Federal Flex

[EuroTrot]

Hello
I am a (very) little breeder from Germany. For 2016, i am interested for breeding my mare with Federal Flex. He has everything i need. Blood of Muscles Yankee and SJs Photo, a good racing career and a fine exterieur.
But one thing bothers me. His descendants do not seem to meet expectations.
So here my question - What are your experiences with Federal Flex and his descendants?

[Messenger]

Hopefully one of the trotting enthusiasts will get back to you Robert (My interest is pacers) but I looked up his Statistics
He appears to have had a couple of seasons in Australia to produce 16 foals
5 are now in their 4yo season and 11 now in their 3yo season
Still young for trotters but so far only 7 have raced with 3 winners but only 1 good performer - Agent Maori
He won 2 out of his only 3 two year old starts late in the season and had virtually 8 mths spell before winning of 4 of his 16 three year old starts
His reasonable success could however be attributed to his dam as she belongs to our premier trotting family (his 5th dam his Maori Miss)

At this early point he would appear to have failed as a sire down here

As I said - hopefully one of our forums trotting enthusiast will reply to your post

[EuroTrot]

Thank you Kevin, for the statistics. They are very similar to the European.
For example the 4years old in Sweden. Registered 14 - started 7 -they had together 103 Starts - but only 10 first places. AND 9 of them are from one Horse "Flex Lane". FL is by far his best offspring.

[papagayo]

Some good (or even great) racehorses simply fail at stud for no apparent reason. He has a few weaknesses too

[Richard prior]

Hello Sturla, I really like the idea of stallions serving a few mares in between racing seasons, It is something that has not been really tried here, On the odd occasion we have had a horse that has been injured and will be out for 12 months or more or even retired due to injury that will serve a few mares and then brought back to the racetrack and tried again, I think that serving a few mares in between seasons is a great idea and an option that should be explored in the future here, We have had some fine pacers that probably could have raced on, That have been retired, It would certainly tell you if your horse would be any good at stud in the first couple of years and if the youngsters didn't show any promise, You could continue to let the stallion race on.

[Richard prior]

What a pity that Commander Crowe is a Gelding, He certainly would have attracted lots of interest in our parts.

[papagayo]

No reason why stallions cannot combine racing with stud duty, it's just a matter of culture.

Why Commander Crowe - because of colors? Has Defi d'Aunou been available down under in the past?

[EuroTrot]

What were the weaknesses, and he has passed on to his offspring?

[papagayo]

Weakness" is maybe the wrong word, maybe "question marks" is more correct:

There are several conformation issues, see the Swedish examination (https://www.travsport.se/hast/visa/685159/avel, use Google translate). He is quite musculus and coarse/bigger body type, he may not be a good fit with some broodmares of similar types. This can often produce foals that are late bloomers.

He competed on Lasix (not sure if every start but at least some). For me that is not necessarily a no-no, but it raises a question mark.

He has a lot of inbred features. Sire is inbred on Speedy Crown, dam is 4x3 on Super Bowl, second dam inbred on Star's Pride. This is not a problem in itself but will limit the suitable mares

As for what he has passed on to his offspring, I cannot tell as I haven't seen a lot of them.

But as I also said above, some good racehorses fail at stud without any obvious reason (Adrian Chip is another). That's just the way genetics work

[EuroTrot]

Thank you for that information Sturla.
I have a Sierra Kosmos granddaughter with a french motherline, so i thought FF with his SJs Photo blood would be a good partner. But i have him deleted, because of his offspring statistics.

[papagayo]

Don't look only at pedigree. It is a necessary but not the only aspect (Sierra Kosmos x french makes we wonder about conformation, mental aspect (bad temper? or loony-toons?), gait and is this a late developer etc)

[EuroTrot]

Yes, you are totally right. The mare was a late starter and a slow beginner, but a good long distance horse. Her pedigree is a bit oldfashioned, so we prefer young US-stallions.
Her first partner was Ken Warkentin in 2015.

[papagayo]

Based on what you have said about her so far that sounds like a very good idea in my opinion

[EuroTrot]

You mean the choice of Ken Warkentin. I think Yankee Glide x Sierre Kosmos works good together. A good help was this analysis
https://www.facebook.com/SophiaPedigrees/posts/669240339806295

[papagayo]

Indeed. Sophia Pedigrees is good, too bad German horses are not represented in there. YG x SK has produced two dollar millionaires in Main Wise As + Anders Bluestone so that says something too

[EuroTrot]

Sturla, if you like, what do you think about Hard Livin and Mythical Lindy? We are breeding for ourself and not for selling. I'm thankful for every opinion.

[Richard prior]

It's looks like a nice cross Sturla with Yankee Glide over a Sierra Kosmos mare, I noticed a filly/mare by the name of Keystone Gratitude bred in the same cross and from a nice maternal family(U2) Very surprised she hasn't left anything of note.

[papagayo]

Keystone Gratitude has not had any foals from what I know

Hard Livin + Mythical Lindy: both fairly new. ML has a few good ones.

[Richard prior]

I had a look and Defi d'Aunou has no stock here or in New Zealand Sturla, The European stallions are still a little foreign to some people but after seeing Love You's young ones on the track in our parts, Breeders are starting to take a lot of notice, No the colour has nothing to do with Commander Crowe, Racetrack ability is the big thing and he's also from a very good family.