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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  Justify                Moorlands Totilas Marsha





 180,000,000 USD (ESTIMATED)  70,000,000 USD  60,000,000 USD (ESTIMATED)  21,000,000 USD  7,500,000 USD



















 From father to son  The king has no clothes!  Hens of the golden eggs  The other rockstars  Mares mean business, too


 It went way better with Galileo, another   In the late eighteenth century, Count Alexei   For one horse purchased at a stellar cost,   Race horses are not only a perfect investment.  Frankel's female offspring is promising, too.
 thoroughbred and racing horse born in   Orlov, then in command of the Russian fleet,   however, there is always another priceless   Palloubet d’Halong, a 2003 gelding considered  Miss Fabulass, a mare born in Australia in 2015
 1998, owned by Sue Magnier and Michael   fell in love with a white-gray stallion called   horse, with virtually zero chances to go up   one of the world's best show jumping horses,   and bought by John Singleton of Strawberry
 Tabor of Coolmore Stud, the world's most   Smetanka, owned by Ottoman nobles. The   for auction or become the object of private   thanks to his winning partnership with former   Hill Stud and P Fenton for 3.85 million dollars,
 prominent company for purebred breeding.   60,000 rubles he paid for the animal (even if   negotiations, becoming—ironically—a   owner, the Swiss rider Janika Sprunger, was   has already had noteworthy wins with prize-
 Since his retirement, after an outstanding   some say it was a gift) were the start of a more   coveted object of desire. Tapit, for example, a   sold in 2013 to Dutch Olympic champion Jan   money of about 300,000 dollars. These
 racing career, he has had an intense activity   significant gain: the horse became the sire of   2001 white thoroughbred owned by Winchell   Tops for a record-breaking price of 15 million   numbers are destined to rise, as her owners
 as a stud: it seems he has fathered over 300   a lucky race, named after the count himself.   Thoroughbreds valued between 100 and 140   dollars (Sprunger has recently sold Tops   admit, well aware to possess “the one we
 racing champions. His stud fee has not been   When in 1962 Pakistan president Muhammad   million dollars, according to a 2015 estimate   another promising jumper, Bacardi VDL, for   have been waiting for.” In every way possible.
 officially disclosed since 2008, so it can only   Ayub Khan gave Sardar to the American first-  by Bloomberg, with an annual gain of 35   an undisclosed amount.) Many people initially   In horse riding and horse breeding male and
 be estimated: off-the-record reports say it sits   lady Jaqueline Kennedy—she later renamed it   million dollars. He had an unremarkable racing   thought Palloubet was a gift for Tops' wife,   female horses can indeed command similar
 at around 600,000 dollars. Another guess is   Black Jack, her father's nickname—it was said   career, but he surprisingly became a “stud   Edwina Tops-Alexander, but he was indeed   prices, despite the irrefutable fact that a
 his possible—his owners will never sell him—  that the bay gelding was worth about 3.5 million   champion” at the Gainsway Farm in Lexington,   intended to race for the Quatar's team with   stallion can mate until 200 times a year and
 purchase price: about 180 million dollars.   dollars. An outrageous figure that, however,   Kentucky. Snitzel, a 2002 Australian stallion,   rider Ali Yousef Al Rumaihi. In the dressage   a mare only once. Marsha, for example, a
 Galileo's most famous offspring is undoubtedly   is nowhere close to the record established   thoroughbred and medal-winning sprinter   field, on the other hand, the scepter of   thoroughbred that “moves like a rockstar”
 Frankel, a thoroughbred born in 2008,   in 2000 by Fusaichi Pegasus. Born in 1997   belonging to Australian Arrowfield Stud, which   “millionaire horse” goes to Moorlands Totilas,  born in Ireland in 2013 and a specialized
 property of the Saudi prince Khalid Abdullah.   and owned by a Japanese businessman   acquired majority shares from businessman   also known as “Toto,” a Dutch warmblood   sprinter with fourteen races and twelve
 He is a real winner: fourteen wins and nine   Fusao Sekiguchi (from whom he takes part of   Damion Flower, has a record progeny and   holding the world record both in classical and   podiums, became the most expensive horse
 consecutive Group 1 wins in just four years, so   his name, a combination of Fusao and ichi, a   is expected to earn his owners 40 million   freestyle dressage for a very long time and   ever sold at a European auction in 2017. After
 that he was called by Timefrom “the biggest   Japanese word that means “the first”), the bay   dollars a year. The only winner of the American   three-times gold winner at 2010 FEI World   a bidding war with the English champion and
 horse race that has ever existed,” and by the   thoroughbred, who won the 2000 Kentucky   Triple Crown who has never lost a race in   Equestrian Games. Born in 2000 and bred   trainer John Godsen, the “same old” Michael
 British journalist Marcus Armytage: “a lightning   Derby, was sold to Irish tycoon John Magnier's   his short-lived career, Justify, born in 2015,   by Jan Schuil and Anna Schuil-Visser, he   Magnier obtained her for 7.5 million dollars.
 bolt of genetics that cannot be replicated for a   Coolmore Stud for 70 million dollars. The huge   immediately became one of the most popular   was separated from his trusted rider Edward   Her destiny? Mating with (possibly) Galileo
 hundred years.” His value, today, is estimated   investment should have paid back with the   thoroughbreds in the United States. Currently   Gal and sold to former Olympic winner and   and birthing brand new champions.
 at around 500 million dollars and his stud fee   horse's progeny, and his stud fee was set at   owned by the American branch of Coolmore   German trainer Paul Schockemohle in 2010
 at 220,000 dollars.  150,000 dollars. But after his retirement from   Stud, his estimated value is around 60 million   for 21 million dollars.
 his racing career, during which he won about   dollars, according to Forbes magazine, thanks
 two million dollars, Fusaichi's performance as a   to his physicality, his lineage and his stellar
 breeding stock was disappointing and his stud   athletic performance. The numbers are
 fee dropped to 7,000 dollars.   bound to rise with the performances of its first
            progeny, for now we can only guess.








 52  Sports  Protagonist  Protagonist                                                                        Sports         53
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