Horse Racing Forum - USA Thoroughbred Races

Gainesway just announced the pensioning of Smoke Glacken on Facebook. He will remain at Gainesway.

http://www.gainesway.com/articles/smoke ... ioned.html

Nineteen seems young for a stallion to need to be pensioned "due to declining fertility and the effects of advancing age."
http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/ ... -pensioned

Does seem a bit young. I thought A.P. Indy, at 22, was an early exit from the shed. What are some
other instances where major stallions have been pensioned in their teens or early twenties?

Happy retirement to Smoke Glacken...

WarBiscuit

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:Nineteen seems young for a stallion to need to be pensioned "due to declining fertility and the effects of advancing age."

Maybe he's got some issues like arthritis that make mounting difficult, or something along those lines.

WarBiscuit wrote:Does seem a bit young. I thought A.P. Indy, at 22, was an early exit from the shed. What are some
other instances where major stallions have been pensioned in their teens or early twenties?

Happy retirement to Smoke Glacken...

WarBiscuit

Boundary, and Lure come to mind. I think their issues were more blood-line related. Danzig and his sons/grandsons are known to possibly have fertility problems, depending on the stallion in question of course.

There are more off the top of my head, and one horse in Europe I can think of, but their names escape me at the moment.

Summer Squall was 17 when pensioned, El Gran Senor was 19. It just depends on the stallion.

I absolutely love/d El Gran Señor as a stallion. My favorite Rasmussen Factor inbreeding is to his dam Sex Appeal. You don't see it too often because of his fertility problems. One good horse comes to mind: Strong Hope.

I wonder if it's Smoke Glacken's fertility, or if it's infirmities of "old age." 19 isn't that old. I can't imagine it would be from lack of interest either. He's always been a good breed to race sire, a good value for his fee. And can get you a big horse.

He may have been one of the best breed to race sires in Kentucky. It's a real loss.

He only got 30 mares this year, so there had to be something going on. The two breeding seasons prior to that he got 46 and 49 mares and was getting about 66% mares in foal.