Frankel is now retired and will enter the wonderful world of being a stallion ! I have a few questions here : If you where to own one of either frankel or Galileo from now? What horse is worth more ? If frankel is valued at £100m what would the great Galileo be valued at ? These where just some questions that I couldn't answer in my local boozer yesterday after frankels performance x
Galileo has a history at stud, so his price tag will be based on what his progeny have actually achieved. Quite literally success breeds success. The Frankel price tag is pure speculation. There is an assumption that he will command a £100,000 fee per covering and will cover over a hundred mares a season and will continue to command such a fee. Every year when a champion is packed off to the breeding shed, these fanciful figures are publicised but they very rarely have any basis in fact. Go and do some digging and see what money was made out of Dancing Brave in his less than spectacular career at stud.
There will obviously be a clamour to send mares to him initially as a bit like the facebook share floatation he has the biggest profile in the world and that will allow a premium beyond it's real stock to begin with. As you rightly say Quartermoon the actual figure once the dust settles will be the real figure and if he gets some early success the stated figure could easily be achieved or surpassed but just as likely become a much smaller sum should he's early foals fail to fetch or shine on course. He will be very attractive as he has such physical perfection and breeders will dream of producing something that can emulate the sires stride, add that to the fact his blood already includes Galileo and by that of course Saddlers wells i think that lad will not be short of romance for quite some time.
The figure of £100million is based on so many assumptions that it really isn't realistic. Even if his stud fee was £100,000 that fee is only payable if the mare actually has a foal. Even the best stallions only have a fertility rate of about 80%. Add into the mix that a large percentage of his mates will already belong to Juddmonte so no money will change hands. A more realistic expectation is that they could earn around £4million per year from him. This is only sustainable for the first 3 seasons as once his first runners hit the racecourse his fee will have to be adjusted to reflect the results.
I think I heard stallion value is 4 years of current stud fee or something like that which I guess puts him at around £40million? That said Juddmonte probably wouldn't accept £100million+ so it's all theoretical. What's the most someone would pay for him is I guess his value. Or what's the least Juddmonte would accept!!
Mick, it depends on the terms of the fee, but all of Juddmonte's other stallions stand at "Live Foal", which means it is only payable if the mare produces a foal that lives for at least 24 hours. The other terms payable are 1st October - payable if the mare is in foal at 1st October, but non-refundable if she later loses the pregnancy; or 1st October, Special Live Foal - payable at 1st October if the mare is in foal but will be refunded if the mare loses the pregnancy or the foal dies at birth.
I should have added, those are the 3 main fee types that you find in the Thoroughbred world these days, but there certainly are others that the smaller farms offer: Straight Fee - 100% payable whether the mare is in foal or not - very rare these days Split Fee - 50% payable on covering, 50% payable 1st October if the mare is in foal Filly Foal Free Return - with fillies considered less valuable than colts, should your mare produce a filly you can visit the stallion again free of charge the next year No Foal Free Return - a guarantee that if you fail to get a foal you will be able to go back to the stallion the next year - particularly useful for popular stallions who may get booked up early on
I'm just hoping that Frankel gets sent to a mare with a name like Strong Engine and the offspring gets the obvious name of ****el. Not quite in the bowler's Holding the batsman's Willey proportions but it would make a few smile.
Would Juddmonte put many of those yearlings through the sale's ring Princess? If they decided to sell them, they'd be better off not selling services you'd think.
pN Is Powerscourt the only close up relative to Frankel on the female family line who's gone to stud? Or are there others who've proved themselves? Really great horses seldom deliver at stud. Sea Bird seemed to sire a lot of softies. I hope Frankel is successful and he's obviously better bred than both Sea Bird or especially Brigadier Gerard.
Juddmonte sell very few horses, mostly they disperse unraced fillies or mares that have failed to make the grade, at the December breeding stock sales. As far as I can see, Powerscourt is the only close male relative on the female side standing at stud. Tony Morris wrote a very good article in last week's post which points out that breeding racehorses usually "regresses to the mean". In other words, it is very unlikely that Frankel will ever sire a horse as good as, or better than, himself. The outstanding sires of our time have in the main been good, but not awesome, racehorses.
Agree pN but they've usually been tough. As Morris himself said if you couldn't predict Sadler's Wells would be a good sire you should give it up. He was tough and beautifully bred, but not a great great racehorse as you've pointed out before. He probably wasn't reckoned the best even in his stable that year.
Bustino, I’ve read in an article today that Frankel’s dam line, further back, includes MTOTO. There is due to be an extensive look at his pedigree published in a journal next month so I will replicate it here once I have it.
Bustino, really, I'm shocked.... ...but I hope he enjoys himself at stud, and it's not too tiring... please log in to view this image
Matt Chapman has just stated on Twitter that Sir Henry has told him this morning that BULLET TRAIN has also been retired. No word on whether he has been found a place at stud somewhere.
Thanks pN. I never know how important the female side is to the potential success of a sire. With a horse like Danehill you can see why, maybe even Sadler's Wells
Jongleur, Do any cars still use the ****el engine? When I was a student I knew someone who had a german car that had one. I'll answer my own question it was a NSU ro80 (think Cream wrote a song about it). And the Mazda Rxs still incorporate ****els.
Bustino: Don't know if this rotary engine is still used, but I read that Herr ****el pantented this in 1929, but it was not put into production until 1950, or thereabouts. Erm, the Germans also had something to do with the Focke Wulf too, if my old memory serves me correct? please log in to view this image
