Bill Oppenheim: APEX Ratings Quantify A Sire's Success With Horses Of Different Ages

In Wednesday's TDN, Bill Oppenheim takes a close look at just what the APEX Ratings can tell you about a sire's success, and whether you can predict if his progeny will improve with age…or not. “One of the interesting wrinkles of the APEX figures is that they produce ëage ratings,í which describe a stallion's aptitude for siring ëABC Runnersí [roughly translated: earners of $50,000-plus in a year, or ëbreak-evení horses or better] as two-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, and five-year-olds and up,” Oppenheim says. “As far as I'm aware, APEX is the only method of rating sires that quantifies age ratings, so they do provide us with a unique window from which to view siresí aptitudes, as far as siring runners better at certain ages. Sometimes the patterns are quite striking.”