Storm Cat retired

[scratch1]

From this morning's CJ&T:

At 25 years old, the great American sire Storm Cat covered 32 mares this year. But he impregnated only three of them.


So, noting the decline in his fertility, Overbrook Farm announced yesterday that Storm Cat was being retired from stud duty.

"We have given it quite a bit of thought," farm adviser Ric Waldman said. "But his fertility has declined quite a bit this year. We have three mares in foal to him; the last occurred quite a while ago.

"The decision was really pretty easy to make, because most of the breeders were coming off the book anyway. His libido was still good, but his fertility was declining."

The son of Storm Bird is represented by 160 stakes winners and had one of the most expensive breeding fees in the world. He stood for $500,000 from 2002-07 until that price was dropped to $300,000 for this year.

Waldman said Storm Cat is in good health for his age and noted that he'll spend the rest of his days at the Lexington farm.

"He is, as all of us would, showing signs of aging," Waldman said.

Storm Cat, the 1985 Breeders' Cup Juvenile runner-up, raced only eight times and earned a half-million dollars on the track.

But he was a huge success in the breeding shed. Storm Cat, who stood for $20,000 in the early 1990s, ended up siring eight champions and earners of more than $112 million.

"He has been a great sire, a super sire for a long time," said Elliott Walden, the vice president of WinStar Farm, which stands the Storm Cat offspring Bluegrass Cat (2006 Kentucky Derby runner-up and Grade I Haskell winner).

Storm Cat was listed among the top 15 on the year-end list of top sires (racing money won by their offspring) 13 of 14 years, starting in 1993. He was No. 1 on that list in 1999 and 2000.

Among his top offspring were champions Giant's Causeway, now a popular stallion himself, Storm Flag Flying, Sweet Catomine, Ambitious Cat, Hold That Tiger, Aljabr, One Cool Cat and Silken Cat.

He's also the sire of Cat Thief, Tabasco Cat and Sharp Cat. A number of his other progeny were also popular in the yearling markets, often bringing millions of dollars at the sales.

"Other than the obviously economic gain, he put Overbrook on the map," Waldman said. "Overbrook was known, but not that well-known, until it became so closely connected to Storm Cat."

The announcement came one day after Coolmore's flagship stallion, Sadler's Wells, was also retired because of fertility declines. He is 27.

[Breakage]

Editorial coming,

although this takes a stamina stud off the market,

I read more of the "they are breeding for speed and not stamina" nonsense last night,


meanwhile in the past 10yrs we have had mostly speed studs like Mr Prospector off the market and replaced by animals like AP INDY who are more versatile,


just don't think that whole argument has legs, like the genome sequence it is something I have heard abt my whole life and not much has changed.