Tuesday, 12 August 2008: Continuing our series on Group 1 races this past season, we now look at what it cost to breed those Group 1 winners, in terms of service fees.
 | Hussonet - Fee has risen from $24,750 to $137,500 since Weekend Hussler was conceived
Photo by Bronwen Healy | |
|
The answer is much less than what it would cost to breed the same horses in 2009!
Of the 45 individual Group 1 winners last season, the total service fees involved came to a total of $1.3million.
This represents an average of just over $29,000.
The fees ranged from a starting price of $2500 to a top of $150,000.
Of those successful Group 1 sires from the 2007-08 racing season, 27 of them will line up for duty in Australia and New Zealand again in 2008.
To access these stallions now will cost an average of $58,279 per service!
That figure is perhaps a little skewed though, when you consider the number of horses now commanding premium fees.
The great Danehill headed the price list among this season's winning sires, with his CF Orr Stakes winner Shinzig conceived off a fee of $150,000 in 2000 (his fee was private that season, but sources suggest it was $150,000, before rising to $200,000 for his final Australian season a year later).
The other stallions to provide Group 1 winners off six figure service fees this season were Giant's Causeway (sire of Juste Momente, service fee $137,500 in 2002) and Zabeel (sire of Efficient, service fee $NZ110,000 in 2002).
That trio of fees pale in comparison to 2008, where no less than seven stallions that had Group 1 winners this season are standing at $100,000 or more in 2008.
These are headed by Redoute's Choice, whose fee of $330,000 is considerably more than the $40,000 that Champagne Stakes winner Samantha Miss was conceived off.
Similarly,
Encosta De Lago's $302,500 2008 fee dwarfs the $12,500 it cost to breed Racing To Win and Shadoways and the $22,000 that Sirmione's breeders coughed up in 2002 for the Fairy King stallion.
The other six figure boys in 2008 are: Flying Spur ($137,500), Hussonet ($137,500), Danehill Dancer ($110,000), More Than Ready ($110,000) and Zabeel ($NZ100,000).
Of those, only Zabeel had a similar fee when siring his Group 1 winners from the past season.
More Than Ready's star son Sebring came off a $16,500 service fee, while Danehill Dancer's duo of Light Fantastic and Arapaho Miss were conceived in a year where the
Coolmore stallion stood at $27,500.
Flying Spur's trio of Dealer Principal, Forensics and Casino Prince were all off a $44,000 fee, while his barnmate Hussonet stood at $24,750 and $22,500 in the years he got Weekend Hussler and Reaan.
Despite all the hype about increasing service fees, it is still possible to breed a Group 1 winner on a smaller budget, and in fact, the median price has dropped from $20,000 to $16,500.
Western Australia would appear to be the best place to breed a Group 1 winner off a minimal service fee.
The cheapest service fee among stallions with Group 1 winners were the ill-fated Dante's Fury (sire of El Presidente) and Miss Andretti's sire Ihtiram, who both got their big race winners off a $2500 fee.
Ihtiram will stand for $6600 in 2008.
Other stallions to provide Group 1 winners off a sub-$10K fee were: Pins ($9k for El Segundo); Danetime ($8800 for Megatic); Rubiton ($8800 for Rubiscent); Pentire ($8500 for Zarita); Honours List ($8250 for Triple Honour); Master O'Reilly ($7500 for Master O'Reilly); Danroad ($6000 for Rockdale); Song Of Tara ($5500 for No Wine No Song); Shinko King ($5500 for Eskimo Queen); Any Given Sunday ($3850 for Riva San); and Lacryma Cristi ($3300 for Tears I Cry).
Of those, the Waikato Stud pair of Pins ($50,000) and O'Reilly ($60,000) have had significant increases since producing their respective Group 1 stars.
