Minnesota Thoroughbred Breeding Dashboard

Not long ago I was asked to help develop insight related to Thoroughbred breeding programs. We needed to answer 5 simple questions related to the Thoroughbred crop.

1) How is the quality of the product, state bred Thoroughbreds, actually valued in the open marketplace?

2) Was an adequate supply of state bred Thoroughbreds being produced?

3) Are things headed in the right direction?

4) Are the economic benefits of breeding and foaling properly impacting our farms and breeders?

5) Is the breeding system producing the results desired, with the expected balance between quantity and quality?

While there was no solitary source of information to answer these questions, we eventually consolidated data from multiple sources, normalized it to rationalize information, evaluated trends, and compared results so we could really know if they were good, bad or indifferent. A dashboard of "key indicators" was produced.

Dashboards, common in highly successful organizations, are never perfect predictors. They are much like the dashboard in your car. They cannot predict a crash or a safe trip, but if your car dashboard tells you that you are driving 100 miles an hour with low tire pressure and the engine/oil light on, you better bet you have a problem. 

The organizations I worked with were not in Minnesota, but I thought a few of the our Minnesota breeding and racing friends might be interested in the Minnesota dashboard. (Depending on your device, you may have to click on the dashboard and zoom in.)

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