Anyone remember what Totilas went for? I’d think these two would be worth slightly less each. Valegro because he’s a gelding; and Uthopia because he wasn’t able to win gold either here or at WEG, so isn’t quite as flashy a stallion candidate.
[QUOTE=msrobin;6489747]
That is over $31 million in US dollars![/QUOTE]
And it is also a load of bollocks.
There is now way anyone is paying tens of millions for a gelding that does dressage. For goddsakes, even a gelding like Cirrus des Aigles isn’t worth that much and he has the ability to actually make millions, already has close to $7m in the bank.
The stallion is not worth in that range either. That would make him worth more than most TB stallions, and those horses earn $5-20m in stud fees yearly.
If he went to stud for $10k a pop, the absolute maximum he could get for a WB (Totilas territory, rarified air), he would have to sell 3000 doses just to break even. And if he had 3000 foals on the ground, then people ain’t going to pay $10k to breed to him, as they’d be a dime a dozen.
I don’t think the buyers would have any illusions of making money with them. Unlike TB buyers/owners. It’s pretty much a money losing proposition only. Unless someone like PS tries to put together a stallion deal as was done with Totilas (and even that was probably a loss for the rider/co-owner at the very least, if not still for PS himself).
Making money would not be the reason to buy these horses. And the buyer(s) would have to know that, unless they were insane or had not been around horses for more than five minutes.
The horse market is volatile. Who really knows what these horses will go for. Valegro is a gelding (so can’t reproduce except for cloning if the owner wants to go there) and he has a way of traveling that suggests he could develop some issues in the future. Who knows what showed up in the PPE. So this IS a horse that can go for 6-7 figures, but who knows how much. You know that one of our Olympic alternates sold for the low 6 figures to the owners who sent him to the next Olympics. No one here know HOW MUCH a horse can sell for without the PPE. Plus, there are lots of wealthy owners who would love to ride and compete a horse like Valegro. Are they going to the Olympics? No. But they’ll be able to do GP just fine. And Valegro will have a great life.
Uthopia, being a stallion able to collect stud fees despite any unfortunate injuries, will likely go for alot higher. He’s so young and he has so much potential. Unless he’s a dud of a stallion. I’m not saying he is but his offspring will factor into his price.
Point is, too many factors go into the sale price, even for Olympic champions. We either need to bid or wait and see.
Oh, forgot to say that I do think 20m is way unlikely. But I could easily see between 4-6m for each. They’re both young and have a lot of good years ahead (knock madly on wood).
These horses will sell for whatever someone is willing to pay for them. And like Totilas, I think we’ll be left to guesstimate the sale prices. I’m guessing they’ll be 10 million ish.
I’m keeping this vague for obvious reasons: I don’t shop in the stables of European Olympians, however I overheard a brief bit of conversation from a gossiping groom that accompanied a rider on such a shopping trip, specifically for a confirmed GP horse. “the $5 million dollar horse wasn’t nice enough.” So… guessing the one that was nice enough to buy was more? And that horse did not compete in the Olympics, let alone win a gold medal in the Olympics.
I have $10M fund that I would be willing to use to buy both Valegro and Uthopia.
unfortunately, I don’t think Carl H. and his other owner will accept monopoly money.
[QUOTE=Roheryn;6489062]
Uthopia was almost sold at the end of last year to a Swedish rider but Carl ran around to various contacts and managed to sell part of his share so the horse couldn’t leave. But yes, they always were for sale. (Doesn’t mean anyone has to like it… :no:)[/QUOTE]
That rider was Swedens Minna Telde who rode in the Olympics on the one-eyed Santana.
Just stumbled over the information that in 1965 Flyinge Stud sold the stallion Piaff for USD15000 to Liselott Linsenhoff that later in 1972 took Olympic gold on the horse. Just some fun facts!
