By Sid Fernando
By now, you’ve likely heard the news that G1 Preakness winner Early Voting will stand this year at Taylor Made instead of Coolmore America, where the son of Gun Runner entered stud last year before breeding issues derailed his first breeding season.
A press release was issued this week on the horse’s apparent fertility cure and the switch in farms, and most of the trade publications noted this in news stories. This one is from the TDN.
What surprised people is that Early Voting reportedly got 120 mares in foal — a number that doesn’t exactly scream “dud,” but what the horse apparently developed, as noted in the TDN, is a condition called Anejaculatory Syndrome, or the inability to ejaculate.
EARLY VOTING (2019 Gun Runner – Amour d’Ete, by Tiznow)
B: Three Chimneys Farm LLC
O: Klaravich Stables
T: Chad Brown
Record: 6-3-1-0, $1,372,500
Highest achievement: Classic and Grade 1 winner
On Wednesday, Steve Byk, who hosts the “At the Races” radio broadcast, asked me about the Early Voting story, which you can listen to here at the 1:13.42 mark.
“What was your read on the Early Voting story?” Byk asked.
Somewhere along the line, I said: “The fact that he switched farms means there was an insurance settlement.” I went on to broadly explain the First Season Infertility (FSI) policy and how that probably applied to this case. FSI policies require stallions to get at least 60 percent of mares bred in foal; if they don’t, fertility claims can be made.
After speaking on-air with Byk, I checked the number of mares Early Voting covered and was surprised to find it was 191. His fertility percentage based on 120 pregnant mares divided by 191 mares bred was 62.8 percent, a number that would likely not have triggered a claim. In fact, Early Voting’s percentage was probably higher than 62.8 percent because only “approved mares” are included in the insurance calculation, and it’s likely the stallion covered a number of mares, such as older mares or mares with known prior reproductive issues, that would not have been counted in his “official” ratio. Based on this, I’d speculate that Early Voting actually impregnated anywhere between 75 percent to 85 percent of the approved mares bred to him, and these percentages most definitely would not have triggered an FSI claim.
So, what happened?
There’s another policy that stud farms get for new horses called Accident, Sickness, or Disease (ASD), and it’s on the ASD policy and not the FSI that a claim was probably made. The ASD policy covers stallions that become incapable of covering mares due to accident, sickness, or disease, and this is likely how a claim on Early Voting was paid to Coolmore.
Once a claim is satisfied, the insurance company that wrote the policy takes possession of the horse. It’s likely that the insurance company in this case entered into an agreement with Taylor Made to stand the horse.
If Early Voting is indeed cured and can ejaculate, his fertility certainly will not be an issue based on math.