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10 • Touchline • Issue 14
hen the Yoshida family of
Japan bought War Emblem
in 2002, they must have
thought they were buying
a Gold Standard breeder. Winner of the
2002 Kentucky Derby and countless other
races, the stallion was one of the horses
of the early 90s. Ten years later, they
still may be scratching their heads and
wondering where it went wrong.
Even when racing, War Emblem’s
reputation for being difficult to manage
was matched by his ferocious speed. Just
after his famous win in America’s most
famous horse race, he was sold to the
Shadai Stallion Station for over 17million
dollars. There, it was supposed that he
would cover many, many mares and
produce a formidable raving dynasty.
His early foals showed great promise,
but early on, thing started to go awry.
He proved fussy beyond the experts’
experience, rejecting mare after mare. He
was less than chivalrous when making
his feelings felt, to boot. He would bite
and lash out at the proffered mares,
and sometimes attacking the stable
workers who had the temerity to bring
him substandard consorts.
It is not unusual for stallions at stud to
get over 40 foals in a year. In 2007 and
2008, War Emblem sired exactly zero
foals.
“Probably he is a shy guy who is afraid
of the mares,” groom Tokutake Sakuda
said. “He’s very difficult -- shy but wild
and selfish.”
Others think there is more to it than that.
Some have speculated that he is just an
arrogant, fussy cad, while others have
gone so far as to say he is gay.
“It’s very abnormal to have no sexual
interest in mares,” said Anne Peters, a
renowned matings advisor. “I’ve never
seen anything like it, and now you have
his first runners out there and they are
pretty good,” she said.
Not wanting to let 17 million dollars
worth of horse slip through their fingers,
the Yoshidas have tried everything to get
War Emblem in the mood.
“People cannot choose the mares for
him; he selects his mares,” Tokutake said.
To come to this conclusion, the breeders
WAR
EMBLEM
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BY TIMOTHY MOTTRAM
The strange case (and tastes) of War Emblem