Joel...
 

Thoughts on this guy?

http://www.risinghill.com/DeputyWildCat.pdf

For $2,500 Stud Fee
 

You could get a nice turf router out of him

He obviously not short on pedigree, as his mom was a champ and his half-bro was a personal favorite of mine....on top of that, Ivan Denisovich is a very solid yound horse and Hollywood Wildcat has proven to be as good a producer as racemare....I really thought his full brother - Minister's Wild Cat - was going to prove to be a top class horse at one time when Neil Drysdale had him early on in his career, but he wound up have some soundness issues and showed that he was of the caliber to compete with the top 3-year-olds of his generation.

This colt doesn't have bad looks and I happen to like sons of Deputy Minister as sires more than I like him (relative to stud fee of course). The fact that they feel he can fit in a very competitive market like Florida is a solid endorsement of what they think of him, because traditionally a horse that is a non-winner usually starts their career standing in a small market such as Indiana, etc...and then if he showed success he would move to a bigger market like Florida....my primary concern would be his soundness...if you liked his pedigree and looks and felt like $2,500 was value in breeding to him, I would want to take a trip to the stud farm to inspect him....he obviously had pretty severe issues to only race once.....you'd want to make sure that he wasn't a "pretzel" when looking at his legs or whereever the origin of his career ending injury occured..

If he built nicely...good conformation...good bone, and you feel he has some class to him but just an unfortunate step that was serious enough to end his career - then I wouldn't be discouraged about breeding to him depending on your broodmare.

Hope this helps...

Cajungator, are you a Cajun?..If so, where are you from?..Just curious because I'm from Louisiana and lived in New Orleans for a few years before moving to Louisville..

Thanks for your advice... you seem to know your stuff concerning bloodlines and I'm still learning (obviously.) LOL

I'm not a Cajun... the Cajun comes from my love of the Cajun culture (and my 2nd fave team, LSU :p .) The Gator part comes from the best college team there is... the FLORIDA GATORS! :D

OHhhhh..and I was just starting to get to like you until you said you were a Gator fan (LOL)..I'm a massive LSU fan..bleed purple and gold...that's cool that you appreciate the Cajun culture so much...I miss it up here in Kentucky.

..nothing compares to Louisiana's culture IMO, especially south Louisiana...the food, the people, the jubilation...it is truly unlike any other...never a dull moment

I bleed orange and blue, but root for LSU whenever they're not playing the Gators... our blood is awfully colorful, isn't it? :p

Have you been back to New Orleans since Katrina? I can't even imagine the devastation all across the Louisiana/Mississippi coast line.

Yes I have and it brings tears to your eyes...it is actually scary...I was kind of scared and upset at the same time for some reason...I love that city more than any other and it is crazy to see what most of it looks like now...the wide-spread damage is truly unlife-like....Total devastation for MILES..and I mean 10s of miles...very depressing....will take 20 years to get it back to par..

I was there over the holidays and actually met some friends down there for a few nights around New Years and watched the Peach Bowl with LSU in a bar in the French Quarter....New Year's Eve was also depressing down there...I've been to many in my life on Bourbon Street and it is usuallu elbow room on the whole street...millions of people it seems like...this past New Year's, Bourbon Street was like any other street in the world....sad stuff:(

Ironically enough, I've never been to New Orleans. I was hoping to go last year and then... well, we know what happened. I've read a few books on the geography of New Orleans and I was always concerned with what might happen if it ever was hit by a major storm. I hope that eventually things get back to normal there, but the city is always going to be in danger because of the weak levy system. :(