My project will involve managing stallion data for the ten stallion Thoroughbred farm, Harris Farms in Coalinga (near Fresno), California. Nine of the stallions, Cee's Tizzy, Cutlass Reality, Flying Continental, High Brite, Huddle Up, Lake George, Moscow Ballet, Steinlen and Truckee stand exclusively in the northern hemisphere, whereas the tenth, Paranoide (Arg.), shuttles between the southern and northern hemisphere. I selected Harris Farms because they are one of the exceptional breeders in the state of California and bred one of my favorite racehorses, Soviet Problem.

Microsoft Access would help organize the massive amounts of information collected from a stud farm into a Thoroughbred-customer friendly format. The information generated would make it simpler for both farm personnel and potential customers (i.e., broodmare owners) to determine which stallion was the best value for his stud fee, which stallion was better at producing effective runners and/or producers and if a Southern hemisphere breeding season would be practical. It would simplify the  transfer of information accumulated to the Jockey Club, state breeding associations, and other computer programs.

Thoroughbreds breed only by live cover, so the information collected would include mares bred, crop year, number of foals, starters to foals, winners to starters, stakes winners to starters, graded winners to starters, earning of all runners, average earnings per starter and percentage of starters to foals, winners to starters, stakes winners to starters, and graded winners to starters. Other additional information would include pedigree, racing information, conformation picture, stud fee, racing and state nomination information if applicable.

The information would also assist in distributing details about the stallions by using the statistics and data gathered in marketing material such as brochures; stallion directories; advertisements in publications, radio, television, and/or an Internet site. It is especially important in this day and age of information. The competition for stallions is especially tough for California farms because they are compromised by their distance from other major Thoroughbred breeding states. They have to compete for the mares in their own state as well as trying to recruit top class brood mares from other states to breed to their stallions.

The basic format of the report would be a fact sheet similar to what are seen in sale catalogues and stallion directories, with pedigree, any stud and/or race record and a conformation picture of the stallion. Contact information, stud fees and nominations would be on the bottom of the page. Thus the report would contain photographic representation of the stallion, family background, race and stud information (all on one page ideally) to simplify decisions on the stallion in question.

The database should be relatively easy to use with clear explanations of the forms and the fields. Menus and forms confirm data is entered the same way every time. The data should be backed up at least monthly, more so during the busy breeding season to guard against loss of data due to natural, computer or human errors.

Strategize and Analyze
See attached Entity Relationship model.

Data Structures and Data Types
The field types are in the ER model. The primary keys are the stallion's names because the Jockey Club ensures names are not repeated in breeding stock, guaranteeing a unique identifier in the data tables. The names of thoroughbreds are limited to 18 spaces not including the country they were bred in. For example, The Prime Minister (Can), thus the field size for a stallion name will be 24. Stud fees are neither number nor currency because some stallions may not have their stud fee set or the price could be under private treaty. The other fields are self explanatory with number, currency, text and date fields. The data table structures are columnar, with one to one relationship (may or may not be true) and the stallion's name is the common entry that links the tables together.

Data Entry and Editing
A menu is the starting point of all data entry and editing, with buttons to direct which data entry/editing form should be used. Data entry would be in forms with drop down lists for stallion name, stud fee, and a search button to search for the stallion(s) with the same information checked off in the form. Data editing would also be accomplished through forms with passwords to secure the overall format from changes from unauthorized personnel.

Ad Hoc Query
Ad Hoc queries are usually not planned in the beginning and usually are not used often. There are two types of Ad Hoc queries, listing and statistical. Some listing queries are listing of the stallions by sire, number of crops, stud fee, racing earnings, average earnings of foals, and number of winners in each category. Statistical queries would be to find the average earnings of foals for the stallion band, which stallion had the highest numbers of stakes winners, highest percentage of graded winners,

Documentation
Documentation would include the MS Access manual, definitions of the abbreviations used and field specifics. Materials needed to input stud fees, number of mares bred and nominations would come from the farm's own records. The Jockey Club would supply official three-generation pedigree, race record and progeny statistics.
Ergonomics

Ergonomics is achieved based on the quality of the database. The easier it is on the data entry person, the fewer errors and higher the quality of the database. It is accomplished by a menu with buttons for each data entry form and data entry/editing forms with radial, check and drop down list boxes to search and display the information wanted simplify data entry.  Data types, primary keys and validation rules ensure the correct data is inputted. The reports will be in the standard layout used by other Thoroughbred establishments.

Choice of Software Package and Hardware Platform Used
The choice of computer hardware would be an IBM combatable, because they are cheaper and more widely used, although a Macintosh machine would also be capable of using the same program. The operating system would be Windows 95/98 and perhaps down the line Windows NT 5.0. The choice of software would most likely be MS Access, although there are other database programs and numerous stallion management programs are also available, including one from the Jockey Club, which would have a number of special calculations that a farm may consider necessary, such as Dosage Profile, Dosage Index, Center of Distribution, Racing Index, Average Earnings Index and Comparative Sire Index.