So for those who haven't heard, shortly after WEGs Totilas' owners sold him. I just pulled this quote from EVENTING NATION --
"
--An article on Eurodressage.com about the Totilas sale mentions that current rumors suggest a sale price of 10 to 15 million Euros, and that the speculation is that Matthias Rath or Andreas Helgstrand are potential future riders for Totilas. However, the Edward Gal camp still seems to hold some hope the Edward will get to keep the ride. "
Can you even imagine paying that much for a horse? Granted, he's an amazing animal, but in my opinion he's a bit of a freak of nature and I wonder just how well he'll throw talent into his offspring. If they don't do absolutely incredible I feel like Totilas' breeding value will certainly go down. Of course people are going to expect his offspring to be amazing, and of course forget somewhere down the line that the mare has just as much, if not more, effect on how the foal will turn out. Totilas is an amazing animal, no doubt about it, he and Gal have beaten nearly every Grand Prix dressage record, but he's got a lot to live up to in the breeding department.
Oh wow, I hadn't heard this yet!! That is shocking, and horrible for Edward Gal! I hope he can continue to ride him, but it sounds like it might go to the Germans.
If I had the money, I can completely imagine spending that much money on a horse like him. He's not a pet, he's a business. And he might not be able to throw that much talent into his offspring, but his first year standing he's already earned 1.4 million euro! If he can produce quality offspring (even if they aren't as spectacular as him) he will continue to bring in quite a cash flow.
If they are smart, they'll retire him to stud.
A straw of his semen is over 5000 Euro.
It's like Marilyn Monroe - would we still think her so beautiful and desirable had she aged??
If they keep showing the horse, he will go lame and then they have detracted from his value. He won 3 golds at WEG and broke a bunch of records, now is a great time to retire him to stud.
Ditto to what upnover said.
I too would spend that kind of money on that horse if I had it - Totilas is a FREAK of NATURE!! His and Edwards preformances are beyond anything I have ever seen - I am always left completely speechless, they are just, down right amazing in my opinion, it would be a shame to break up that team.
Nature of the business tho.
That's exactly it though, he's a freak of nature, similar to the way Secretariat was a freak of nature! And Secretariart wasn't know for throwing the best offspring. We didn't start to see real winners of his line until his grandkids were running around, and even then none of them were the next Secretariat.
Obviously, he'll be making a ton of money regardless of how well his offspring perform, just because people will have the hope that MAYBE just maybe their mare will put a foal on the ground just like daddy. I guess I'm just skeptical. xD
And I agree anebel, now is the time to retire him from competition. He's already at the top and won the biggest titles there are to win, there's not much else out there to do other than break his own records, which I doubt any horse will be able to top any time soon.
Ooh, interesting. o_o It's definitely a blow to the Dutch team. After all, now Totilas, if he is competed, will be competing for the Germans! I guess I never mentioned the buyer is Paul Schockemohle, a former German show-jumper and now successful breeder.
Strange, doesnt mean that it will go to a german rider though, Paul Schockemohle currently owns horses that compete for several different countries, namely belguim and GB.
I just talked with a good friend of Schokemohle's... sold for 15 m euros. And already have hundreds of mares wanting to breed.
You're right, he is a bit of a freak of nature and may not be able to pass his exact talent on directly... but while Secretariat didn't have direct offspring that did well he was known for producing spectacular broodmares who produced babies that were successful. But, even with a risk of just getting a so so baby, people are lining up to breed! I mean, isn't there always a risk in breeding that you might get something that's just ok?
Look at Olympic Ferro - great foals, terribly un-ridable for most people. Get a talented person on the horse and they'll get great scores and make it to the GP easily, but the same horse with any less of a rider ends up with a behavior issue or 15.
The risk of a mediocre foal is greatly reduced when a good mare is used. Considering Toto is only eligible for breeding to approved mares chances are we're going to be seeing a lot of nice foals from him. Plus, it's not like Toto himself is poorly bred himself, Gribaldi has produced many a dressage horse (incl. Anky's mount, Painted Black). Interesting though he has Dutch jumping lines below - could we be seeing some jumping horses from him when bred with the right mares?
Agreed with Spyder - look at both Olympic Ferro and Flemmingh. Both were bred to be top jumping horses and in fact turned out to become dressage superstars.
Very true about the Ferro line, they are a highly sensitive, intelligent and generally difficult horse. Definitely not for the amateur - but I absolutely love them. Have a mare by him, perhaps that I will breed one day to Toto once we see what he produces. I can't justify spending that much on such a big chance - much like the Hickstead stud fee.
If I had the money, I would definitely buy him for that! My mom was fortunate enough to go to Edward Gal's barn a few years ago and actually met Totilas she said he had such a sweet personality that she would've snatched him up if she could. That was when he was around five I think....
Totilas is mesmerizing. He broke stride at (freestyle?) WEG, but by the end of the performance, I had completely forgotten until I watched it again online! People complained that he broke stride and still got, what, 91%? But he has such a commanding presence that he makes you think it was alllll intentional!
That was one error in all the movements he had to do. This is why I tell my students to not get frazzled if something happens in a test for it can only count in that one area.
I gave a zero to one competitor but they still won with over 70% in total and some people could not get past the fact that they didn't do that one movement but still won. The rest was more than suffice to overcome a loss of 7 or 8 points.
What a classe horse this is. Too bad he is sold. Funny thing is that none of the German riders wants to ride him. I hope he will find a good rider. I would have loved to see this horse at the 2012 Olympics, but I guess there is no way he goes.
I think it is not that the german riders don't want to ride him, more that his new owner wants to get some stud fees from him and hasnt yet decided on who will ride him in future.
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