Double Duty Impossible for Stallions? Think Twice.

by T.D. Thornton
 Over in harness racing this year, superstar trotter Father Patrick has been generating considerable buzz by performing “double duty” since the start of the 2015 breeding season. According to an article last month in Harness Racing Update, the 4-year-old is “the most notable standardbred ever in the United States” to serve as an active stallion while remaining in training for top-level races. 

“It's such a foreign concept that there were questions about us being out of the box,” said Adam Bowden of Diamond Creek Farm, who bought Father Patrick as a stallion prospect but then saw no reason not to keep campaigning him. “To this point it's been a huge success. He's done a fantastic job in the shed in getting mares pregnant, has never trained any better, and seems happy.” 

Bowden, the owner of the Lexington, Ky. nursery, told the TDN that his decision to simultaneously race and breed Father Patrick in 2015 was a direct result of recent initiatives in the harness industry designed to keep top horses in the public eye rather than whisking them straight to the breeding shed after stellar sophomore seasons. The immediate on-track goal for Father Patrick will be the inaugural $1 million Graduate Series, which this year was created specifically by the Meadowlands as a way to keep elite trotters and pacers racing longer. 

Although there are obvious differences between how Standardbreds and Thoroughbreds are mated—the permissibility of artificial insemination in the harness industry chief among them—Father Patrick's experiment begs the question of whether anything other than tradition keeps Thoroughbred stallions from performing double duty. 

“That's a really good question. I've never been asked the question why the Thoroughbred industry doesn't do more of that,” said Donato Lanni, director of bloodstock services for Hill 'n' Dale in Lexington. “I think it comes down to economics, like it always does in the Thoroughbred industry. Is it worth putting your stallion in danger of getting injured?” 

Case Clay, president of Three Chimneys Farm in Midway, Kentucky, agreed, although he said the concept is intriguing: “I do kind of buy the argument that you might have too valuable an asset to take the risk on the racetrack. It's an out-of-the-box idea, but so was shuttling stallions to the Southern Hemisphere at one point, too.” 

The fear of losing an equine asset certainly hasn't stopped other spheres of the horse world from embracing the concept of double duty. Top sport horses compete globally as stallions, and in Europe it is not considered headline news when high-profile Standardbreds dually race and breed. It is only within the U.S. Thoroughbred industry that the topic seems taboo. 

John Lawrence, one of the world's earliest writers on animal welfare, published a book in Britain in 1829 titled “The Horse in All His Varieties and Uses” that contains advice against double duty without explaining why: “In former days, there were some instances…of racing stallions, whilst in training, covering mares and yet running with their usual success. But generally, both stallions and brood mares, in all capital studs, are restricted to their proper business of breeding.” 
The 1800s were dotted with examples of prominent double-duty Thoroughbred stallions. According to a 2013 Daily Racing Form retrospective on the subject, American Eclipse was an undefeated champion who covered mares at $12.50 a pop during his winter breaks from racing, and Boston was a four-mile specialist in the 1830s who won $51,700 in purses while commanding $100 breeding fees (pricey for the era). 

The early 20th Century produced a trio of Kentucky Derby winners who ended up being duds at stud, then subsequently flopped in returns to racing: Black Gold (the 1924 Derby winner), Whiskery (1927) and Twenty Grand (1931). A decade later Seabiscuit had substantially more success at double duty, servicing mares while recovering from a ruptured suspensory ligament prior to a triumphant return in the 1940 Santa Anita Handicap. 

In the late 1950s the California racing/breeding farm Old English Rancho acquired Fleet Nasrullah, who was then thought primarily to be a sprinter. He covered a few mares, then returned to racing stretch out as a stakes winner on both grass and dirt. For a time he held the American record for nine furlongs on the turf. 

It was because of Fleet Nasrullah that E.W. “Bud” Johnston (who took over Old English Rancho from his father, Ellwood) became intrigued by the idea of stallions performing double duty. Johnston has since kept up the practice on and off for over 50 years. 

“It entirely depends upon the animal,” Johnston said. “If you have a horse that has a very minor injury that you think needs a little time off and it happens to be the breeding season and he's a proven, quality horse and you want to breed a few mares to him, I've had very good success doing it. You can't, generally speaking, get a full book of mares, but back when we were doing it, a full book was 40 mares, and we could sometimes get 10 mares or so while the horse is laid up to get a small-crop sampling of what might be his future. 

“Now if you've got a horse who is in demand and can breed a hundred mares like they do nowadays,” Johnston continued, “it goes against you as far as returning the horse because he's so popular that you can make more money breeding mares than racing him.” 

Johnston cited River Bank, Oligarchy, Color Bearer and Silveyville (who went back and forth twice and earned $1.2 million before retiring in 1987) as examples of Old English Rancho's double-duty success stories. 

“I was even thinking about doing it with [2011 Older Male Eclipse Award winner] Acclimation,” Johnston said. “But the little minor injury that I thought he had turned out to be bigger because we couldn't get it completely healed, so I didn't bring him back, just wound up breeding 40 or so mares to him in his first season.” 

Johnston said having a sizable band of broodmares and access to your own training track are the key elements that enable him to attempt double duty with stallions. 

“That's kind of a silly superstition that once a horse starts breeding he can't get his mind back on racing. That's not true,” Johnston said. “They adapt very well. I had no problems bringing any of those horses back to the track after they've bred a few mares. There's no psychological or physical reason why they can't do it. Good horses love to run. We sort of get stuck in this business and pretty much stick with what we've done for a hundred years or so.” 

John Shirreffs took over the training of 1993 Older Male Eclipse winner Bertrando after the colt had chips removed from his knees and spent the early part of 1994 servicing mares (Bertrando's sire, 1986 Breeders' Cup Classic winner Skywalker, also performed double duty for a time). Although Shirreffs had a good experience with Bertrando, he said he's not wild about the idea of having an active stallion under his shed row. 

“We were very fortunate that Bertrando, the first day he came back from the farm, walked off the ramp, whinnied one time, and when we put him in his stall, he went back into 'racehorse mode' and never again thought about mares,” Shirreffs said. 

But in general, Shirreffs continued, “It doesn't seem like it would be a great idea. As a trainer I never really think about the breeding aspect. One of the things about training horses, particularly colts, you're trying to get them to focus on their job. Possibly a horse that was really into racing and focused on his job well might be able to make that transition, but I don't think you can do it often. You might be able to do it once, with like Bertrando. But I don't think you could do it on a seasonal basis for two or three years.” 

Lanni concurred: “I think there is something true about once a stallion realizes what that world is all about there might be a [focusing] issue. Horses become different animals when they start to breed, especially in their second year when they figure out what it's all about.” 

Clay had similar thoughts: “When stallions retire and get to the stud barn, they look like track stars. They're very, very fit. And then after about a year, they're not exercising as much and there's a lot of testosterone flowing. Physically they change, they become bigger and they look different. So one question I would have, if you breed for a season, how quickly can you get a horse back into racing shape? Can the horse get his mind back on the track to win races? I'd be very interested in seeing if, after breeding 100 mares, a horse can get mentally and physically fit.” 

Equine physiology aside, breeders in Kentucky also don't have the open space advantage Johnston does in California. 
“In Kentucky, [real estate] is so much more commercialized,” Lanni said. “Generally, we don't have training centers. Except for Calumet Farm, everyone else doesn't have a training center where you can train your horses and keep them fit.” 

Aside from issues of economics and tradition, a big reason double duty hasn't caught on with Thoroughbred breeders is the practical aspect that all mares must be live covered. 

“With Thoroughbreds, you've got to jump the mares. It's a lot more involved than the Standardbred business,” Lanni said. 

Bowden agreed: “Standardbreds don't have to be live covered, so it's a lot easier. It's a little bit different.” 
The sperm from Father Patrick that will be artificially inseminated “gets collected four times a week max, Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday,” Bowden said. “He leaves the training center and gets vanned 15 minutes down the road. They do the collection, he gets back on the trailer, and he's back in his stall within an hour.” 
But still, even out of professional curiosity, hasn't anyone from the Thoroughbred side of the biz even casually reached out to Bowden to discuss the practice? 

“I honestly think the two worlds are so closed that most people don't look at what the other industry is doing,” Bowden said. “I haven't had anybody yet ask me about double duty for Thoroughbreds.”