Midnight Lute Retired
 

One of my favs in recent years. Goes out a Champ. :tro:

http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hor...ory?id=3669637

Sorry. Just noticed this was addressed in the Retirement thread.

Does anyone else here think he is going to turn out to be a pretty good sire as I think he will.

How "commerical" is his pedigree really? That's my question.

I think I know what you are saying, I'm just saying he may be a surprise win early type. I look at him as perhaps another Speightstown who certainly has been okay.

I'm not disagreeing on whether or not he will be successful, I just think he's more likely to be in Pennsylvania in five years than Kentucky.

Midnight Lute's resume and pedigree reminds me a bit of Artax, and he isn't in KY any more. Add Lute's well-publicized breathing problems to the mix and $20K seems like a stretch to me. Of course, with the rage being first-crop sires and Hill 'n Dale not shy about book size, I'm sure he'll get at least 140 mares next year.

I hear you, this horse has some put up some freakishly fast beyers, he also proved me wrong when he won Saturday. There is a market for sprinter sires, Lit De Justice, Orientate, and Speightstown just to name a few. He's a long lanky type certainly not built like the prototypical sprinter.

There is a market for Lit de Justice?

Orientate and Lit de Justice were more than pure sprinters like Speightstown. They both had some success at 8f or more as younger horses before they were trained to be 6-7f furlong sprinters: Lit de Justice won a mile handicap, was second a head in a listed mile race, and third by 2l. in a G3 at 8f in France, while Orientate won the listed Indiana Derby (8.5f) and Sir Beaufort S (8f T) at 3. They just weren't G1 quality at longer distances.

Slight change of subject - I'm thinking the concept of "commercial" may start to be viewed differently over the next years. I'm sure the foal crop numbers are going to drop significantly. People can no longer afford to carry any marginal stock. You can get all the cheap horses you want, for less than the cost of "cheap", nowadays, it seems.

Not only will the sale prospect have to have a solid pedigree, but I'd think fairly good chance to make money on the track, rather than only in the shed. I think people may go back to looking at the potential of earning one's keep on the track as the most realistic "residual value", versus "we can always breed it if it doesn't run".

Imagine that - going back to buying racehorses for their potential on the track as racehorses, rather than for "afterwards" :p

What say you that buy and sell for a living now? Chuck?

Sire of 192 winners from 250 starters (76.8%), 14 SWs, earners of over $15,969,000 (Register page from last fall)? Yes, there is a market for him; not those who breed sales yearlings, but those who want solid, blue-collar racehorses are using him.

That's what I'm talking about - the resurgence of the race horse! :D

I think Midnight Lute is a great gamble as a sire. I really don't think he is just a sprinter. I think this horse could run all day, but he never got the chance.

Real Quiet was never the darling of the Bluegrass in the first place; he wasn't big and impressive enough. He was the tall, slender, lean distance runner (think Frank Shorter, Olympic marathoner) rather than the big-framed, muscle-bound bruiser that is in fashion these days. He never won a sprint, and didn't win a stakes at less than 1 3/16 after his 2yo year. His first couple of crops didn't have any impressive 2yos in them, so off to PA for him.

Damsire Dehere was champion 2yo but didn't train on after Florida at 3; by Deputy Minister from a Secretariat mare, not a standout sire. There is quality back in the female family - second dam a distance G3 turf SW, half-sister to a G2 Irish SW at 10f, who was second in the Irish Oaks; third dam was a listed SW in Italy who was a full sister to Gyr, who was a 12 G1 winner in France (and was second to Nijinsky in the Derby). When you look at it closely, Midnight Lute was bred to be a stayer.

Midnight Lute's well-chronicled soundness problems - of wind and limb - ought to make breeders very wary of using him. His size, which so impresses many people, is one of the things can contribute to limb unsoundness, because skinny TB legs can't take the impact of that much weight on them for long without injury.

Commerically, he doesn't look as desirable as some others in the field, like Street Boss (Street Cry is Hot, Hot, Hot!).

it should, but I seriously doubt it does.

FWIW Candytuft (midnight Lutes dam) is a very correct mare, slightly above average size with good bone. It's one of the reasons that they took a risk in sending her to Real Quiet--since breeders were warned not to send anything to him that wasn't pretty well made.

He's got a few horses running in North America from what I have seen, he's probably turned out to be only a mediocre sire, however I do see his name pop up seemingly alot in the past performances. Yeah his market value is on the downside, I'll concede that point.

Hey, I think Real Quiet got a raw deal as a sire for the most part, so I hope Midnight Lute does well in the shed. That being said, I have my doubts.

Hope he does well, certainly gave me some thrills as a race fan :D

He stands for $5k in California. Not exactly the market that appeals to most.