I wonder if mare traffic to him is slow. Just got an email from Coolmore, basically advertising, which is basically saying, don’t blame the horse for his connections. Really funny advertising, but makes me think people arent flocking to breed to him.
It’s hard for me to see how that ad is going to help the horse, especially with lines like “NEVER TESTED POSITIVE for an illegal or prohibited substance” (so he was given them, but didn’t get caught?) and offering the argument that his trainer (Jason Servis) was dumb enough to buy useless Performance Enhancing Drugs rather than ones that actually worked.
If Coolmore is the one who came up with that ad, I have no idea what they were thinking.
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I have often thought when I see photos/videos of Maximum Security that he’s been in the middle of so many different sh*t storms and none were really of his making.
I haven’t seen the ad so can’t comment. I’m also not a breeder but I’m of an opinion that both while most of those storms were not of his making, they could have influenced his performance… sometimes no way to really know as well as, at least for me, his pedigree doesn’t light me on fire. Lastly, I’m in the not-so-charmed-with-BB camp which was Maximum Security’s trainer for his races since he was removed from Jason Servis after the Saudi Cup.
So yes, I’d guess mare traffic is slow…
Yeah, jumping from Servis to Baffert, who hasnt exactly had a squeaky clean year, didnt seem like a smart move. Poor horse does seem to have a black cloud over him. He may end up a successful stallion, but it will be without me.
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I’ll bet they are having some difficulties. There is the huge PPD-shaped cloud over the horse’s head. Add that to a meh pedigree and possible physical issues. I’ve heard he had iffy knees. That’s unverified, and I would want to check into it further if I were thinking of breeding to him, but if I, a fringe fan, have heard it, I’ll bet many breeders have heard that rumor, too. All adds up to too many question marks.
I will say for Max, the thing that has always impressed me most about him is that he does seem to have a lot of try, to want to win. That cannot always be found even in better bred horses.
However, the thing that absolutely would be a deal breaker for me, if I were looking for a match, is that I believe part is still owned by the Wests. I have nothing against Max, but hearing Mr. West, this poor billionaire, actually compare the Derby DQ to “totalitarian regimes in third-world countries” made me lose every shred of respect for him I’d ever had. He sounded like a rich entitled brat. He may not in fact be one, but he sure sounded like it. Consequently, I would never support him with even $1 of my money, such as paying a stud fee that he would get part of. If Max turned out to be the next Northern Dancer, I still wouldn’t want to breed to him just because West’s finger was still in the pie.
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It’s just not a good idea to look so defensive. The ad is on page 2 here; https://cdn.bloodhorse.com/daily-app/pdfs/BloodHorseDaily-20201219.pdf
That “water,hay, oats, and fresh air” comment rubs me the wrong way, too. They left out Lasix.
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Sigh… I still believe that the horse had nothing to do with all the stuff that’s happened to him…
But
Now the story is two of the alleged conspirators were pushing fake PEDs to Servis so maybe Maximum Security was clean (at least implied). Sounds as good to me similar as all the ‘contamination’ that BB seems to have in his barns.
Never testing positive for illegal or prohibited substance only means they didn’t catch anything… doesn’t mean he didn’t get anything.
Too many clouds with DQs, alleged drugs, sleazy trainer (to me, doesn’t matter if the PEDs were real or fake, Servis thought they were real)… trainer with (again, to me) contamination clouds hanging over his head.
I gotta be thinking in KY that there are equivalent, or better, stallions standing for $20K or less without all the drama that Maximum Security has.
Heck, Coolmore has stallions like Caravaggio ($25K), Lookin At Lucky ($20K), Practical Joke ($22.5K), Tale of the Cat ($12.5K) that I’d consider before Maximum Security.
“Never tested positive” was, I believe, the line of BS that Lance Armstrong was always pushing. All it meant was “Never got caught”, until, of course he did.
Maybe Max was clean, maybe not. (I always liked the horse because he seemed to have so much try.)
The ad is truly awful–I would fire the people who thought it up. Defensive. Whiny.
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The more I look at that ad, the less it looks like something Coolmore would run, and more like something his entitled whiny owners would insist on running. Would love to have been a fly on the wall when they made the decision to run that ad.
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Even if the ad was the Wests’ efforts (I could certainly believe that, though I don’t know their current level of involvement), I’m surprised Coolmore would put their name to it.
Would Coolmore have had a choice to put their name on it when they stand the stallion. If the Wests pushed hard enough Coolmore would have to support the effort… I’m wondering how long before we see Maximum Security standing somewhere else other than KY… CA? LA?? OK?? Overseas?
I was right there with you on this thought about LA.
