The origin: a mother's bucket list
If I had to describe myself in three words, it would be: a Pedigree Nerd.
My journey didn't start in a sales ring or on a stud farm. It started 15 years ago with my mother. She had a bucket-list dream to own a small share in a racehorse, and asked if I could help her find the right one.
At the time I knew virtually nothing about choosing a racehorse. I left conformation to the trainers and bloodstock agents. The horse we ended up with was, to put it kindly, ordinary.
But as a problem-solver, one question kept nagging at me: how do you actually choose? What makes a racehorse great? Is it the sire? The dam's race record? Or is there something deeper hidden in the pedigree?
That question started a lifelong obsession.
Standing on the shoulders of giants
What followed was hundreds of hours of research and thousands of pedigrees studied in detail. I tracked down rare, out-of-print pedigree books that hadn't been reprinted in decades. I studied the classical approaches of Lord Rosebery, Federico Tesio and Clive Harper, among many others.
More importantly, I was lucky to have extraordinary mentors:
- Ken Beer, the pedigree mind behind the mating of multiple Group 1 winner Mr Brightside. One of Ken's own mentors used similar methods to pick out Bonecrusher at auction.
- Kathleen Kirsan, the American breeder, researcher and author known for her expertise in pedigree analysis.
Years of conversations with people of this calibre taught me that judging a pedigree isn't about skimming a sales catalogue page. It's about understanding how great ancestors are concentrated or diluted, why certain sire lines and mare lines suit each other (what the industry calls "nicks"), and which ancestors pass on their quality most reliably (i.e. prepotent).
Where 30 years of technology meets pedigree science
Before retiring, I spent over 30 years in corporate technology.
My mentors, and the authors of the classic texts, did their analysis by hand or with commercial software that has barely changed in years. My tech background gave me an advantage: I have since built my own pedigree analysis tools, based on the different "lenses" I use. They can examine a pedigree up to 10 generations deep, for both individual horses and proposed matings.
Genetics is about probabilities, not certainties. Think of it like stacking the deck with more aces: no guarantee of a winning hand, but a far better chance of being dealt one.
The proof is on the track
Theory means nothing without results. As I learnt more, dug deeper into the research and built my own review tools, my results kept improving: with my own horses, my client selections and even my fantasy picks.
In 2025, a small, highly selective group of horses I chose for clients to buy shares in produced:
- A Group 2 winner who broke the track record
- Other Group-placed runners, and multiple winners at Saturday city and country meetings
Details available on request.
Now that I've retired from corporate life, Digital Bloodstock is where I put my full time and energy.
Why Digital Bloodstock exists
It constantly surprises me how owners pay thousands of dollars for a share, or hundreds of thousands for a horse at auction, without asking a few basic pedigree questions that could tilt the odds in their favour.
People often ask me, "But don't trainers look at all this?"
My answer is always the same: "Not as deeply as us Pedigree Nerds."
I can't give away all my secrets here, but Digital Bloodstock exists to share the insights, numbers and pedigree principles that challenge conventional industry thinking. Whether you're a first-time owner, a seasoned syndicate member or a commercial breeder, I hope you enjoy it.
Michael MarosaThe Pedigree Nerdmichael@digitalbloodstock.com
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