Magical Romance - oops!
 

Record-setting mare Magical Romance produces premature filly - the story's on thoroughbredtimes.com . It's a strange one.... she'll be 1 in a few days!!

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/tod...68332&subsec=3

WOW...that is every breeder's nightmare when the mare is due for a January foal...I'm just glad both mare and foal are fine.

Just glad Lady Serena Rothschild, owner can handle the possible money lost on this one.

How tough is it to have her run with her peers ? These rules do not fit her true age. So she cannot receive a waiver for her age because she is premature ?

A total bet against FTO!

LOL!

no waivers. can you imagine the can of worms that would be opened if they started doing that? mares would be giving 'premature' birth left and right. problem with running her with her peers is when she officially turns two, she'll be 12 1/2 months old. so no running with twop year olds, as when she's really about two, she'll be considered three!

The southern hemisphere has implemented a rule that states if a mare was shown to be bred on or after September 1st, the foal is considered the member of the crop it was intended to, no matter how early it was foaled.

I think this would be a useful rule to implement in the Northern Hemisphere. I believe the first official day of the shed starts on February 15th, and any mare that foaled before Jan. 1st that was bred on the 15th or after should be allowed a waiver. You cant beat or fool mother nature sometimes.

As per this foal, its a good thing her connections breed to race and she ended up being a filly. Even though she'll miss the very important age-restricted races, in the grand scheme of things, its not as important for a filly as it is a colt to try and secure a good showing in them. She will end up in the broodmare band regardless, and doesnt need a padded resume in her 2 and 3 year old year, unlike colts.

Colts with this handicapp are far more affected. Most breeders want to see prococity and competitive talent when a colt retires to stud, and they wont get it under circumstances like this.

All I can say is DAGGER!!!!

For the good of the breed they should not allow any mare to be bred in Feb. Forces the stallions with giant books to bred less quantity, more quality, and reduces the chance of a pre jan 1 foaling.
Why cant this foal simply be raced in the southern hemisphere? She'll be behind but not that far.

I dont mind a Feb cover especially when you're dealing with a young mare... 5 years down the line, you're thankful for that Feb cover when you still havent had to skip a year.

They could absolutely race her in S. Hemisphere... but I think being a filly, its not as important to get blacktype.

if a mare decides to take a year off she'll do it no matter what you do to try to prevent it...

that being said there are always methods to back her up so you don't have to skip a year...

But I think I agree with Chuck...for more than just the good of the breed but for the health of the individual horses...mares don't naturally want to breed in feb to begin with...and neither do stallions for that matter.

Ok, Beth... I had to sit on my hands not to respond to this, BUT I just couldn't resist. :eek: :D

HAHA!!! :D

perhaps i'm having one of those slow moments...I don't get the joke...:confused:

I only meant that mares not under lights will not be cycling regularly in feb...and stallions not under lights will not have high quality sperm production...since they are seasonal breeders. And there is pretty good data (albeit ancedotal) to support that mares bred early in the season have a higher incidence of early fetal loss or failure of the embryo to implant...