hi chicago78...hello all
As I've said before,
"I submit that breeding to Point Given can be particularly risky business if your intention is to ultimately sell the offspring at auction."
chicago78 wrote:Point Given's fee was dropped in the second year because his onwer, who had retained a good bit of the horse, Prince Salman, owner of the Thoroughbred Corp died in a car accident before he stood his second season. So Point Given lost much of the support that he was supposed to have gotten.
Certainly Ahmed Salman's Thoroughbred Corp would have bred numerous high quality mares to young Point Given had Salman's heart-related problem not caused his untimely demise...but reality is too, that the young stallion prospect's initial $125,000 advertised stud fee coupled with negative commentary that was heard from so many horsemen/women re: his conformation, arguably did NOT help either.
Even subsequent stud fee reductions didn't seem to much (if any) enhance his appeal.
Reality is, today, that PG has proven that he can clearly sire some quality runners. That said...his sales numbers thus far, at least when compared to production costs (including stud fee/s) seem to raise serious questions. It seems evident (based on sales results), at least to date, that Point Given's offspring (in general) have not been particularly highly sought after at the sales. I expect that PG's general lack of sales appeal has been more an indicator of what he gets physically, than what he had accomplished (or not) as a racehorse sire at the time those sales horses were offered. Arguably, Point Given was young enough that if his sales horses were the kind that the market swoons over (even before he came up with notable runners), they would have sold well. I suggest, the same holds true today.
Now that PG is getting some quality runners, maybe the market will be more lenient and buyers might be willing to pay more (for the PGs) than in the past (all things being equal)...but I doubt that how the Point Givens are made or what they look like (in general) will change, or that pinhookers (who often drive the market) will lower their bar.
I still suggest Strongly that anyone intending to breed to PG should be aware of his conformation and understand that for the most part his offspring have arguably Not been particularly well received at the sales (as evidenced by the sales results) thus far. It might be prudent to be EXTREMELY selective when determining which mare/s might be best suited physically to enhance the chances to produce a quality foal.
For those breeders playing the numbers game and/or those whose future in thoroughbred breeding will not be compromised if the results are less (possibly much less) than what was hoped for...and for those that can absorb such a possible financial blow...PG might be a viable choice. That said...I still sense that for most, breeding to him is very risky business and arguably offers a hard-to-swallow or possibly difficult-to-justify risk versus reward ratio.
All that said...the racing prowess of some of his current runners offers legitimate hope that PG could become a dependable source of quality racehorses and potential classics threats. Based on the PGs that I've seen thus far though...I sense that searching one out that suits your taste versus the dream of breeding that kind, might be the wiser direction for most to go.
Respectfully
A few months ago, there were a couple of discussions about Point Given as a stallion and it seemed the general consensus was "great racehorse, lousy stallion."
