First, as a racehorse he seems to have done Ok in terms of durability racing three seasons and starting twice as a two year-old and six times each as a three and four year-old for a total of 15 starts.

Second, in terms of his progeny, the average number of starts per runner is 7. This number is definitely on the low end but I tend to give younger stallions like him a little bit of break since their two year-olds that are lightly raced would affect the number much more than it would the more mature stallions with multiple crops. However, his number of average starts is at par with El Corredor, Orientate, Point Given, Yonaguska and Fusaichi Pegasus and above horses like Tiznow and Officer. So although these numbers are not impressive in terms of durability (see El Prado with 20 average starts per runner, Dynaformer 18, Rahy 17 etc.) they are more or less in line with some of his peers.

Third, there is also another way to evaluate indirectly how sound the progeny of a stallion are and that is through the interplay of the Average Earning Index and the Sire Index (SI) both measures will compare earnings versus a breed average but the Average Earning Index measures yearling earnings and the Sire Index measures earnings per start. Therefore, you would expect a very sound sire whose progeny race often to have a better AEI than an SI index whereas a sire of very brilliant but unsound horses to have a higher SI than an AEI.

For example, let’s say our breed average per start is $1,000 and our yearly earning breed average is $10,000 a year. Sire A has decent runners that earn $1,000 per start and start 10 times a year. Sire B has very good runners that earn $5,000 per start but start only two times a year. Both these horses will have an AEI of 1.00 but Sire A will have a SI of 5.00 whereas sire A will have an SI of 1.00.

From the example we can see that Sire B a sire of unsound brilliant horses has a higher Si than AEI.

In the case of Exchange Rate, his AEI is 2.26 with an SI of 2.09 which would not tend to indicate any special unsoundness of his foals.

As I am sure you know in the breeding/training community there is a lot speculation around Exchange Rate’s offspring’s durability.

He surely is producing quality offspring which can speak for themselves in the ring and surely on the track. Great value as mentioned.

However I’ve been witness to much information around their passed on confirmation concerns. Specifically with fragility in bone structure.

Unfortunately there isn’t a published report of his offspring’s breakdowns for the public to consume. I’m sure with a little leg work we could dig it up.

What’s your thoughts? Have you heard similar rumblings?

You are absolutely right that Lemmon Drop Kid ($35,000) is a great investment at this price. His Yearling Median of $80,000 is a great reward for the commercial breeder and his sales numbers will only increase given the recent performance of some of his top runners. On the other hand when evaluating stallions for this Article we noticed that his AEI of 1.85 and Stake winner percentage of 7.1% was just a shade lower than the numbers for the sires we selected but again it was a marginal decision and we would recommend Lemon Drop Kid to any breeder.