Tom and Debi Stull’s Tommy Town Thoroughbred Farm is the most elegant establishment for race horses in the Valley. The Stulls are fun to visit with and love every minute of their hectic life. In addition to the 350 acres of Thoroughbred horse farm and vineyards here in the Valley, they own multiple machine shop businesses. Their new Triple T Vineyards will have its first crop of Cabernet grapes next year.
The Stulls have had amazing success in a very tough game and have just been notified by the California Thoroughbred Breeders Association that their stallion, Ministers Wild Cat, has just been named as the 2009 Leading California Freshman Sire of California, calculated thru data of the earnings of his California conceived foals. They are also Leading Breeder of California for 2009.
But after all, this stallion was sired by the famous Deputy Minister who, himself, was the leading sire of 90 stakes winners and several of his male offspring became leading sires themselves. The dam was Hollywood Wildcat, who won the Breeder’s Cup Distaff-G1!
Ministers Wild Cat demands a stud fee of $4,000 which guarantees a live foal. Tommy Town’s other stallions are Whatsthescript, Old Topper whose earnings are more than $9.2 million and a new young stud, Kafwain, whose progeny have already earned more than $4.7 million.
It’s heady stuff, but Debi tells me that the U.S. Thoroughbred industry is suffering just like other businesses from the economic crisis. “The racing industry in California has some problems,” she tells me. “The costs to race here are very high. They are about double that of other states. Also, the purses have been lowered because the handle (money from people betting) is down because of the recession. We compensate for this by racing on tracks in various parts of the U.S., in addition to California tracks. Racing is still strong in the East, and due to satellite wagering, people in other states can bet on our California races. That helps a lot.”
It is true that the numbers of mares being bred has gone down about 50 percent and the latest Barrett’s sale was very poor. On the other hand, this is a centuries old sport and it always rebounds after bad times. The Jockey Club which still governs American racing was established back in 1894! The Stull’s have 65, mostly young, brood mares and select their stallions by both bloodlines and confirmation. Ministers Wild Cat has been part of the stallion power at Tommy Town for four years now.
“So far, Ministers Wild Cat offspring look like they want to run six furlongs rather than the shorter courses,” she says. “They are ‘stayers’ rather than ‘sprinters’ and are expected to run better as 3-year-olds. We have also sent a few mares to be bred by Kentucky stallions. There is always something interesting going on, as we get daily reports on the progress of our horses that have been purchased from us or those that are the get of our stallions.
“Every year Tom and I take our manager, Mike Allen, to the Keaneland sales in Lexington, Kentucky. We have done this for six years and last year we bought two brood mares and four weanlings and in January, we bought two more brood mares and four weanlings.
“But it can be hard to buy when the big money arrives with foreign buyers. Among the big spenders are the Arabs, the Japanese, the Russians and Australians. The best horses at Keeneland are entered in the first days of the sale; after that, the Japanese go home. It was a very different sale environment last year with the Euro so strong, there were a lot of foreign buyers.” The reason is, of course, that in addition to America, Thoroughbred horseracing is loved almost all over the world. There are classic races in different parts of the world. England has its Epsom Derby, the Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe triumphs in France, Ireland runs the Irish Sweeps Derby, Canada has The Queen’s Plate, The Melbourne Cup captures racing fans in Australia, the United Arab Emirates holds the Dubai World Champion race, and in Japan it’s the Emperor’s Cup. We’re betting that Thoroughbred racing and its unmatchable excitement will regain its momentum in the near future.