Page 54 - PROTAGONIST-120

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a life choice. Purchasing a horse, in fact, is like buying a reserve wine: race, age, breeding,
physical conditions, temperament, maintenance, quality have a price. But time and, hopefully,
And to get a horse many human beings are willing to invest exorbitant amounts of money, the
same amounts, if not more, that can get you a notable soccer or NBA basketball player. Making
an abundant progeny will pay back, because, after all, a horse is the gift that keeps on giving.

Galileo Fusaichi Pegasus

180,000,000 USD (ESTIMATED) 70,000,000 USD

From father to son The king has no clothes!

It went way better with Galileo, another In the late eighteenth century, Count Alexei
thoroughbred and racing horse born in Orlov, then in command of the Russian fleet,
1998, owned by Sue Magnier and Michael fell in love with a white-gray stallion called
Tabor of Coolmore Stud, the world's most Smetanka, owned by Ottoman nobles. The
prominent company for purebred breeding. 60,000 rubles he paid for the animal (even if
Since his retirement, after an outstanding some say it was a gift) were the start of a more
racing career, he has had an intense activity significant gain: the horse became the sire of
as a stud: it seems he has fathered over 300 a lucky race, named after the count himself.
racing champions. His stud fee has not been When in 1962 Pakistan president Muhammad
officially disclosed since 2008, so it can only Ayub Khan gave Sardar to the American first-
be estimated: off-the-record reports say it sits lady Jaqueline Kennedy—she later renamed it
at around 600,000 dollars. Another guess is Black Jack, her father's nickname—it was said
his possible—his owners will never sell him— that the bay gelding was worth about 3.5 million
purchase price: about 180 million dollars. dollars. An outrageous figure that, however,
Galileo's most famous offspring is undoubtedly is nowhere close to the record established
Frankel, a thoroughbred born in 2008, in 2000 by Fusaichi Pegasus. Born in 1997
property of the Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah. and owned by a Japanese businessman
He is a real winner: fourteen wins and nine Fusao Sekiguchi (from whom he takes part of
consecutive Group 1 wins in just four years, so his name, a combination of Fusao and ichi, a
that he was called by Timefrom “the biggest Japanese word that means “the first”), the bay
horse race that has ever existed,” and by the thoroughbred, who won the 2000 Kentucky
British journalist Marcus Armytage: “a lightning Derby, was sold to Irish tycoon John Magnier's
bolt of genetics that cannot be replicated for a Coolmore Stud for 70 million dollars. The huge
hundred years.” His value, today, is estimated investment should have paid back with the
at around 500 million dollars and his stud fee horse's progeny, and his stud fee was set at
at 220,000 dollars. 150,000 dollars. But after his retirement from
his racing career, during which he won about
two million dollars, Fusaichi's performance as a
breeding stock was disappointing and his stud
fee dropped to 7,000 dollars.

52 Sports Protagonist