Horse Racing Forum - USA Thoroughbred Races

I'm hoping someone can enlighten me. I'm extremely confused right now. Apparently Calumet Farms bought a black overo stallion, Risque Remarque. This horse is NOT a racer, he's not even broke from what I've heard. He doesn't have a racing pedigree, now have his foals done anything in that regard - they are show horses.

Does anyone know why Calumet would have purchased a horse like this? The only thing I can think of is as a teaser stallion, but who pays $40,000 for a teaser??

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Inve ... 3811530503

True North wrote:but who pays $40,000 for a teaser?

Brad Kelley's net worth is north of one BILLION dollars. He owns 1.5 million acres of ranch lands in Kentucky, Tennessee, New Mexico, Florida, Hawaii and Texas.
In the thirty seconds it took me to type this reply, he probably made $40,000 from his business interests.

Now, if he would just acknowledge me as his long lost son.

LOL! Well then...that does make the $40k seem a bit less important, but still. Does anyone know the purpose of buying this particular stallion that has no racing prospect?

Could the horse have been purchased as a Sport Horse stallion? If he has a balanced, athletic conformation, he might be attractive to people who care little about a horse's race record...only whether he has attributes that work for a jumper or dressage horse. And the fact that he is a black overo is interesting...stallions who throw COLOR are really popular now in the sport horse world.

OK...I looked him up, and there is a lot of info about this horse on the web. He's an already-established stallion, and his DNA is kind of a big deal.
http://www.colorworld-ranch.com/risque.html
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/ ... e+Remarque
https://search.yahoo.com/search?p=stall ... 8&fr=moz35

Does Calumet do sport horse breeding though? I've never heard of them doing it, though I can't say I'm up to date on that world.

Since he is being shown like a Sports Horse stallion- they very well could be going into that direction. Could be trying to get their feet wet in that area- perhaps creating a different division for the farm.

Could Calumet have chosen to acquire this particular Sport Horse stallion because of his pedigree? He's got Halo on top and Hoist the Flag on the bottom...did either of those horses ever reside at the old Calumet?
Or maybe it's as simple as there is someone on the farm who knows/likes the stallion and/or his present owner...and the horse needed a new home. And Calumet stepped up to give him one?

His sire, Ellusive Quest, as a yearling:

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:Or maybe it's as simple as there is someone on the farm who knows/likes the stallion and/or his present owner...and the horse needed a new home. And Calumet stepped up to give him one?

From Facebook, it looks like whoever owned him is retiring and selling some their stock--they did also say that they will still have his foals for sale, so it looks like he'll be active in the breeding shed. Maybe it was a combination of things, and Kelley probably had the $40k lying around in a change jar and thought he'd look nice alongside English Channel

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:He's got Halo on top and Hoist the Flag on the bottom...did either of those horses ever reside at the old Calumet?

No. Halo started at Windfields Farm in Maryland and moved to Stone Farm, KY. Hoist The Flag stood at Claiborne.

It's a joke if they decide to stand him. He'd be a nice gelding.

Hopefully he was purchased as a teaser/private riding project. I see no value with him in the genetic pool.

"Risque Remarque is the only DNA'd tested homozygous black frame overo thoroughbred breeding stallion in the country today! He is proven. He does NOT carry a red gene, an agouti gene, the SB1 gene, any of the splashed white genes or any of the dominant white genes. His uniqueness is priceless in a breeding program. He is a one of a kind dual registered stallion that is registered with both the Jockey Club and the American Paint Horse Association. His black coloration is jet blue black and never fades in the sun. He is the BEST of the BEST. But he is more than a genetic color dream come true. He also has incredible sport horse conformation rarely seen in today's Thoroughbreds, with an uphill build like a warmblood, and substantial structure and bone, supported by excellent large feet to carry him."

http://www.allanglos.net/horses/stallio ... arque.html

It sounds like they're going sport, but he is a registered TB. There's nothing to stop them from trying an experiment with this stallion to see if he gets race-quality foals.

He's not a joke in the Sport Horse industry. He combines a Thoroughbred's conformation and athleticism with really splashy coloring, so for someone who wants a flashy hunter/jumper or dressage horse, he might be perfect.
I seriously doubt the horse was bought for his racing bloodlines, with the idea of standing him for breeders interested in racing. Also don't think they paid that money just so they could geld him.

Sport horse prospect is the only thing that makes sense. Everyone needs a hobby! There's a pretty strong market for athletic sport horses with a lot of flash, and he certainly has it. If he were so inclined, the man has the money to do a lot of real legwork in the realm of developing the colored sport horse TB lines past "nice horse, pretty color" into "WOW horse who happens to have spots" territory. There are some nice animals in the color TB world but nothing at all like Warmblood breeders had in, say, Art Deco. There just isn't a splashy TB stallion yet who combines great conformation with a competitive showing career and strong progeny results.

I don't know if that's what he's doing, though. I can dream.

I always liked his father and his uncle, Racey Remarque, though I don't know what their progeny are doing these days.

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:He's not a joke in the Sport Horse industry. He combines a Thoroughbred's conformation and athleticism with really splashy coloring, so for someone who wants a flashy hunter/jumper or dressage horse, he might be perfect.
I seriously doubt the horse was bought for his racing bloodlines, with the idea of standing him for breeders interested in racing. Also don't think they paid that money just so they could geld him.

The only reason he's being bred is his colour. His conformation is nothing special. I was not suggesting they bought him to geld him, rather that he'd make a nicer gelding than stallion.

Too many unwanted horses in the world already, and then there's people who simply breed for pretty colours. Make him a classic plain bay and no one would look twice.

All the foals I could find for him (few) were all bred by color breeders. I recognize the broodmare sires as Palomino or Perlino stallions.

Couldn't it just be a hoax that Calumet bought him??

Flanders wrote:All the foals I could find for him (few) were all bred by color breeders. I recognize the broodmare sires as Palomino or Perlino stallions.

Couldn't it just be a hoax that Calumet bought him??

He apparently shipped to Calumet today so we should find out soon. Someone that works there did say he heard about the horse coming, but didn't know anything more.

I know that one page said he was tested and is black but he looks bay in over half the pictures I've seen of him. He also looks bay in this Youtube video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuwGt63ZPqc

Life At Zen wrote:

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:He's not a joke in the Sport Horse industry. He combines a Thoroughbred's conformation and athleticism with really splashy coloring, so for someone who wants a flashy hunter/jumper or dressage horse, he might be perfect.
I seriously doubt the horse was bought for his racing bloodlines, with the idea of standing him for breeders interested in racing. Also don't think they paid that money just so they could geld him.

The only reason he's being bred is his colour. His conformation is nothing special. I was not suggesting they bought him to geld him, rather that he'd make a nicer gelding than stallion.

Too many unwanted horses in the world already, and then there's people who simply breed for pretty colours. Make him a classic plain bay and no one would look twice.

I get and half agree with what you're saying. On the other hand, there's a case to be made for putting real time and effort into 'breeding up' decent-to-nice flashy stock to better stock and developing a higher grade of animal for the color breeders. That's the only worthewhile way, IMO, to counter the bad color breeders. If there are nicer and nicer options being created, then at least there can be a happy middle ground. Just telling people not to do it hasn't been working.

Again, of course, I have NO idea if that's the plan. That's just my paint and TB obsessions meeting to dream big, lol. He's not a horrendous starting point (considering the meager number of options) for someone looking to infuse quality stock with overo and black genes. But maybe he just likes splashy ponies and wanted to buy one.

Why do we need coloured TB's? Go buy a Paint. Accidental cool colours happen sometimes in Tb's, but it should never be the main focus of why you're breeding.