Lost In The Fog

2.4.2002 - 9.18.2006

Lost In The Fog lost the good fight today. He'll be missed.

Throwing The Hat In The Ring

Every September the who's who of the horse world congregates in Lexington, Kentucky to sort through thousands of would be Derby winners and champions in search of the best one they can afford. From time to time this gets difficult. In January of this year we tried to buy a couple of mares in a different Keeneland sale and quickly found ourselves in over our heads.

We settled in on a classy mare who had just been retired and bred to Breeder's Cup Sprint winner Speightstown, who commands a $40k stud fee. The mare aborted the foal which brings down her value but as I see Speightstown as maybe a $15k stud I liked the sudden value we were going to get on the horse. Turns out so did the former US Ambassador to Great Britian, Will Farish, whose pockets run a little deeper than mine. If Mr Farish plays at the level of a 747, I'm at the level of a flying mallard. Half a million later and the mare was gone.

Half a million. Sounds like alot but its about average for a classy mare. What we're seeing out of the Keeneland yearling sale as a long way away from average. Downright obscene. In an auction where the sale topper is normally about 2 or 3 million dollars, Dubai has come to town and spent close to $60 million on about 30 yearlings. You do the math. The chart topper being an $11.7 million Kingmambo colt with 3 or 4 others over the $7 million mark. The leading money winner among actively racing horses has made around $4 million. What this tells me is that the racing is now irrelevant. It's a means to an end, that end being the breeding shed. What in the hell is going on here?

2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide is still racing. Why is this? Is it because he's somehow more sound than the other horses who get retired with various injuries as three year olds? Nope. Is it luck that he's avoided trouble? A little, but most avoid it. How does he run 40 times over 5 years when the others are barely going 10 in 2? He's a gelding and as such is worthless in the shed. Dont think I'm against the money. There's a lot of pressure on an owner holding a $30 million check that may not be there in a year if not taken now. I hate it, but its a part of the game now. What really chaps me though, is the gaudy practice of throwing around money to get respect. Think 5 foot man driving a Hummer. Is it really any reward to win the Derby when you own every horse running in it? I hope none of them amount to anything. I hope the $16 million The Green Monkey never wins a race and proves to be infertile. Let the average man play the game too. And let the game be played on the track, not in the breeding shed.

Good Picture Of Me

My little brother found this picture of the crowd at an Oasis concert at the Ryman Auditorium in March. If you look at the front row of the balcony just to the right of the middle of the picture you'll see a good looking guy in a black shirt and kahki pants standing to the right of two people sitting down. It's me. Say hello if you see me around town.