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Another legendary stallion retires.
According to an article in the Thoroughbred Times today, Storm Cat has been pensioned at the age of 25 after getting only 3 mares in foal this season, compared to 68 last year.
His health remains good, but his fertilty has declined dramatically.
Happy retirement to the old boy.
Happy retirement Storm Cat.
Hopefully Giants Causeway and One Cool Cat will continue his legacy.
Retired to stud I would expect, cant remember if she ever raced again after losing a shoe that time she won the coronation stakes. Her Galileo half brother Corum continues to disappoint in just about every race he goes for.
I think there were sires eagerly ready to knock Storm Cat and Sadler’s Wells off their mantles. Stallions like Kingmambo and Distorted Humor come to mind.
All the best Storm Cat.
Two questions:
Firstly, is there any evidence that continuing to breed from sires into old age increases the risk of health problems in their offspring? It’s well-documented in humans that birth defects (physical and mental) increase when fathers are older than circa 50, though like horses, human males can remain fertile into their eighties.
Secondly, do mares too remain fecund into old age and if so are they bred from when in their twenties? Or do they – like human females – lose their fertility significantly earlier than males?
A few answers:
Pregnancy is tougher on old mares than covering is on old stallions, so they are usually retired from stud earlier, not necessarily because of fertility but because of the other strains on them. Twenty year old mares are not uncommon, but any older than that is usually pushing it. Fertility declines once they reach older teens, but not in a menopausal way.
I don’t see much evidence that older parents are more likely to produce sickly foals, unless the mare herself has had health problems during the pregnancy. Less group winners will be born to mares over 15 I expect, but there will be less foals generally.
Maids Causeway is at stud and has a yearling filly by Singspiel, not sure what she’s done this year.
Regarding old mares and their fertility, Storm Cat’s dam, Terlingua, had her last foal (Final Legacy) at the age of 24.
Terlingua was put down a few weeks ago at the great age of 32.
Happy Retirement Storm Cat!
When talking about breeding, nothing sounds more intimidating IMO than being a “son of Storm Cat“
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