# SERIOUSLY expensive semen **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 8, 2001, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352 "2001-09-08T04:11:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/1 "2001-09-08T04:11:45Z")
Background: Horse racing. Breeding. Stud fees. Leading sire for the past few years: Storm Cat. The news (excepted from the Daily Racing Form): > [@](#): > > The stud fee for Overbrook Farm’s leading sire Storm Cat will rise from $400,000 to $500,000 for the 2002 breeding season, making his the highest fee in North America for next year. **Freakin’ A!** What does $500,000 get you? A pregnant mare (guaranteed). The fee is typically due “when the foal stands and nurses.” If it drops dead a couple of weeks later, oh well, too bad. (Although sometimes, esp. with the highest quality mares he’d be booked to, they may allow a re-cover.) Just so you know, last season, Storm Cat covered over 120 mares. Do the math. **FREAKIN’ A!** Here’s why his sperm is so outrageously expensive: > [@](#): > > The stallion was the auction’s leading sire by average progeny price last year, with 17 yearlings selling for a total of $22,468,000 and an astronomical average price of $1,321,641. > > The 2000 auction’s top-priced lots, a sale-record $6.8 million colt out of Hum Along and a world-record $4.4 million filly out of champion East of the Moon, were both by Storm Cat. Dude-o-rama, those are some insane prices. Frick. I’m in the wrong profession! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/2 "2001-09-08T06:05:12Z")
Well, after careful thought, I’ve decided there’s not a lot one can say about the OP. Other than – I don’t think sperm banks pay that much, if all. Then again – this is the Internet, so anything’s possible. I’ll leave now before the really crass stuff comes flowing in. ---
**Author:** ![jaimest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/48db29/32.png) [@jaimest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaimest)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/3 "2001-09-08T06:43:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ice Wolf \* > \*\* > I’ll leave now before the really crass stuff comes flowing in. \*\* Now I am wondering what Rod Stewart has been up to lately. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/4 "2001-09-08T07:00:06Z")
> [@](#): > > quote: > > _Originally posted by Ice Wolf_ > > I’ll leave now before the really crass stuff comes flowing in. > > _orig by jaimest_ > Now I am wondering what Rod Stewart has been up to lately. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Monster104](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Monster104](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monster104)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/5 "2001-09-08T07:00:40Z")
Now, they DO use a medical procedure to get the sperm, right? I’m not exactly well-informed about this particular topic… ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/6 "2001-09-08T07:59:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Monster104 \* > \*\*Now, they DO use a medical procedure to get the sperm, right? I’m not exactly well-informed about this particular topic… \*\* I’d hate to be the one to have to masturbate those horses. I don’t think my hands are big enough. ---
**Author:** ![Chez\_Guevara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/aeb1de/32.png) [@Chez\_Guevara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chez_Guevara)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/7 "2001-09-08T12:54:41Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ruffian \* > \*\*Here’s why his sperm is so outrageously expensive: > > > [@](#): > > > > The stallion was the auction’s leading sire by average progeny price last year, with 17 yearlings selling for a total of $22,468,000 and an astronomical average price of $1,321,641. > > > > The 2000 auction’s top-priced lots, a sale-record $6.8 million colt out of Hum Along and a world-record $4.4 million filly out of champion East of the Moon, were both by Storm Cat. > > Dude-o-rama, those are some insane prices. Frick. > > I’m in the wrong profession! \*\* The reason a mating with Storm Cat is so expensive, is Storm Cat continues to produce winners of Grade races, which are Group races in Europe, and the progeny of this horse so far win about 90 such events, or maybe more. Well, a stallion who sires winners of this quality is gold dust in the breeding industry, and it is no surprise that his book is full. You do not stand a chance of success in this profession, unless you are a horse, and a top class horse, at that. ---
**Author:** ![Ruffian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/71e660/32.png) [@Ruffian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruffian)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/8 "2001-09-08T13:53:04Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by Nostradamus \* \*\* > [@](#): > > You do not stand a chance of success in this profession, unless you are a horse, and a top class horse, at that. \*\* Um…okay, people are misinterpretting me here. What I’m saying is that I’m never going to see $60million a year as a teacher. But if I were a farm manager or owner in the thoroughbred breeding industry, I could see some serious bucks. (Of course, there is that tremendously high overhead.) FWIW, Storm Cat is not very fashionable in Europe. Many of his runners are precocious youngsters, and Europeans typically frown on the speed-crazy American-style racing. (However last year, with the brilliant Giant’s Causeway, they had a taste of a Storm Cat horse that dominated European group 1s). Europe’s top stud is Sadler’s Wells, and he is, in fact, the #1 sire of stakes winners in history. Just as Storm Cat progeny are not often seen in Europe, Sadler’s Wells’ get are not as often seen here. > [@](#): > > Now, they DO use a medical procedure to get the sperm, right? I’m not exactly well-informed about this particular topic… Sorry Monster…the Jockey Club will not register any foals produced through artificial insemination. They _must_ be conceived “the old fashioned way.” The stallions don’t mind a bit. 😃 The only time anything artificial is used (think of it as a blow-up doll for studs…sortof) in thoroughbred breeding is to check fertility levels. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/9 "2001-09-08T18:13:33Z")
BTW, the term for the “old fashioned way” is: live cover Which, is, of couse, a pretty good name for a band, right up there with Pearl Jam. Only a small percentage of thoroughbreds ever make back the investment put into them. In my barn we have 4 off-track thoroughbreds (meaning they were trained to race but either never started or were sold off after finishing poorly.) I think the _most_ expensive one cost about 3K. I doubt the farm recouped the cost of raising the foals to the age of 3 on that price – and these are well bred horses, no Storm Cat foals of course but “names” in their pedigrees like Bold Ruler, Native Dancer, etc. This thread reminds me of an old joke: Q: What’s the best way to make a small fortune in horses? A: Start with a large fortune. ---
**Author:** ![Hanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b3f665/32.png) [@Hanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hanna)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2001, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/seriously-expensive-semen/80352/10 "2001-09-08T20:32:47Z")
You don’t need to be super rich (although it certainly helps) to be involved with racing. Where I used to board my horse there was a lady who owned two racehorses and she boarded them at my barn during the off-season. She moved her TB’s to the trainer’s barn during racing season, which in MN is short. If I wanted to be involved in racehorses I’d probably look into being a co-owner, buying into a share, instead of trying to hoof (haha) the total bill myself. But, yeah, Storm Cat’s fees…whoa.