He’s only a 19 yo. Any reason, other than he’s very tall and perhaps too cantankerous?
I don’t know that he is, but do recall he liked to rear almost to flipping over.
TIA, people.
Here is article:
http://cdn.bloodhorse.com/daily-app/pdfs/BloodHorseDaily-20171128.pdf
He only bred 7 mares in 2017. In 2016 he bred 11 mares, and got 3 live foals. In 2015, it was 15 mares bred for 11 foals.
I’d say declining interest and fertility are behind his retirement.
4 Likes
Declining interest by mare owners. He wasn’t paying his way so it was time for him to go do something else. I love that he will be at the horse park. I love Old Friends but the horse Park is much better in my opinion.
4 Likes
Agree completely. I met Forego at the KY Horse Park the first time I went there. I am still thrilled, and I still have the pix. Grand horse, that one! (although issue related to being a stud were NOT the reason he was there :winkgrin:)
And this one? Also a grand racehorse. Fantastic stuff that the KYHP has this one!
1 Like
Thanks all for answers.
Still, I wonder: wouldn’t some eventing people want to breed to him? Or is that not permitted due to his JC registration and/or conditions of his Stud Contract? I know nothing of how this works, so again:
Thanks so much for enlightening me.
PS.
Somewhat O/T, but I read years ago somewhere that Alydar covered some QH mares, as his - by then - owner was trying to stretch out the stud fees. Don’t know if that’s true or not.
TBs can breed to anything they want to. Often are bred to off breed test mares, like Secretariats Appy baby in his first effort. But they have little value when the object is to get JC registered sale and race horses within 3 or 4 years of the cover. And with no offspring on the ground successful as sporthorses there is little reason for sporthorse Breeders to seek them out for their mares,
What about Point Given would make you want to breed a Sporthorse mare to him and wait 6 years or so to see if his offspring lose the attitude and convert the talent as a racer to talent as a Sporthorse, assuming he could even get her in foal?
Oh, and the fact they don’t collect JC studs makes transporting and boarding the Sporthorse Mare for natural cover much more expensive then AI.
3 Likes
PG could be collected for AI but the resulting offspring wouldn’t be eligible for Jockey Club registration.
If someone was breeding for eventing without caring about ‘registration’ it would be an option.
The additional points about what would make PG suitable as a sport horse sire are more valid 
Thanks, all!
I forgot all his bad attitdude being passed down; I was thinking more about his size being desirable.
His stud fee for 2017 was $5k. While that’s pennies for racehorses, it’s still quite high for sport horses. I don’t see many sport horse people using him at that price, no matter how much they like the horse or the pedigree.
2 Likes
I think there are better sporthorse options right now than PG, though his damside is desirable for sport.
Personally, if we’re talking hypotheticals and breeding to race horses in the US, Bernardini, Louis Quatorze, Malibu Moon, Smart Strike/Curlin and Jump Start come to mind… Those are true sporthorse type stallions in my personal opinion.
Sure would be nice to get a WB x Galileo…
2 Likes
@halt Louis Quatorze was one of my favorites for sport, and one that sport horse breeders could actually afford. However, he died in February. 
Smart Strike has been gone for a couple years now.
1 Like
I did not know Louis Quatorze passed… sad news I had one of his sons who was a very cheeky and incredible character, gone too soon. He was very athletic.
Not surprised his son was an athletic type, sorry to hear he was lost too soon.
Louis Quatorze was probably as close as a race stallion had come to being “proven” for sport in this millennium. He may have not gotten upper level horses (maybe he did, I’m not aware of any), but you could not attend a H/J show on the east coast without running into horses by him dominating their divisions… even in these days when WBs rule. He pretty much owned the thoroughbred hunter breeding classes once he moved to MD.
1 Like
My concern about Point Given when he went to stud was his sire, Thunder Gulch. Any sire who could get you both Spain (who barely cracked pony size and may have been only 14 and a half hands tall) and Point Given (who is 17 hands plus) isn’t the most consistent sire in the world on type. I also was friends with someone who worked for an owner who loved Thunder Gulch and he ended up with over ten of them one year from ten different mares. None of them looked like him or like each other and they were all over the map sizewise too. The only Point Given I have seen upclose is Coil who is resembles Point Given but I wonder if Point Given has also been inconsistent --with the added bonus that few can run much.
So even in a fantasy world moment, Point Given might not be the best sporthorse prospect but there are probably a bunch of Coils available out there to test the theory,
2 Likes
Thank you. We are coming up to our 3rd year without him, we had him PTS on Christmas Eve. Mine would have made a great hunter jumper but our focus was eventing. He was the exact replica of his sire in body type, just a solid bay instead. He had such a good canter. I remember when I first got him off the track and showed him to my trainer she offered to buy him on the spot - I stupidly said no… but I don’t regret it. He was a good horse, always fun, a major ham and prankster, but was a total troublemaker. He was kicked in his paddock and had to be PTS but had a good life with us. Even the story of how we got him was funny.
Anyway, he wasn’t my only experience with LQ offspring… I know two others that are making a career of themselves in eventing. Not super complicated horses but they do have a cheeky streak, anyone can look good on them, and they have huge scope.
Does LQ have any sons standing? I have been very tentatively looking for a new OTTB, but I am picky. My current TB I think the world of but he has so many physical ailments from racing that it’s starting to look like he needs a less strenuous career. :no:
I did a precursory search for “Recent” LQ offspring, this filly in particular is very closely bred to my guy, who also had Phone Trick as a damsire:
http://www.pedigreequery.com/grand+lassie3
[quote=“halt,post:15,top
