I have so little respect for Dawson after his tantrums earlier this year over rights to the horse’s story.
Nothing at all against the horse; Rich Strike is as honest and hard-trying as they come.
I suppose Dawson couldn’t get a stallion deal together that suited him? Or maybe he just didn’t want to bother with all the back-and-forth negotiating and legal fine points, hence sending Richie to public sale.
Just guessing, they can’t get any Kentucky farms interested and hope to take advantage of exposure to all the regional and foreign buyers who are in town for the sales.
Very likely he RNAs and they announce a deal over the winter.
AFAIK he will be only the second Kentucky Derby winner, along with Winning Colors, to sell at public auction as an older horse.
Why are they trying to sell him, i wonder? Why won’t he be retired to stud?
He is retired due to injuries.
He doesn’t really have a stallion’s pedigree and he isn’t physically impressive, so a stallion deal in Kentucky is not happening. Most likely he’ll go overseas.
I think that we need to start a pot as to how much he’ll bring, and where he’ll go. Do not get me wrong, I want the horses to have a soft landing. I’m just curious about where and how much.
Not trying to derail the thread, but does anyone know where Big Blue Kitten wound up?
Someone on one of the many FB posts posited that Rich Strike should stand at Calumet, alongside his sire.
I responded by saying that a stud deal with Calumet would all but guarantee failure as a sire, unless he turns out to be one of those genetic gold mines that no one had any idea existed. He’d have to improve Calumet’s mediocre mare base by a lot to succeed.
Quite a few stallions are cataloged at KeeNov over the years. Very few of them actually go through the ring. Most of them are withdrawn and sold on the side, just using Keeneland for advertising and buzz. Keeneland still gets their commissions, of course, on anything sold within a certain timeframe of the auction, even if the horse is out.
Being a Derby winner is basically a kiss of death as a Kentucky sire. Justify is the only recent exception, and perhaps American Pharoah though he’s largely been a dirt disappointment for the mare quality he received and the training investments made in his offspring.
I wouldn’t breed to Rich Strike for free, with any mare. 2x3 inbreeding to Smart Strike is not my idea of a good time in the gene pool.
Yeah, that mating decision was another WTF Moment Brought To You By Calumet.
He might have a better record had connections dropped him into G2 or 3 races; he certainly gave as much as he was capable of giving on the track but he was a couple of rungs below G1 level.
My favorite option involves brain surgery followed by a residency at the Kentucky Horse Park. He’s got a die-hard fan base and he’d be a draw. It’s a good life for a horse there, but a better one for a gelding.
How so?
I saw Point Given many times there over the years, and he always looked fantastic, including this past summer not long before he passed away. It seemed as if they treated him like a king.
Ditto for the other stallions I’ve seen in that barn. Go For Gin looked like he could have been braided and led down the hill to win the regular conformation model class during the National Horse Show just a few years ago.
Only that gelding in general can tend to make life a little brighter for the horse who isn’t going to be breeding. Not that KHP treats its stallions any differently than other horses. (It’s been a while since I’ve been - do they even keep mares there?) I saw Cigar there, one of my heroes, and he looked like a million bucks.
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Richie there, or at Old Friends, at some point, if not in the immediate future.
All the horses I’ve seen at KHP looked great and seemed happy, geldings and stallions.
So far only two stallions are listed as OUT at Keeneland; Noble Bird and West Will Power
Mr. Z, Frank Conversation, Big Blue Kitten, and Bourbonic are all still active lots as of today.
Rich Strike will sell second in the ring behind Jazzy Lady on the 17th and he is still listed as Active as of today.
King Fury is also selling; he has a pretty nice record, I remember when he ran in the Travers.
Reinvestment Risk is lot 4081. 2nd in the G1 Hopeful, 2nd in the G1 Champagne, second in the G1 Carter, Second in the G1 Churchill Down Stakes
The Tim Takteen/ Bob Baffert runner Rothschild sells as lot 4084. After 4 starts he must not be living up to the SF/Starlight expectations
Chad Brown’s Public Sector sells as lot 4075
So does the owner have to pay Keeneland anything after he pulls the horse out of the sale?
Entry fee for the sale and commission if the horse sells within a certain amount of time after the sale.
Not surprising. It seems like Keeneland was used as a publicity stunt.
I’m sure it’s not the first time and they’ll get the money due them.
Dawson needs to switch to racing motorcycles or Formula 1 cars. Something non-sentient.
Reading between the lines:
Use the marketing buzz from Keeneland to get some stallion offers.
Offers were not as owner expected, but possibly a partnership deal was reached.
Horse withdrawn from sale. Back in training, because stud deal is not imminent. Owner, (perhaps a new partner), wants the horse to run in the Pegasus. Hopefully he does well there and gets more attention and a better stallion offer.
I still don’t see him standing in Kentucky. Florida or New York (or Saudi, South Korea, Turkey) would be a better fit. (Of course so is gelding him, but that’s my personal opinion.) 
I thought the original reason for his sale was he has leg issues which is preventing any serious training or even entering a starting gate for a race? Isn’t that what he had said originally?
I am not a fan of Dawson at all and I was kind of just hoping the horse would be retired and find a nice place to land. If his leg issues are bad enough to prevent him from further work since entering Mott’s barn; I wonder why he would even risk it at this point.
Maybe Mott discovered some concerning leg jewelry when he took him over or something. Things came to an abrupt halt.
I don’t think he’ll be running in the Pegasus.
A paragraph from the retirement announcement, from BloodHorse Nov.9th;
"In a portion of a social media post “to all family, friends and fans of Rich Strike” and in a text to BloodHorse, Dawson wrote: “As you are aware for the last several months ‘Richie’ has been performing light exercise while being treated for front leg issues that has kept him from traditional training and obviously from racing. Unfortunately, these nagging issues remain. Therefore, after conversations with (veterinarians) and a number of great horsemen, I have decided to retire Richie from racing and move toward a stallion career.”
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