Just three months after it was announced he was being pensioned, Storm Cat was represented by the top price Aug. 5 at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga yearling sale. How fitting.

The success enjoyed by the 25-year-old son of Storm Bird is obvious. Storm Cat made Overbrook Farm what it is today because he has sired 13% stakes winners, which ranks him among the best stallions of our time. His progeny’s racetrack success allowed his stud fee to rise to the highest in recent memory, $500,000.

But Storm Cat has been a huge commercial success as well, which is important to breeders taking his sons and daughters to market, and buyers hoping not only for top racetrack performance, but significant future residual value as well.

Over the past 32 years, 109 stallions have been represented by at least one offspring sold at a North American yearling sale for $1 million or more. That group of stallions has sired 718 seven-figure yearlings, and of that total, a remarkable 90 are by Storm Cat.

Thus, 12.5% of all yearlings ever sold in North America for $1 million or more are by one stallion.

(For the record, the next highest total is the 52 sired by Storm Bird’s sire, Northern Dancer.)

A group of 34 colts and fillies by Storm Cat are cataloged to the Keeneland fall yearling sale that kicks off Sept. 8. This is a comparable number to last year, when 37 were cataloged and 23 sold for an average of $536,739.

This year’s list is like a “Who’s Who” of pedigrees. Nine of the yearlings are out of grade/group I winners (three champions) and eight are full or half-siblings to grade/group I winners (four champions).

With numerous offspring still to go through an auction ring, it is possible Storm Cat could become the first triple-double stallion—more than 100 stakes winners (he has 166 to date) and more than 100 yearlings sold for $1 million or more.

Stallions like Storm Cat do not come along very often. But they are the dream of everyone who retires a horse to stud, and like a couple of other horses in the news lately—Danzig and Theatrical—prove the best do not necessarily start in the breeding shed with a high stud fee.

Storm Cat may have commanded $500,000 for six years, but his initial fee was just $30,000 (and later $20,000).

Danzig, who first stood for $20,000 and saw his fee rise to $250,000 no guarantee, recently became the first North American stallion to sire 200 stakes winners. Danzig, who died in 2006, is from the same sire line as Storm Cat. Danzig is by Northern Dancer, sire also of Storm Cat’s sire.

The mark of 200 stakes winners is impressive for Danzig considering he stood at Claiborne Farm, which has never bred books as large as many other farms. Danzig’s largest crop was 59 foals. His percentage of stakes winners, 18%, places him among the elite stallions of all time.

At a time when many are questioning the durability of the Thoroughbred and commercialized focus of breeders, there is Theatrical, who will never be thought of as flashy or dazzling, but has consistently rewarded those who bred to him, and whose progeny have an average winning distance of 9.5 furlongs.

A product of the highly successful breeding program of Bert and Diana Firestone, Theatrical, by Northern Dancer’s son, Nureyev, recently sired his 22nd grade/group I winner, Winchester, a Firestone homebred.

The Firestones raced Theatrical and later took on Allen Paulson as a partner in the horse. He first stood at Paulson’s Brookside Farms and now stands at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farms near Lexington.

Theatrical has sired 77 stakes winners (8%), but consider that 28.5% have won a grade/group I race.

Percentage of stakes winners should still be the most important measure of a stallion’s success. 

Few have the resources to do anything they want in the Thoroughbred industry. Sheikh Mohammed would be one of the exceptions.

The news of the last few weeks only further validates how much the ruler of Dubai not only loves the Thoroughbred industry, but desires to be its most dominant global player.

On March 24, news arrived that Sheikh Mohammed had closed a blockbuster deal in Australia, purchasing the Ingham brothers’ entire Woodlands Stud operation for approximately $425 million. The deal includes stud farms, training centers, stallions, and more than 500 horses of various ages.

Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley already owned farms and stood stallions in Australia, and Bob Ingham, head of his family’s Thoroughbred interests, said they were not looking to sell. “Once approached by Darley, I decided it was an opportunity I should accept,” Ingham said.

The Hettinger family, majority shareholders in Fasig-Tipton Co., were not actively looking to sell, either. But sell they did when a company controlled by “an associate” of Sheikh Mohammed came calling with an offer to buy the oldest Thoroughbred sale company in the United States.

The April 10 announcement said Synergy Investments, headed by Sheikh Mohammed’s friend Abdulla al Habbai, will purchase the assets in Fasig-Tipton, which conducts auctions in Kentucky, New York, Maryland, Florida, and Texas.

Last year, Sheikh Mohammed made headlines when he purchased Street Sense, Hard Spun, and Any Given Saturday to join the stallion ranks at his Darley near Lexington. Already this year, a deal was announced on Pyro, who will run in the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) despite a disappointing run in the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I). He will become the farm’s 16th stallion. 

When the breeding season begins in Australia this summer, Darley will control more than 30 stallions. Considering there are roughly 21,000 mares in Australia, it is conceivable Darley stallions could cover more than 20% of the mare population.

There are those who feel Sheikh Mohammed’s new determination to stand stallions is part of a rivalry with John Magnier and partners’ Coolmore Stud. And there are those who feel they are wasting their time, and stretching their frustration level, when bidding on a stallion Darley is interested in.

They may be right on both accounts. But this is a game where big deals are made all the time, and Sheikh Mohammed has the funds to make more of them than anyone else.

More interesting than spending freely on stallion prospects, however, is the move by Sheikh Mohammed’s associate to purchase Fasig-Tipton.

Fasig-Tipton grosses more annually than any sale company in the U.S. except for Keeneland, the same Keene­land where Sheikh Mohammed has spent hundreds of millions over the years in pursuit of top racehorses.

There is no reason to think Sheikh Mohammed will stop shopping at Keeneland, or any other sale company for that matter, but the landscape could certainly be different in the future. Coolmore avoiding Fasig-Tipton sales or a price war on commissions would be unsettling.

The announcement of the pending sale of Fasig-Tipton stated that the management team will be kept intact, which is good news. Anyone who has dealt with Boyd Browning, Walt Robertson, Bill Graves, Terence Collier, and the rest of the staff is aware this is a team that not only knows how to put on auctions, but is good to deal with on a personal level.

Also, competition is healthy. Keeneland pushes Fasig-­Tipton, which pushes the Ocala Breeders’ Sale Co., which pushes Barretts, etc.

An infusion of new capital into Fasig-Tipton is good for the entire industry: breeders, owners, consignors, and buyers.

And if, as the release stated, the goal of recruiting new buyers is accomplished, the whole industry will benefit.