Happy Birthday to all our beloved thoroughbreds Aug 1st 2025

[Black Kirrama]

To the mighty ones and  the ones that tried so hard but lacked ability .

[stodge]

2 minutes ago, Black Kirrama said:

To the mighty ones and  the ones that tried so hard but lacked ability .

Happy to join in the birthday good wishes but I'm curious.

Up here, all thoroughbreds have their birthday on January 1st and I'd have thought, given the reversal of seasons, yours would have had their birthday on July 1st.

Does anyone know why it is a month later - I'm simply curious? I assume it's something to do with the breeding season.

Our first 2-y-o races are at the end of March when the turf flat season gets going so it's possible for a horse who isn't actually two years old to run if they are a late foal but that is very rare - most of the early juveniles are early foals so late January to early March.

[Blaird]

I found this Stodge - The reason for August is to match up with a horse’s breeding cycle. Thoroughbreds are bred the old-fashioned way, without artificial insemination. Mares will typically want to get frisky in spring, around September, when the weather warms up. Factor in that a mare will gestate for around 11 months and, ba-da-bing, August birthday it is!

Not sure how accurate it is, I thought most foals were born in October-November but I could be wrong.

[nomates]

44 minutes ago, Blaird said:

I found this Stodge - The reason for August is to match up with a horse’s breeding cycle. Thoroughbreds are bred the old-fashioned way, without artificial insemination. Mares will typically want to get frisky in spring, around September, when the weather warms up. Factor in that a mare will gestate for around 11 months and, ba-da-bing, August birthday it is!

Not sure how accurate it is, I thought most foals were born in October-November but I could be wrong.

I read the other day of a stud master saying one was born a month ago , as long as the service date is after Aug 1st it is still considered as born in the 25/26 season .

Gestation for a mare is 11months and 10 days .

[scooby3051]

Never used to be that way until a few years back...there were some very big foals born on Aug 2nd back in them days....

[nomates]

22 minutes ago, scooby3051 said:

Never used to be that way until a few years back...there were some very big foals born on Aug 2nd back in them days....

Yes , very well hidden , back paddocks became very useful .

[stodge]

1 hour ago, Blaird said:

I found this Stodge - The reason for August is to match up with a horse’s breeding cycle. Thoroughbreds are bred the old-fashioned way, without artificial insemination. Mares will typically want to get frisky in spring, around September, when the weather warms up. Factor in that a mare will gestate for around 11 months and, ba-da-bing, August birthday it is!

Not sure how accurate it is, I thought most foals were born in October-November but I could be wrong.

Yes and the same is true here with "frisky time", as you put it, in March-April and the majority of births in February-March the following year.

We put the birthday as January 1st to ensure we don't have the "big foals" to which @scooby3051 refers. That might happen if we had February 1st as the birth date so January 1st it is.

I can't see why you couldn't go to July 1st rather than August 1st but it's your way of doing things.