my stallion fee thoughts

bdw0617 · Postby **bdw0617** » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:23 pm

1. poor afleet alex.

2. I'm suprised corinthian's fee is dropping considering the amount of mares he had last year and how super cool corinthian is. I mean.. he's cornthian.

3. Tapit at 35k might be jupming the gun. they raised the stud fee 3x.

4. littleexpecatations at 2,500 is a steal. he can sire a world class sprinter (king of the roxy) and well.. it's just 2,500. his horses do very well in the lone star state

5. darley has to many street cry lines, not including well... street cry.

LB · Postby LB » Fri Oct 31, 2008 6:02 am

my stallion thoughts:

1. you can never have too many Street Crys.

Heidilady · Postby **Heidilady** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 8:44 pm

Why poor Afleet Alex? His yearlings were well received in September and he only went down $5000 for 2009. Considering he had no horses on the track period, not sure that was a slight, more a function of the economy.

As for Tapit, he went out and sired a very exciting 2yo filly and obvious champion. I would be shocked if it didn't sky rocket. It's not like he was that expensive to begin with. One of our own PQers had a filly by him that was quite nice looking. I'm sure if you did a search you could find them. I wasn't shocked he did well this year. Hopefully it'll be like Tiznow. When he got Folklore I got very excited that it meant the odds of him getting picked off by a foreign stud farm were growing slimmer. It always seems to happen to my favorites.

Firebrand · Postby **Firebrand** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:34 pm

Bummer about Tapit. I was expecting it, but he's out of my price range now.

I had a mare that matched up nicely to him too.

Heidilady · Postby **Heidilady** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:40 pm

Firebrand wrote:Bummer about Tapit. I was expecting it, but he's out of my price range now. I had a mare that matched up nicely to him too.

If she seriously does, I wonder if you can still ask. Maybe you could get some of sort of deal. Not that I'm an expert at doing those but I hear things about how it's possible sometimes to get a break. If you want to send her back to him in 2010 that might be something to play with. Would you want to do that do you think? I say don't give up if you were really interested in it.

While we're talking stud fee thoughts, anybody wanna dish about Smarty Jones being private?

Mahubah · Postby **Mahubah** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 8:59 am

My thoughts on Smarty's fee are that Three Chimneys knows they won't get $100,000 for his services in 2009; between the modest racing performance of his progeny so far and his equally modest performance in the sale ring in 2008, I doubt he could realistically command half that. But Three Chimneys doesn't want the mare owners that bred to him in 2008 hung out to dry; a drastic reduction in the published fee would in many eyes signal a lack of confidence in the stallion and a reduction in potential value for his foals. So they've made the fee private to avoid publicizing a substantial drop in what's actually being charged, or so I would guess. It's a smart move for trying to retain the goodwill of the farm's customers in difficult times.

Hold Your Peace · Postby **Hold Your Peace** » Sat Nov 01, 2008 10:37 am

Mahubah wrote:My thoughts on Smarty's fee are that Three Chimneys knows they won't get $100,000 for his services in 2009; between the modest racing performance of his progeny so far and his equally modest performance in the sale ring in 2008, I doubt he could realistically command half that. But Three Chimneys doesn't want the mare owners that bred to him in 2008 hung out to dry; a drastic reduction in the published fee would in many eyes signal a lack of confidence in the stallion and a reduction in potential value for his foals. So they've made the fee private to avoid publicizing a substantial drop in what's actually being charged, or so I would guess. It's a smart move for trying to retain the goodwill of the farm's customers in difficult times.

Good post.

Psychology plays a big part in prices at the sales and if they came out right before the November sale and said Smarty's fee for 2009 was $40,000 then people selling mares in foal to Smarty next week (who'd paid $100,000 to get those mares in foal) would be dealing with people doing the math saying "The mare is in foal to a $40,000 stallion and she's worth maybe $40,000 not in foal so I'll go to $80,000 max for her". Whereas with the private announcement maybe people looking at those same mares might be a little more generous than $40,000 when figuring the stud fee in the belly on those mares.

You also sometimes see that "Private" announcement when they're just days away from inking a deal to sell a stud overseas. But I don't see them selling Smarty overseas just yet. Next fall could be a different story, then again next year could be a different story for Smarty and he might have some big runners next year.

Bohemia · Postby **Bohemia** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 5:12 pm

I've been following Smarty's freshman season very closely and I have to say that it's been terrible.

Through racing of today, he's dropped to 29th on the freshman sire list, with total progeny earnings of $240,127. He's had six winners, one in Puerto Rico and one in Japan. The starters I've seen have been very un-impressive - like today, a first-time starter named Keep Me in Mind (trained by Servis) finished far back in a MSW at Philly.

I was waiting for them to drop his stud fee, and quite honestly there are a lot of freshman sires ranked above Smarty that have had a far more impressive freshman year and stand for $5,000 or less. Check out Olmodavor ($5,000) at Adena Springs South, whose had eight winners, three repeat winners and two stakes winners, with progeny earnings more than double Smarty's. I'm sure the quality of mares he's been bred to were far below the quality of Smarty's mates.

Not one of Smarty's five winners have won another race besides their maiden-breaker.

Maybe in a year or two you'll see Smarty farmed out to a regional market ... maybe Pennsylvania? The Pa. Horse Breeders would have an orgasm if he came to stand in the state.

ASB · Postby **ASB** » Sun Nov 02, 2008 8:14 pm

They'll sell Smarty Jones to Japan before sending him to a regional market. The Japanese love KY Derby winners who had press followings.

Bohemia · Postby **Bohemia** » Mon Nov 03, 2008 5:53 am

Japan would be a good fit for him. Any farm that agrees to stand him in the U.S. would have to be prepared for an onslaught of Smarty-happy fans ... not many would be as willing as Three Chimneys, I'll bet, nor have the manpower/facilities to accomodate them. Can you imagine Smarty going to one of those little outfits in central Pa., where maybe they have 4 or 5 people, tops, working there? Of course, there's always the Ky. Horse Park if he proves to be a total flop. But I think Japan is the best alternative.