The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky., Notebook Column: Breeding Shed Bonuses Difficult to Collect
By Maryjean Wall, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Feb. 4–Your odds of getting hit by lightning are better than winning the lottery, according to one Web site.
Your odds of winning a free trip to the $6 million Dubai World Cup next month are a whole lot better — if you breed a mare to the first-year stallion called Ten Centuries.
A promotion tied to this son of Dubai Millennium is the latest among a small number of stallion breeding-incentive prizes to have been offered in the past few years.
This one might be the easiest to win. All you need do is sign the breeding contract by March 1.
The subsequent lottery will see one contract-holder’s name pulled from a hat. The winner will receive an expense-paid trip to the World Cup later in March.
Other stallion promotions have ranged more in the “lightning strikes” category: much more difficult to win. They have required participants to breed a Grade I stakes-winner in order to collect.
When you start talking Grade I winners, you’re talking longer odds than a lightning strike. But if a mare owner is feeling lucky, the biggest prize to try for right now is the promotion at Castleton Lyons.
This farm in Lexington calls its stallion-breeding incentive “Breed a Grade I winner, get a Grade I ride.”
The ride is a Range Rover Sport. The program is now in its second year.
Castleton Lyons won’t know until at least 2009 whether it will be turning over the keys to a Grade I vehicle. The first foals eligible to participate are hitting the ground only now.
But perhaps someone will hit the lottery in that particular promotion. Or, someone will collect on incentives offered by Stonewall Farm: among these, a free return season to any stallion on that farm siring a stakes-winner.
Still, no one ever hit in the the high-stakes promotions that were attached to other stallion breedings in recent years.
For example, Walmac Farm offered a $1 million bonus in 1997 to anyone who might breed a Grade I winner from Irgun’s first crop.
“We got close,” said John T. L. Jones III, a partner in Walmac. “My father (John T. L. Jones Jr.) bred a filly who won a Grade II. So we would have been awarding it to ourselves.” But that’s as close as it got.
Glencrest Farm once offered a $300,000 bonus to breeders to the stallion Flying Chevron. Same deal: breed a Grade I winner from the stallion’s first crop. But there was a catch: a horse had to get that Grade I win by the end of its fourth year.
Flying Chevron’s first Grade I occurred to a horse six years old. As such, the win didn’t count for the $300,000 bonus.
Stallion promotions offering prizes are rare in the horse business, where a breeding prospect’s bloodlines and reputation from the track generally have been sufficient for attracting mares.
“People choose the stallion to match the mare — and not the incentive to match the mare,” said Tobias Incollingo, farm manager at Castleton Lyons. “If that incentive happens to fall in place, great.”
Accident-prone horse thriving at jockey academy
Chris McCarron’s jockey school, called North American Racing Academy, is always on the lookout for a few good horses. Dogwood Stable donated a horse with a most unusual story behind it.
The horse’s name is Ed Bowen. His namesake is the author and racing historian from Lexington who also is president of the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.
“Eddie” suffered a bizarre accident at Saratoga. He departed the paddock at a dead run, headed toward the highway to Schuylerville, and got tangled up in a bicycle. Now he’s engaged in a new career as a school-master for student jockeys. He’s been on the job since September and is doing great.
Derby 132 book on sale
Barbaro’s fans desirous of a memento of his Kentucky Derby victory last May might want to take a look at Kentucky Derby 132 Review. Published by Moonlight Press in Louisville, this is primarily a photo book that also includes the Derby chart, information on the owner, trainer, and jockey, and a brief epilogue that revisits Barbaro’s Preakness Stakes injury.
A portion of proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Laminitis Fund at the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine’s New Bolton Center. Barbaro was euthanized Jan. 29 at New Bolton Center, because of laminitis.
Hoofnote
The American Saddlebred Museum will open an exhibit on Feb. 16 titled, “Out of the Shadows: Bringing to Light Black Horsemen in Saddlebred History.” African American trainers, owners, and caretakers of Saddlebred show horses from the late 1800s through the 1970s will be featured.
Maryjean Wall covers horse racing for the Herald-Leader. This article may contain her opinions and observations. She can be reached at 859-231-3231 or by e-mail at mwall@herald-leader.com [mailto:mwall@herald-leader.com].
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Lexington Herald-Leader, Ky.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
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