Interesting article on the books for this year's British and Irish first season sires: https://www.racingpost.com/bloodsto...-in-britain-and-ireland-with-187-mares/301878
Looking forward to seeing the results of the horses in training sale end of may - Are they really selling Sam spinner and Summerville Boy??
Hi Princess. If you have a bit of spare time, and of course the inclination, would you please get some news on the year Golden Fleece stood at Coolmore. Mallafets has just posted a new OP on potential greats where offered up the 1982 Derby winner Golden Fleece. It was sad to see that the horse died from what appears to surgical complications when battling cancer in 1984.
Did the horse meet with any breeding success from the one season he stood as a sire?
All the best.![]()
Thanks Princess. The first argument is pretty weak as the stallion owner can be in control (eg only we can use our stallion's straws as we own them).The main argument as I understand it is that it protects the stallion owner in that he is in control of how many and the quality of mares his horse will cover. There's a fear (probably unfounded) that the straws may end up being traded and stallions owners may lose income. They also want to avoid the scenario of a dead horse's offspring still being produced, I have to say I agree with that one - there's so much Northern Dancer around already, do we really want to keep on, for example, seeing Galileo's running 10 years after he dies? It would prevent the emergence of new lines which the breed so desperately needs.
Another argument used against it is that there are not the same pressures as with other competition horses - ie the stallions are often still competing so don't have the time to take a few months off to cover mares, or the mares may be travelling to competitions globally and not be able to get to the same physical area as the stallion. As racehorses are (usually) retired before starting to breed, there are not the same factors at play.