Stallion fees hanging low

Yes, even horses are suffering from bad economic times.

Oct. 16 (Bloomberg) — Claiborne Farm, the 93-year-old breeding company that housed Triple-Crown winner Secretariat, slashed mating fees this month, a move that may signal the start of the thoroughbred industry’s biggest slump in two decades.

“We decided to show some concern and cut where we can,” said Bernie Sams, who oversees Claiborne’s stallion operation in Paris, Kentucky. Sams lowered fees on five of the farm’s 13 sires by an average of 30 percent for the 2009 breeding season.

Oh noes! Could things get any worse?

Well, yes. Yes, they can.

“We are plagued by a vast oversupply,” James Squires, a 65-year-old breeder, said in a telephone interview from his farm in Versailles, Kentucky. He managed to sell one of the seven yearlings he took to auctions this year. “You can’t give them away. We’re going to have to ride them or eat them.”

Oh noes! Eat the horses! You can’t be serious!

The “very bottom,”‘ where small-scale breeders such as Squires often sell, has also been hard hit, Gentry said.

“There are some horses that should become pets,”‘ Gentry said in a telephone interview from Newmarket, England, where he was attending a sale at Tattersalls, the world’s oldest thoroughbred auctioneer. “I don’t know how they can be bred in the best of times. It’s really impossible to make a return.”‘

It has been for Squires.

He said he needs to generate $600,000 a year to cover his costs. So far this year he’s taken in just $20,000. He’s considering selling his best broodmare to pay down a credit line of almost $400,000 that he’s maxed out.

“Guys like me,” Squires said, “are doomed.'”

That’s what you get for threatening to turn Mr. Ed into Mr. Hamburger.