Millenium Wind.....Cryptorchid???

[LSB]

Pete, I'm not sure I understand the distinction you're making. Isn't this--except for semantics--the same thing as lowering the stud fee?

...the farm could have saved themselves lots of aggravation (and they had a lot of it) had they held the price line and aggressively discounted to owners who had booked earlier, to other breeders and let it be known through agents that they would give most favorable deals.

I stand by my thought that it isn't unusual. At any rate, I see it happen a lot. This year the two stallions I mentioned above, Stormin Fever and Mr. Greeley, had their stud fee reductions not only announced but advertised rather agressively.

[Pete]

Hi LSB,

The difference is that Millennium 'officially' lowered the stud fee from $7,500 to $5,000 and advertised the new stud fee in major publications. Now they had to deal with the mare owners who had already booked/bred to Millennium Wind.

There are far more creative ways to increase book size. Millennium has acknowledged their mistake and I'm sure that they'll never do this again.

Regards,

Pete

[henthorn]

I've had lots of brochures sent my way regarding late season reductions in stud fees, often in half, in attempt to get more mares. And that's from small farms. In bigger farms, they should have dealt with lots of bloodstock agents in the Lexington area, and be able to get the word out to them easily enough about discounts. Millennium Farms management has learned a valuable lesson that I'm sure they'll take to heart. When nice MW foals go thru the sales, they will sell well.

If you've seen MW recently, he is a totally different sell than last fall. He no longer is the streamlined, tiny-footed ex-racehorse that I chose to breed to. Now he's a massive, overweight guy with better appearing feet, but with a less balanced appearance. Even though his genetics and racing ability are unchanged, his appearance would turn me off as being unathletic. When I asked about his weight, the manager said they've been exercising him on a machine, but it hasn't helped any. (I guess he must have been starved as a racehorse to keep so slender in the past. His farrier work certainly had had its problems as well). I think he is a good deal at $5000 until he proves he can't cut it as a sire. Of course I'm biased, since Vivid Dreams just bred to him last week.