Shooting Yourself in the Foot - Your Very Own Stallion

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 8 years 1 week ago

I so well remember, as a newbie, how much I wanted a stallion to stand at stud. What an ego trip that fantasy was -- earning stud fee income from all the other players who want to breed their mares to him. Breeding all my own mares to him, so I don't have to pay stud fees to other players. Having a reason to go on the forum and announce that my special boy has been retired to stud, and knowing other players are *so* delighted to hear such, so now they can eagerly send him mares.

I don't begrudge any player indulging in their own similar fantasy. The problem, however, is getting your hands on a stallion that is truly worth standing at stud, and that others actually have any interest in breeding to. You'll probably be surprised at how few and far between those stallions are.

Want to shoot yourself in the foot? Repeat the following scenario that I have seen played out over and over and over again.

You've built up your bank balance to a few hundred thousand. You see an uncut horse on the sales page for, say, 200k. Maybe he's already stood at stud a few years. Maybe he's just been retired. Maybe he's still racing. In any case, he won a Grade 3 stakes once and has 400k in career earnings -- far more than any horse you've ever owned. He's by a modestly successful sire. His dam won a race once, and that's good enough for you. So, you buy him. You announce on the forum that he's available for stud. You feel magnanimous in pointing out that his stud fee is only $5,000. (You're a nice person, after all.)

You wait and wait. Nobody breeds to him, except a SIM friend or two. In the meantime, you're so happy to have Your Very Own Stallion, that you buy up every mare, in his category, you can afford (usually meaning they aren't very high quality), to breed to him. Maybe that's twenty mares. Maybe it's fifty. Let's call it thirty.

You now have thirty foals by a stallion that nobody cares about, out of some crummy mares. The year turns over and now they're yearlings. You gallop them. They suck. Oh, there's that one that went "productive". All the others are a lower level than that. Since your entire SIM stable has revolved around your one and only stallion -- and you bought a whole bunch of mares to breed to him -- you're getting low on money. All those sucky yearlings can't even start racing until the next game year. You don't have much to race in the meantime, because you spent all your purchase money on mares. In desperation for some income, you geld all 15 of your colts. That gets you $15,000.

Week 5 comes along and it's time for workouts. Nothing much you can be excited about with those results. Money is tight. Oh, wait. You can have an auction, and include all your yearlings by Your Very Own Stallion, except that one productive galloper that you're really fond of. You're keeping him. So, you have an auction with, say, 50 horses of various types, including 29 low galloping yearlings by a stallion that nobody is interested in. What's more, you've gelded all the colts, so buyers are denied an immediate $1,000 of income, to offset the minimum $1,000 bid for any of those male yearlings. By the time the auction is over, you've sold a few fillies, but you still have 20 yearlings by a stallion that nobody cares about. You're stuck with them, because it'll cost you $20,000 to send them all to Greener Pastures, and you don't want to spend that amount of money. So, it's time to sell your greatest asset -- your stallion. You put him on the sales page, and hope that somebody as naive as you were buys him. If you're lucky, somebody will.

Here's some hard facts about standing a stallion:

1. Over 280 stallions currently at stud have 1 million or more purse earnings. It's very difficult for a Thoroughbred turf or dirt stud with less than seven figures earnings to get any notice.

2. Most Thoroughbred stud fees are in the $10,000 to $30,000 range. Higher than that, and they start feeling expensive. Lower than that, and it sounds like you're apologizing for standing your horse at stud. Who wants to breed to a stallion that the owner feels apologetic about? Some will -- often those with hardly any money, which often means they have lousy mares. They're likely not doing your stallion's career any favors.

3. What attracts mare owners most is a high nicking stallion. You don't have any control over how your boy nicks. Lowering his stud fee, in deference to being a lower nicker, might help a little. But just a little. Why would somebody spend $5,000 to breed to a 400k-earning stallion that nicks B with their mare, when they can spend $20,000 to breed to stallion that earned a million in his racing career and nicks B+? Most breeders, except the poor, are going to choose the latter, because they feel they have a better chance at getting a higher quality foal. In short, nick a stallion with some mares before you buy him. If he's not retired yet, then be prepared for the possibility that he might not be a good nicker, regardless of how good of a racehorse he is.

4. Pedigree matters in SIM. A lot. Serious breeders are rarely interested in a highly successful racehorse, if he doesn't have a good pedigree (ie, that has a history of breeding on successfully) to back up his race record. In fact, serious breeders often place far more emphasis on the stallion's female family than who the sire is. If your boy is by Super Sire X, it still doesn't mean that anyone will be interested. Most likely, lots of other stallions at stud are also by Super Sire X -- and they have a lot stronger female families than your boy does.

5. Even if you get your hands on an older guy that has had some successful offspring, bear in mind that almost all stallions get fewer and fewer outside mares as they age. The vast majority of breeders are going to be more interested in the newest young stallions that have recently been retired.

Believe me, I understand how it is for newish players. After racing so many marginal horses, it's really exciting when you get your hands on an uncut boy that wins a stakes race. It's easy to start thinking "stallion material". But what most newish players don't realize is the literally dozens of Grade 1 winners that their stallion will be competing against in the stud market. A horse that won a few stakes races is a peon, compared to a horse that won a few Grade 1 races and earned a few million in his career, is by a highly successful stallion, and out of a mare that has produced other major stakes winners.

If you don't care about earning stud fee income from other players, and just want to have a stallion to breed to your own mares, that's fine. But be aware that you're then going to be stuck with the offspring for a number of years. I strongly suggest just breeding a few mares to him the first year. Don't go crazy and manage your entire barn around the assumption that he's going to give you high quality offspring. If you like how those first few foals gallop as yearlings, then breed more mares to him the next year.

At the risk of appearing hypocritical, I want to point out that, of the nearly 40 stallions I stand at stud, representing all breeds and divisions, some have questionable qualifications. The difference is that I have the wealth to play around with so-so studs, and can afford to have entire crops in a few divisions be 100% duds, in any given game year. It won't hurt the overall stability of my operation. If you're a newish or poor player, you likely can't afford to take that same type of risk.

Finally, make sure you read the FAQ on Standing Stallions: http://www.simhorseracing.com/simforum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=11128

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