War Emblem: What to do now?

[Pedigree Ann]

Originally Posted by Danzig

"Deep Impact Bred to About 230 mares in First Season"
well, no wonder war emblem gave them a hard time! this is outrageous, to cover that many mares in a season!

A stallion has to 'stop' his mares on the first cover every time is he is going to get such a huge number of them in foal. That means the vets have to be exactly right about whether the mare has a follicle that is ready or not as well as the stallion being extremely fertile. And it becomes grueling work, having to cover mares 3 or4 times a day. If he won't be shuttling (and I doubt the Japanese will ever let him out of the country), then he may have time to recover his strength for next year.

This was George Washington's problem, by the way. Coolmore has the philosophy that he's got to stop them the first cover so they can rake in the big bucks (more fees for more mares). But GW was not co-operating; he got some in foal on the first cover but would probably need a second or third for the rest. Back when 40-foal crops were the norm, the farm could do that and still get the fee, but these days they demand volume.