corfu confirms juvenile sales promise with sanford success

Tags

corfu, malibu moon, peace rules, sanford stakes, saratoga racing, spendthrift farm

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The successful Spendthrift Farm stallion Malibu Moon has had a great year. Sire of Kentucky Derby winner Orb and a half-dozen other 2013 stakes winners, including such major performers as Freedom Child, More Chocolate, and Kauai Katie, Malibu Moon has continued to rise higher and higher among the nation’s premier stallions.

His 2-year-old son Corfu, now an unbeaten winner of the Grade 2 Saratoga Special on Sunday, is added evidence for the argument that the 16-year-old son of A.P. Indy is an important contributor to breeding and to the competitiveness of our sport.

But a sire, no matter how good, is only part of the equation. And it is worth noting that Corfu is out of the Forest Wildcat mare Fashion Cat, which ought to add speed to the equation, whereas Kentucky Derby and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Unbridled, broodmare sire of Orb, ought to add stamina and classic quality.

Though from different lines and physical types, both matches worked out nicely and have produced athletes of enviable talent.

And nobody was unaware of the speed inherent in Corfu, the son of Fashion Cat, after he slashed through a quarter-mile breeze at the 2013 Barretts March select sale of 2-year-olds in training in :20 4/5. That was a very quick work, but it was the smooth and professional way he went about the business that caught the eye of buyers and their advisers.

In addition to generalities about the colt’s breeze, from material supplied by DataTrack International, we know that Corfu showed a stride length of nearly 26 feet for the work, more than a foot longer than the average for a sale when the stride lengths were quite long. (An average stride length at another sale would typically be 23 feet and some fraction.)

As a result of his speed, stride length, and manner of going, Corfu scored a very good BreezeFig speed figure of 67, which placed him well within the top prospects at the Barretts sale. The nice-looking colt had caught enough attention with his display of speed that Demi O’Byrne bought him for $675,000, and the colt campaigns for Michael Tabor, John Magnier, and Derrick Smith.

Corfu is now unbeaten in two starts, with earnings of $168,000.

This promising young G2 winner is the fifth foal and first stakes winner out of the winning broodmare Fashion Cat. Nearly a decade ago, the dam had been a high-priced 2-year-old in training. She brought $630,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale of in February of 2004 when it was still held at Calder racecourse. The mare had been a $120,000 yearling the previous year at the Saratoga selected yearling sale and was clearly a nice type.

In addition to her looks and speed, Fashion Cat is a half-sister to G1 winner Peace Rules (by Jules), a winner of $3 million who scored victories in the Haskell, Blue Grass, Suburban, Louisiana Derby, and other important races. An attractively balanced and muscular chestnut, Peace Rules also ran third behind Funny Cide and Empire Maker in the Kentucky Derby and is now at stud in Korea.

That Fashion Cat’s racing career was limited to three starts, with a single victory and earnings of $29,240, was disappointing, but she showed ability and was given a chance as a broodmare with both expensive and highly accomplished stallions.

Her first foal, by Horse of the Year Ghostzapper, sold for $400,000, and the mare’s first half-dozen yearlings yielded nearly $1 million at auction. Some of the early foals showed ability. Gaucho, the Ghostzapper first foal, won three of eight starts, earning $66,430, but none among the mare’s first five offspring had advanced to win black type till last weekend.

The mare has a yearling filly by leading sire Tapit, but at some point during 2012, the mare’s owners judged that she should go through the sales, and therefore was sent to auction at the 2012 Keeneland November sale. Due to the lack of black-type production, Fashion Cat went through the ring for $35,000, selling to Bethel Ridge Stable. This spring, the mare foaled a filly by Artie Schiller.

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malibu moon’s “other” classic contender skips to victory in the peter pan

Tags

ap indy male line, classic sires, country life farm, freedom child, malibu moon, spendthrift farm, west point stable

The following post first appeared at Paulick Report.

The first time I saw Malibu Moon was at the Pons family’s Country Life Farm in Maryland in the fall of 1999, just before the colt entered stud the following year.

There was not much to know about the young horse, a winner and second in his only two starts as a juvenile, but he clearly had a first-rate pedigree. And in person, Malibu Moon (by A. P. Indy) was even more impressive. Tall, scopey, strong, and blessed with considerable bone, Malibu Moon was a fine specimen, and it was easy to see the attractions that brought him to stud, even with a minimal race record.

More than a decade later, Malibu Moon is a household name for those of us with an interest in racing and breeding, and the stallion stood at Spendthrift Farm in 2013 for a fee of $70,000 live foal for owner-breeder Wayne Hughes.

If one wanted to criticize the stallion, the hole in his sire record was the absence of a classic-winning colt. And then Orb filled the blank with a flourish in the Kentucky Derby. The bay colt will next carry the Janney family’s red and white silks in this Saturday’s Preakness as he attempts to win the second jewel of the Triple Crown for Janney and the Phipps Stable.

Should Orb succeed at Pimlico, he will attempt to complete the elusive triple, and there he will meet another son of Malibu Moon, Freedom Child. The latter won the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont Park on Saturday by 13 1/4 lengths in the time of 1:49.09 on a sloppy racetrack, and he will be one entry given due consideration in three and a half weeks when the final classic is run.

Bred in Kentucky by Spendthrift Farm, Freedom Child went to the Saratoga select yearling sale in New York conducted by Fasig-Tipton two years ago and brought a final bid of $350,000 from St Elias Stable and West Point Thoroughbreds, with Spendthrift retaining a percentage of the colt.

Spendthrift Farm’s general manager Ned Toffey said, “We own a third of the horse. He was a really big, obvious-looking sort of yearling. He is correct, had a big, easy walk. We thought he would do well as a sales yearling and then were able to stay in for a piece. To their credit, West Point gave him plenty of time because he was a big, growthy colt. He was probably at the training center a little later and finished later than some horses.”

Good size and growthiness is not uncommon among the A. P. Indy-line stock, and Freedom Child got some of that from the other side of his pedigree too.

The dam of the Peter Pan winner is the 10-year-old Deputy Minister mare Bandstand. A winner in one of her 10 starts on the racetrack, Bandstand sold to Spendthrift for $520,000 (pre-depression bucks) at the 2007 Keeneland November sale. The mare was carrying her first foal to a cover by the Unbridled stallion Eddington, and Freedom Child is the mare’s third foal, third winner, and first stakes winner.

Toffey said, “We bought her based primarily on her pedigree and her looks. She is good-looking and is a good-sized mare with length. We’ve been pleased with the foals she’s produced, and Freedom Child has combined those looks with graded stakes success.

“We bought her carrying Eddie’s Band (Eddington). He looked to have a world of ability, and we saw the horse work bullet after bullet, but that hasn’t translated into much success,” with a single win from 16 starts to date.

Freedom Child was a May 18 foal, and Bandstand did not have a foal the following year. Toffey said, “You wouldn’t normally take a May foal to Saratoga, but that tells you what sort of individual he was. The yearling full sister is really nice, but we haven’t decided what to do with her yet.” The mare has a yearling bay filly by Malibu Moon and is carrying her 2013 foal on a cover to Tizway (Tiznow). “She would be bred to Malibu Moon, although we might just end up waiting till next year because she is a mare who tends to go long on her pregnancies,” Toffey said.

Bandstand is out of Grade 1 winner City Band, one of the very best racing daughters of the important stallion Carson City (Mr. Prospector). Showing her best form at two, City Band won the G1 Oak Leaf Stakes and G3 Golden Rod, and then finished second in the G1 Hollywood Starlet in 1996. As a broodmare for Overbrook Farm, City Band produced stakes winners Weather Warning (Storm Cat) and Foolishly (Broad Brush) and is the second dam of G3 winner American Lion (Tiznow), who is at stud in Kentucky at Darby Dan Farm.

‘share the upside’ hits with first-crop spendthrift stallion into mischief

Tags

goldencents, harlan's holiday, into mischief, share the upside program, spendthrift farm, vyjack, wayne hughes

The following article first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

With a pair of stakes victors in the two races for colts hoping to earn a berth in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday in May, the Spendthrift Farm stallion Into Mischief has rocketed into a leading role among the sires of classic candidates.

The son of Harlan’s Holiday was a leading fancy for the classics himself after a good-looking win in the Hollywood Futurity, and he has a pair of appealing prospects in Goldencents, winner of the G3 Sham Stakes at Santa Anita, and Vyjack, winner of the G2 Jerome Stakes at Aqueduct.

Goldencents has good collateral form with divisional leader Shanghai Bobby (by Into Mischief’s sire Harlan’s Holiday) because Goldencents finished second to the obvious Eclipse choice in the G1 Champagne, which has been the only loss in four starts for Goldencents. The colt won his second stakes in the Sham.

The successes of Into Mischief’s late-season juveniles have increased the demand for seasons to him to such a degree that the stallion’s advertised fee is now $20,000 live foal on a stand and nurse contract.

Into Mischief was one of Spendthrift’s original Share the Upside stallions. Under this program, breeders purchased seasons to the horse for two consecutive years, and for the price of the two paid seasons, they became owners of a lifetime breeding right in the horse.

Access to the horse under those terms is looking rather salty today.

Goldencents, bred in Kentucky by Rosecrest Farm and Karyn Pirrello, was a $5,500 yearling at Fasig-Tipton Kentucky’s 2011 October yearling sale and resold at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June auction for $62,000.

The colt’s dam is the Banker’s Gold mare Golden Works, who is now a 12-year-old. The mare was consigned to the Keeneland January sale and cataloged in Book 3 as Hip 1544, the 10th hip of the day on the last day of the sale, but she has been declared out.

That is not a surprising move, as the mare was cataloged as “not mated,” and her produce record shows two years not mated, one year not pregnant, and two foals, aged 4 and 5, listed as unnamed. Goldencents, however, is a good horse, and he has made his dam a mare of value for someone’s program.

Like Goldencents, Vyjack was bred in Kentucky. The newly minted 3-year-old is a bay gelding and is out of the Stravinsky mare Life Happened. Now unbeaten in three starts, Vyjack holds promise of greater things for his owners, Pick Six Racing, and breeder Machmer Hall.

Life Happened is a half-sister to multiple G3 stakes winner Disco Rico, and the mare is also the dam of Prime Cut (Bernstein), who ran second in the G3 Lexington Stakes at Keeneland and third in the G2 Peter Pan at Belmont in 2011. She has a 2-year-old filly by Bernstein who is a full sister to Prime Cut named Tepin, and the mare’s yearling is a filly by leading sire More Than Ready.

Vyjack sold for $45,000 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July selected yearling sale, then resold for $100,000 at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale of 2-year-olds in training last May.

At the Midlantic sale at Timonium, Vyjack worked three furlongs in :34 2/5, which was the fastest work at that distance. He looked good doing it also, covering the ground efficiently with strides of approximately 24.75 feet in length and a BreezeFig that ranked him in the leading cadre of Group 1 workers at the breeze show.

Both of these young challengers for the classic preps that lie ahead appear ready to get “into mischief” for the Triple Crown.

lord avie recalls a livelier era of racing

Tags

lord avie, spendthrift farm, stallion valuation

The news that 1980’s champion juvenile colt, Lord Avie, died on Dec. 28 is the lead to a fine piece at Paulick Report by Steve Montemarano. The writer had a close relationship with the horse’s trainer, Dan Perlsweig, and brings some details to the story that give it greater depth and interest.

In surveying Lord Avie’s career, Montemarano mentions that Lord Avie began the trend of stallion syndications that included escalator clauses to increase the stallion’s price if he accomplished more at the racetrack.

In his column at Daily Racing Form 31 years ago, Logan Bailey reported on the details of Lord Avie’s syndication. There were 40 shares priced at $250,000 for a base value of $10 million if the “colt never again sets a foot on the race track.”

The share price was set to rise by $100,000 if Lord Avie won the Kentucky Derby, and it would have risen another $100,000 if Lord Avie had won any two of these four races: Preakness, Belmont, Jockey Club Gold Cup, and Marlboro Cup. If Lord Avie had won the Eclipse Award as champion 3-year-old it would have added $100,000 to the share but with a ceiling of $500,000 gross for a share no matter if he swept the board by winning all.

That had never happened before, and the horse didn’t win any of the premiums that would have escalated his stud value and share price, retired after reinjuring a suspensory in the Travers in August, and entered stud at Spendthrift Farm in 1982.

Lord Avie was a good horse, a solid athlete who probably would have made a better classic colt than a juvenile, and in retrospect, he should have given classic winner Pleasant Colony a tussle for his success and championship. But he never got the chance, and I believe the rotten escalator clause in his share contract was at the root of the problem.

Montemarano quotes Perlsweig about the influence of money on racing decisions related to Lord Avie: “Veterinarians Pete Hall, William O. Reed, and M. B. Teigland all said to run the horse in the Kentucky Derby. But the insurance people wouldn’t let us” because of fears of injury due to a suspensory inflammation. Instead, Lord Avie was withdrawn from training for the Kentucky Derby, and later that season came back and was injured then.

To say that this is one of the most vile and loathsome intrusions of breeding business speculation onto racing is an understatement. The purpose of racehorses is to race, and if they do not, they do not succeed, do not become as celebrated, and do not earn as grand a place at stud.

Yet in the fervid breeding and racing environment of the early 1980s, the valuation of Lord Avie wasn’t seen as harmful to racing or the overall business of breeding.

When the tax laws changed five years after his retirement, however, those “revisions” destroyed his value, along with that of thousands of other horses, and part of the collateral damage was the bankruptcy of Spendthrift Farm, along with many other entities. Following a couple more changes in ownership, Spendthrift is now owned by Wayne Hughes and stands leading sire Malibu Moon (by A.P. Indy).

Lord Avie never reached the heights of success attained by Malibu Moon, for example, but was nonetheless a pretty good stallion and sired 74 stakes winners. He was typically a force for soundness, despite the concerns for his own health, and he tended to get horses with the capacity to go two turns.

As a stallion, Lord Avie finished his career at Lane’s End, where he moved after the collapse of Spendthrift, and the 34-year-old was living at Blue Ridge Farm in Virginia as a respected and cared-for pensioner at the time of his death.

into mischief has flood of success with racers in the delta

Tags

delta jackpot, doug o'neill, goldencents, harlan's holiday, into mischief, spendthrift farm

The following post was first published earlier this week at Paulick Report.

Goldencents accomplished two things with his victory in the Grade 3 Delta Jackpot Stakes at Delta Downs in Louisiana on Saturday. The bay colt became the first stakes winner for his sire, the Harlan’s Holiday horse Into Mischief, and Goldencents underlined the quality of his comparative form with divisional champion pro tem Shanghai Bobby.
 
The line of form comes from the colt’s second start, when Goldencents, then only the winner of his début, had run a solid second to Shanghai Bobby in the G1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont. Trainer Doug O’Neill had put Goldencents on a program of racing and development similar to that of I’ll Have Another, who shipped east to Saratoga last year and ran in the G1 Hopeful Stakes, where he was off the board.

In contrast, Goldencents had a much more successful foray across the country, and only the presence of the unbeaten Shanghai Bobby (by Harlan’s Holiday) prevented Goldencents from becoming a G1 winner in his second start.
 
Since the Champagne, Shanghai Bobby has come back to win the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile narrowly over He’s Had Enough (Tapit), who is a stablemate of Goldencents.
 
Shanghai Bobby, as one of the most certain divisional champions this year, represents a new milestone for his sire Harlan’s Holiday (Harlan), a grandson of Storm Cat who has appreciated in value as a stallion after the successes of his first crop of racers on the nation’s tracks. That first crop included Into Mischief, as well as G3 winner and classic-placed Denis of Cork.

Shanghai Bobby, however, will be the first champion for his sire, and fellow G1 winner Into Mischief is the first son of Harlan’s Holiday to make waves as an emerging sire of considerable potential.
 
The winner of three races from six starts, Into Mischief won the G1 Futurity at Hollywood and ran second in the G1 Malibu at Santa Anita, and his stock seems to be maturing in similar fashion, showing speed, then getting better late at 2, like their sire, and showing some class.
 
In addition to Goldencents, Into Mischief’s daughter Sittin at the Bar ran third in the G3 Delta Princess Stakes, and the stallion’s five other juvenile winners were victorious in maiden special company.
 
Into Mischief stands at the Spendthrift Farm of Wayne Hughes, who also raced the horse. Into Mischief will stand for $7,500 live foal in 2013. That figure makes him an attractive commercial proposition, as his sire, Harlan’s Holiday, will stand for $35,000 next year at WinStar Farm.
 
Into Mischief and Shanghai Bobby are two of the three G1 winners by Harlan’s Holiday. The other is Majesticperfection, who stands for $7,500 at Airdrie and has foals of 2012.

Bred in Kentucky by Rosecrest Farm and Karyn Pirrello, Goldencents is the fourth foal of his dam, the Banker’s Gold mare Golden Works, and co-breeder Pirrello purchased the mare for $7,000 at the 2007 Keeneland January sale, empty on a cover to Officer. Although the mare then produced three live foals in succession, Goldencents is the only one of them to survive.
 
Co-breeder Charles Miller said that the first foal they bred out of the mare, a 2008 colt by Posse, “got some weird infection and died, and the other, a 2009 filly by Action This Day, was injured being broke and had to be euthanized.”
 
The mare foaled Goldencents in 2010, was not bred for a 2011 foal, and has a weanling colt by Will He Shine (Silver Deputy). Golden Works was not bred this year.
 
Another instance of a nice yearling sold inexpensively in a highly adversarial market, Goldencents brought $5,500 at the 2011 Fasig-Tipton October yearling sale from the consignment of Pope McLean’s Crestwood Farm. The colt then resold as a 2-year-old in training for $62,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company’s June auction of juveniles. His earnings to date, from two victories in three starts, total $722,000.

lean times making some changes in the stallion market

Tags

b wayne hughes, bernie sams, breeding rights in stallions, claiborne farm, economics of breeding, ned toffey, spendthrift farm, stallion syndication

The following post first appeared earlier this week at Paulick Report.

The retrenchment in the bloodstock markets resulting from the world economic depression touched all segments of Thoroughbred breeding, even the relatively insulated stallion market.

Not only have stallion prospects been harder to sell in the prevailing economic situation, but stallion farms have had to make cuts in fees and services, a few have adopted different practices to fit the changing economics, and some are even rumored to be precipitously on the edge of default.

The number of new stallions coming to stud has declined significantly, and the prices paid for them have had to decline because farms could not easily stand horses at high fees when prices for yearlings and mares were in a headlong decline.

Whereas just a few years ago, the premium stallion prospects were selling for tens of millions and going to stud for $100,000 or thereabouts, the priciest prospect this year is Uncle Mo (by Indian Charlie), who will enter stud at Coolmore’s Kentucky farm, Ashford, for a fee of $35,000.

The second-highest stud fee this year is $25,000 for Tizway (by Tiznow), who will stand at the Spendthrift Farm of B. Wayne Hughes. Spendthrift has retired more stallions the past few years than any other Kentucky farm, and a significant part of their ability to find breeders to use their stallions in a down market is a program called “Share the Upside” that allows breeders to earn a breeding right in stallions by the purchase of a set number of seasons to the horse.

Rob Whiteley, owner of Liberation Farm and co-breeder of Belmont Stakes winner Ruler on Ice, said that “I give B. Wayne Hughes and his staff at Spendthrift a lot of credit for their innovative thinking. The concept of stallion owners seeing breeders as partners in the success of their stallions and rewarding them accordingly is a long overdue and welcome idea. This approach benefits both sides and builds better relationships and a stronger industry over time.”

Ned Toffey, general manager at Spendthrift, said, “Mr. Hughes feels strongly that we have to offer value and take care of our breeders, especially small breeders. If we are charging as much as we can for stud fees, people are going to go elsewhere after the first or second year to minimize their financial risk. Without breeders, our stallions won’t have a chance to make it. What works for us also works for the breeders. Making this program affordable and something that is attractive to breeders will bring our customers back to breed year after year and instill some loyalty to the operation.”

The purchase of breeding rights, which are not equity in a stallion but are rights of use to him, is a distinct variation on the syndicate shares in stallions that became popular in the 1940s through the early 1980s but have generally fallen out of use since.

Recently, however, some farms have been having luck with their syndicated stallions and attracting attention to this method of sharing risk in a stallion prospect.

Bernie Sams of Claiborne Farm said, “We’ve been lucky. But, overall, I think owning shares has more to do with the farm that’s managing the stallion than anything. It’s about accessibility to the stallion.

“Especially with the less-expensive stallions, syndicates work well to give you a group of people out there talking about the horse, who are fans of the horse and want to help the horse succeed.”

Both stallion shares and breeding rights offer continuing rights of access to a stallion, which is only of continuing significance if the prospect becomes a success. But in the past 20 years, interest in that right of access has eroded, particularly among commercial breeders, as stallion farms, led by Coolmore’s various stallion operations, as well as those of Darley, have bought stallion prospects for very high prices, kept the entirety of the horses, sold as many seasons as possible, and let the chips fall.

Overall, this has proven a highly profitable commercial model for the stallion farms, but it has proven less so for the majority of breeders, and in this contracting marketplace, many breeders are selecting stallions for their management, as well as for their bloodlines and commercial appeal.

temple city: new ky stallions for 2011

Tags

breeding rights, dynaformer, economics of breeding, seasons and shares, spendthrift farm, stallion ownership, syndication, temple city

Temple City (2005 b by Dynaformer x Curriculum, by Danzig)

Spendthrift $5,000

A handsome and sizable individual by the noted Roberto stallion Dynaformer, Temple City has proven one of the most heavily patronized stallions in the Bluegrass this year.

In addition to being out of a half-sister to the fine stallion Malibu Moon, Temple City also has benefited from the offering of lifetime breeding rights in the horse for those who buy a season. (For more information on the program at Spendthrift, see this post.)

The program proved so popular for Temple City, in fact, that the decision makers at Spendthrift increased the number of breeding rights offered to breeders because of the demand.

It will be most interesting to see how programs such as this work out in the coming years, as farms that already own a stallion prospect (as was the case with Temple City) have much greater leeway in offering incentives to breeders and making special offerings for their participation in stallions.

Given the finances of the industry as a whole, some pattern of business will emerge as the preferred way of doing business, and at present, the tendency among many breeders is to shy away from stallions who are wholly owned by farms.

Whether the economic interests of all parties will intersect in old-style syndications with limits on total seasons available for use, lifetime breeding rights with no recurring expenses, or another format will be crucial to the long-term welfare of breeders.

And one thing is certain. The present system of virtually unlimited use, oversupply at every level, and uneconomic pricing is killing us all.

line of david: new ky stallions for 2011

Tags

broodmare compatibility, Kentucky Derby, line of david, lion heart, new stallions for 2011, spendthrift farm, super saver

Line of David (2007 ch by Lion Heart x Emma’s Dilemma, by Capote)

Spendthrift $7,500

Standing 16 hands, Line of David is much of what I would expect from a son of his sire, Lion Heart, a much-underrated stallion by Tale of the Cat. The chestnut Line of David won the Arkansas Derby, beating both Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver (Maria’s Mon) and 2009 Hopeful winner Dublin (by Afleet Alex).

The victory by Super Saver at Churchill Downs a few weeks later made the Arkansas form look pretty salty, and that was probably a big part of the reason that Spendthrift Farm bought the handsome chestnut son of Lion Heart.

Although reportedly purchased as a racing prospect, fate took an unsavory turn, and Spendthrift never got to send the bright chestnut to the races.

Unraced after the Arkansas Derby due to injury, Line of David is a typy and attractive horse with good balance and quality. He has a good head and eye, some presence and visual appeal that are typical of Lion Heart and his best offspring.

Line of David has good length of back and body for a horse his size and a good balance of shoulder and hip. He walks quite well and has both good hindleg extension and fluency at the walk.

In selecting mates for Line of David, he offers a genial combination of mid-range traits that are useful for many types of mares. With the caveat that matings to the Seattle Slew line might invoke too much Capote, Line of David should have general compatibility with a wide range of mares.

 

innovation in the breeding biz?

Tags

economics of thoroughbred breeding, lifetime breeding rights, line of david, ned toffey, spendthrift farm, temple city, thoroughbred breeding, warrior's reward, wayne hughes

After the fall yearling sales and the broodmare and weanling auctions of the past few months, the screams of breeders could be heard round the world. They were, as a group, not very happy.

Some stallion farms in Kentucky appear to have heard this too.

A few have noticeably lowered; others have tried some different approaches to standing their stallions and involving breeders.

Among the farms getting the most breeder response for innovation is Spendthrift Farm, owned by Wayne Hughes and standing leading sire Malibu Moon.

With the new stallions that Spendthrift has stood recently, the operation has tried a program called “Share the Upside.”

Farm manager Ned Toffey said that “by participating in this program, a breeder typically breeds two mares to the stallion, pays both stud fees, and then has a lifetime breeding right in the horse. It has been well received.”

Spendthrift is standing three new stallions for the 2011 breeding season, Arkansas Derby winner Line of David, Carter Handicap winner Warrior’s Reward, and Cougar Handicap winner Temple City. Of these, the latter is least known to the general public, but he too has quite popular in this program.

Toffey said, “He has about 100 mares now, and he has been one of the most popular programs we’ve done. With Temple City, we offered a lifetime breeding right to breeders for breeding a single mare and paying the stud fee. With him, our first priority was getting mares to the horse. There are a lot of breeding theories out there, but no stallion can get a stakes winner from a mare he hasn’t bred.”

The desire to get solid representation to the stallion was allied with the family dynamics. Temple City’s sire Dynaformer started his stud career at $3,500, and his dam is a half-sister to Malibu Moon, who entered stud in Maryland at $3,000.

“With the Spendthrift stallions, the number of breeding rights varies,” Toffey said, “and we started Temple City with 60. But it was so popular that we added more, and many of the mares coming to him are breeding right mares.”

In the economic turmoil of the breeding business, Toffey believes that “breeders are more discerning in what they buy, and they have to be. You have to offer breeders value now, or it isn’t worth their while. And as with most endeavors, ownership of a breeding right encourages people to contribute to the horse’s success. All of that dovetails with Mr. Hughes’s feeling that if we don’t take care of the breeders, we’re lost.”

One of the reasons that Spendthrift can create these programs is that they “own most of the stallions outright,” Toffey said.

They are therefore sharing the wealth, in a sense, by giving breeders a stake in their own success. If programs such as this succeed, they are sure to alter the way stallion operations do business: breeding, racing, selling or buying, and standing stallions.

how do you breed good horses?

Tags

breeding thoroughbreds, commercial breeding, decisions in mating thoroughbreds, mockingbird farm, racing class in the sire, spendthrift farm, valid appeal, wajima

One of the biggest misunderstandings about breeding Thoroughbreds among most people outside the breeding business is that they expect there is a detailed consideration of physique, esoteric pedigree information, and some kind of deep insight involved in every mating that produces a good horse.

Here’s the truth. Most breeders in the commercial side ask themselves, “What is this mare worth and what stallion will get a sales-worthy foal out of her?” That’s it.

And when you consider that this is their job (breeding to sell, not breeding to race), you understand how things stand at the sales.

That said, some of the very best breeders I have met in nearly 30 years of writing and reading about Thoroughbred breeding are also commercial breeders. But each of those approaches the game this way: they breed as if they were going to race that foal.

One of those fellows is adamant about racing class in the sire. He will not use even a G1 winner that he thinks is a hound, who had his best day on the right day.

In discussing racing class, we got around to talking about Valid Appeal (1972 b h by In Reality x Desert Trial, by Moslem Chief), who won a single stakes (Dwyer), ran second in the Saratoga Special and Jerome, third in the Futurity and Saranac. His analysis of Valid Appeal was that he was a pretty good racehorse who overcame a lot. The son of In Reality was quite small, not especially “correct” in conformation, and went to stud after a dud season at 4.

The point that closed the deal for Valid Appeal as a stallion with this breeder is who he raced against and beat. He said, “The colt had speed, tons of it, like most of the In Reality stock. That’s good, but look at the horses he beat.”

Prime among those was Wajima, a big and gorgeous son of Bold Ruler who ran second to Valid Appeal in the Dwyer before going on a five-race winning streak that ended with victory in the Marlboro Cup and the Eclipse Award as leading 3yo colt of 1975. Wajima was syndicated for millions to stand at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, and Valid Appeal had a listless 4yo campaign before going to stud at Mockingbird Farm in Ocala. The little guy never looked back.