very expensive...horse racing

[Mac]

So all the potentially unraced foals whose owners just didn't elect to spend the money (and it is a lot of money) to put all their colts or fillies into training, further damages a sire's a.e.i., along with the c.i. of the mares, so it makes sire selection using statistics that much more skewed.

Yet if an owner spent above say $4000 for a breeding fee, that colt or filly is more likely to get put on the track, or sold at auction and then put on the track....right? Meaning that sires with higher breeding fees will have mare owners who, if they pay THAT much, are far more likely to race the colt or filly. So the sire's a.e.i. will be helped out for higher priced sires...

[Mac]

[Crystal]

well if you have the play money for a high end stud to produce a horse you dont plan on racing, then go for it I can't afford a 500k storm cat pet pony...lol maybe someday.

[halo]

I dont think thats an accurate perception There are many many breeders who breed to 5 figure stallions who dont pay stud fees. Many foal shares are done, many deals are made to where people breed to a stallion and the stud fee comes out of proceeds of the sale of a foal. I know of a Johannesburg yearling sitting in a backyard that isnt even registered because of a dispute over the foal share deal. I think your logic is....illogical.

[summerhorse]

I think you'd have to go a lot higher than $4,000 too although I would GUESS it is more common with lower fees of course. Many people can afford a $4,000 fee but then are unable to afford the $10,000 to $30,000 or so a year (varying by location) in JUST training fees. That doesn't include all the other fees that go along with horse racing, entry fees, jockey fees, nomination fees, VET biills, etc. All of which have to be paid whether the horse ever places (or heck hits the gate!) Things happen and horses are often unraced for reasons totally unrelated to the horse itself. Yes that damages a stallion's statisitcs but short of the stallion syndicate offering to buy up or foal share in ALL his foals and put them in training themselves there isn't much you can do about it. It is the same with all purebred animals. Some of the best never hit the showrings or racetracks or whatever because of purely people reasons. Maybe when they bred the foal they were doing well, by the time the foal was ready for training they are bankrupt.

that's why statistics are a tool not the end all decision maker.

[madelyn]

Hmm. I sharpen my pencil a LOT more, and cut the fee way down, for Rocking Trick if the breeder is strictly breed-to-race, and PROVEN to race the mare's offspring. I think a lot has to do with the business model of the organization standing the stallion. The big "machine" stud farms whose model is to rake in the cash for the first couple of years and then banish the stallion to the nether regions of the world before its offspring can either run or fail to run do not seem to care whether or not any foals ever make it to the track. In my case, I do not have a steady stream of graded stakes winning colts retiring like confetti at 3 to replace my stallion. So it is MUCH more important to me that the foals get to race.

[Vindicated]

Bravo

[Mac]

Having never stood a stallion, I realize doubly how important it must be that the progency get to run, in order for the stallion's a.e.i. numbers to be supported. Haven't thought about it much before.

[geowarrior]

Geowarrior *hands Madelyn a gift wrapped sharpener*.

[KAL]

KAL hands Madelyn "a steady stream of graded stakes winning colts retiring like confetti at 3".