Storm Cat enjoyed a modest career on the track as a racehorse, winning a Grade I race at the Meadowlands in 1985 and finishing second by a nose to Tasso in that year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile. In the breeding shed, however, Storm Cat is unsurpassed, a living equine legend.
Stationed at Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Ky., the horse, now 24 years old, commands a breeding fee of $500,000 for each live foal —- the highest figure in the world and only $70,000 less than he earned in his entire racing career. He has sired 154 stakes winners worldwide, with total earnings of more than $100 million. One of his colts fetched a record $9.7 million at the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2005, and another one in the same auction went for $6.3 million.
It’s no wonder why Overbrook Farm keeps a round-the-clock watch on its golden goose. It’s no wonder why a groom once said of Storm Cat, “He’s like winning the lottery every year.”
By any measure, the business of horse breeding is booming. These Horse breeding figures will tell you about the present situation.
34,350: Estimated U.S. foal crop this year
3,480: Active stallions in U.S. in 2006
312: Active stallions in California
16.7: Average book size (numbers of mares bred to) in 2006
126: Stallions that bred to 100 or more mares last year
244: Record for most mares covered in one year, set by Giant’s Causeway in 2005
$500,000: Breeding fee of Storm Cat, the world’s most successful stallion
$570,000: Approximate earnings of Storm Cat in his racing career
$9.7 million: Price of a Storm Cat colt at the Keeneland yearling sale in 2005
5,553: Yearlings at the Keeneland sale next month
$400 million: Proceeds from the Keeneland sale last year
$60 million: Reported price paid for Kentucky Derby champion Fusaichi Pegasus in 2000
All that money changing hands is good for owners and breeders. But is it good for horses?
Earlier horses were bred to race rather than reproduce. Seabiscuit raced a remarkable 89 times during his five-year career. Citation, the 1948 Triple Crown winner, raced until he was 6 years old. But the industry began to shift irrevocably in the 1950s, beginning perhaps with Nashua, a famous thoroughbred who in 1956 became the first horse to sell for more than $1 million.
Nowadays, the most valuable horses are those that run the fastest over a furlong at the 2-year-old sale. The speedy colts are almost immediately thrust into rigorous training for the 3-year-old season and pointed toward one or more of the Triple Crown races. If they perform up to their strong bloodlines in those prestigious races, they will have earned the right to an early retirement to the breeding farm, just when their racing star should be on the rise.
The trouble is, horses that run the fastest are not the same as horses that last the longest or that avoid potentially fatal injuries. And when speed is consistently favored over durability, it could cause a gradual weakening of the breed.
Not only are horses being bred earlier in their lives, but they’re also being bred within a smaller and smaller gene pool. In the past 15 years, the number of active stallions has declined from 6,696 to 3,480 while the average book size (the number of mares they are paired with) has shot up from 9.5 to 16.7, according to the Jockey Club. Last year, 126 stallions covered 100 or more mares. The record for one stallion is 244 by Giant’s Causeway in 2005.
The pattern of market-guided inbreeding shows no signs of abating, leaving horsemen worried about its effect on the thoroughbred across generations.
But, would breeders select for durability and owners extend their horses’ racing careers when they can continue raking in the dough by maintaining the status quo?
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Horse Breeding, Horse Care
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