If you are a studmaster

Selecting which horse to stand
Given horses with similar track records and comparable pedigrees it can be hard to choose which one to stand as stallion. Assessing which variants of performance genes they carry, and in which combinations, can allow more reliable predictions about performance at stud, giving you crucial information for making this decision.

‘Proving’ a new stallion
You want to maximise your chances of producing winners in the first few crops. We can determine the genetic makeup of an unproven stallion, and assess the overall proportion of sperm that will carry the favourable combinations of performance genes. You can then choose to advertise his genetic ‘strength’ as part of your marketing. More importantly, we will have established a wide database of mares, and can help you selectively and proactively target those that are most likely to have good foals in combination with the stallion. That is, we can calculate and determine the ‘nick’ scientifically, using the genes of both mates. This will ensure you do get some very good performers eventually, allowing you to increase stud fees and patronage in the future.

Maintaining the established stallion
By determining which broodmares have good genetic ‘nick’, you can set up preferential arrangements, so that you continue getting good race horses in the crop, maintaining the stallion’s reputation. The breed overall is improving genetically over the years, and this is one of the reasons why once-popular lines fade, and performance at stud declines. We will be watching these genetic trends by continuously updating values assigned to gene variants and their combinations. We will be able to determine for you a particular stallion’s position with regard to these trends. This can help you shift the focus to a different set of mares in proactive marketing, adjust the stud fees up or down accordingly, and make an important decision about when to retire the stallion, and with what to replace him.

Increasing diversity and number of mares in the mating population
Because the risks and racing prospects will be better estimated using genetics, we expect that more people will enter the thoroughbred racing world, willing to take chances when they are better known and scientifically calculated. This has the potential of increasing the size and diversity of the equine population. Many variants, some rare, of a number of genes are expected to affect performance; cataloguing and tracking them via DNA testing will create incentives to maintain a larger breeding population, and will ensure that the genetic diversity of the breed is maintained, so that it can continue to improve.