The Grinch who stole the 2007 Racing Season

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The Grinch Who Stole The 2007 Racing Season

While most Americans scurry around this time of year to finish up their Holiday shopping, Central Kentucky stallion stations have all but completed their buying sprees. At least 30 stakes winners and 13 grade one winners will begin their new careers in the Bluegrass when the breeding sheds open in February.

Distorted Humor is the hottest stallion in America and, with his stud fee set at $225,000 for next season, his sons were high on everyone’s shopping lists. Three Chimney’s secured the services of 2005 Travers winner Flower Alley (standing for $25,000) prior to the Breeders’ Cup and, in just the past two weeks, there were two additional Distorted Humor sons retired to stud. Grade two winner Sharp Humor ($12,500) came out of the Cigar Mile worse for the wear and will stand alongside his sire at WinStar Farm, while Hawthorne Gold Cup victor It’s No Joke ($10,000) will join the roster at Stonewall Farm.

It’s rather incredible that Flower Alley, Sharp Humor and It’s No Joke are the first three sons of Distorted Humor to stand in Kentucky. Of course, Distorted Humor’s first two major sons, Derby/Preakness winner Funny Cide and Whitney winner Commentator are both geldings (who would want to breed to the son of a $10,000 stallion anyway?). Ooops.

2005 Kentucky Derby winner Giacomo ($15,000) will also enter stud next year as probably the least exciting (to breeders) Kentucky Derby winner since Go For Gin. He’s a son of the solid by not commercially fashionable Holy Bull and the fact he won only once after that first Saturday in May gave credence to the notion that his Derby win was of the flukish variety. But he’ll be standing at Frank Stronach’s Adena Springs Farm and Mr. Stronach has a large band of quality mares that he uses to support his young stallions. So even if outside breeders don’t flock to Giacomo, he’ll have every chance to prove himself. Adena Springs has done it before with El Prado and, to a lesser extent, Alphabet Soup.

Bernardini will, of course, be the most expensive new stallion with an initial asking price of $100,000. I was as disappointed as any racing fan when he, along with Henny Hughes ($40,000), was retired after the Breeders’ Cup. But I think some perspective is needed amidst the uproar surrounding their early exits from racing’s center stage.

The fact that top equine stars tend not to stay around very long, while extremely frustrating, is only one factor in racing’s decline in popularity over the past 30 years. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably a rather small one. The shift of American culture to one of immediate gratification is probably the biggest reason there is a growing disinterest in a game that takes time and patience to learn and play.

I’ll agree, though, that it’s a little more disconcerting that Bernardini and Henny Hughes were whisked away by Sheikh Mohammed, a man who doesn’t normally pay heed to the economics of the horse business. Bernardini will generate around $40 million in stud fees over the next four years, a figure that is an indicator of what he might be worth on the open market. Most race horse owners would have little choice but to sell out at a figure like that. But one of the planet’s richest men who, if you averaged out his yearly income, probably makes $40 million each night in his sleep?

But then there is this feud between Sheik Mohammed and the Irish racing and breeding juggernaut Coolmore to consider. The squabbling actually began in earnest 2005 when it became known that the ruling family of Dubai would no longer purchase yearlings sired by Coolmore stallions. The idea of the boycott being that commercial breeders would be hesitant to use Coolmore stallions like Giant’s Causeway and Montjeu if a sizeable buyer at the top end of the market would be automatically unimpressed. Back in February of this year, Coolmore won the bidding war for the Forestry two year-old colt The Green Monkey (although it remains to be seen if that was, in fact, a victory). Then at the Keeneland September Yearling sale Darley barley let Coolmore get a bid in edgewise, buying every single yearling of mutual interest.

In the past few years Sheikh Mohammed has begun to play the stallion game, here and elsewhere in the world, with Coolmore clearly in his sights. Aside from refusing to buy Coolmore-sired yearlings, he’s invested heavily in the infrastructure of his Central Kentucky stallion station, Darley at Jonabell. He’s also secured stallions from outside his racing program in recent years, bringing in Consolidator, Offlee Wild, and now Rockport Harbor.

This fall the Sheikh didn’t have to go shopping. He already had two of the most desirable stallion prospects in hand. While it’s no solace to racing fans, Sheikh Mohammed simply decided Bernardini and ‘Henny’ were needed more on the breeding front than the racing front of the ‘Coolmore Wars’.

Matt O'Neil has been a racing enthusiast since the mid 1980's. He currently works for Taylor Made Stallions, Inc. in Central Kentucuky and is published regularly in Owner-Breeder International and The Florida-Horse. Contact Matt O'Neil