Archive for the ‘Breeding’ Category

Four American-based stallions-Cuvee, Yonaguska, Lion Heart and Dehere–and Irish-based Powerscourt are scheduled to arrive in Turkey this week to stand at stud as the property of the Turkish Jockey Club.

According to Kentucky-based bloodstock agent Ric Waldman, who advised and assisted the Turkish Jockey Club in the acquisitions, Dehere is being leased while the other four stallions have been purchased by the Turkish Jockey Club. Dehere and Lion Heart previously stood at Coolmore/Ashford Stud in Kentucky, while Powerscourt was scheduled to stand at Coolmore in Ireland after beginning his career at Ashford. Cuvee was at Gainesway, while Yonaguska stood at Elite Thoroughbreds in Louisiana after previously standing at Vinery in Kentucky. The American-based horses are expected to arrive Wednesday with Powerscourt due later in the week.

"All stallions are already extremely popular with Turkish bfreeders and are expected to stand to full books of mares," Waldman said.

By Ray Paulick
Will Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs win a sixth consecutive Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder, or will Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah break Stronach’s streak and win a fifth Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder in the name of his Juddmonte Farm?

Adena Springs, Juddmonte and Dolphus Morrison are the three finalists in the breeder category.

Stronach’s massive operation finished atop the list of North American breeders by money won for the seventh year in a row, though the total earnings of horses bred in the name of Adena Springs took a substantial drop in 2009 from the previous year. Adena had 568 winners in 2009 from 3,903 starts and total earnings of $12,853,329. The average earnings per start was $3,293. In 2008, Adena Springs-bred horses earned $19,217,703.

Stronach’s operation produced only two American Graded Stakes winners of 2009—both of them Grade 3 winners.

Juddmonte Farm finished second in money won, with $7,055,631 in earnings from 310 starts and 46 wins. Juddmonte-breds earned an average $22,760 per start, and the operation produced four American Graded Stakes winners—three of them Grade 1, Ventura, Midships and Midday. No other breeder produced three individual Grade 1 winners of 2009.

For my money, Juddmonte far outperformed Adena Springs in 2009, but Eclipse Award voters haven’t looked beyond the earnings list in recent years, and it would not surprise me to see Adena Springs win again. Juddmonte received its first Eclipse Award as outstanding breeder in 1995, then won three in a row, from 2001-03. Adena Springs has won each year since 2004, and Stronach won a previous award in his own name in 2000.

The third finalist, Dolphus Morrison, bred just one American Graded Stakes winner, Rachel Alexandra, a finalist for Horse of the Year with Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta. It seems a bit odd that Morrison received the third highest-number of votes, given the fact that breeders of one big horse are seldom recognized with an Eclipse Award.

In fact, in the history of the awards, only one breeder, Golden Chance Farm, was voted an Eclipse Award primarily because of one horse. Golden Chance bred John Henry and won the outstanding breeder award in 1981 in the first of John Henry’s two Horse of the Year campaigns.

There were three breeding operations that bred five individual American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, and none of them received enough support to be a finalist for an Eclipse Award. Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley bred five American Graded Stakes winners of 10 AGS races; Mr. and Mrs. Robert McNair’s Stonerside bred five AGS winners of seven races; and Kenny Troutt and Bill Casner’s WinStar Farm bred five AGS winners of five races.

In my opinion, quality should come into play when Eclipse Award voters assess each year’s outstanding breeders. Having the largest operation and breeding the winners of the most money does not equate to quality. Adena Springs has had some very good years and has produced a number of champions, and several of those previous Eclipse Awards were well deserved. If Adena Springs wins this year, however, the voters got it wrong.

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While it was no surprise that 76% of 2009 graded stakes winners came from the sire lines of Northern Dancer, Mr. Prospector and Bold Ruler, Jeff Scott of the The Saratogian points out some of the less likely sires to have that kind of success.

And I thought Birdonthewire was a 1990 Goldie Hawn/Mel Gibson flick…

Click here for the entire Saratogian article

Then come back to the Paulick Report and let us know what you think.

- Bradford Cummings

By Bradford Cummings
When your life is on the line, no doctor of any credibility would even think twice about you seeking a second opinion on his diagnosis. So when thousands, sometimes millions of dollars are in the balance, wouldn’t it be nice to consult a second opinion without upsetting your highly paid and trusted pedigree advisor?
 
This quandary is the core of Sid Fernando’s burgeoning company eMatings.com. But don’t worry; this equine version of eHarmony comes without the annoying theme song about everlasting love. Instead, when you go to eMatings.com, you are met with the expertise of some of the top pedigree experts from around the world. From U.S. notables Jack Werk, John Sparkman, Frank Mitchell and Mr. Fernando himself, to Japan’s Shin Hikita, Australia’s Kristen Manning to South Africa’s Karel Miedema and Argentina’s Diego Mitagstein, the spectrum of pedigree analysts offered by this only-on-the-web innovation is quite impressive.
 
The process is quite simple too, even for those who are not as computer literate as they’d like to be. Simply click the Order Now button on the top bar of the webpage and follow the directions. At the end of your journey, you will have a list of five stallions that your selected expert will have suggested as good matings for your mare. Even better, the process only costs $150, a welcome price point for these difficult economic times.
 
So how can you get five recommendations from these well regarded pedigree experts at a price 3-4 times less than they would normally charge? Call this the Twitter of pedigree analysis. For your small investment, you will receive a paragraph or two on five different stallions instead of a long, in-depth analysis on a single mating.
 
“There’s a standard form on there,” Sid Fernando said to the Paulick Report. “Our experts don’t have to sit there and do a long paper. [There’s no] back up work with a ten-page summary.”
 
What if you don’t want your current analyst to know you are courting another lover’s embrace? No worries, eMatings is completely anonymous and discreet. While you do get to choose your analyst, the expert side has no idea who you are so they will not be influenced by past relationships or other biases.
 
The launch of eMatings began in May of last year, poor timing for a breeding service. But it has allowed the website to learn slowly how to implement Fernando’s concept. And it hasn’t slowed down Fernando, a former bloodstock editor at Daily Racing Form.
 
“It doesn’t matter if you are new to the game or have been breeding horses for a long time,” Fernando said. “The Internet changed the way we research and do business, and now it’s expected that we can get information quickly, affordably and privately.”
 
Horse breeding is one of those professions that has had a hard time figuring out how to use the Internet as an effective tool to do smarter and larger business. So when an innovation like eMatings comes around, it’s important that we celebrate the ingenuity behind this site. This is clearly a business model that should be considered by many in the industry. For a sport that is often behind the curve on technology, it’s always good news when someone pushes the borders of what is possible.

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Press Release

Adena Springs heads the list of leading individual breeders in North America in 2009 with earnings of $12,853,329, according to statistics released today by The Jockey Club Information Systems Inc. (TJCIS). In topping the list for the seventh consecutive year, Adena Springs bred the winners of 568 races from 3,903 starts and is followed by Eugene Melnyk, who bred the winners of 291 races from 1,588 starts for earnings of $7,513,369.
 
Adena Springs also tops a second breeder list that includes partnerships. Including partnerships, Adena Springs bred the winners of 568 races from 3,908 starts for earnings of $12,856,254. Runner-up was Eugene Melnyk, who alone or in partnership bred the winners of 291 races from 1,589 starts for earnings of $7,513,696.
 
Rounding out the list of top 10 individual breeders were Juddmonte Farms Inc., $7,055,634 (46 wins/310 starts); Brereton C. Jones, $6,184,957 (265/1,676); Edward P. Evans, $4,356,533 (99/554); Pam Wygod and Martin Wygod, $4,328,166 (138/777); Stonerside Stable, $4,064,060 (104/644); Gulf Coast Farms LLC, $3,683,500 (62/401); Kenneth and Sarah Ramsey, $3,459,377 (152/1,132); and Maverick Productions Ltd., $3,368,507 (6/14).
 
Completing the list of top 10 breeders including partnerships were Juddmonte Farms Inc., $7,055,634 (no horses bred in partnership); Brereton C. Jones, $7,025,758 (295 wins/1,915 starts); W.S. Farish, $5,198,485 (184/1,173); WinStar Farm LLC, $4,888,763 (124/830); Stonerside Stable, $4,825,395 (127/792); Martin J. Wygod, $4,603,613 (155/867); Edward P. Evans, $4,356,533 (no horses bred in partnership); and Pam Wygod $4,328,166 (138/777).
 
The complete lists of the top 100 breeders of 2009 are accessible through equineline.com.
 
The Jockey Club Information Systems Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of The Jockey Club, is an industry leader in the areas of technology and information services for industry professionals, including owners, breeders, trainers, veterinarians and farm personnel. TJCIS utilizes state-of-the-art technology to enhance the services it provides through equineline.com as well as its cataloguing and software sales and consulting divisions.

By Ray Paulick
Voting for the Eclipse Awards will begin in just over a month, and the biggest debate and perhaps most hotly disputed division will be for Horse of the Year, where early- and mid-season leader Rachel Alexandra and undefeated Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Zenyatta will vie for the most votes from members of the National Turf Writers Association, Daily Racing Form staff, racing secretaries at National Thoroughbred Racing Association tracks and Equibase chartcallers.

I hope voters will spend as much time assessing the relative merits of some of the other categories as they will on Horse of the Year. Specifically, if they take their responsibilities seriously, they will examine as much of the season-ending statistics on leading breeder as possible before casting their votes. As I’ve written before, I don’t think that’s been the case in some years. Too many voters simply look at which breeder has won the most money.

If that’s the criteria, then Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs will win the outstanding breeder award for the sixth consecutive year. But Adena’s breeding program has produced just two American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, a far cry from some of its previous Eclipse Award winning years. Adena Springs-bred horses have won all that money through the size of Stronach’s broodmare band, producing runners that started 3,568 times in North America so far this year, far more than any other operation. The average earnings per start for Adena-bred horses is just $3,286. Those aren’t bad numbers, nor is the 14% win rate, but I don’t think they should qualify Adena for another Eclipse Award.

The award for outstanding breeder shouldn’t be about who has the biggest operation or who wins the most money. Scanning the list of leading breeders of American Graded Stakes winners of 2009, there are 10 entities that have bred at least three AGS winners alone or in partnership. They are Darley and Stonerside, with five each; Juddmonte Farms and Edward Evans, four each; and with three each are Gainsborough Stud, Phipps Stable, Classic Star, Diamond A Racing, William Farish,  and Wertheimer et Frere. Our leaders list only includes Gainsborough and Phipps Stable in the group with three as their AGS winners won a total of five graded stakes, versus four or three for the others.

So if the Eclipse Award for outstanding breeder should go to one of those operations, which one? You can make a case for several, but special attention should be given to Saudi Prince Khalid’s Juddmonte, which has won four previous Eclipse Awards in this category (1995, and 2001-03). Juddmonte is third behind Adena in money won in North America, with $6,771,260, and has done so with only 280 starts, 41 one of which resulted in winners. That works out to an average of $24,183 per start.

Unlike some of the other breeding operations, Juddmonte sends the majority of its homebreds to Europe to begin their careers, and they don’t normally bring the poor performers back to the U.S. once they have established their form. So its North American stable is stocked with quality from the outset.

A large part of Juddmonte’s success is attributable to the consistently top-class work done by Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, whose death earlier this week was mourned by the Juddmonte family and everyone in racing who knew him.

Another breeder having an outstanding year with his homebreds is Edward P. Evans, whose four AGS winners have won six races (though one of them, Charitable Man, was sold at the Keeneland September yearling sale. Evans has a much more select broodmare band than Juddmonte but has still managed to produce the winners of $4,154,264 from 506 starts (89 winners), putting him eighth in the money rankings. His average earnings per start is $8,210.

There are still some big races to be run, so it’s too early for me to say who I think should win as outstanding breeder. But the hope is when the ballots are sent to voters, the voters will spend some time assessing the overall quality of the horses a breeder produces.

By Ray Paulick
I was scratching my head over the apparent huge drop in weanlings catalogued to this year’s Keeneland November yearling sale; according to Keeneland press releases from the last two years, there were over 1,000 fewer weanlings in the 2009 sale than in 2008. That led to an article published here Monday entitled: ONE-THIRD FEWER KEENELAND NOVEMBER WEANLINGS.

Mystery solved, thanks to a couple of Paulick Report readers who alerted us to some wrong numbers.  The number of weanlings and broodmares catalogued, as reported on Keeneland’s 2008 press release, was incorrect (the number of weanlings and broodmares offered was transposed in the press release). Those incorrect numbers were used in our Monday report entitled ONE-THIRD FEWER KEENELAND NOVEMBER WEANLINGS.

We should have done some additional digging to confirm those numbers, and apologize to our readers for the error.

The correct numbers (with comparison to 2008) for the 2009 sale are 2,337 broodmares catalogued, down 19.2% from the 2,893 catalogued in 2008. The 1,885 weanlings catalogued to this year’s sale represent a decline of 16.8% from last year. The declines in both weanlings and broodmares offered are roughly the same percentage, and the number catalogued will be the smallest in both categories in several  years.

The corrected table is below: 

By Ray Paulick
Based on comments from trainer John Oxx, there seems little doubt that Sea the Stars, who ran his consecutive Group 1 win streak to six with a victory in Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, will be retired to stud for the 2010 breeding season. There has been no indication, however, that 27-year-old Christopher Tsui, owner of this racing superstar, has had serious discussions with any specific stallion station in Europe or the United States. Bloodstock experts peg the colt’s value at stud in excess of $50 million, even in the currently depressed market.

Thirty or more years ago a horse like Sea the Stars would almost certainly stand in Kentucky. That’s where the money was for major stallion syndications, and it was home to the world’s finest broodmares, giving a stallion prospect the best chance possible to succeed at stud. John Galbreath brought Roberto home to his Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky after the son of Hail to Reason raced to glory in the United Kingdom. Nijinsky II, a son of the great Northern Dancer, was retired to Claiborne Farm following his outstanding career in Europe carrying Charles Engelhard’s colors. John Gaines populated his stallion roster at Gainesway Farm with a number of top Europeans runners.

Times have changed. Like those horses mentioned above, Sea the Stars has raced exclusively on grass, and American breeders in the present era have shown an aversion to breeding to turf horses, no matter how accomplished they were on the racetrack. There are a few exceptions, among them Kingmambo at Lane’s End, Dynaformer at Three Chimneys, and Giant’s Causeway at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud. In addition, European sire power has skyrocketed, particularly at John Magnier’s Coolmore Stud in Ireland and Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley divisions at Kildangan Stud in Ireland and Dalham Hall Stud in England. European breeders have upgraded the quality of their broodmare bands to match this increased sire power.

“There is a prejudice here against grass horses,” said Barry Irwin of Team Valor. “The Keeneland sales have dictated what kind of stallions are accepted. I’ve got three mares I’m selling in Europe next year, but there’s nothing we can breed to here. The good thinkers like John Gaines have been replaced by guys who don’t have the same scope.”

That begs the question of whether a horse like Roberto or Nijinsky II would succeed in the United States in the current climate, and if contemporary American breeders would support Sea the Stars. Will Farish, owner of Lane’s End, thinks the answer to both questions is “yes.”

“I think Roberto and Nijinsky would succeed today if they got the support,” Farish told the Paulick Report, “though there are fewer people breeding for the classics now. Breeders over here have tended to have much more luck with our mile and mile and an eighth sires. They are the ones in most demand.”

Farish said he believes American breeders would support Sea the Stars even though “it’s been much harder to get people to breed to a grass horse.” He cited Giant’s Causeway as an example of a top-class European turf horse who has been well supported in the United States, though the son of Storm Cat is out of an American Graded Stakes-winning mare and showed good dirt form when narrowly beaten by Tiznow in the 2000 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. “With his outstanding race record and that pedigree (by Darley’s leading sire Cape Cross out of Arc de Triomphe winner Urban Sea, who produced Epsom Derby winner and top sire Galileo) I would think you could stand Sea the Stars anywhere and he would get tremendous support,” Farish said.

Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm in Kentucky concurs. “He’s exceptional in that same kind of category (as Nijinsky II and Roberto). He’s an extraordinary horse, and the cream of Thoroughbred breeders around the world would want to breed to him,” Bell said. “You could make 40 phone calls and sell him out (for syndication as a stallion).”

The Irish National Stud has been the only farm mentioned as a leading candidate to land Sea the Stars, and that’s because of an existing relationship with the horse’s owner. Urban Sea, dam of Sea the Stars, was kept there until her death earlier this year. “They’ve done an incredible job of making stallions,”  Bell said of the National Stud. “John Oxx is such a class person. I would think they would lean in that direction.”

Standing Sea the Stars in the U.S. would seem to be a longshot at this stage. The increased size of stallion books and the emphasis on commercial breeding has contributed to the squeezing out of turf sires in the U.S.

“Grass horses haven’t been very popular the last 10 or 15 years,” said one breeder who asked not to be named. “Maybe breeders will start breeding for the winner’s circle instead of the sales ring.”

“Commercial breeders have hit a bubble,” said Thomas Gaines, son of the Gainesway Farm founder who co-owns Gaines-Gentry Thoroughbreds. “We’ve grown the commercial breeding part of the marketplace more than we’ve grown the number of people who show up and buy yearlings. Commercial breeding is contracting now because there are not enough people to buy the horses. Supply and demand has to recalibrate.”

Gaines said one mark of a stallion’s success today is “when the breed-to -race people start breeding to them, and half or more of a stallion’s book consists of people breeding to race. There are still a lot of those people out there, and they’ll support a horse like Sea the Stars. If he stood at a farm in Kentucky, you’d also have a lot of Europeans sending their mares here. That’s how it was in the 1980s.”

Bernie Sams of Claiborne Farm isn’t so sure. “Grass horses are a hard sell whether they ran overseas or here,” said Sams. “I wonder how many grass-type mares are left in Central Kentucky. Look at those races run over the weekend in France and England; Europeans are breeding to European stallions.”

It’s not just the bias against grass horses that adds to the challenge of making a stallion, said Sams, it’s getting a competitively sized book of mares. “How would you do with a horse like Danzig nowadays?” he asked of Claiborne’s late three-time leading stallion who went to stud off just three races, none in stakes. “Because of book size, if you had to get a horse like him started, it would be tough. Book sizes have hurt to an extent.”

Clifford Barry of Pin Oak Stud agrees. “Trying to get 150 mares to a horse is the biggest difference between now and 20 years ago,” he said. “But if you’ve spent a lot of money on a stallion prospect, you’ve got to try and recoup that cash. And there’s going to be some guys that aren’t going to recoup that money.

At the current rate, the final numbers for this year’s Keeneland auction will show gross sales of approximately $190,000,000, the lowest figure since 1998, when total sales reached $169,811,800. The difference between 2009 and 1998, however, is that the numbers were ascending then; the $169.8 million total represented what was then an all-time Keeneland September record and the seventh consecutive year of gains. (Click here for a summary of Keeneland sale history.)

This year’s projected sale-ending average is $65,000, also the lowest since 1998, when the average was $59,475, also a new September sale record. This year’s projected median, $25,000, is identical to the median of 2001. The decline in average price from 2008’s September sale is projected to be 28.6%, slightly higher than the 25% I predicted during a presentation in February to the Kentucky Thoroughbred Farm Managers’ Club. A number of concerned breeders said that night they thought 25% was optimistic—and they were right. The 28.6% decline is exacerbated by unprecedented buyback rates during each of the first six sessions ranging from 30.1% to 41.2%.

If these projections hold up, breeders will have suffered roughly $200 million in losses since the sale’s highwater mark in 2006, when gross receipts reached $399,791,800. That year’s average price, $112,427, was another record for September, as was the $45,000 median.

This year’s prices are all the more devastating when you take into account that breeders almost certainly invested more money in aggregate stud fees to produce these yearlings because of the record, inflated yearling market of 2006. The prospects for 2010 yearling sales are not bright, either, since those horses were produced from 2008 fees; it was not until earlier this year that many stallions operations significantly reduced stud fees.

How will this year’s September sale affect the broodmare market when Keeneland hosts its November breeding stock sale in less than two months? Because the global financial markets collapsed midway through the 2008 September sale, it didn’t have that severe an impact on yearling prices, but it was felt at the 2008 November sale, where the average price of broodmares was down 48.5% from the previous year(from $125,581 to $64,695). That was the most significant single-year drop in average price of mares in the history of the Keeneland November sale; the next closest came in 1990, when the average fell by 40%, from $78,883 to $47,109. However, over a seven-year period, from the market peak of 1985 to the bottoming out in 1992, the average price of Keeneland November broodmares plunged by 61%.

Keeneland’s broodmare market has fallen nearly that far already, but I’m not sure the bottom is yet in sight. As the size of the foal crop comes down even further (and it’s dropped 18% in two years), expect the market to be flooded with mares breeders no longer want nor can afford to keep. That means prices will decline even further, perhaps to a level similar to the early 1990s.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Rob Whiteley
Riddle: What do Sea the Stars and my sister, Sherry, have in common? On the surface, not much, although both have demonstrated precocity and great talent, and both are achievers at the highest level.

Sea the Stars is the top-rated horse in the world with four Group 1 wins this year. He is the first horse since Nashwan in 1989 to accomplish the 2000 Guineas/Epsom Derby/Eclipse Stakes triple. And his recent wins in the Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes add to his candidacy as one of the great racehorses of the modern era.

Sherry Whiteley is senior vice president of human resources for Intuit Corporation, which brings us financial software such as QuickBooks and TurboTax. Intuit receives high marks each year as one of the best companies in the nation to work for, and Sherry’s ministrations to approximately 8,000 employees has a lot to do with the high quality corporate culture and overall employee satisfaction and well-being.

So, here is the answer to the riddle. Both are out of older mares. Sea the Stars’ dam, Urban Sea, was 17 when she delivered the top horse in the world. My mother was 48 when she delivered Sherry, the star of our family. Worlds apart, they each provide hard evidence that older can be better.

Nonetheless, the puzzling stigma against offspring of older mares persists on the Thoroughbred sales scene without any rational basis. Some buyers quickly dismiss an individual simply because it is “out of an older mare.” Some buyers won’t even look at foals or yearlings out of older mares. This attitude or belief is simply wrong.