Since this is the Bloodstock section, while I'd never want to put anyone off having a bash venturing into breeding, and I was fortunate in having an immensely-experienced person like Songsheet as partner (and land owner), plus a back-up mentor in Paul Thorman, I'd say that breeding a winner is a feckin' miracle! Which is why FAREER is such a joy for Songsheet to have bred, let alone others in the past.
My own story is far from glorious and now that I see it in detail below, ought to serve as a cautionary tale to those who think it's a piece of cake, just bunging a mare to someone else's stallion, and waiting for the big bucks to roll in. When things conspire against getting the best result, even any result, money just rolls out all the time, and never finds its way back.
I only bred a few foals with Songsheet and another pal, who retains a 50% share in PLACE THE DUCHESS, who's a 3 y.o. and still waiting to place, let alone win. It was an enlightening experience for me, and pocket-lightening one for all of us.
1st foal: Songy and I bought REACH THE WIND i/f to AGNES WORLD. Who'd have thought that the Japan Cup Sprint and Prix de l'Abbaye winner would turn out to be such a dud, especially as his bonk tag at that time was £65,000? Not that we paid it - we got the older-level mare at a very 'competitive' price of £12,000 and sold the filly foal, later called WORLDWIND, to Laura Mongan's parents for £23,000, giving us a little profit each. I had mate's rates from Songsheet as she shared the mare with me, and kept her on her own farm. W/W ran twice only, once on Polytrack, once on turf, and was the most distant last each time I've seen by a sound horse! Laura had helped her through open knees, a chipped knee, growth spurts, very bad colic, and not brought her out until she was 4. Venusian (of this site) opined that she 'must be the worst horse in training' - I was very hurt at the time, but would have to agree now! Notwithstanding these future disappointments for her owners, I was very pleased indeed with our breeding results. Blimey, I thought contentedly, banking my nice share of the cheque, this lark's a piece of piss. Why don't more people do it?
2nd foal: the afore-named winner. By Cheveley Park's CARNIVAL DREAM out of REACH THE WIND (her last foal - she's now on permanent nanny duties at Songsheet's farm). We waited and waited for WORLDWIND to appear, in the hopes of seeing a fabulously-talented AGNES WORLD 2 y.o. (story above) and being able to market her as a half-sister to the talent. We finally gave up waiting and sold her as a yearling, at a small loss. CARNIVAL DREAM has disappeared from the latest Cheveley brochure.
3rd foal: As a replacement for RTW, we'd bought BARRANTES ex-Sheena West for only £10,000, a successful sprint mare with wins and places, including Listed. We put her to COMPTON PLACE, begetting PLACE THE DUCHESS, who has yet to place herself, but cleared our outgoings with a sale of £20,000 to David Elsworth, who sold her on to David Arbuthnot for a quick £5,000 turn-round. Okay, I thought, no nice profit, but at least we broke even and we're sure to get EBF prizes...
4th foal: TRADE FAIR, ex-BARRANTES: the chestnut colt foal was killed in a satellite stud's paddock accident at just 7 weeks, while his Mum was visiting ICEMAN at Cheveley. We had a little insurance, but it barely scraped the costs.
5th foal: By ICEMAN, who died a few days before the foal sales, making selling them even more difficult than just the global financial situation which had just started to bite. Our filly foal failed to make her reserve, but we held onto her in the hope of seeing some economic recovery (some hope) and finally gave her away, as a yearling, to be trained by John Bridger. (BARRANTES was i/f to COMPTON PLACE again and she dropped a colt, after I'd swapped my half-share of her to Ashbrittle Stud in lieu of their prep fees, for the equivalent of £345. This year BARRANTES is empty.) Wipe-out.
6th foal: Unaware of the impending financial disaster awaiting many of us later that year, I was mentored by the highly astute Paul Thorman of Trickledown Stud at Goff's February Sales in 2008 and bought the unraced DANETIME mare, DANETIME OUT, i/f to MAJESTIC MISSILE, sharing this one with a friend who was interested in 'doing a bit of breeding'. We bought her for 7,000 Euros (then around £5,000). She had a nice colt who sold for £840 (minimum bid of 800 gns) at the foal sales, to Redpender Stud in Ireland. I think we netted £75 between us after paying £540 to enter the sale, prep fees, blah, blah, but overall the venture was another wipe-out.
We'd got a drop in the fee of PICCOLO and had sent DANETIME OUT to him. By now, the sales situation was dire, in or out of the ring, and we decided to offer the mare i/f to Redpender, who'd been v. pleased with her MAJESTIC MISSILE colt. They bought her for £1,000 and she's there with the Murphys now, having dropped a filly foal for them. We didn't recoup the stallion fee or the keep costs - it was virtually a donation.
Put all of the mare purchase prices together, put all of the stallion nomination fees in the mix, the vet bills, the cost of keep at home and away, farrier, transport to sales, preparation fees for sales, entry fees for sales, and the endless miscellany which horses incur, and you'll see that the old chestnut "to make a small fortune out of horses, start with a large one" is very true!
So to find even this late in the day, one little horse knocking in even a poor race win, is terrific. And you can look at the bloodlines, the breeding, all you want - there's nothing wrong with any of it, and if so many studs were still buying mares and sending them to stallions in early 2008, oblivious to an imminent world banking collapse, then I don't feel too bad about my poxy results. I've lost a helluva lot of money 'hanging in' when I should have not only stopped earlier, but got out after the first losses, but the instinct to stay loyal and see out the tough times together took over, until the issue became financially unbearable for me. It might've been the better personal judgment, but it certainly wasn't the best financial one!
So, if anyone reading this knows the best way to maximize £7.35, please let me know by PM!
