Its not an exact science is it.....?

OK guys-true story.

As you know I'm an Elite Racing Club member-this is pretty much straight from the horses mouth (as reported in our latest newsletter) regarding the circumstances leading to the breeding of SOVIET SONG (5 x G1 and over £1M in prize money)....in his owns words (Maurice Camacho)

'On my return from Spain a few weeks ago, somebody had drawn to my attention a letter
about Elite’s debt to Marju and how we had come to ever use him as a stallion. Because we
are selling Kalinova, I saw the catalogue page with all of Kalinka’s offspring. She has been
an absolute stand-out mare and I don’t use those words lightly. Behind that success there
is obviously a journey that has been travelled. Kalinka herself was no great shakes as a
racehorse and, as has often been mentioned in dispatches, she ran over hurdles with
blinkers (and very moderately too). Now, the vast majority of breeders would not have put
Kalinka into their broodmare band, but Elite's Managing Director, in what can only be
described as a stroke of genius, did. Up to that point Elite had bought a couple of mares and
met with mixed success on a moderate scale.

Kalinka came to me for her second covering and I wanted to use a stallion called Selkirk,
but the Elite Management turned me down and said he was inclined to produce very big
foals and we might get a giraffe, so we went back to the drawing board. At that time, I was
managing Lord Matthews’ Stud at Nidd near Harrogate and the Matthews had had
considerable success using Marju – the best foal being a Group 1 winner called My Emma
– trained by Rae Guest at Newmarket. So, on this rather flimsy evidence, I went back to Elite
and suggested that Marju should be Kalinka’s mate. They gave the go ahead and we paid
10,000 Irish punts for the nomination, which was the equivalent of £7,500 at the time. Never
was £7,500 better spent, because the produce was Soviet Song.

What this all illustrates is that, though a lot of thought may go into this process, an awful lot
of luck is required as well. In our case, breeding from a mare that didn’t have the best profile
and using a stallion that was second choice. Because we had the success with Soviet Song,
obviously we continued to use Marju, who sadly passed away recently.

It might interest Members to know that even the moderate foals out of Kalinka (e.g. Margarita (by Marju))
are beginning to be prolific winner-getters themselves. Her record stands at two winners
from three foals to date and Kazatzka (By Groom Dancer), who was another moderate
racehorse, has already bred a Group winner.'

Margarita (full sister to SS and Sister Act) was sold at the recent mares sale (in foal to Gutaifan) for G115K

Kalinova (half sister by Red Ransom) was sold (in foal to Camelot) for G50K

There was a tweet regarding Margarita showing her page and the upgrades (including Marsha's win in the l'Abbaye) saying that it was a rare chance to buy into one of the best families in the business...... that made me smile.......I will let you experts judge for yourselves...

Best regards
BBC