an idea about sires

[GenuineRisk]

Originally Posted by IrishS

Why has Smarty Jones' stud fee been listed as private? Isn't it a bit early in his stud career for that? Is there a problem or are they trying to limit the quality and quantitiy of mares, which I thought happenened anyway.

I was going to post and ask the same question- can someone who knows more about breeding than I (which would be almost anyone here!) explain what "private fee" can mean (I imagine there can be more than one reason), and why a horse would be listed that way? Smarty's runners seem to be doing okay, not outstanding.