I'll Have Another from the horse's mouth: Reddam's Bloodhorse guest blog
 

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse...uest-blog.aspx

Reddam lays out his thought process and the sale numbers for us. He wasn't kidding when he said the Japanese offered a lot more. I agree with his assessment of the stud fee and book quality. Part of that logic goes back to having access to Flower Alley and his sire so it just wasn't going to go a lot higher. Hopefully if IHA does take off with his better book of Japanese mares, Reddam will have gotten those in utero CA bred IHA foals early on so he won't have to pay as much.

That was pretty well written. I'd never have guessed that a loan shark type would be such a good writer.

He was a philosophy professor at UCLA before he put money out on the street.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Paul_Reddam

Bodemeister's rights sold for $13 million in America. I'll Have Another's best offer in America was less than $5 million.

The consensus on message boards and with a few other media types who weighed in before the Preakness was that IHA was the more valuable stallion prospect and would be a lot more so if he completed the triple crown sweep. I was shocked about that.

You were shocked that people on message boards could get something completely backwards? Really?

i only thought he would command more if he won the tc because of the novelty of the situation. he's certainly not as well bred as bodemeister, his sale price indicated issues, and he wasn't sound.

IHA's biggest issues are that his sire is still so young and so cheap.

On the first part, his sire is still young available and diminishes the value of IHA's blood here.

The second part is while we all wish horses would come back as a 4 yo, Flower Alley would have been worth 3x at stud had he retired as a 3yo after being second in the BCC.

Shame as IHA could be any kind of stallion, but I don't blame Reddam for the decision.

That was really fantastic.

Cal State LA actually. Pretty surprising nonetheless.

Said with tongue in cheek I hope.

Why? Good read IMO.

Not at all.

Well, I do respect him for putting all of this “out there.” He certainly didn’t have to. I would think that it must be difficult as an owner to separate emotion from business, for some owners anyway, but at least he is honest about the business side -- the only side, really -- of sending IHA to Japan. Besides, if Reddam misses IHA the extra $M’s will buy a lot of airplane tickets. One would think, though, that there might have been an agreement for IHA to return stateside when/if he is pensioned.

Has Clyde, or whatever his name is, taken over your brain lately?

I read the interview pretty quickly so I may have misread but I thought he said he planned to buy him back if IHA was ever put up for sale. He may not have set up an arrangement for when he's pensioned because, assuming a 15-20 year career at stud, it's quite possible Reddam won't be around when that time comes. The retirement orgs here seem to do a really good job of keeping tabs on our big horses who go overseas; I'm sure they'll take IHA if he doesn't work out as a sire over there.

I agree that they do a fine job. It would be nice, however, if someone like Michael Blowen didn't have to ask donors for funds to repatriate IHA, if instead the conditions were put into the contract up front. Those costs would be an insignificant figure in a $10M contract. Just sayin.

Ummm.. No, but I see scat has taken over yours :)

Perhaps, but I've never been involved in any sort of relationship with Scat.

Though I'd rather do him than Morty.

Sorry Charlie...too late, I have been sold to a Japanese breeding shed.

Scat