6 Calumet Stallions added to Jan Keeneland Sale

[Texarkana]

@findeight

Bit late with this but what is it about their business model thats different from other large scale commercial breeding operations involving animals owned by syndicates, partnerships or other entities? Or even smaller breeding operations that are sole owners but cannot carry underperforming bloodstock?

Elite level underperformer may be a more modest breeders superstar in a less high powered environment and these auctions allow those breeders access to what are often pretty good horses at an affordable price.

I know you didn’t ask me, but this is where they vary from my vantage point:

1. They invest in a lot of non-traditional stallions— turf horse, international bloodlines, etc.

2. They market them poorly: they keep their fees high, they don’t really put them out there to the people.

3. They buy a lot of nice mares to support the stallions, which is a good thing, but then they flip most of the resulting foals at the sales. No matter how nice of horses they are, the market doesn’t want those pedigrees. They sell for low prices and end up with lower end connections that don’t help the stallions’ reputations. A good horse will outrun its situation, but there is also a matter of ending up in situation where you can be talked about favorably and catch the eye of the right people.

4. After years of this, they just put the mares and stallions back in the sales. The mares are now worth considerably less because they have spent years producing unpopular foals who look bad on paper. Selling proven Kentucky stallions through the sales isn’t done frequently. Usually a proven sire in a sale is to settle some sort of monetary dispute, or just a way to reach private party buyers with the intent to withdraw. Running them through reinforces the message no one wants their stallions.

They do keep and run a lot of their offspring themselves, but it’s often the more commercial offspring they support and not the less traditionally bred ones.

The farm takes great care of their horses. They are not bad people. It just doesn’t make sense to me. On paper, it appears they should have the financial resources to operate differently.

[va2txrider]

This probably is not a good racing/breeding business practice, but as a sporthorse breeder, I sure do love the bloodlines they get and the prices I can buy them at the sales! Sporthorse breeders should take more advantage of access to these turf and international bloodlines!

[Texarkana]

@va2txrider

This probably is not a good racing/breeding business practice, but as a sporthorse breeder, I sure do love the bloodlines they get and the prices I can buy them at the sales! Sporthorse breeders should take more advantage of access to these turf and international bloodlines!

I agree.

I’m not in their shoes. I don’t understand how it benefits them to sell dozens of yearlings by these sires for a median of like $3,000. It just seems like if it was truly about promoting these stallions and lines, they could go about it differently. For example, instead of high fees, a lot of stallion owners offer heavy discounts to the right people with the right mares to get good runners.

[va2txrider]

Do they get a percentage of earnings if they are the breeder? Calumet has been in the top 2 breeders by earnings in the last several years. I wonder if they just put a lot of horses out there and hope enough of them win?

[findeight]

Still don’t see an issue sending them to a decent sale making them available to a much larger market. If you breed, you need to be willing to cull and have an exit strategy for those. Plus, they do not own all of these outright so there are other factors involved with decisions.

[ASB_Stars]

@findeight

If you breed, you need to be willing to cull and have an exit strategy for those.

What do you mean by this?

[LaurieB]

@va2txrider

Do they get a percentage of earnings if they are the breeder? Calumet has been in the top 2 breeders by earnings in the last several years. I wonder if they just put a lot of horses out there and hope enough of them win?

Kentucky breeders do get breeders awards, though they are relatively small compared to other state programs. Breeders receive 10% of the money earned (not the purse) on wins in maiden, allowance, and stakes races. No awards for horses that place, no awards for claiming races (except, oddly, for one large award given to the farm that has the most earnings in claiming races throughout the year.) In some states, you can make a living from breeder’s awards, but not in Kentucky.

[LaurieB]

@LaurieB

Kentucky breeders do get breeders awards, though they are relatively small compared to other state programs. Breeders receive 10% of the money earned (not the purse) on wins in maiden, allowance, and stakes races. No awards for horses that place, no awards for claiming races (except, oddly, for one large award given to the farm that has the most earnings in claiming races throughout the year.) In some states, you can make a living from breeder’s awards, but not in Kentucky.

Having said that, I went and looked up the numbers.

While the vast majority of KY breeders earn less than 10K from these awards, at a glance Calumet appears to be the largest recipient of by a wide margin. In 2021, they were awarded $447,000. In 2020, the number was $400,000.

[findeight]

Mean you need to think about what to do with the ones that are not up to standard or not generating interest in breeding to them or buying their offspring. They cannot keep them all.

This is a nice sale, beats dumping them at a weekly livestock auction or what they do in some other countries.

[Texarkana]

@findeight

Still don’t see an issue sending them to a decent sale making them available to a much larger market. If you breed, you need to be willing to cull and have an exit strategy for those. Plus, they do not own all of these outright so there are other factors involved with decisions.

It’s not an “issue” per se. I don’t want to paint them as bad people. They aren’t.

But it’s a bizarre stragegy. I don’t understand it.

The one minor issue I have is that I feel like they are putting a lot of low monetary value horses into the world. I love that they embrace non-traditional bloodlines, but I don’t love that they are turning around and selling these horses for a couple thousand dollars (that includes young stock, broodmares, and the stallions themselves). The less value a horse has, the more likely it is to end up in a bad situation. Yes, they are going to decent sales, but they are still selling for not much more than meat prices sometimes.

[Texarkana]

@LaurieB

@LaurieB

Kentucky breeders do get breeders awards, though they are relatively small compared to other state programs. Breeders receive 10% of the money earned (not the purse) on wins in maiden, allowance, and stakes races. No awards for horses that place, no awards for claiming races (except, oddly, for one large award given to the farm that has the most earnings in claiming races throughout the year.) In some states, you can make a living from breeder’s awards, but not in Kentucky.

Having said that, I went and looked up the numbers.

While the vast majority of KY breeders earn less than 10K from these awards, at a glance Calumet appears to be the largest recipient of by a wide margin. In 2021, they were awarded $447,000. In 2020, the number was $400,000.

And with the number of horses they own, that has to be a drop in the hat. I don’t know what that number is, but it’s a lot.

[Texarkana]

@findeight

Mean you need to think about what to do with the ones that are not up to standard or not generating interest in breeding to them or buying their offspring. They cannot keep them all.

This is a nice sale, beats dumping them at a weekly livestock auction or what they do in some other countries.

Last round of Calumet stallion dumps, Snapy Halo sold for $1,500 to a horse flipper.

Honestly, he may have brought more at a plain old livestock auction.

I totally agree breeders need to cull horses that underperform, but they cull a lot of horses at low prices.

[findeight]

But thats what the market says they are worth today.

[ASB_Stars]

@findeight

But thats what the market says they are worth today.

For that job, yes.

[EventerAJ]

@findeight

But thats what the market says they are worth today.

Exactly, that’s the point Texarkana is trying to make. They breed a LOT of horses, that aren’t what the market wants…and that puts some horses at risk. If they kept the vast majority of their homebreds, raced them and built up their stallions’ success (a la Ramseys & Kittens Joy), it would be a more defensible position. But by breeding them and dumping them (the last book at Keeneland is not what a blue blood farm should aim for) it’s hard to understand those decisions.

Especially when Calumet happily pays big money for nice yearlings bred by others. I am actively following a 2yo out of one of our mares (not bred by us, before we bought her). Calumet paid $120k for her 2020 colt by Practical Joke. He finished second in his first start a month ago at CD, and runs again tomorrow in tough MSW company at Gulfstream. They are invested in a lot of nice horses… then why do they “breed down to sell” their own?

[JJ_sLuckyTrain]

What Texarkana said sums it up well.

They are not attracting mares to their stallions. Big Blue Kitten covered 2 mares in 2022, Optimizer covered six. They sell the offspring so cheaply and it hurts the sales records for both sire and dam. I see a mare from Calumet and it’s like they have had the commercial kiss of death…

Contrast to Calumet’s homebred Lexitonian who ended up standing at Lane’s End. I looked at him to breed to and think that he probably has a decent shot getting his start where he is. I don’t think that would be true if he were at Calumet. He covered 90 mares in his first year at stud.

Perhaps their unloading stallions at the upcoming sale reflects a shift in strategy.

[Texarkana]

@JJ_sLuckyTrain

Perhaps their unloading stallions at the upcoming sale reflects a shift in strategy.

I thought this at first, too.

But… they unloaded a bunch over the past few years: Lentenor, Muskatier, Americain, Snapy Halo, Grey Swallow, Behseht. Then they turned right around and replaced them with similar horses. Plus they still have Bal a Bali, Channel Cat, etc.

Their younger stallions are a little more traditional dirt pedigrees, but still not very well marketed.

At the same time, they have had some commercial success with Oxbow earlier on, English Channel, etc. It’s not them per se, just how they go about marketing their breeding stock.

[Mara]

Except Oxbow stood at Lane’s End for his first few seasons. I think Hot Rod Charlie was bred there and not at Calumet, though I could be wrong.

[Texarkana]

@Mara

Except Oxbow stood at Lane’s End for his first few seasons. I think Hot Rod Charlie was bred there and not at Calumet, though I could be wrong.

???

He stood one season at Taylor Made… Calumet the rest of the time…

[Mara]

Oops, got the wrong farm name. Thanks.

Did not realize it was just one season. I tried to find the report of the move to Calumet but BH search function isn’t working at the moment. Strange they didn’t hype Hot Rod Charlie’s successes a bit more. Though I know the flashy stallion commercials are mostly for self-congratulations and mare owners (most of them) don’t pick matings based on ad campaigns.