Is it realistic to want to be a horse breeder and trainer in these current times?
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
If you want to be a breeder, in some respects this is a FABULOUS time. Stud fees now have been dropping and stallion managers are more willing to deal on stud fees and terms than anytime in the last few years. More than 80% of the stallions listed in The Blood-Horse Stallion Register stand for fees of $5,000 or less, and in the range up to $25,000, there are some proven stallions who are capable of getting a Group I stakes winners if bred to the right mare.
The broodmare market is also down, although not for the top mares. The softness is in mares that have had several foals to race, with no outstanding runners, or mares that lack a "commercial" pedigree (e.g. no or few stakes-winning or stakes-placed close relatives under the first three dams). Everyone is culling their broodmare herd and people are being very picky about the mares they keep to breed. There are some bona fide bargains out there in mares that aren’t obviously commercial, but are well-conformed, were winners on the track although not at the highest levels, and are from young families that might turn up a stakes winner in a year or two. You have to dig through the catalogues to find mares like that, but they’re out there and they’re going cheap.
The down-side right now is that when you go to sell your product (weanling, yearling or two-year-old racehorses), you are facing a market that is absolutely unforgiving of any faults, flaws or problems. You cannot be producing mediocre horses right now, the market will kill you. You also have to be cognizant of what the market wants, even if that isn’t what you personally want. The market is looking for horses of medium size or better, functionally correct, that vet out clean in joints and airways, with precocity and brilliance promised by either conformation or pedigree (preferably both). Immaturity is punished, inability to quicken is punished, any failure to vet out clean is punished. (A sign of the kind of thing the commercial market is NOT looking for: Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby, and he won over $2.5 million; he’s half-brother to Tiago, another successful stakes winner, from a good family, but his fee is just $7,500 and he stands at Adena Springs, which has some willingness to deal to fill the books of its stallions. Giacomo wasn’t precocious, he wasn’t possessed of brilliance, his running style is "grind it out"– wear down tired horses rather than outrun them.)
Being a breeder is tough under any circumstances, but this particular time offers both great opportunities and great risks. Do your homework, make the right choices in selecting mares and planning matings, and you might win big; guess wrong or be unlucky, and you may be out of business.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
If you want to be a breeder, in some respects this is a FABULOUS time. Stud fees now have been dropping and stallion managers are more willing to deal on stud fees and terms than anytime in the last few years. More than 80% of the stallions listed in The Blood-Horse Stallion Register stand for fees of $5,000 or less, and in the range up to $25,000, there are some proven stallions who are capable of getting a Group I stakes winners if bred to the right mare.
The broodmare market is also down, although not for the top mares. The softness is in mares that have had several foals to race, with no outstanding runners, or mares that lack a "commercial" pedigree (e.g. no or few stakes-winning or stakes-placed close relatives under the first three dams). Everyone is culling their broodmare herd and people are being very picky about the mares they keep to breed. There are some bona fide bargains out there in mares that aren’t obviously commercial, but are well-conformed, were winners on the track although not at the highest levels, and are from young families that might turn up a stakes winner in a year or two. You have to dig through the catalogues to find mares like that, but they’re out there and they’re going cheap.
The down-side right now is that when you go to sell your product (weanling, yearling or two-year-old racehorses), you are facing a market that is absolutely unforgiving of any faults, flaws or problems. You cannot be producing mediocre horses right now, the market will kill you. You also have to be cognizant of what the market wants, even if that isn’t what you personally want. The market is looking for horses of medium size or better, functionally correct, that vet out clean in joints and airways, with precocity and brilliance promised by either conformation or pedigree (preferably both). Immaturity is punished, inability to quicken is punished, any failure to vet out clean is punished. (A sign of the kind of thing the commercial market is NOT looking for: Giacomo won the Kentucky Derby, and he won over $2.5 million; he’s half-brother to Tiago, another successful stakes winner, from a good family, but his fee is just $7,500 and he stands at Adena Springs, which has some willingness to deal to fill the books of its stallions. Giacomo wasn’t precocious, he wasn’t possessed of brilliance, his running style is "grind it out"– wear down tired horses rather than outrun them.)
Being a breeder is tough under any circumstances, but this particular time offers both great opportunities and great risks. Do your homework, make the right choices in selecting mares and planning matings, and you might win big; guess wrong or be unlucky, and you may be out of business.
References :