Of course, at 7 am on the training track, there wasn't much concern about fireworks or anything else other than getting horses out for exercise before the day got too hot. Most trainers tried to get all their horses out before the 8:30 break, so they, and the horses, could retreat into the relative cool and shade of their shedrows.
The hot topic for Castle Village Farm is whether, as trainer Bill Turner suggested, our three-year-old Iguazu should be gelded (i.e., castrated). Iguazu, who's down on the farm in Virginia, has recently been displaying a healthy, perhaps too healthy, interest in the opposite sex. Bill, like many trainers, thinks that gelding a colt tends to focus the colt's mind more on racing and less on adolescent hormones.
To help us make up our minds, I've done a little research. Over the years, most of the outstanding American race horses have been colts, which of course means that they can go on to become stallions, perpetuating their bloodlines and, not incidentally, earning considerable stud fees for their owners. Once a colt is gelded, that opportunity disappears.
There have, however, been some geldings who were fabulous race horses and earned a lot of money for their owners. In the US, these include Kelso, Forego and John Henry and Kentucky Derby winners Clyde Van Deusen, Funny Cide and Mine That Bird. And the famous Australian runner Phar Lap was also a gelding.
Generally, if a horse has some pedigree and has the promise of being a stakes winner, owners are loath to geld it too soon. Most of the well-known geldings had little or no pedigree value, though a few were gelded because of behavioral problems or for medical reasons. Sometimes, gelding is pretty much a no-brainer. John Henry, for example, was an ill-tempered youngster with absolutely no pedigree, so gelding him had little downside and considerable upside, both for the safety of barn workers and for his ability to focus on racing.
Although talking about the details of makes most men pretty nervous, it's a relatively straightforward procedure, with little risk. (For those who want all the gory details, they're here.)
In a few cases, trainers have reported that gelding a horse makes him too mellow, taking away some competitive spirit. That's certainly a result that you don't want with a race horse. But more often, gelding results in a horse that can stay more focused on its work and is usually a better race horse.
In the case of Castle Village Farm's Iguazu, the decision isn't cut-and-dried. Iguazu does have some pedigree potential. He's sired by Smokle Glacken, the Eclipse Award-winning champion sprinter of 1997, his dam is a multiple winner, and he has two stakes winners in the second generation of his pedigree. So there's a chance that he could have some value as a stallion prospect when he gets to the races, if --and it's always a big if for thoroughbreds -- he turns out to be a graded-stakes winner. On the other hand, if he really is getting too distracted by adolescent hormone surges, maybe gelding him would be the better way to go.
Our partners, as always knowledgeable and passionate about their horses, come down on both sides of the issue. That's part of what makes it both fun and educational to be in a racing partnership like ours, where partners have the opportunity to discuss their horses and how they should be managed. For now, we'll keep discussing the issue and see if a consensus emerges.
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