Big Brown\'s stud value not likely to plummet

Tag : Stud Belt

Walking out of the barn on Saturday before the Belmont, Big Brownwas looking like a six-figure stud to a lot of people; walking backafter his shocking loss, the picture was a little fuzzier.
With a Triple Crown under his belt, the talk was that he mightcommand a stud fee of $100,000, at least for the first four or fiveyears, when his first crop of foals races as 3-year-olds.
Without it, he still might — Smarty Jones, who won theKentucky Derby and Preakness only to come in second in the Belmont,does.
Thoroughbred consultant Lincoln Collins said he doesn't think BigBrown is worth any less now than he was before the Preakness, whenThree Chimneys Farm bought a minority share of the then-undefeatedcolt. The total value of the son of Boundary has been rumored to bearound $50 million..
Three Chimneys and Collins, a director of the farm, won't commenton the purchase price.
“There's obviously a short-term psychic price to pay,”Collins said Tuesday.
But Big Brown still won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in“imperious” fashion, Collins said.
“People will breed to Big Brown on the basis of thebrilliance. His pedigree is not filled with stakes winners but heis filled with high-class blood,” Collins said.
He said the horse's worth does come down, to a degree, toperception.
And the perception of Big Brown is the only thing that's changedabout him since Saturday morning.
“There's a balance one has to strike,” Collins said.“It matters whether he won the Triple Crown or not in termsof the stud fee he will stand for until his offspring are proven.Ultimately, the acid test, for any stallion, is what they canproduce for the racetrack.”
Case Clay, president of Three Chimneys, said it is premature tospeculate about Big Brown's stud fee because so much is riding onwhether he races and wins again.
“We're happy with the deal we made,” Clay said.
A win in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga in August would erase thequestion mark from a lot of breeders' minds.
Doug Cauthen, president of WinStar Farm in Versailles, said BigBrown's next race is likely to determine his fee as well as thequality of mares that are sent to him next year when he retires tostud.
“The more you do, the fancier your dates are,” Cauthensaid. WinStar bred Belmont winner Da' Tara and stands his sire,Tiznow.
While the now-pensioned Boundary might not have been the mostfashionable sire, he produced “a rock-star racehorse,”said Cauthen, the brother of Triple Crown-winning jockey SteveCauthen.
“There's no doubt it would only have enhanced his value tohave done it,” Cauthen said of the Triple Crown. “Butmost people believe the real Big Brown didn't show up.”