Show Me the Money

News from the I'll Have Another camp that the horse has been sold for stud duty in Japan. He will stand at Okada's Big Red Farm on the island of Hokkaido. Financial terms were confidential but Reddam revealed that the Japanese offer was way better than the ones he received from Kentucky farms.

“It was in the range we were looking for,” Reddam said. “Kentucky wasn’t anywhere close to where the Japanese were.

“Any rational person would have gone to the Big Red [offer] versus the Kentucky, even though we won’t get to breed to the horse because he will be so far away.

“It’s kind of sad. I would have liked to have had a lot of I’ll Have Anothers.”

While Reddam clearly made the best business decision for him, sentimental types would have loved to see I'll Have Another stay in the U. S. The Kentucky farm offers were low because I'll Have Another does not have the kind of pedigree that commands the big bucks. He also has some conformational issues, not to mention who knows what kind of substances bouncing around in his system.

All that aside, that outcropped pedigree, minus the drugs of course, is what the American bloodstock needs. Less of the same; more of something new. He probably will do well with the European and Japanese mares, but part of me hopes that someone, someday soon, will buy one of his offspring and reintroduce it into the American bloodstock pool.

Sayonara, I'll Have Another. You never really got the chance to prove what you're really worth.