Darley first out of the big two to list their fees for next year. Coolmore usually do it after the Breeders Cup meeting. Are Darley reasons for keeping the prices down fair enough or is it more to do with really putting the pressure on Coolmore?
Darley holds down fees with prediction of soft sales market
by Rachel Pagones
DARLEY has set the stud fee for its newly retired Derby winner Authorized, who will stand at Dalham Hall Stud in Newmarket, at £25,000. Manduro, the world's top-ranked runner this season, and Teofilo, last year's European champion two-year-old,will stand for roughly the same price, €40,000, at Kildangan Stud in Ireland.
Each of the trio of multiple Group 1 winners was purchased this summer by Sheikh Mohammed's breeding operation for an undisclosed sum in the multi-million pound range. Each represents the pinnacle of a generation. And at least two were expected to command higher fees in their first year at stud.
However, Darley has initiated a policy of holding down the fees of its British and Irish stallions. The sole exception is ExceedAnd Excel, a son of Danehill whose first two runners in the southern hemisphere have been stakes winners.
He will go from €10,000 at Kildangan Stud to £10,000 (about €14,000) at Dalham Hall.
In a carefully worded rationale reminiscent of Sheikh Mohammed's hard-hitting Gimcrack speeches in 1997 and 2002, John Ferguson, the sheikh's bloodstock adviser, said on Sunday that the policy was intended to support a breeding business which is bound to suffer if the prize-money structure in Britain does not improve.
He expressed “serious concern” the current situation would lead to “softer markets in the sales ring”.
However, in contrast to Sheikh Mohammed's famed Gimcrack speech of ten years ago, in which he warned that the Maktoum family might withdraw from British racing if prize-money levels did not begin to improve, Ferguson said that Sheikh Mohammed would do all he could to help keep breeders, and the Darley stallion operation, in business against that eventuality.
Darley's most expensive British or Irish stallion next year will be Cape Cross, whose fee remains at €50,000. But Singspiel, an elite stallion based on his record of eight per cent stakes winners to foals of racing age, and the sire of Group or Graded winners in Britain, Germany, Japan and the US this year, has had his fee slashed from £35,000 to £15,000.
Also taking a big cut is Halling, down from £20,000 to £12,000, while at Kildangan Stud the Danehill stallion Tiger Hill drops from £25,000 to €20,000 (about £14,000) and Noverre, the sire of Saturday's Group 2 Challenge Stakes winner Miss Lucifer, loses a third of his fee, from €15,000 to €10,000.
The fee for Red Ransom, who belongs to a syndicate and stood for £30,000 at Dalham Hall last season, has yet to be confirmed.
Ferguson said: “The fact of the matter is that Sheikh Mohammed has spent a long time considering these fees, and feels very firmly that we all need to be looking long-term in this industry.
“Darley is in the process of building something special with adesire to stand the world's best stallions, wherever they may be. He regards the breeding of racehorses as a partnership, and breeders have to have an opportunity to breed their mare at sensible fees in order that they may have a successful outcome, either in the sale ring or at the races.
“There is no point having a top stallion operation if breeders are struggling and unable to invest in bloodstock and support your stallions in return.
“The other thing that he's very aware of is thatthese stud fees are designed for 2008, and the majority will be sold at the yearling sales of 2010. With the current situation in English racing, one has to have serious concerns for levels of prize-money in the future, and one can only assume that an inevitable consequence of reduced reward on the racecourse will be softer markets in the sales ring.
“Basically, Sheikh Mohammed feels very strongly that breeders and broodmare owners need to be given every chance to succeed, and Darley is doing all they can to accomplish that.”
Asked for his response to the charge that Darley is undercutting smaller stallion operations who can't afford to lower fees, Ferguson said: “If we were to keep fees high in order to protect the stallion business, we would ultimately kill it. Too many broodmare owners would go out of business.”
The organisation has been both heralded and criticised in the past for its ‘Darley deal', which allowed breeders to pay the stud fee upon selling the resulting foal, a concession smaller stallion owners couldn't finance. Ferguson suggested that idea has now been superseded.
“These stud fees are the Darley deal,” he said.
>>>Authorized and Manduro will swap places in 2009. The Derby winner will move to Kildangan Stud and this year's Prince of Wales's Stakes victor to Dalham Hall.
Ferguson said the move was to accommodate breeders who preferred to keep their mares at home.
Dalham Hall 2008 stud fees
Sire-2007 fee-2008 fee
Authorized £25,000 (2008)
Shamardal €40000 £25,000
Dubai Destination £20,000 £15,000
Singspiel £35,000 £15,000
Halling £20,000 £12,000
Exceed And Excel €10,000 £10,000
Librettist £10,000 £10,000
Shirocco £10,000 £10,000
Doyen £9,000 £7,000
Tobougg £5,000 £5,000
Byron €7000 £4,000
Red Ransom £30,000 tba
Kildangan 2008 stud fees
Sire-2007 fee-2008 fee
Cape Cross €50,000 €50,000
Manduro €40,000 (2008)
Teofilo €40,000 (2008)
Dubawi £25,000 €40,000
Refuse To Bend €20,000 €20,000
Tiger Hill £25,000 €20,000
King's Best €25,000 €15,000
Iffraaj €12,000 €12,000
Bertolini £8,000 €10,000
Noverre €15,000 €10,000
Kheleyf €5,000 €5,000
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