Breeding Partners for the New Mares and the New Year's Awards

Time flew by, and before they knew it, February 6 had arrived.

The January broodmare auctions across East China had all concluded. Unfortunately, apart from the two mares from the Anhui Province auction, Zhang Jun had not managed to buy any other outstanding broodmares. He had only purchased two mares with a progeny rating of five and a Bronze Pony-level genetic trait.

One of them was called Scarlet Flame Spirit, a seven-year-old chestnut local horse. She had once been an excellent local open-class racehorse, but after her peak had passed, her form plummeted. After failing to place in several consecutive races, her owner sent her to the Shandong Province auction. Zhang Jun bought her for 320,000. She possessed a Bronze Pony burst-speed trait.

The other was called Frostmoon Hero, a five-year-old chestnut Central Racehorse owned by a private owner in Shanghai. She had won a special race at the two-win level. Though she had never broken through the three-win class, she placed in six or seven out of every ten races and kept racing until the end of her peak.

Frostmoon Hero had originally been meant to enter a breeding ranch in Jiangsu Province as a broodmare, but the ranch's cash flow had fallen short and it could not buy her back. She had no choice but to go up for auction, where Zhang Jun bought her for 350,000. She possessed a Bronze Pony fighting-spirit trait.

Including Dream of Tianfu, who retired after Cloudstream Flying Shadow finished the Hibiscus Cup, Chasing Ranch now had five mares to breed this year. That was only one fewer than last year. With five or six foals born each year, that was just right for a newly established ranch.

[When the author played Horse Racing Tycoon, he liked to start by getting a horse