Features

History of The Matchmaker
I've been going to the races since 1950 with my family. Dad took us to Santa Anita in 1954.

When St. Jovite (Pleasant Colony-Northern Sunset) won the Irish Derby-G1 by the widest margin of victory of any thoroughbred in a modern-era classic, I was given the credit of being the Matchmaker of St. Jovite by Virginia Kraft Payson. Mrs. Payson bought both a share in Pleasant Colony and the broodmare Northern Sunset based upon my recommendations. St. Jovite was subsequently voted European Horse of the Year in 1992.

Basically the private bloodstock consultant for Virginia Kraft Payson, with her encouragement I ventured public based on research I began in 1971. I am now helping other clients wishing to upgrade their bloodstock to produce high class thoroughbreds.

Emphasis on Family

I believe to understand "what's under the hood" of a thoroughbred, I have to understand how this thoroughbred came into being. I find it very important to research a thoroughbred in a tail-female fashion starting at about 1900 and continuing forward to the horse that is to be analyzed. I believe this is a good way to get a sense of how the horse was put together. The previous breeders and the methods they employed to produce their bloodstock are very illuminating in terms of maximizing the breeding potential of the next generation of a thoroughbred. Since I know what happened to mares both on the track and in the stud, I feel I get a reasonable grasp at which stallion needs to be mated to this particular broodmare in the breeding shed.

I believe in the strength of female families as the type of mitochondrial strain found in the progeny of a mare trace directly through the tail-female line. The sire's mitochondria strain is not passed on to the progeny through the sperm. Every cell in the foal carries the identical strain of mitochondria as the dam. Mitochondria are responsible for cellular respiration, the process of utilizing energy within a cell.

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