Archive for the ‘Stallions’ Category

PRESS RELEASE

Sid Fernando, president of eMatings LLC, and Jack Werk, president of Werk Thoroughbred Consultants, Inc., the owner of eNicks, announced jointly Thursday that Mr. Fernando has acquired a stake in WTC, Inc., a privately held corporation controlled by Mr. Werk, and will assume an active role in management immediately.

WTC, incorporated by Jack Werk in 1988, is a leading pedigree consulting firm that pioneered the original commercial sire-line nick rating service that has been notably copied in recent years. Its Werk Nick Rating, however, remains the industry standard and is the most widely used nick rating service in the country. At present, more than 707 stallions are registered with eNicks—significantly more than the number of horses on any other commercial nick rating service. Click here for more information about WTC.

eMatings is a novel internet pedigree consulting service founded by Sid Fernando in 2009 that allows users to obtain pedigree analysis from a wide array of well-known pedigree experts for discounted fees. A former bloodstock editor and columnist at Daily Racing Form, Fernando is an internationally known pedigree writer and racing authority whose articles have appeared in leading thoroughbred racing and breeding publications around the world, including Owner-Breeder, Racing Post, The Thoroughbred Times, Thoroughbred Daily News, Turf Diario, and Pacemaker. His blog, Sid Fernando + Observations, is one of the most internationally read in the business, and he also is a private consultant to a select group of international breeders. Away from the business, he’s a well-known New York youth travel baseball coach and scout. Click here to read a recent article about eMatings by Brad Cummings of the Paulick Report. Click here for more information about eMatings.

“Sid will continue to run eMatings as he always has,” said Werk, “but this will now give him an interest and role in WTC. I’ve been trying to get Sid to buy into WTC for years because of his international knowledge and contacts, and I’m thrilled that he’s acquiring a significant stake in the company because he can expand it internationally right away. He’s one of the sharpest pedigree guys in the business, and I’ve used him as a consultant over the last 10 years for my clients, to great success. Sid’s integrity, knowledge—he was bloodstock editor of Daily Racing Form in the 1990s—and contacts will become huge assets to WTC, and I feel he’s the person I’d like to eventually step in and run the company.”

“Jack and I have been friends since the late 1980s, and our mutual friend—the late Leon Rasmussen, the longtime DRF Bloodlines columnist—was instrumental in the early development of our relationship as writer and editor during the days when Jack published and edited the seminal Owner-Breeder magazine, for which I also wrote,” said Fernando. “Jack’s older than I am—and wiser—and he was actually responsible for my leaving DRF years ago to spend time raising my two sons. ‘You only get one chance,’ Jack said, and I’m glad I listened. It’s worked out that as I was ready to re-enter the business again full time a few years back, Jack was there. His company has been responsible for the infrastructure of eMatings—admin, billing etc.—so acquiring a stake in WTC, Inc., is really a natural progression of an existing relationship. I am looking forward to helping grow the company that he—along with others such as Roger Lyons and a loyal staff—has developed, while also continuing to develop eMatings, which has made quality pedigree analysis affordable and quickly available to breeders at all levels.”

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 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.

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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Two months after Dutrow got Offlee Wild, he entered the now 4-year-old in a Belmont Park allowance race and won easily. “Rick called to say that’s exactly what we were looking for,” Robbins said. Dutrow wanted to run Offlee Wild next in the Grade 2 Massachusetts Handicap against Funny Cide in June. He was a longshot in the morning line, but got hammered in the early wagering and eventually went off 3-1 second choice behind the previous year’s Derby winner. Offlee Wild won a head-bobbing photo over Funny Cide, giving Robbins and Dutrow their biggest career wins to date.

“We opted for the surgery, even though there was no guarantee he’d ever race again,” Robbins said. “So we sent him to Dr. (Larry) Bramlage at Rood & Riddle.” To hedge his bets, Robbins put together a video highlighting Offlee Wild’s career to that point. (Click here to view.)

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By Ray Paulick
What does a former longtime editor of Blood-Horse magazine have to do with one of the leading sires of American Graded Stakes winners of 2009?

It’s a longshot for any horse that wins just one race to have the opportunity to succeed at stud, but Malibu Moon has overcome the odds. The credit for that success can be spread around, to farms in Maryland and Kentucky, and to an editor that Josh Pons will never forget.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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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.

By Ray Paulick
UPDATED (EIGHTH AND NINTH PARAGRAPH)
There are a lot of things Frank Stronach does that I don’t like, most of them involving the structure of his public companies and how he has run Magna Entertainment into bankruptcy and many of the company’s racetracks into the ground. But when word got out that Stronach was buying multiple Grade 1 winner Einstein from the Midnight Cry Stable of William Gallion and Shirley Cunningham, the two attorneys convicted of wire fraud and conspiracy for pilfering millions of dollars from a class-action lawsuit settlement, I could only applaud the move. When I later read that Stronach said he would retain Helen Pitts as trainer of the Brazilian-bred 7-year-old, well, I started getting this warm and fuzzy feeling about ol’ Frank.The sale of Einstein probably wasn’t an easy one, but it was in the best interests of racing to get the horse as far away from the two convicted and jailed felons as soon as possible, especially since he is racing in Sunday’s $1-million Pacific Classic at Del Mar. The sale apparently had to be approved by a judge and the attorney for the plaintiffs in a civil lawsuit filed by the people Gallion and Cunningham represented in the class-action case involving the diet drug fen phen.

Complicating matters is the fact Einstein is not a young horse, is a son of the unsuccessful and unfashionable Buckaroo stallion Spend a Buck, a front-running Kentucky Derby who may be best remembered for skipping the Preakness to go after a big bonus in New Jersey. Einstein is expected to be a very difficult sell at stud to commercial breeders. Stronach, with a huge broodmare band, is perfectly positioned to support Einstein in a way that few if any other stallion farms could, and he figures to give Einstein every chance possible to succeed as a stallion.

Let’s put it this way. I’ll bet Stronach didn’t have to climb over any other major Kentucky stallion farm owners to buy the horse.

Price of the transaction was not disclosed; the horse was appraised by two bloodstock agents, who apparently testified in a recent court hearing concerning the sale of Einstein. There were no media members present during the hearing, and no one involved in the hearing would provide details. So it’s anyone’s guess as to the appraised value of Einstein or what Stronach ultimately paid.

Given the current uncertainty in the bloodstock market, and the recent news that the North American foal crop is expected to decline 20% from 2008 to 2010, it’s not an easy time to sell any new stallion, much less one that lacks commercial appeal. Valuations that once ran as high as a multiple of 350-to-400 times the first-year stud fee are non-existent today, except perhaps for a farm like Sheikh Mohammed’s deep-pocketed Darley. If Einstein entered stud with a $7,500 or $10,000 stud fee, my best guess is that his estimated sale price would be in the $1.8 million-$2 million range.

Einstein, a winner of 11 of 27 starts and just over $2.7 million, has won seven stakes, none before his 4-year-old season, when he captured the Grade 1 Gulfstream Park Breeders’ Cup Stakes. He won the Gulfstream Park Turf Stakes and Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at 6 and this year’s Santa Anita Handicap along with a repeat of the Woodford Reserve Turf Classic at 7 to round out his current Grade 1 resume.

UPDATED: The fact he won the Santa Anita Handicap on that track’s Pro Ride synthetic surface makes Einstein an interesting possibility for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic. According to Dora Delgado, senior vice president of nominations and on-site operations for hte Breeders’ Cup, Einstein could be made fully eligibleto the Breeders’ Cup through the Horses of Racing Age nomination at a cost of $200,000. Along with $150,000 in entry and starting fees for the Classic, the total would be $350,000, far less than the previous supplementary fee for the Classic, which would cost $750,000, or 15% of the purse. The Horses of Racing Age nominations began in 2006 and was reduced last December from $250,000 to $200,000 for the offspring of unnominated stallions and from $150,000 to $100,000 for the offpsring of stallions nominated to the Breeders’ Cup, according to Delgado.

The $2.7 million winner’s share of the Classic, minus the Horses of Racing Age, entry and starting fees, would probably be equal to or in excess of what Stronach paid for Einstein. Another possibility this fall would be the Japan Cup Dirt, a $2.8 million race run clockwise at Hanshin race course whose winner’s share is about $1.4 million. Then, of course, if Stronach chose to keep Einstein in training next year at 8, he would be a serious contender for the $10 million Dubai World Cup.

If he opts to retire Einstein to his Adena Springs Farm in 2010, it would be similar to when Stronach stood the two-time Santa Anita Handicap winner that he campaigned, Milwaukee Brew, following his 6-year-old season. A son of Wild Again, Milwaukee Brew, who like Einstein was unraced at 2 and a long-fused runner, stood for $15,000 his first season. He has since moved to Adena Springs South in Florida and ranks fourth among third-crop sires nationally. He’s been a bigger success producing solid runners than sale ring candidates. Milwaukee Brew’s 2009 fee was $7,500.

By purchasing Einstein for eventual retirement to Adena Springs, Stronach will be adding to the stallion pool a horse who has proven himself on dirt, turf and synthetic tracks over a distance of ground. The lack of commercial appeal he is likely to have should be good news for breeders who are more interested in producing a racehorse than a sales horse from a moderate stud fee.

Stronach’s purchase of Einstein could, in a few years, have him looking like a genius.Brilliant, I say.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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