Am I just unlucky or am I doing it all wrong?
eg. do certain types of horses have to be mated with certain types or are some stallions just not so hot?

Between breedings not happening very often and horses being sick or injured all the time, I'm wondering if this is a racing game or a game about a vet's college.
It's got so bad now that any horses that are injured regularly are just put up for sale.

I accept that in real life there are a few injuries in jump racing but not so many in flat racing.
If there were anywhere near as many injuries in real racing as there are here then there would be no owners left in the sport.

Anyway back to my original question, is there a secret to successful breeding (and please keep your answers clean).

Thanks.

There are lots of threads about breeding, but I have found breeding very hit and miss in SO5. I think that less is more, only breed those you are sure about, if you aren't sure about a stallion/mare don't use it.

With the injuries, they are pretty realistic. Trust me they happen even more often in real racing, it's just horses. They actually probably happen more often in flat racing because you're dealing with babies, you just don't hear about it. You hear more about NH injuries because they are quite often worse. From what I can gather you don't get quite so many injuries at home with NH horses (because you're working with older, stronger horses plus the training is slightly different) but there is the added risk with the jumps. So in my eyes nothing to complain about with injuries, though I know it is frustrating.

I haven't found any pattern. IMO it's hit and miss with more miss in the mix.

Advance till you're at day 2 in the breeding countdown. Save. Load game and advance one day and if not successful then ctrl-alt-del and reload. 100% success

And yes I do that all the time.