Flower Alley to stand for $25,000 at Three Chimneys
 

....just announced, which if they have already decided his stud fee it tells me that hes done - or at least 90% done. If I had to take a gamble, I'd say that they will tentatively train him up to the G1 Clark in late November at CD for an encore in hopes that none of the serious BC Classic horses come back for that race on three or four weeks rest and they'll catch a weak field.

Pletcher won is last year with a less-than-stellar Magna Graduate, and he knows it could be a cheap way to pad another Gr. 1 on Flower Alley's resume. Any G1 at CD is tough, so it won't be a walkover, but I bet they figure if they can get him sound enough in the next 45 days to be close to the best he can offer, they give he'll have a decent shot at least at hitting the board. However, if things don't work out perfectly, I bet they just pull the plug on him and retire him. There is no advantage at retiring a horse right now if his ailments are minor enough to get him one more quality start and I think that has to be their goal at this point.

Can't see him being worth 25k per. Maybe that's the market these days.

Travers winner with a reasonable pedigree? Definitely the market.
Not saying I'D pay it though.

He is done. The stud fee is set at $25k. One more race isnt going to make a difference.

I wouldn't breed to him just because I think there are better opprotunities in that range....that is fairly priced considering the buzz over his sire Distorted Humor, who will shock some of you when his stud fee announced...

Put it this way, I called WinStar last week about doing a foal-share deal to him with my best mare and they aren't doing any foal shares this year and the guy said that they are increasing his fee to $200,000 - $250,000 depending on how his progeny close out the year...

His fee has significantly sky-rocketed each year the last 4 years....amazing...

I'd pass on Flower Alley at that price...

Not a huge fan of double dosing Mr. P.

Seems a bit pricey. I'd have thought 15k or perhaps 20, but it is Three Chimneys...

He definitely wouldn't be my choice to breed to in that price range if I had a quality mare.

I don't think I'd breed to him either...but he sure gave us some thrills!
http://www.barbaralivingston.com/gal...ntrack/Travers

mares devoid of Mr Prospector and Northern Dancer lines are suited to him.

Harder and harder to find nowadays though, aren't they?

you are correct. so he'll get many mares crossing with the Mr P and ND. the horses may run ok for a while but the breeding does not improve the breed.

agreed.....

anyone who wants distorted humor, but can't afford him, will be going after his best son to date. 10x less the stud fee, he'll fill his book. he did very well at three--it's not like very many give a rats behind what a horse does at four.

Third best son to date. Best intact son to date.

Explain. What does improve the breed mean?

And all I gotta say if I wanted to try and get a good race horse....

Id have a bunch of mares that had been good ON the track. A mare that had a certain male in the background would not be a priority. I would hunt down running females. Preferably those had been in a good number of tough races and lost due to circumstance, not ability.

HAHAHA! best son with two goolies attached.

there are allready tons of horses around with ND and Mr P., Raise A Native, tripling them, quadrupling them, or more leads to even more unsoundness, albeit you may get some speed. FA has 5 Native Dancers too. Hasn't stopped breeders from going to Songandaprayer and his 3 Raise A Natives but unfortunately the soundness just isn't there.

Amen to that... it's a shame too.

There are plenty of mares that will fit this horse without the breed collapsing. I think that he is priced about right for the current market. We still dont have any idea if DH will be sucessful sire of sires but $25000 for a high profile, well sired colt with speed influences is not out of character in this market.

that's the sales pitch allright. but his breeding is not sound.

I was suprised to learn that a study done at Cornell University showed that the throughbred population is not as highly inbred as they thought it would be based on all this breeding between relatives. THere is still quite a bit of diversity in the T-bred population even with all this inattention to diversity displayed by breeders trying to please the market.

I was very suprised. The soundness issue becomes even more of a mess when a bunch of males go to the shed at 3 and dont run that much. You never really know. I would use a male that had been on the track for a while. So one looks around, trys to sift through all the geldings, and you find what?

Maybe a bunch of ole boys with undesirable backgrounds. If these boys are sound, and can still run at older ages, I would give that a shot... If I really wanted a RUNNER; A horse that I planned to run for the sake of the actual intention of the sport. A real racehorse. Not a breeder. Then place the horse appropriately based on ability. And sit back and enjoy multiple years of racing with an individual horse. Thatsa what ida do. Have some fun maybe.

That's precisely the reason I love that El Prado, Mr. Livingston so much... he raced sound until he was 7 (and retired sound), has an affordable stud fee and looks good to boot.

my only knock on him is his family. a very average group. other than that he's got a super pedigree, soundness, looks, price...just so much depends on the saleability that sound breeding takes a back seat often.

If I was breeding for a horse that would race, I guess the saleability wouldn't matter as much. I just happened to look at Mr. L and they have his stud fee as "private" for 2007... interesting.

Noted. Give me a runner that stays sound anyday. These 2 year olds that take off like bats out of hell speeddemons and breakdown... forget it. For me:

No racing at two. Get into it a three. Start the tough stuff with a mature horse at four. And retirement at 7 sounds like a wonderful time. Maybe even run at 8 tappering off as needed. Build a huge fan following in the claiming ranks. Sell hats. Rich. Its a plan. A bad plan, but I could see that as being very enjoyable. I would plan on entering my 8 year old in 50,000 claiming races, Non winners of 3 lifetime. Think I would have to look around a bit to find a race.

pg you make sense. but the racing does not , where 2 yr olds are pushed beyond their limits and are fried at 3...you are actually talking about a career for a horse, amazing stuff in the current racing climate geared to sales.

I'm riding a nice gelding at my barn who actually raced for 3 whole seasons. He's sound too, although his breeding isn't anything to write home about.

http://www.pedigreequery.com/steinmaster

Hell it makes no sense at all in todays racing. I just would enjoy it. Not try and hit a homerun with some sensation.
I love fishing also. And I know how to catch fish (much better than I would ever be with a horse). The people I go with say why dont we enter this tournament or that tournament, you can find and catch fish, we can win this thing...

I say what the heck are you fishing for? A fishing tournament? A competition? Its ridiculous. People have totally lost sight of what fishing is all about imo. Yes lets paddle back furiously in my kayak so we dont miss the weigh in... Good God. Thats not why I fish. Im not going back in for some weigh in. I came to fish by God and thats what I will do. Fishing tournaments... what in Gods name has happened... turn everything into a competition. Help.

My wife has an old gelding she used to ride in shows. EX. QH on the track, turned barrel horse, turned show horse. The horse could absolutely sky. They found his niche. That horse could flat out jump. But then older and he learned dressage and... The shows bored me to no end. Thankfully they have ended. But the horse is still around. Twenty eight years old and he still bucks and takes off farting in synchrony with his trot. One of the great joys in life. Very bright horse.

Seriously, I doubt there is anything more relaxing than fishing out in the middle of the lake. Just hearing the sound of the reel relaxes me.

absolutely agreed randy! id breed to my beloved duckhorn 10 times instead and be alot happier spending 25g