Marketing Today

Marketing Your Race Horse As A Stud Horse

So, you've won the Kentucky Derby.  What do you do next?  If you're lucky like Big Brown (in the photo), you move on to a second career as a stud horse.

This week, I visited Three Chimneys Farm, in Midway, Kentucky where Big Brown now resides in the equivalent of a 5-star hotel where he is well cared for and in good company.  The Three Chimneys' stallion division has sired Seattle Slew, the only undefeated Triple Crown Winner in history, and Barbaro.  Today, the stallion roster includes Big Brown and "America's Horse" Smarty Jones. 

Marketing Your Race Horse for Stud Fees

Well, as the owner of Big Brown, the first thing you want to do is place your Thoroughbred with the pros.  At a firm like Three Chimneys, he has the best of veterinary care and a program created to fit his needs in terms of food, exercise, and mental stimulation.  Owners from around the world have applied to have him breed with their mares.  Because he will only sires 110 horses a year between roughly Valentine's Day and the Fourth of July, the staff carefully choses who he will be breeding with in 2009.

Big Brown commands a stud fee of $65,000 because he is a winner of $3.6 million in earnings, but no one knows how his sons and daughters will do in a race yet.  He's got a series of "firsts" and "bests" that rank him with racing's all-time greats:

• First horse since 1915 to win the Derby with only three career start
• Only horse to win the Kentucky Derby from post 20
• Only horse to win the Florida Derby from post 12
• Only colt in 2008 to win four Grade I races on dirt
• One of four undefeated Derby/Preakness winners
• Undefeated on turf and undefeated over older horses

Because 2009 is his first year as a stud horse, we won't know how the Thoroughbreds he has sired this year will perform until they're at least three years old and qualified to race.  It's not enough to just see that a colt is fast in the field, you have to see how it take to a rider and if it can win competitively.  Once it's proven that Big Brown's sons and daughters have won races, his stud fees will go up.

Dynaformer who sired Barbaro at Three Chimneys is commanding $150,000 in stud fees.  In 2008, his offspring earned $5,040,941 and they show more promise in coming years.  Smarty Jones had a $100,000 stud fee in 2007  at Three Chimneys.  His first foals just began racing in 2008.  Looks like his son BackTalk is starting to show promise and is a horse to watch.

Interested In Learning More?

There is so much to learn about the world of horse racing and breeding.  Thourouhgbred racing fans have said that "It's like a story that never ends.  You get to see certain horses compete and then a few years later, you get to see their sons and daughters compete."  To learn more, head to The Jockey Club the breed registry for all Thoroughbreds foaled in North America.  If you're in Kentucky, visit Churchill Downs where the Kentucky Derby is held.  They have a great museum there.  I also like Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky which is both a Thoroughbred race track and an auction company.  Make sure if you head out there to drive through the horse farms which are absolutely something to see.

Greetings from Louisville!

This week, I'm in the Commonwealth of Kentucky where most of my family lives for Thanksgiving.  Most of the time, I'll be in Louisville with my folks, but I'll head out to Central Kentucky for a day to visit my grandmother who lives in the town famous for the top-shelf Kentucky Bourbon known as Maker's Mark.  Since many of my highly educated East Coast friends often don't seem to know much about Louisville, I'm dedicated this blog post to their further education.

Louisville is Kentucky's largest city.  It's corporate headquarters for Yum Brands who owns Kentucky Fried Chicken.  It's the home of Churchill Downs where "the most famous two minutes in sports", the Kentucky Derby, is run on the first Saturday in May.  The city was founded in 1778 by George Rogers Clark (the grandfather of the William Clark of Lewis and Clark) and was once the gateway to the West.

Famous Stuff Comes from Louisville

Bet you didn't know that the cheeseburger was invented in Louisville, Kentucky.  Or that, a vast majority of all of the disco balls manufactured in the United States are made in Louisville.  The song "Happy Birthday to You" was originally written for a Louisville kindergarten class.  Papa John's Pizza is headquartered in Louisville, as is the Brown-Forman Corporation, one of the major makers of Kentucky bourbon - about a third of it to be exact.  What's more, the first ever hand transplant was done in Louisville.

Famous People Come from Louisville

Newscaster, Diane Sawyer is a Louisvillian.  Her daddy "Tom" Sawyer was a famous judge in Kentucky.  My dad walks his dog every day in Tom Sawyer Park.  World heavyweight champion, Muhammad Ali is from here.  Who else?  Hunter S. Thompson, Sue Grafton, and Tom Cruise.  And, University of Louville graduate, Senator Mitch McConnell, leads the Republican party in the U.S. Senate.

Wrapping This Up

Well, I'm starting to sound like a marketer for the Kentucky Bureau of tourism.  Louisville is a great place to visit and live.  I recommend it to anyone who just wants to hang out with nice people and enjoy a little warmer climate than you'll find in the Northeast.  If you'd like to kick back with a highball, some fried chicken and listen to some great country music, you'll find it here.  Of course, there's also plenty of history and culture too.  And, for all of my friends who are Boston Red Sox fans, there's the Louisville Slugger Museum which showcases the Louisville Slugger brand and the history of baseball in general. 

Greetings from Seattle!

This week, I'm in Seattle, Washington.  It's the home of some famous brands like Microsoft, Nordstroms, and Starbucks!  And during this rainy week, I will have been to them all.  After reading "It's Not About the Coffee", a book on building the corporate culture at Starbucks on the flight out, I was expecting great things from the local Starbucks.  But, while the store (and there's a lot of them out here) was lovely inside, a stressed out barista served me a cold Grande Latte with non-fat milk this morning!  Yuck!  Happily, I'm addicted to them (the hot ones) and I'm sure I'll be back tomorrow.  I also learned at Nordstrom's that there's 9% sales tax out here.  The sales associate told me that if you live here, you don't have state tax taken out of your check, so you don't mind.  That fact, and my small suitcase, will help keep my shopping to a minimum this week.

But, can you find a better place for salmon, crab, or great Oregon Pinot Noir than Seattle?  We managed to crash a party last night for a local Democrat who won a congress seat.  The Westin in Bellevue was a nice place to watch the candidates make their speeches - one conceding defeat and the other accepting the new role.  Strange in some ways not to watch all that from home with friends, but amazing to see the excitement of the crowd out on the road when Obama made his speech.