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Originally Posted by Dunbar
Rupert, a lot of what you wrote rings true. I can remember Jack Van Berg talking publicly about the stress in running Alysheba. Even though he tried to make a case for running Alysheba as a 5-yr-old, it was clear that part of him was relieved to be done with it.
I would think, though, that many owners get in the game with the dream of owning a top-notch horse that can compete at the highest level. When that unlikely dream happens to arrive, it seems to me that these same people are too quick to end it. It's as if once they hit the jackpot, they forget what motivated them in the first place. Perhaps having had the incredible luck to get one of these horses, they think it will happen again.
Your Magic Mountain analogy does not hold, because you know you can go back to that ride any time you want. Yes, you want to savor the feeling, but if you knew that (realistically) you could never ride it except for that day, you would almost certainly ride it again immediately. IMO, horse owners should be looking at it the same way, unless money was their #1 interest from the get go. (I'm not disparaging a money-oriented goal; I just think many owners get into racing for different reasons that don't revolve around money.)
But as I said at the start, I understand your point about getting out before something bad happens.
--Dunbar
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Guys I think something else is worth pointing out here, something that noone seems to realize or if they do they don't mention it.
I don't see many, if ANY, of these owners who take stud deals cutting bait and taking the money and then leaving the game.
Its not like they played the game to just make a score and then get out.
They take that money and renivest it into more horses, which helps perpetuate the industry. The Sheikhs may not be the geratest example as the money has little meaning in itself to them.
But I look at a friend of mine like Lansdon. He sold Offlee Wild to the Arabs and then part of First Sam(he still owns a great deal of him and will be breeding to him this spring), and alls hes done is get back what hes spent in the industry. The nice scores hes made with those two stallions is going back into the business. Hes compiled some broodmares and has been breeding hsi own horses the last few years, but this upcoming year those mares will be getting serious upgrades in terms of the stallions they will be going to. Hes also bought seasons in both Johar and Flower Alley.
My point is that many owners do what he is doing. They don't stop playing the game or chasing the dream, they simply take the money from a stallion and put it back into the game chasing the next grade one winner. It seems funny actually, but thats what so many of these guys do. They want that "buzz", or "high" of owning a big one again so they spend even more money at sales, on broodmares to breed to the portion of the stallion that they retain, and on more horses and higher sire fees.
Its actually healthy for the whole game in terms of wealth redistribution.
The money earned by the owners off a stallion or broodmare sold for a huge fee doesn't just stay in the bank accounts of those folks. The money is redistributed on a broader scale to people selling yearlings, two year olds, broodmares, people standing other sires, and trainers who get to train more horses and agents who get commissions for buying these horses or selling these stallion shares.
The only way I could see this an unhealthy for the business would be if these folks simply "took the money and ran" and didn't pump it back into the industry.
Imagine how many folks have benefitted from the success of people like the deceased Bob lewis and his wife Beverly who is STILL playing the game. They never cut bait and ran away after their success, they continued to buy horses and more horses.
Racing may be one the best examples I've ever seen in the trickle down effect of money being made on the highest end. That money is put back into racing's economy and then MANY people benefit from it.
While I understand the disappointment of someone like Darley retiring a horse like Bernadini to stud, it could simply be that the Sheikh can't wait to have many little Bernadini's running around instead of one regardless of how slim the chances are that he will sire a replica of himself.