COOLMORE TRIO HEADED FOR TURKEY?
Three Coolmore stallions—Dehere and Lion Heart at Ashford Stud in Kentucky and Powerscourt, relocated for the upcoming breeding season to Ireland from Ashford—could soon be heading to Turkey if ongoing negotiations with the Turkish Jockey Club are finalized, a source told the Paulick Report.
The potential relocations first surfaced Saturday on the Twitter page of former Daily Racing Form bloodstock columnist Sid Fernando and were picked up on the Bloodstock in the Bluegrass blog authored by former Daily Racing Form contributor Frank Mitchell. Fernando mentioned two other stallions—Cuvee and Yonaguska—in the potential deal, but the Paulick Report was unable to confirm that an agreement was close to being finalized.
The Turkish Jockey Club, sanctioned as a non-profit organization by the country’s national Ministry of Agriculture, operates two national studs and currently stands 21 stallions—most of them imported from the United States or Europe. Approximately 17 other stallions are owned privately. According to the Turkish Jockey Club’s web site, roughly 1,000 Thoroughbred mares are bred annually, and racing takes place at one of six tracks. The most recently imported stallion was 1998 Belmont Stakes winner Victory Gallop, who left WinStar Farm for Turkey in 2008. Other prominent stallions include former Kentucky Derby winners Strike the Gold (1991) and Sea Hero (1993).
Powerscourt (by Sadler’s Wells) had his first crop of foals race in 2009 and included the Group 1 winner Termagant. His 2010 fee at Coolmore Ireland was set at 7,500 Euros. Multiple Grade 1 winner Lion Heart (Tale of the Cat) has had two crops to race, finishing second to Tapit in the freshman sire standings in 2008 and sixth among second-crop sires in 2009. His 2010 stud fee at Ashford was set at $12,500. Veteran Dehere (Deputy Minister), with 12 crops to race, had his 2010 fee set at $10,000 (all live foal).
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Tags: ashford stud, coolmore, Dehere, Frank Mitchell, Lion Heart, Paulick Report, Powerscourt, Ray Paulick, Sea Hero, Sid Fernando, Strike the Gold, Turkish Jockey Club, Victory Gallop
January 4th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Happy capitalism is alive and well. Next question. And will they be returned after use or failure to full fill contract?…guaranteed humane death and respect of disposal? And no, not talking about Turkish standars. Ahhh…the beauty of horse trading.
Notice a ton of lack of comment from our fanatical friends at PR and interested industry professionals..
But Ray(brad)…thanks for the stats….or is it a heads up?
January 4th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Money on the Hoof. As long as their retirement is taken care of in the deal, then this won’t be yet another story that again erodes the standing of the “Sort of Kings” in the court of public opinion.
January 4th, 2010 at 3:34 pm
If Mass gets slots we may need a good stallion or two…………………..
January 4th, 2010 at 3:36 pm
It’s sad that good,honest hard knocking sires continually leave this country.
Isn’t it funny how these Arabs strive to win The Kentucky Derby by spending millions upon millions of dollars and yet the horses that continually win the Derby end up standing in some foreign country.Isn’t it funny how horses like Cuvee,Yonaguska,Powerscourt,Dehere and Lion heart are capable of siring a Kentucky Derby winner yet since they don’t command a $200,000 stud fee the stud farms are quick to shit-can them into oblivion.
It’s a sad situation but then again that’s why I don’t support farms like Coolmore,breed anything and everything and when it doesn’t work out get em’ out of the country so we don’t look like fools if they do hit something down the road.It’s about vanity and the dime with them.It has nothing to do with the horses.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:23 pm
I hate to see horses leaving America. Victory Gallop was a huge loss in my opinion, now these three? Powerscourt in particular has potential we haven’t seen yet.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:25 pm
Oh and with the last I heard that Flanders was headed to Australia, Coolmore is ticking me off pretty well. Not that they give a rat’s patootie, LOL.
January 4th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Turkey must have slot machines subsidizing their races.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
I’m not complaining about the venture or the movement of the horses in question. I question the insurity of the animals, their care, monitoring and the vigilence of anyone that gives a S**T about ethics and our standard bearers. It certainly doesn’t appear to becoming from those peddling the flesh…or maybe they are just confused about the questions of quality of life because they think they are life.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:48 pm
Nothing new for the US and their lack of concern for former racehorses….just ask Drilling for Oil. Not to mention Fernand and Exceller…they are a few that we DO know the outcome.
They make a lot of money for their owners and then it is BYE,BYE…money talks… At least Silver Charm has a clause in his contract…. not that they always get honored… for some reason or another. Then again… we have some prominent owners selling horses and never caring an ounce after they leave the barn…. If you breed them…you should take full repsonsibility when their careers are over finding them homes to live out their lives….They are quick to take the shank when they win and and quick to take the shank to lead them to their untimely deaths to unorthodox trainers.
January 4th, 2010 at 6:52 pm
A few people seem to believe the word TURKEY, whether the bird or the nation, means something to be eaten. Therefore, if horse goes to Turkey, it is intended for the main course, not the racecourse.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:00 pm
wow,
Kentucky can’t keep losing these kind of studs.
The success-failure rate for stallions is very high even for the creme of the crop who start their careers in the Bluegrass.
The new studs for 2010 in Kentucky that are legitimate prospects has shrunk down to about a dozen. compare that to last five years.
Without studs kentucky’s future as center of the sport looks pretty dismal.
these stud farms remind me of bankers and wall street finance artists.
January 4th, 2010 at 7:10 pm
Lion Heart: 2008 - 214 mares bred, 2009 - 180 mare bred. Think it is time for the Jockey Club Time to put a cap on the number of mares bred to stallions?
January 4th, 2010 at 7:39 pm
I wouldn’t worry about how they’d be cared for. Manila lived a very long time, up until his recent death he was the oldest Breeders’ Cup winner, and Marlin is still around. Strike the Gold is the oldest living Kentucky Derby winner, and he’s doing fine. He’s even sired champions and classic winners in Turkey, including Sabirli, Mummy’s Love, and Arsenic, and he’s enjoyed far more success there than he would have in the US. Sea Hero and Victory Gallop are doing well, too. Coolmore’s loss is Turkey’s gain.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:01 pm
I do not think that there should be a cap or restrictions placed on stallions with live cover. All of that is coming back in a backlash from breeders here in Ky. I guarantee if you ask stallion season managers .. the first question people want to know is what a stallions book is being held to. Those days of giant books are long gone and I dare say that they will not resurface until the market gets back to being ridiculous again. (if it ever will) Capitalism is taking care of it all. That along with Ky inability to compete purse wise. I had a filly that was going to run at Turfway Park on the 6th. I found out the purse was 9,400. I told the trainer not to bother.
January 4th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
NOT TO LONG AGO THE BOOK WAS CLOSED AT 40…THE CROPS WERE GREAT COMPARED TO THIS MESS TODAY
January 5th, 2010 at 5:48 am
The Turkish Jockey Club, recipe for contraction ? Eugene, love Your input. Question please, So back in the day, horse racing was managed by horseman, rather than bean counters ? Maybe, naw forget it …
January 5th, 2010 at 10:14 am
Why do we assume a horse leaving our borders is destined to have bad things happen to it? Something about people in glass houses…….
January 5th, 2010 at 10:34 am
Coolmore started this mess with their irresponsible breeding practices. Half the things wrong with the industry today can be traced back to their greed - and I’m a Capitalist.
As Eugene Levey stated - the industry was much healthier and we didn’t have so many greedy market breeders (breeding Black type to Black type to get the highest bid, regardless of the intelligence of the pedigree) when a Full Book meant 40 mares.
Time to do a little time travel back to the era of common sense breeding techniques - like waiting until a stallion is solidly proven before breeding him to a bunch of mares instead of the Coolmore (and most of KY) practice of breeding an unproven stallion to 500-600 mares his first three seasons before we know a thing about him! Stupid - and look where we are today with unwanted horses! Thank you John Magnier.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:53 am
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January 5th, 2010 at 1:09 pm
Magnier/Sangster/O’Brien (Coolmore) triggered the collapse of the business in the eighties. It was made worse when the Sheikhs began competing with Coolmore. Then began the practice of 200 mare books - in two hemispheres. The story is covered very well in Patrick Robinson’s book, “HORSETRADER”, subtitled Robert Sangster and The Rise and Fall of the Thoroughbred Business. If you have not read it, try to get a copy. (Probably available at Amazon or Abe Books). You will readily see the same gang are again contributors to the current slump.
We do not need any central authority to restrain trade by edicts on the number of mares that may be bred to a horse. The power is in our (breeders) hands. Do not patronize any stallion covering more mares than you believe is right for your market plans. Simple solution, isn’t it?
January 5th, 2010 at 5:08 pm
Horsemanship in Turkey is good, and will only improve.
Having been to their national studs multiple times, their sires are, and future sires will be, properly cared for.
January 5th, 2010 at 10:09 pm
Hard to scream about horse welfare in Turkey, when there are Thoroughbreds being found tied to palm trees in “blackmarket” slaughterhouses in Florida!!!! Seems these poor animals can’t find a “safe and sound” future no matter what country….
January 6th, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Bring back small books by refusing to breed mares to over-exploited stallions. Bring back some excellent, sound stallions with good bones that were tossed out of KY too quickly for failing to produce a top horse right away.
As far as I know the Turks don’t fight stallions to death like they do in China, Korea and apparently in Mexico where some of our Thoroughbreds are. I am far more worried about our horses and stallions being in Mexico, Jamaica and Asia, including Thailand where stallions Scatmandu and Alke are.
Some American owners send their stallions to slaughter (like CA mass-breeder Ben Warren) or fail to create a safety net for them if/when they become unwanted except by the meatmen. We should look at what can happen to Thoroughbreds including stallions in this country before worrying about stallions going to Turkey!
These Coolmore stallions going to Turkey will not be shuttled between two hemispheres each year and cover an insane number of mares year around, their lives may vastly improve once in Turkey. Some Turkish stud farms are probably far better that some American farms in the sticks where stallions may never graze once in their lives and may live in pens and small rocky enclosures with no shade. Stallions sent to Turkey might live it up by comparison!
January 6th, 2010 at 5:28 pm
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