Archive for September, 2006
Friday, September 29th, 2006
They are:
- ALBERT THE GREAT — $7,500
- DYNAFORMER — $150,000 (up from $100,000 in 2006)
- GOOD REWARD — $15,000
- MEDALLIST — $8,500
- POINT GIVEN — $30,000 (down from $50,000 in 2006)
- RAHY — $60,000 (down from $75,000 in 2006)
- SKY MESA — $30,000
- SMARTY JONES — $100,000
- WAR CHANT — $30,000 (down from $60,000 in 2006)
- YES IT’S TRUE — $35,000
Final score: 1 stud fee UP, 3 stud fees DOWN, and 4 stud fees remain the same. Overall, good news for breeders!
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Thursday, September 28th, 2006
BALLENA VISTA FARM in Ramona, CA becomes the first farm in North America to announce their 2007 stud fees. They are:
BEAU GENIUS – $4,000 live foal (down from $6,000 in 2006)
SEA OF SECRETS – $5,000 live foal (up from $3,500 in 2006)
DEPUTY COMMANDER – $10,500 live foal (moved from Airdrie Stud in Kentucky where he stood for $10,000 in 2006)
Note: Sea of Secrets is having his best year at stud with 14 2yo winners, including undefeated 2yo sensation Principle Secret, winner of the G2 Best Pal Stakes at Del Mar on 8/13/06.
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Thursday, September 28th, 2006
While impatiently waiting for the upcoming flood of 2007 stud fee announcements, I’ve been debating with our staff about which stallions will have increased stud fees next year. Here is my list candidates who a) are likely to fill their books quickly, and b) will have a higher stud fee in 2007 than they did in 2006, all of this based on the performance of their progeny in 2006.
FIVE STAR DAY stands at Wintergreen Stallion Station in Midway, KY. He stood for $15,000 in 2006. With his first crop 3yo’s of 2006, he’s been an atypical son of Carson City to date. Carson City and his sons at stud are known for precocious 2yo’s who excel at sprint distances. In fact, the average winning distance of all of Carson City’s SWs is 6.8 furlongs. Five Star Day’s first 2yo crop, on the other hand, ended the year with just nine winners and one SW. But they’ve come on like gangbusters in 2006 with 24 more first-crop winners bringing his total to 31 winners from 62 foals. More importantly, he’s now had four first-crop SWs to go with two second-crop SWs this year. Interestingly, the average winning distance of his six SWs is 7.9 furlong, a full furlong longer than Carson City. If Five Star Day’s progeny continue to display multi-dimensional talent in stakes-level company, he could be something special.
JOHANNESBURG stands at Ashford Stud in Versailles, KY. He stood for $25,000 in 2006. Johannesburg’s first crop has come out of the gate running! He’s had five SWs (3 in America/2 in Europe) with three of them graded, ranking him No. 1 among freshman sires. And, he’s currently 2nd to Officer for leading freshman sire honors by progeny earnings. One of Ashford’s strong suits is that they always, in my opinion, keep their stallions attractively price and adjust stud fees whenever necessary to maintain demand. So, I’m sure they’ll raise Johannesburg’s stud fee but I think it will be a modest increase, even considering the success and quality of his runners to date.
MORE THAN READY stands at Vinery in Lexington, KY. He stood for $30,000 in 2006. With his first crop now just 4yo’s, he has tallied 12 unrestricted SWs (7 of them first-time SWs) in 2006, ranking him 3rd nationally among all stallions in this category. Moreover, he has a whopping 27 SWs from his first four crops while his first three crops have averaged EIGHT SWs per crop. As the quality of his books of mares get better (no doubt they will considering his stats), I expect to see his stakes winner production to follow suit.
OFFICER stands at Gainesway in Lexington, KY. He is currently North America’s leading freshman sire by progeny earnings, North America’s leading sire of 2yo winners (tied with Yonagushka), and second to Johannesburg in SWs with 4. What more needs to be said? Not bad for a stallion who stood for $15,000 in 2006. You can surely forget about $15,000 in 2007!
Well, that’s it for this blog. More to follow.
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Tuesday, September 26th, 2006
For chef-de-race aficionado’s who may have missed Dr. Steven Roman’s recent appointment, Rainbow Quest has been made a Classic/Solid chef-de-race.
Coincidentally, WTC has just added three new Quality chefs to their list of breed-shaping stallions. They are:
SOUTHERN HALO – Considered by many as Argentina’s greatest modern stallion, he has sired more than 140 stakes winners to date. Just like “horses for courses,” there are “stallions for regions,” and American-bred Southern Halo turned out to be a perfect fit for Argentina. After so much success in South America, he was brought to America in 1996 and stood at Ashford Stud for six years, but only sired 10 unrestricted stakes winners. While he wasn’t as compatible with American bloodstock, he did leave his mark through his son More Than Ready, who is on his way to becoming a major stallion. In fact, with 12 SWs in 2006, he is just one behind this year’s leading sires of unrestricted SWs – Distorted Humor and Giant’s Causeway.
With the appointment of Southern Halo to Quality chef status, More Than Ready now contributes 24 total points to his offspring, the most possible for a stallion who is not himself a chef, and a total that more accurately reflects More Than Ready’s success.
CANDY STRIPES – While not in the same league as Southern Halo, Candy Stripes has been a very successful stallion in Argentina, siring over 50 SWs to date. He, too, had a stint in America, standing at Taylor Made Farm for four years, but with even less success than Southern Halo. However, some of his South American imports have made their mark on racing here. They include 2005 Eclipse Champion Turf Male Leroidesanimaux, and 2006 racing sensation Invasor, winner of three G1’s this year. If he wins the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Invasor will become Champion Older Male and probably Horse of the Year. Candy Stripes is also the broodmare sire of Argentine Champion Miler Candy Ride, who came to America and set a NTR winning the G1 Pacific Classic in 1:59 flat.
CRIMSON SATAN – Here is an old-timer who’s been an important speed influence on the breed. He can be found in the pedigrees of America’s premier stallion Storm Cat , as well as Mt. Livermore, Pioneering, and Royal Academy, to name a few. With the elevation of Crimson Satan to Quality chef status, Storm Cat now contributes 38 out of a possible 40 points to his offspring. This is what you’d expect from America’s best.
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Thursday, September 21st, 2006
Without question, Storm Cat and A.P. Indy currently stand alone as America’s two most successful active stallions. A.P. Indy will be 18 for the next breeding season and probably has seven or eight years left for the breeding shed. Storm Cat, on the other hand, will be 24 in 2007, so he’s probably got three or four years left for covering mares. This begs the question “Who’s going to fill the vacuum created when one of these two is eventually pensioned?” There are several worthy candidates waiting in the wings such as Distorted Humor (1994) and Unbridled’s Song (1993), but my pick is 2006’s current leading sire of unrestricted SWs, Ashford Stud’s Giant’s Causeway (1997).
With just his third crop going to the races this year, Giant’s Causeway has already sired 19 unrestricted SWs, including 12 GSWs. Five of those are G1 winners, including Champion Shamardal, Two Thousand Guineas winner Footstepsinthesand, and Coronation Stakes winner Maids Causeway from his first crop!
Giant’s Causeway has been a commercial success as well with 34 yearlings selling this year for an average of $352,919 and a medium of $240,000, impressive considering that these yearlings were bred on a $75,000 stud fee. In fact, he covered a book in 2006 at $300,000 live foal. These numbers are consistent with his 55 yearlings that sold in 2005 for an average of $410,049 and a medium of $336,212, while being bred on a $125,000 stud fee. In 2006, he covered a full book of mares at $300,000 live foal.
In addition to a world-class race record and outstanding pedigree, my most compelling reason for selecting Giant’s Causeway is the fact that he has a pedigree free of Mr. Prospector. This makes him an outcross for much of the top-end of the broodmare population in the U.S. Throughout the majority of Mr. Prospector’s stud career he was bred to the very best mares available so its not surprising that many his daughters would become major producers. The stats bear this out. Mr. Prospector was the leading broodmare sire in the U.S. in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, and is the current leader in 2006. (He was 2nd to Dixieland Band in 2004).
Consequently, a son or grandson of Mr. Prospector today doesn’t really have the option of covering daughters or granddaughters of Mr. Prospector, as this would create risky tail-male line inbreeding to Mr. Prospector, either 2×2, 2×3, or 3×2. While breeding a grandson of Mr. Prospector to a granddaughter would make the inbreeding to a little more acceptable at 3×3, this hasn’t shown much success to date.
When you add to the mix that Mr. Prospector has proven to be an exceptionally strong nick with Storm Cat and Rahy (Giant’s Causeway’s broodmare sire), Mr. Prospector-line mares appear to be ideal mates for Giant’s Causeway. To date, his most successful runners confirm this. Of his 19 SWs, 12 of them are out of Mr. Prospector-line mares (Crafty Prospector, Fappiano, Forty Niner, Gone West, Kingmambo, Lycius, Machiavellian, Miswaki, Seeking the Gold, Zafonic, and two Mr. Prospector’s). That’s a whopping 63%!
Argument can be made Giant’s Causeway’s ascension to the top of the U.S. stallion ranks might be compromised by the “grass factor.” He won all of his races on the turf (although he only lost the Breeders’ Cup Classic by a neck). And, 14 of his 19 SWs have won on the turf. But we must not forget that he stood his first season at Coolmore Stud in Ireland, so you most of his entire first crop had no opportunity to run on the dirt nor was he even bred to anything other than turf mares. Plus, polytrack is coming and I believe this well level the dirt sire/turf sire playing field. It is, in my opinion, too soon makes assumptions regarding him being a turf sire only, and I believe his progeny will excel on both surfaces. One oddity I’ve noticed is that 13 of Giant’s Causeway’s 19 SWs are fillies but four of his five G1 winners are colts.
Well, that’s my case and time will tell.
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Wednesday, September 20th, 2006
After launching our new website, as well as making Best of Sale selections for the Keeneland September Sale, not to mention providing stallion recommendations for 107 mares for one of our clients, I decided I needed a vacation prior to the September sale and breeding season. So, I was off to Paris (France, not Kentucky) for six days and returned in time to attend days 4, 5, and 6 of the Keeneland sale. All of this is in an effort to explain why I haven’t written a blog since September 6. Well, I’m now back, refreshed, and I plan to write on a regular basis, providing information breeders will find useful for the upcoming breeding season.
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Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
When we launched eNicks on-line in December 2003, we were optimistic about its prospects. But the magnitude of its success over the past two-and-one-half years went beyond our wildest expectations, highlighted by 240,765 eNicks retrieved on-line in 2005 alone!
Last night while checking the totals, I was amazed to see that 31,366 eNicks were retrieved during the month of August 2006 compared with 10,494 during August 2005. In addition, 9,170 eNicks have been retrieved during the first FIVE days of September compared to 14,747 eNick retrievals for the ENTIRE month of September 2005.
Our all-time record for one month is 50,083 in January 2006. At the current rate of retrievals, September 2006 will hit 50,000 and 60,000, and the possibility of a half-million eNicks for 2006 is beginning to look like a real possibility�
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Jack Werk (1944-2010)
