eMatings is simply a platform where a breeder can get pedigree advice from some of the leading pedigree authorities in the world! Having pioneered some innovations myself over the years, I knew right away when I first heard the concept (more on that later) that it was a winner and it was the way the business was heading. For one, our clients – you! – are a sophisticated group, and you’ve been relying more and more on computers, nicks, and a do-it-yourself attitude. This economy has only served to underscore this point. From my point of view at eNicks, the perfect complement to nicks is “expert advice,” or “second opinions,” but experts – including us at WTC – have never come cheap. Then eMatings arrived, and suddenly the cycle of eNicks and “expert advice” became affordable!
How you ask? Well, it’s possible only through the efforts of one man – Sid Fernando. Only he could have – well, he did! – pulled it off, because pedigree experts can be a finicky group, and they don’t usually work together. Most of them – and I’ll be frank here – don’t get along with one and other, simply put!
Sid, however, got everyone under the same roof, AND he got them – me included!! – to work inexpensively – for $150 per expert. Call it straight talk and a belief in the idea.
Like I said, only Sid could have done this, because as the respected bloodstock editor for Daily Racing Form for years, Sid had cultivated relationships with all the leading figures in the business. All the experts chosen, Sid told me, were hand picked because he knew and respected their work and had personal relationships with most. I guarantee you this: No one else would have been able to pull everyone together for a project like this, and no one else could have gotten ALL of us to work for the same inexpensive fee!
The carrot Sid dangled to all of us was this: If you did a good job on a mare for $150, maybe the client would want to do some additional private consulting? And Sid has no problems with any of us doing work with clients outside of eMatings, so it was an easy sell.
eMatings has been up and running for 5 days, and so far the concept is being embraced from breeders around the world. Hey, I’ve already had a few customers and landed an outside gig! Sid tells me, “I’ve had several orders myself from the Middle East, and experts have received orders from regional markets in the US to orders from prominent breeders in the UK and Europe.”
The experts Sid has lined up so far include (me included!):
Dr. Steven Roman, originator of the Roman Dosage method popularized in Daily Racing Form through the columns of my late, great friend, Leon Rasmussen.
Dr. Rommy Faversham, author and weekly pedigree columnist for The Thoroughbred Times.
Jack Werk, originator of eNicks, former founding publisher of Owner-Breeder, and president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc.
Lauren Stich, former columnist for Daily Racing Form and a pedigree analyst for more than 30 years.
Karel Miedema, the South African pedigree authority and the editor of Sporting Post, South Africa’s leading racing and breeding newspaper.
Dr. Frank Mitchell, author and weekly columnist for Daily Racing Form.
Robert Fierro, originator of Breezefigs with partner Jay Kilgore, and an active contributor to racing and breeding publications in the US.
Ed Anthony, well-known author and pedigree consultant who has been advising clients for more than 20 years.
John Sparkman, bloodstock editor of The Thoroughbred Times and an authority and historian of bloodstock who has contributed to international racing publications.
Sid Fernando, former bloodstock editor and columnist for Daily Racing Form and an international bloodstock authority.
Major Srinivas Nargolkar, former Keeper of the Indian Stud Book and member of the International Stud Book Committee from 1990 to 2007, has contributed to Indian racing publications for more than 34 years.
Robert S. Fox has been around thoroughbreds for nearly 40 years and was involved in the stud careers of such horses as Alydar, Wild Again, and Capote.
Diego Mitagstein writes about racing and breeding in South America and is the editor of Argentina’s Turf Diario.
You can see this is quite a distinguished group and there will be more to come!
You can enter the site at ematings.com. There is an explanatory guide on how to order right on the front page and everything is automated. Sid also has put together links of breeding news sites where you can get all your news from one site, and the site even features the “Stallion of the Week.”