Horses are valued by the whim of man, it is our choices that make them “priceless” or “worthless”.

With that being said I do know where Rich Strike’s Dam is and I would have loved to have a couple of the mares that have passed through his barn, I enjoy watching those mares produce fantastic value for what was paid for them.

Many people claim horses are “dumped” when they are older or they don’t sell for a large sum of money but later go on to produce something fantastic. I’ve watched hundreds of horses step through the Keeneland and Fasig Tipton auction rings barely fetch the stud fee paid to create them. 90% of those horses won’t even earn back the money spent to purchase them after all the bills are paid. Most won’t even be a blip on anyone’s radar as they will be the race fillers in lower level claim races, sometimes racing as often as 30 times a year .

There is a person on Twitter who watches out for them their Twitter handle is NotCloudyAllDay. Give them a follow if you want, no I don’t know their “real” name or even if they are on Facebook.

Now back to the whim of man.

Our herd has a unique and storied past, a couple of our mares sires were conceived with very lofty aspirations, but I guess that’s what happens when your sire is the first international champion or your moms already produced a derby winner.

MY REVENGE is a 2009 daughter of DARING BID, by the time she was born he had already been exported to South Africa. He would probably be considered one of those “failures” as he never won and was created from the ever so brief marriage of Unbridled and Whiffling. Unbridled was the 1990 Kentucky Derby Winner, and 1990 Breeders Cup Classic Winner he was 2nd to Summer Squall in the Preakness. Whiffling, was herself the dam of Prairie Bayou who was 2nd in the 1993 Derby and won the Preakness, he fatally broke down in the Belmont. DARING BID despite a royal pedigree raced 29 times over 4 seasons winning once each year, he earned 141K, he was purchased as a Yearling for 1.4M. Her dams side is much more lackluster with her dam not even fetching 500 in foal to Classic Alliance a few years before Revenge was born.

Zepper is one of our mares who RNA for 700 before ending up venturing through a kill pen with Revenge & Clever (#1), her sire is ZEDE. ZEDE won the Tampa Bay Derby before injury knocked him off the Derby trail, his sire is STRAWBERRY ROAD (AUS), SR is considered by many to be one of the first international racing champions, Zeppers dam sire Clever Cry a son of STREET CRY (IRE).

These mares both fell through the cracks, pedigrees don’t save or make a horse. AP INDY the crown prince of racing failed to sire a Kentucky Derby Winner, I think the closest he appears in one is California Chrome as the “3rd” sire the great grand dad. Meanwhile SMART STRIKE appears in 2 or 3, the most recent one being Rich Strike’s as his “great-grandpa” on his dad’s side and “grandpa” on his mom’s side. Yikes but don’t worry it’s line-breeding if it works Inbreeding if it doesn’t. But more on the “Crown Prince” later, maybe he’s not such a prince.