Werk Nick
Rating®
What is the Werk Nick Rating®
The
Werk Nick Rating® can best be described as a reflection of the effectiveness of
crossing the two sire lines from which a stallion and broodmare descend. Our
nick rating is
not a guarantee that specific individuals will succeed or
fail on the racetrack since some "A" nicks will never win a race and
occasionally and "F" nick will win a stakes race. But it has proven
to be a very reliable indictor over past 20 years in a business where looking
for the exception instead of the rule is a formula for failure.
To
breed or purchase a thoroughbred based
solely on the nick rating would
be as ill-advised as breeding or purchasing a thoroughbred based solely on
conformation or dosage, etc., only. The overall evaluation of potential
purchases, as well as the planning of matings, is a complex proposition. With
the many factors deserving consideration, it is unreasonable to expect just one
to be sufficient. Consequently, an above-average nick rating must be kept in
proper perspective since there are other factors that must be considered when
deciding a mating or considering a prospective purchase.
Do nick ratings change
Nicks
can and do change with the addition of new SWs. Werk Thoroughbred Consultants
adds all unrestricted SWs eligible for blacktype by International Cataloguing
Standards to our database weekly and we recalculate nicks to reflect those new
SWs monthly.
The
variant is a calculated index on which the nick rating (letter grade) is based.
The table below shows the variant scale used to assign a nick rating:
The
Werk Nick Rating® Scale
Werk
Nick
|
Horse
|
Variant
|
A++
|
Superior
|
+1501
|
A+
|
Superb
|
+500
to +1500
|
A
|
Outstanding
|
+150
to +499
|
B+
|
Very
Good
|
+100
to +149
|
B
|
Good
|
+50
to +99
|
C+
|
Acceptable
|
+16
to +49
|
C
|
Average
|
-15
to +15
|
D+
|
Weak
|
-16
to -34
|
D
|
Poor
|
-35
to -49
|
F
|
Unsuccessful
|
-50
|
0
SW
|
Zero
Stakes Winners
|
0
SW
|
In
measuring the success a particular sire or sireline has had with a specific
broodmare sire or sireline, our proprietary system compares the success of
these two lines together against the success of these lines with the population
as a whole. It then calculates the percentage of deviation from the norm,
either positive or negative. That percentage is the variant, and that variant
determines the nick rating.
