I photographed this good sort, who races as Show Me Why, after he'd raced at Toowoomba last Thursday afternoon. His father Show A Heart won $2,299,000 and his mother Dynamic Love won $394,400. So why is the offspring of those pair so slow? The answer is relatively simple.

A fleeting visit to the Clifford Park Toowoomba meeting last Thursday reinforced the fact that heavily raced stallions and/or broodmares rarely produce the goods at stud.

Early in the day a horse in the enclosure attracted my eye. In fact he was such a good sort if you were backing horses on looks alone, then he was a standout in the parade yard. It was Race 3 at Toowoomba and the horse was named Show Me Why.

In the run young apprentice Bradley Wallace gave the horse every chance at success in the $10,000 total prizemoney Maiden race, before Show Me Why clocked in third, beaten 1.5 lengths by the Greg Cornish trained Punto Vista, ridden by apprentice Emily Kehoe and Heza Guru. Show Me Why ran the $2.60 favourite.

There is no doubt that Show Me Why, on paper at least, is bred to be better that his CV suggests. He is by Queensland based stallion Show A Heart out of the Defecting Dancer mare Dynamic Reason.

As a racehorse Show A Heart had 33 starts, winning six of those races – and included in his six career victories were four Group 1 wins, namely the Caulfield Guineas and Toorak Handicap in Victoria and the Eagle Farm double of the T.J. Smith Stakes and the Stradbroke Handicap. As at the date of his retirement, Show A Heart had earned $2,299,000. Interestingly, Show A Heart’s first three dams produced 10 living foals, but only Miss Sandman, the dam of Show A Heart earned black type by running a place in both the Listed Tastee Pies Stakes at Doomben and the Listed Silk Stocking at the Gold Coast.

Show A Heart entered stud in 2002 at a service fee of $13,750 - which following the introduction of GST, was defined as $12,500 plus GST of $1,250. His service fee has fluctuated between that original $13,750 figure and a high of $33,000 in both 2008 and 2009. For the record his 2010 advertised fee is $30,250.

At stud - despite the constant media hype surrounding the stallion – Show A Heart has actually been no great revelation, having only been capable of producing 12 stakes winners from 300 individual runners that represented him, which equates to an ordinary stakeswinners-to-runners ratio of 4%. The only two progeny he has produced that have been capable of winning at either Group 2 or Group 1 level have been Mimi Lebrock (2008 Group 2 Tristarc Stakes) and Heart of Dreams (won two Group 1 races in 2009, namely the Underwood Stakes and Australian Guineas).

So whilst he’s had 799 foals born to him prior to this point, Show A Heart has had about 300 individual runners of which 171 have won a race, which gives the stallion what I'd call a "disappointing" winners-to-runners ratio, given his substantial service fee, of only 59% (remember a “successful” stallion using my criteria will be able to achieve a minimum of 60% winners-to-runners ratio and 5% stakes winners-to-runners), so as at today, Show A Heart is a bit like the boy with the barrow.

For her part, Show Me Why’s dam Dynamic Reason was a talented galloper also. She won 11 races in her 51 career starts and she earned a very commendable $394,400 in her career, albeit that her major prizemoney was won when she won a sales restricted race at Caloundra. Dynamic Reason didn’t win any black type races in her career and as a heavily raced mare she has yet again proven the theory correct that heavily raced mares rarely throw any decent progeny in the breeding barn, as she has been mated eight times in her life, yet she has only produced two offspring. In 2003 she produced a filly by Show A Heart which grew up to be named Dynamic Heart. Despite racing at what I’d call “easy venues” like Innisfail, Mareeba and Cairns, Dynamic Heart was unable to win a single race from eight starts – and retired having earned just $4,150. She’s unfortunately trying to improve the gene pool these days and is due to foal an October 2010 foal to handy North Queensland sprinter Hotelier, so we wait with baited breath for that little bundle of joy to hit the racetrack. Dynamic Reason’s only other living foal is the Gold Coast trained chaffbandit Show Me Why who raced in Toowoomba last Thursday.

Show Me Why has now had 12 starts, run three third placings and he’s earned $4,000 in total prizemoney. Given that Show Me Why’s father Show A Heart won $2,200,000 and his mother Dynamic Reason won $394,400 – one would reasonably expect that the 2006 foaled gelding would have been able to earn more than $4,000 from 12 appearances, particularly when it is acknowledged that following last Thursday's prizemoney, he’s just achieved the milestone of paying for 22.73% of his sire’s service fee of $17,600 the year he was conceived – and that's without so much as one solitary dollar being earned by his racetrack feats to pay for being reared, broken in, pre-trained, trained, transported or vetted.

The moral here is that “being a good sort doesn’t amount to anything in the world of thoroughbred racing”.

Today, soon after 8am, on www.sydneyracing.com.au when the official track rating is known, I preview the Ramornie Handicap and will be on track for the meeting this afternoon. I attended the big Calcutta function at the Yamba Bowls Club last night and the Fourex girls were there, as well as a host of racing personalities from as far away as Toowoomba and Texas, so there will be some photos of the Grafton trip put up on site next week.