Posts Tagged ‘adena springs’

By Ray Paulick
The Florida Thoroughbred Breeders’ and Owners’ Association published a slick brochure a few years ago titled “On Course,” heralding all the good things going on with horse racing and breeding in the Sunshine State. But the organization might want to rethink that title if it publishes an updated version in 2010.

With only a few exceptions where revenue from other forms of gambling has helped ease a business down cycle, most racing and breeding states are hurting. But Florida seems to have been stung the worst by a combination of the global economic crisis, a collapsing real estate market, and the decline in the economics and popularity of Thoroughbred racing.

A more accurate name for that updated FTBOA brochure might be “Off Track.”

Consider that:

- The number of mares being bred and Thoroughbred stallions standing in Florida have fallen faster than any other state, dropping by 23.3% and 24.0%, respectively, from 2008 to 2009. Further declines are expected in both categories in 2010.

- Florida’s foal crop, historically the second-largest in the United States behind Kentucky, has dropped from a high of 4,511 in 2003 to a projected 2,600 in 2010—a decline of 42%. It is conceivable states like Louisiana or Pennsylvania, with more lucrative breeders’ incentive programs, could surpass Florida in foal production in the next few years.

- A number of large stallion operations, including the Sanan family’s Padua and Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs, have pulled out of Florida.

- Numerous Thoroughbred farms are listed as “for sale” in the Ocala area of Marion County, the self-proclaimed “Horse Capital of the World.”

- The declines in Florida breeding have come after 2004 legislation was passed and a statewide referendum supported a constitutional amendment permitting racetracks in Dade and Broward counties to install slot machines if they got local-option approval. Both Gulfstream Park and Calder in South Florida now have casinos with slot machines.

SEEKING LEGISLATIVE HELP
Help could be on the way. The 2010 legislative session begins today (March 2) in the state capital in Tallahassee, and gambling legislation is high on the list of priorities of legislators and lame-duck Republican Gov. Charlie Crist, who is in the midst of a heated primary battle for a U.S. Senate seat.

The two South Florida racetracks, Florida breeders, and the Florida Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association are pushing for a reduction in the slot machine tax rate from 50% to 35%, a move that, according to the FHBPA’s Kent Stirling, would nearly double the amount of money going into purses from slot machine revenue.

“Everything is fueled by purses, and things look good to get this tax reduced,” Stirling told the Paulick Report. “That should right things. I don’t envision that happening until July 1, but it will certainly help. We’re one of a number of states in a crisis right now with purses that don’t stand up. If we don’t have the purses, you won’t breed the horses.”

Stirling said 6.75% of gross revenue from slots currently go to overnight purses, with breeders getting an additional 0.75%. If the tax rate is reduced from 50% to 35%, he said, purses will get an extra 5.25%, and the amount going to breeders would increase to 1.2%.

“The deal we would get for purses will be very good for horsemen,” Stirling said. “We have long-term contracts signed with the racetracks.”

One concern Stirling and others have is whether South Florida can support the number of slots casinos in the region: the Seminole Tribe operates a massive Hard Rock casino not far from Gulfstream Park; there is the Pompano Isle of Capri harness track in Pompano Beach; Mardi Gras (the former Hollywood Dog Track near Gulfstream Park; and other Indian casinos in the region, in addition to Gulfstream and Calder.

Legislation being proposed also may include a provision giving the FTBOA flexibility in how it distributes its breeders’ awards program, allow Hialeah Park to operate a slots casino, and create a permit to operate a not-for-profit race meeting in Ocala/Marion County.

But a deal with racetracks is only part of the gaming legislation in the works. Still unresolved is a compact with the Seminoles after a proposal by Crist that was tied to a tax break for pari-mutuel slots was rejected by the legislature. That proposal would have given the Seminoles a full-blown casino monopoly outside of South Florida. The tribe has offered casino games without a compact, something the federal government’s National Indian Gaming Commission said is illegal. Earlier this year a House committee rejected Crist’s compact unanimously and voted to uncouple pari-mutuel legislation from any deal with the Seminoles.

Crist’s proposal, though ultimately thrown out, was unsettling to Peter Berube, who runs Stella Thayer’s Tampa Bay Downs, which has seen its business hurt by a second Hard Rock Casino run by the Seminoles not far from the track in Tampa.

“Obviously we are looking for some type of product that’s going to even out the uneven field we face with the Seminoles and the slots in South Florida,” Berube said. “I’m at a very serious competitive disadvantage at this time.”

Berube said there is a separate push to allow every one of the state’s 22 pari-mutuel facilities outside of South Florida to get a total of 1,500 slot machines. A study showed the state would receive $400 million in taxes (based on a 35% rate) versus the $150 million the state would get from a compact with the Seminoles. “And we feel our numbers were very conservative,” he said of the study done by the Innovation Group.

Berube said he is not betting on a positive result. “I gave up trying to handicap Florida politics a long time ago,” he said. “I am somewhat encouraged by what’s going on up there (in Tallahassee) and some of the rhetoric.” A previous attempt by Tampa Bay to get approval for Instant Racing machines, which saved Oaklawn Park, failed to get legislative support.

“Our industry is in tatters here in Florida; it’s abysmal what’s taking place, especially when you are in proximity to Indian gaming,” said Berube. “I’ve seen a decline of 22% from 2008 to 2009 in the Tampa area. Statewide it’s fallen 14%. Nationally, the numbers are down 11% on pari-mutuel wagering. There’s a direct correlation to the Seminoles. We are suffering more. We’ve been here for 80 years, and it would be a shame for this business to go under.”

Tampa Bay is one of the nation’s most progressive tracks, lowering takeout and offering a very good wagering product. Still, he said, the track depends largely on off-season simulcasting, and he’s seen that fall by 42% because of the increased competition from the Seminoles.

CRITICS FORM GRASSROOTS MOVEMENT
Richard Hancock, executive vice president of the FTBOA, said he is confident the legislature will approve a tax reduction on South Florida’s racetrack slots and give the FTBOA flexibility in its distribution of breeders awards. “One thing I’m not happy with is Tampa Bay Downs,” he said. “They need the same help that the Dade and Broward County tracks got. The pari-mutuels there will get killed if the Seminoles expand any more.”

Hancock has been the FTBOA’s top executive for going on 20 years. He’s got his supporters, especially those on the organization’s board, but he also has an increasingly vocal group of detractors. “We’ve gone from $3 million to $15 million in incentives,” Hancock said, in defending his work with the FTBOA. “We’ve been successful and grown the pie quite a bit.”

Detractors say Hancock has not been effective in Tallahassee in getting the message out about the Thoroughbred industry’s needs and has facilitated board members in running the organization like a private club that has been unresponsive to rank-and-file breeders.

Among Hancock’s loudest critics is Ocala horse insurance agent Gordon Reiss, who helped put together a grassroots organization, the Florida Horseman’s Task Force, that began speaking out at FTBOA open house meetings, attended FTBOA board meetings, and traveled to Tallahassee, met with legislators, and organized breeders to call on their representatives to educate them about the Thoroughbred industry. Reiss said the group helped get House Speaker Larry Cretul, an Ocala Republican, to speak at a recent meeting of the Florida Thoroughbred Farm Managers.

“Legislators had no clue about the impact on the horse industry of Indian casinos,” Reiss said. “They saw horse farms as playgrounds for millionaires. Our meetings with them have made a difference.”

Reiss and others, including Bob Monahan, Bebe Luxon and Dr. Ignacio Leon, told the Paulick Report the FTBOA lacks transparency in much of what it does, communicates poorly with members (despite owning a daily publication, Wire to Wire, and the monthly Florida Horse magazine), and has questionable procedures for board elections. Hancock was accused by the group of keeping the board in the dark on issues like the Instant Racing legislation and making important decisions without consulting the board.

Hancock said Reiss is upset in part because he failed to win election to the board.

He does acknowledge, however, that the grassroots movement has been beneficial. “They actually were of some help in letting people in Tallahassee know how desperate things are down here,” Hancock said. “All the stories they told the legislators about horses and people moving to places like Pennsylvania or New York. I have to say it was helpful in getting the attention of the Pari-Mutuel Committee in the House.”

“The loss of 3,000 mares has taken $75 million to $100 million out of the local economy,” Reiss said. “Land values have dropped considerably, and the bank credit squeeze has hurt. Purses are terrible, and there is a lack of leadership. It got to the point where we couldn’t depend on the FTBOA and felt a grassroots movement was necessary.”

Copyright © 2010, The Paulick Report

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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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It’s finalist day for the 2009 Eclipse Awards. With perhaps the exception of Dolphus Morrison as a finalists for breeder, no real surprises among the list of candidates. Headlined by Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta as the only two listed in the Horse of the Year category, the complete list of the finalists are listed below.

- Bradford Cummings

Female superstars Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta lead an all-star cast of finalists for the 2009 Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing. Winners in all categories will be announced at the 39th annual Eclipse Awards ceremony, to be held Monday evening, January 18, at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif.

The announcement of the finalists was made today by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), National Turf Writers Association (NTWA) and Daily Racing Form (DRF), the three presenting organizations of the Eclipse Awards.  

The three-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra, winner of all eight of her starts in 2009, including the Preakness Stakes; and the five-year old mare Zenyatta, who won all five of her races last year and culminated her undefeated career by becoming the first female to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, are the two candidates for Horse of the Year. Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were the only two horses to receive votes in the Horse of the Year category.  

The Eclipse Awards finalists (in alphabetical order) are:

·          Horse of the Year:                Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta        

·         Two-Year-Old Male:               Lookin At Lucky, Noble’s Promise, Vale of York (IRE)

·         Two-Year-Old Filly:                Blind Luck, Hot Dixie Chick, She Be Wild            

·         Three-Year-Old Male:             Mine That Bird, Quality Road, Summer Bird

·         Three-Year-Old Filly:              Careless Jewel, Flashing, Rachel Alexandra

·         Older Male:                             Einstein (BRZ), Gio Ponti, Kodiak Kowboy                      

·         Older Female:                         Life Is Sweet, Music Note, Zenyatta

·         Male Sprinter:                        Dancing in Silks, Kodiak Kowboy, Zensational

·          Female Sprinter:                    Informed Decision, Music Note, Ventura

·         Male Turf Horse:                    Conduit (IRE), Gio Ponti, Presious Passion          

·         Female Turf Horse:                Goldikova (IRE), Midday (GB), Ventura

·         Steeplechase Horse:             Mixed Up, Red Letter Day, Spy in the Sky

·         Owner:                       Godolphin Racing, Juddmonte Farms, Mr. and Mrs. Jerome S. Moss

·         Breeder:                                 Adena Springs, Juddmonte Farms, Dolphus C. Morrison   

·         Trainer:                                 Steve Asmussen, Bob Baffert, John Shirreffs       

·         Jockey:                                 Ramon Dominguez, Garrett Gomez, Julien Leparoux

·         Apprentice Jockey:               Luis Batista, Christian Santiago Reyes, Luis Saez  

The Eclipse Awards are named after the great 18th-century racehorse and foundation sire Eclipse, who began racing at age five and was undefeated in 18 starts, including eight walkovers. Eclipse sired the winners of 344 races, including three Epsom Derbies.  

The 2009 Eclipse Awards ceremony will be held on January 18 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif., and televised live on TVG.

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
Know and Trust is a 2-year-old filly owned by some former clients of bloodstock agent Jim Cullen and trained by Cullen’s childhood friend and college roommate William Denzik Jr.

Cullen was recently given a one-year banishment from participation at Keeneland Association auctions, based on violation of a Code of Conduct written by the Sales Integrity Task Force, an initiative of the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association. Fasig-Tipton is also enforcing the one-year suspension, which runs through 2010, and other sales companies around the country are considering taking the same action. The sanctions came earlier in November, nine months after Trumbulovich, Kevin Geiger of Colorado and Vincent Colbert of Massachusetts contacted the Task Force with complaints about their former bloodstock adviser. “We could easily have turned our back on this, walked away and say we got screwed,” Colbert said. “We talked it over and decided we didn’t want this to happen to somebody else.”

But that is just the beginning of Cullen’s troubles. He has been sued by several parties, including horse owner Cam Horton, the stallion season firm Early Season Income, National City Bank, and Wells Fargo Bank. The Internal Revenue Service says Cullen owes $233,143.72 in taxes from 2003-05. He agreed in 2007 to pay Cam Horton $333,000 for not reimbursing Horton for a season to A.P. Indy after Horton’s mare aborted, and has not met that obligation. A Fayette County judge has ordered him to pay National City Bank $348,181.65. Wells Fargo is in the process of foreclosing on Cullen’s home.

FROM JOURNALISM TO PINHOOKING

Cullen is a former journalist who worked for Thoroughbred Times as a news reporter, then served as editor of the Texas Thoroughbred magazine while contributing to the Blood-Horse as a free-lance correspondent. He also was employed for a short time by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association based in Lexington. As recently as August of this year, he was a guest speaker at a new owners’ seminar Blood-Horse Publications sponsored in conjunction with the Texas Thoroughbred Association prior to a Fasig-Tipton yearling sale.

‘I’M A GOOD HORSEMAN. I’M OBVIOUSLY NOT A GOOD BUSINESS PERSON’

A number of mares in the partnerships were bred, and the partners were billed for stud fees, which they subsequently paid for, according to Cullen’s sworn testimony in the March 2009 deposition involving the National City Bank lawsuit. Under questioning from attorney Emily Cowles of Morgan & Pottinger (representing National City) and Mike Meuser of Miller Griffin and Marks (representing Trumbulovic, Colbert and Geiger), Cullen admitted that on numerous occasions he did not use the money billed to clients for stud fees to pay those fees. Many of the fees were never paid to the farms.

Here is an excerpt regarding Cullen’s purchase of stallion seasons, the billing of clients and non-payment to farms:

MEUSER: Okay, and I can show you the other invoices. But on each occasion that you billed Mr. Colbert or Mr. Geiger or Mr. Trumbulovic for these stud feeds you labeled them specifically on your invoice that that’s what they were being billed for.

MEUSER: All right. And you had made the contractual arrangements with the farms to obtain those seasons?

CULLEN: Correct.

MEUSER: And you knew that when you received those monies from my clients you were obligated to to use them to satisfy those obligations?

CULLEN: See, I didn’t know that. I thought like I, like I’ve made clear, I thought that the whole protection of an LLC was designated to give you license to use that to the best benefit of the company as provided you satisfied what this obligation was for.

CULLEN: I can understand. Yes, sir.

MEUSER: … that a client who received this bill and paid it would have the expectation that their agent who they trusted would use those monies properly?

CULLEN: Yes, sir. Yes, sir. I, I agree to that. I mean.

MEUSER: That’s all I have.

CULLEN: Okay.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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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
Anyone who has been with us at the Paulick Report since our June 2008 launch knows that I have been critical of Ogden Mills Phipps as one of the Thoroughbred industry’s leaders, or to borrow a phrase from the late John Gaines, a “self-appointed guardian of the Turf.”

One thing I’ve never questioned in my own mind, though I probably have never written it here, is that the Jockey Club chairman better known as “Dinny” loves this industry as much as anyone and has always acted in what he believes to be in the industry’s best interests. What those actions are and have been is where he and I hit the fork in the road.

This has been a tough year, personally, for Dinny Phipps as he has battled some health problems, and if the old axiom is true that the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man, I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing the Phipps Stable continued success in 2009 and beyond. That stable, carefully developed over generations of both horses and the family that has owned and bred them, is quietly having a very good year in terms of success in American Graded Stakes, with three AGS winners of four graded stakes. Sure, it’s not quite like 1988, when Dinny’s late father, Ogden Phipps, directed the stable to one of the most amazing years in racing history, when Personal Ensign, Easy Goer, Cadillacing and other Grade 1 winners carried private trainer Shug McGaughey and the Phipps family to a sweep of the Eclipse Awards in outstanding trainer, breeder and owner categories. Five years later, McGaughey won five Grade 1 races on the Jockey Club Gold Cup card at Belmont Park, led by Miner’s Mark’s triumph in the Gold Cup itself.

The three 2009 Phipps Stable AGS winners (Parading, by Pulpit; Vacation, by Dynaformer; and Gone Astray, by Dixie Union) put this relatively small but select outfit in a four-way tie for third with three other homebreeding operations ( as opposed to commercial breeders), Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley Stable; the Juddmonte Stable of Saudi Arabian Prince Khalid Abdullah; and the stable operated by Virginia-based Edward P. “Ned” Evans. The leader, with five AGS winners of 2009, is Robert and Janice McNair’s Stonerside Stable.
I don’t really think it’s any coincidence that the leading breeders of AGS winners are outfits designed to produce horses for the racetrack as opposed to the sale ring. Are there any lessons that commercial breeders can gain by more closely studying how these private operations have functioned, developed their broodmare bands, and plan their matings? Perhaps.

Looking at Bloodhorse.com’s list of leading breeders by money won, Stonerside ranks the highest of the five leaders by AGS winners at fifth on the money list behind Adena Springs, Eugene Melnyk, Brereton Jones, and William S. Farish. Stonerside, which was sold to Darley when the McNairs opted to get out of the business, also has the most starts of the five (604). Evans is sixth on the money list from 437 starts; Juddmonte is eighth, with 217 starts; Darley is 11th, with 423 starts; and Phipps 22nd, with 206 starts.

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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By Ray Paulick
I make no apologies for my dissent with Eclipse Award voting results in the outstanding breeder category on at least three different occasions in the years since the vote was taken away from a six-member committee and given to the larger group of voters that determine the other Eclipse Award winners–members of the National Turf Writers Association, Daily Racing Form staff and racing secretaries at National Thoroughbred Racing Association tracks and select Breeders’ Cup employees.

When that decision was made earlier this decade, the NTRA might as well have said it would give the annual award to the breeder whose horses earned the most money. It’s gone to Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs Farm each of the last five years, whether the operation had a truly good year or not, simply because he dominated the money standings by breeding the most horses and winning the most money. I’m not knocking Stronach, who has built a breeding empire and deserved the Eclipse Award in years that he produced champions and a number of high-quality, graded stakes-winning racehorses. His success in those years didn’t happen by accident or through sheer numbers. Adena Springs has been a top-class operation, and it’s something for which Stronach should be proud.

However, I disagree that the breeder who wins the most money should automatically win the Eclipse Award in that category, something that is now occurring routinely. Voters have done a great disservice in recent years to individuals who have had incredible success with a far smaller number of mares.

Full disclosure: I served on that six-member Eclipse Award outstanding breeder committee as editor of Blood-Horse magazine, as did Mark Simon, editor of Thoroughbred Times, along with two editors with expertise in bloodstock matters at Daily Racing Form and two representatives of the NTRA or its Eclipse Awards-sponsoring predecessor, the Thoroughbred Racing Associations of North America. The committee would be presented with a wide array of breeding statistics, have the opportunity to study them, then meet via teleconference to discuss the merits of the leading candidates before taking a vote. In my opinion, the committee got it right far more often than the general Eclipse Award electorate has when determining outstanding breeder.

The committee tended to discount breeders who had simply led the money list. That cost the late Harry T. Mangurian an Eclipse Award several years when he or his Florida-based Mockingbird Farm led the list by earnings from 1999-2002. When some Floridians cried “foul,” the Eclipse Award steering committee gave Mangurian an Eclipse Award of Merit at the 2002 Eclipse Awards dinner. Shortly thereafter, the vote went from committee to the larger body, which I think was a mistake.

Why was it a mistake? Twice in the last seven years, breeders who produced two of the 10 Eclipse Award champions—with a small number of broodmares—didn’t even get enough votes to be among the three finalists as outstanding breeder, much less win the Eclipse Award. That happened in 2002, when Virginia Kraft Payson bred champions Farda Amiga and Vindication and wasn’t a finalist, and again in 2004 when Aaron and Marie Jones bred champions Speightstown and Ashado and were ignored by the voters.

Think about that for a minute. You are a breeder with a relatively small group of mares and produced two out of the 10 Eclipse Award champion horses. Yet you weren’t even recognized as one of the three outstanding breeders in North America. That is an insult to all breeders who work hard to produce a good horse. Eclipse Award voters really should be ashamed for their ignorance or lack of interest on breeding matters.

Last year, Adena won its fifth consecutive Eclipse Award as leading breeder by a wide margin—receiving 139 votes, more than twice as many as runner-up Stonerside Stable. Adena won the most money, by far, $19.2 million, but produced no champions. With far fewer runners, Stonerside-bred horses earned $8.5 million but included 2-year-old male champion Midshipman and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Raven’s Pass.

That brings us to this week’s spotlight on leading breeders on our weekly feature, American Graded Stakes Standings, brought to you by Keeneland. Stonerside–the Paris, Ky., operation founded by Robert and Janice McNair and sold last year to Sheikh Mohammed when Robert McNair said he needed to spend more time on his Houston Texans of the National Football League team–is the leading breeder of American graded stakes winners, with five, led by Grade 1 winner Santa Teresita. The others are Grade 2 winners Tizaqueena, Skylighter and Cowboy Cal, along with Grade 3 winner Stormalory.

Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley, Prince Khalid Abdullah’s Juddmonte Farms, and Edward P. Evans are next in the list of breeders of American graded stakes winners, with three apiece.

Stronach’s Adena Springs, which is the leading breeder by money won so far this year, with $7,054,476 earned from 2,322 starts, has bred just one graded stakes winner, the Grade 3 winner My Princess Jess. Stonerside has had 481 starts and earnings of $3,252,001, ranking fifth by money won. Evans has had 360 starts and ranks sixth with earnings of $2,936,973; Juddmonte is 18th with $1,948,227 from 175 starts; and Darley is 19th with $1,943,075 from 328 starts.

In terms of money won per start, which I think is a good overall indication of quality, of those listed above, Juddmonte is the leader, with $11,323 earned for each start; followed by Evans, $8,158/start; Stonerside, $6,760/start; Darley, $5,924/start; and Adena, $3,038/start. Those statistics include international racing. The lists presented below strictly represent American graded stakes, those approximately 500 races designated by the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association’s American Graded Stakes Committee as the best races in the United States.

We hope that by focusing each week on the leading breeders, owners, trainers, sires, sale companies and consignors of the winners of American graded stakes, which define the best races in the United States, Eclipse Award voters might start to look beyond the simple exercise of seeing which breeder earned the most money in a given year.