we identified a speedy-looking son of Munnings sold by Penn Sales to Thomas Haughey for PTK LLC.

Had a great time presenting a Pedigree Webinar for our friends at Wasabi Ventures Stables on Wednesday evening, discussing some general pedigree research techniques, looking at catalog pages and female families, the Stallion Register and nicking reports, and answering some more specific questions from watchers & listeners.  You can watch the webinar in its entirety… [Read More]

One of the hottest young stallions in the country right now is Quality Road, who stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky for a 2018 advertised stud fee of $70,000, after siring a pair of 2017 Eclipse Award Champions in Abel Tasman and Caledonia Road. Caledonia Road, who won last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies-G1… [Read More]

We have previously mentioned in this space how even one’s best laid plans can go awry in the Thoroughbred breeding game, and as the 2018 breeding season wraps up, we have again had to make a few last-minute adjustments.  Originally this spring, I’m Engaged was booked to Lord Nelson at Spendthrift and Littlemissperfect was slated… [Read More]

Though she has thus far been mated exclusively to Mr. Prospector-line stallions (save one foal by A.P. Indy’s son Take Charge Indy), we are going to take Winning Bet in a completely different direction for her 2018 cover.  Instead of adding more Mr. Prospector blood (Winning Bet being inbred to him 4×2 already), we are… [Read More]

Our pick to lead this year’s crop of freshman sires is the WinStar stallion Fed Biz. After making his racetrack debut in November of his 2-year-old year (finishing 4th that day), Fed Biz broke his maiden second time out, with a day to spare in his juvenile season.  He won his first start at 3… [Read More]

We have mentioned more than once that starting a young mare off with a proven stallion is a tactic that makes the utmost sense in order to give her the best chance at beginning her breeding career with success.  At the same time, finding an accomplished sire who is both still affordable and offers some… [Read More]

We are very excited to have been able to recommend the brilliant 2-year-old Kantharos, whose success and versatility at stud have already outstripped what he himself accomplished in an abbreviated career on the racetrack, as a first match for the well-bred Midnight Lute mare, Midnight Swinger. Because Midnight Swinger is herself a half-sister to a multiple… [Read More]

Just as with Minnesota Mafia going to Include, when our newest client asked for a mating recommendation for his other mare — again with the intention to breed-to-race — we went right back to our list of proven “Value Sires” to see what might work for Annapolis Harbor, and we quickly landed on another veteran… [Read More]

A new client contacted us recently looking for mating recommendations for his pair of mares, including a stakes-winning Yonaguska mare named Minnesota Mafia, who was actually owned by a Country Life partnership during our time there.  Minnesota Mafia’s new owner specified that he planned to race her foals himself, and – as it does whenever… [Read More]

For Akasha’s 2018 mate, we are going in a different direction than we did for her first two matings, when we targeted the Danzig sire line and bred her to War Front’s sons Data Link in 2016 and Hit It A Bomb in 2017.  Instead of a fast, precocious, turf-oriented stallion whose offspring have yet… [Read More]

We had originally planned to send Tuxedo Annie to the new Maryland stallion Blofeld in 2018, because his pedigree contains two crosses of the Phipps/Wheatley foundation mare, Grey Flight, who is also Tuxedo Annie’s fourth dam.  But due to some unforeseen circumstances, we had to call a last-minute audible, and Tuxedo Annie has instead been… [Read More]

Several of the major racing publications, both in the States and Europe, have recently put out their versions of a “Value Sires List,” which we always read with fascination – and excitement, when those experts validate our own choices or the recommendations that we’ve made to our clients.  Usually the authors of these articles take… [Read More]

Perfect Gleam’s second dam, Anne Campbell, produced a pair of Grade 1-winning sons who both finished 2nd in the G1 Kentucky Derby, and she was a Broodmare of the Year.  More importantly for our purposes, though, she has also founded a high-class family in Europe (and more specifically, at Ballydoyle/Coolmore) via her daughter Mr. P’s… [Read More]

The crux of our mating ideology is, generally, to try and duplicate what has already worked for other members of a mare’s female family.  In the case of Littlemissperfect, we hope to replicate the success of her dam’s full-sister, Procession, who produced Proceed Bee, a Grade 3 winner of 20 races, when bred to the… [Read More]

With breeding season just about upon us, Housatonic Bloodstock LLC is here to help you plan your 2018 matings. Below are excerpts from a project that we completed back in 2017 for a group of clients, who provided a list of stallions that they were considering as mates for their mare last spring, and asked… [Read More]