Stallion Spotlight #2 - CONFRONTATION

Hello, and welcome back to our series on Player Owned Stallions. After a wonderful visit to the well established Spartan Racing Stables, we move on to one of the newer studs in the game, Sunset Ranch which was set up only last season.

Lets talk quickly to the Stud Owner, Jamie Calloway.
Thanks for letting me come here today Jamie and firstly can I say what a lovely place you have here, can you describe it at little to our readers? Sure, and hi to everyone! Sunset Ranch is based out of Panama City Florida, and I may be biased but I believe it has the world’s most beautiful beaches. I am very proud to say that this year we have expanded to a 10 stall ranch and now stand one stallion, along with our first broodmare, and also our first homebred colt who is thriving. The racing arm of the stables has four courageous racers hitting the tracks and showing some nice returns. We are a small ranch a total of 500 acres, we have two 100 acre pastures, 100 acres of undeveloped swamp land, another hundred acres for growing our own hay and 100 acres devoted to growing tobacco (anything to keep a healthy profit margin!). We are about 20 miles north of the gulf where the mixture of dark swamp land soil and sand are ideal for growing any crop and raising the next Eclipse winner (crosses fingers!). So come for a visit and reveal in God’s most beautiful pictures that are the Florida Sunsets.

Sounds very impressive Jamie, and the name of your stallion: Confrontation is a stunning 17hh bay stallion by Showdown x Sky Beauty (Blushing Groom) and one of the tallest horses I have ever seen!!

And in general what is he like, as a personality? Good question Nancy! “Confy” as he is known in the barn, still keeps to his racing routine by getting up early in the morning, most times before dawn and running about a mile everyday around his large pasture. He is the first to be fed, and pity the poor stable hand who forgets this, and has to eat before all the other horses start moving around, his feed consisting of a light grain mixture and a couple of licks on the salt rock. Most of the other horses on ranch the look up to Confy as a general. As the sun starts to go down you can always find Confy standing on a hill next to the house looking over the ranch, just like a field general would do watching out over his platoon and being 17hh tall, his silhouette as the sun sets just leaves me breathless some days. Despite last season being his first stud season, he was a total gentleman in the breeding shed too, eager without being forceful and I am sure he would love to see more mares this year!

How much is his fee for this year?: A very reasonable $2,000 which we feel is a fair price for an unproven stallion who earned just under the magical $1million dollars on the track and hopefully will appeal to the smaller stables.

How many mares did he cover last season? Sadly, Confy only covered one mare last season, she was a Sunset Ranch mare and we had our first homebred (The Don) and of course we are delighted with him!

Jamie, if you had to recommend a type of mare for your stallion, what would it be? Well Confrontation could run on turf or dirt, but his best form would be classed as "sprinter" so the broodmare would need to be the same, ie about 5F to 7F, and either turf or dirt but we wouldn’t expect him to sire many runners capable of getting further than a mile. Although we would love to be proven wrong!

Being realistic, considering the level of the horse on the track and the mares he is more likely to attract, what kind of foals do you think would be the result of sending the most suitable mare(s) to your stallion? We are still waiting to see how The Don but from the looks of his AR he also will be a good, fast sprinter. I think what you could look forward to would be a very good G2 sprinter, possibly a G1 win here or there, but almost definitely a steady and reliable runner to keep pay checks coming in to sustain your farm.

Again Jamie that’s a very realistic and honest assesement of the breeding game. For a bit of fun, if you had to compare your stallion to a real life stallion, who would it be and why? HAHA and there I was Nancy thinking this interview was easy! Well after much deliberation I like the look of “Lost in the Fog” who was once named the fastest horse in the world, I think Confy and Lost in the Fog had similar traits with racing and personality (they were both fighters).

Well, that pretty much concludes the interview but as a final question, what do you see the future of your stallion to be – staying with you and establishing your stud as a good supplier of horses, or maybe just standing him for a few seasons to see what type he throws. As this is only our second season at stud, we will definitely be keeping Confrontation in our stable whether he throws great foals or not, he has been a staple to our ranch and will either celebrate in our victories or go down in a blaze of glory with us. But hopefully he will be start of greater things to come and who knows, in a few years you may see a son or daughter of his winning the Breeders Cup Sprint!

There you have it folks - from the lofty heights in yesterdays article on a well established Stud to todays interview with a beginner, trying to establish himself and his horse in the ranks. As soon as the Visa stamp is dry, i will report to you again from my next (secret) location!