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Air Force Blue was a May 2nd foal.
His problem turned out to be that he was exceptionally precocious, particularly for a late foal.
Not an area I know anything about, but could a study of families notable for producing precocious or backward offspring be more useful than scrutinising foaling dates?
Given that racing has its fair share of translucent-to-opaque practices, I have this perhaps paranoid idea that some clever-dicks in the breeding fraternity/sorority have on occasions deliberately bred very early foals, say born in the autumn and registered them as born the following year
Exaggerating to emphasise my point: a 2yo registered as being born in May, actually foaled in November – ‘by gum he looks well forward’ says some wiseacre paddock-side on the not-so-young-one’s debut
Reminds me of a Chinese lad I went to school with in the same year called Hun-Dang, bloody good at football he was, I suppose considering he was 3 years older it helped him. Had trials with Inter Milan but didn’t make it…..
Gaelic Warrior Gold Cup Winner 2026
Air Force Blue was a May 2nd foal.
His problem turned out to be that he was exceptionally precocious, particularly for a late foal.
Not an area I know anything about, but could a study of families notable for producing precocious or backward offspring be more useful than scrutinising foaling dates?
Hard to say. Air Force Blue was by War Front, who there had been rumblings about as more of a sire of 2yo’s.
I was just wondering whether date of foaling could be an easy guide to a horse’s chance in the earlier classics. If you can generally reject April and May born horses it would save wasted bets.
Thanks for the good crack. Time for me to move on. Be lucky.
There are registration processes Drone, but it’s not policed in any way. Basically the covering season starts in Feb, and the assumption is that it will result in a Jan foal, if you get a successful early cover. Registration consists of you calling the vet, and giving him (I’ll just say ‘him’) the foaling date. He does a marking form and takes bloods (for DNA testing), and microchips the foal. You have to pay the registration fee by a certain date, and for registration to be complete, you also need a covering cert from the stallion owner. You will then get a passport from Weatherbys. I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible to start early, but you’d need a lot of people to keep quiet! I did work at one stud where they had an accidental late December birth, and they were absolutely horrified – she was spirited to a far corner until 1st Jan.
There are registration processes Drone, but it’s not policed in any way. Basically the covering season starts in Feb, and the assumption is that it will result in a Jan foal, if you get a successful early cover. Registration consists of you calling the vet, and giving him (I’ll just say ‘him’) the foaling date. He does a marking form and takes bloods (for DNA testing), and microchips the foal. You have to pay the registration fee by a certain date, and for registration to be complete, you also need a covering cert from the stallion owner. You will then get a passport from Weatherbys. I suppose it wouldn’t be impossible to start early, but you’d need a lot of people to keep quiet! I did work at one stud where they had an accidental late December birth, and they were absolutely horrified – she was spirited to a far corner until 1st Jan.
they should have been honest, she didn’t realize she could have been a stats breaker
Thanks Louise
Quite a chain of registration to go through and it seems to rely on honesty and trust; though I’m sure the integrity of the vast majority is sound
I don’t have a problem with accidental late December births being registered as January foals; what difference does a couple of weeks make? Pity the fate of the poor foal if these accidents had to be declared
You mention “if you get a successful early cover”. If a mare is barren to an early mating will she be covered again later in the same season, or is it a case of wait until this time next year?
No, I think it’s sensible to accept that there will be unplanned early births, and to Judge’s point, I’m afraid she never set the world alight, so she would only have been the youngest ever slow one! Mares are generally covered until they go in foal, within reason, until it gets too late. A June or July foal isn’t a disaster for a NH mare, but as per the stats above, the Flat people like them earlier, for obvious reasons. By ‘within reason’ I mean that you’d check to make sure there are no problems – just like people, some mares find it hard to conceive with no obvious cause, whereas with another it might be a sign that something is amiss.
Interestingly, Dawn Approach was technically 1 year old when he won his first race.
Btw, this I don’t understand Steve. On the racing post website it says he was foaled on 23rd april 2010. And he won his first race on 25th of march, 2012, when he would have been two years of age.
So where do you get the 1 year old thing from?
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