Ask Princess - 2014

I suspect his fee would shoot up which would put off some. Then they might have private deals for approved mares only. I suppose repeat matings might be on the cards?

 

Different studs have different policies when that kind of thing happens.

Traditionally a new stallion will see a drop in numbers for his second book of mares as breeders switch to "the next big thing". This happened to Sea The Stars who went from 140 mares in his first year to 87 in his second. His book picked back up for the 3rd year to 150, but fell again in 2013 to 96.

Frankel will be difficult to predict. Apparently he could have covered 3 times his final book of 133 based on the number of applications to use him. I'd expect his numbers to keep up for now on the basis that so few foals will get to the sale ring. I wouldn't expect to see his fee increase, or decrease, until after his first crop reach 3.

Juddmonte are pretty picky about the numbers their stallions cover and it is rare to see any of them cover more than 145. But, as I said earlier, some studs are not so picky and seem happy to flood the market as it were. Taking Galileo as an example, as the most expensive stallion in Europe (rumoured at €350,000) you would think he would have a very restricted book of mares, but the last few seasons his numbers have been:

2013 - 193
2012 - 196
2011 - 214
2010 - 177
2009 - 193
2008 - 209
2007 - 196

In fact the smallest book he ever covered was 105 in 2003, his second season at stud.

Hope that sheds some light!

 

So that's like nearly €500m. Christ almighty. I knew the numbers were big but I don't think it's ever quite sunk in to me before just how big.

 

Princess, with those numbers, I would be very surprised if someone isn't using AI. I know it isn't legal in thoroughbreds, but who is going to know, or even prove it, if the stud has their own vet.

 

Danish - he's only been at €350,000 for the last couple of seasons, I can't recall his fee prior to that but I think he was as low as €35,000 at one point. Plus not every mare covered = income. The fee is only paid if the mare produces a foal and no money changes hands if the owner of the stallion also owns the mare. These days I'd say at least half of Galileo's mares are owned by Coolmore.

Ron - there is no way of proving/disproving whether Ai is being used I guess, but when I've worked on studs I've never seen any evidence of AI and neither have my friends. One used to be in charge of passport checks for mares arriving to be covered so she saw every covering "live".

 

Cheers Princess... It obvious that there is money in them there loins of his...!!!!!

 

I've put this on the Frankel Foals thread, but in case you missed it Juddmonte have released a video of the birth of Midday's daughter by Frankel - born on 1st February.

 

Not long to go now Princess. Everything OK? Roll on (sorry).

 

How long to go?

 

Classic winner, and dam of my boy, Al Bahathri has died aged 32. RIP old girl

 

Sad to hear that. RIP

 

Saw that too, 32 was a grand age.

2 first season stallions have been returned to training - Reckless Abandon and Al Khazeem

http://www1.skysports.com/horse-rac...abandon-back-in-training-with-charlie-appleby
http://bloodstock.racingpost.com/ne...ck-return-to-training/1652391/bloodstocknews/

 

Hi Princess. Hope you and family are all well. I wondered if in the racing stables they had automatic drinking water systems. We have never had them as it's difficult to know how much water they are drinking. Also we like to go in the stables to feed and give water. I haven't seen any systems that monitor the water intake (mind you I haven't looked very hard) and I am interested to know what they do at racing stables.

 

Ron, every racing stable I've been in has water buckets. Like you say it is difficult to monitor water intake from the automatic drinkers. Same goes for the majority of studs I've been on, though it's less of an issue there.

 

After a long delay, here are a couple of pictures of my little girl. She's 9 weeks old now and tipping the scales at just over 11lbs!

 

Thanks Princess.

Bonny little girl. I think she's laughing at my tips.

 

Isn't she gorgeous!

 

Obviously takes after her mum