by Bob Carson

Editor’s Note: The USTA website is pleased to present freelance writer Bob Carson and his popular “Outside the Box” features. This monthly series is a menu of outlandish proposals presented with a wink — but the purpose behind them is serious. The views contained in this column are that of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the United States Trotting Association.

Bob Carson

“It’s impossible,” says your pride.

“It’s risky,” says your experience.

“It’s pointless,” says your reason.

“Give it a try,” whispers your heart.

For me, maybe for you, one of the great attractions to the sport of harness racing is that the game has many facets. Individuals who are brave enough, foolish enough or curious enough can give each facet a try. Once you try them, you often find that what looks simple from a distance can be much more complex in the arena.

Stepping into a different part of our sport can be fascinating. Some people look for new ways, better ways, than the traditional path. Quite simply, many of us feel, “I can do that, and I can do it better.” When you try, this might prove to be true or it might not.

You may start out gambling on harness races thinking, “How difficult can it be to outsmart other gamblers?” It is very difficult.

You may buy a horse for racing thinking, “How difficult is it to select a great prospect, race and win money?” You learn how difficult this is.

Maybe you decide to train a horse. This sounds simple. You just need to buy some tack, log the miles and maybe find other people to invest money in your work. Good luck with this and buckle up your coat for the winter.

Then of course you just grab a few broodmares, book a few stallions and grow your own babies to sell in the marketplace at great profit thinking, “What can go wrong?” Plenty can go wrong.

On and on it goes, not just in harness racing, but in life also. When you go behind the curtain some things prove to be easy, while others prove to be exasperatingly difficult.

This brings us to the subject of standing a stallion. While most of us have never stood a stallion, many of us have shopped for a sire. As shoppers we often wonder what the seller is thinking. “Why this horse, why this state, why this price?” Of course, the usual rules are in play, the seller is trying to make money while the buyer is trying to get a good deal.

Recently we kept a mare, a nice mare that was not royally bred but had a decent pedigree. Her family had a high percentage of solid performers. The top shelf stallions were out of our price range. We were shopping for a sire that had a fee in the middle tier and we had flexibility for choosing the state program. We narrowed the field to about six that met our criteria.

We were pondering our options when something odd happened.

A relatively inconspicuous farm had acquired an unproven stallion. They somehow discovered that we owned a nice mare and were in the market for a sire. The people in control of the stallion were well aware that they faced stiff competition in the game of finding customers. They understood that they would get few bookings at the listed fee and that the mares they did get would probably not be strong prospects.

This farm contacted us and offered some intriguing deals. They were flexible in their pricing. They were creative. Our dealing would remain confidential. We considered this offer but in the end we did not make a deal.

This farm did more than just sit in the barn and hope that the phone would ring with folks interested in booking to their stallion. They did not hope we would find them through their magazine and website advertisements or through a mailed flyer. Of the dozens of sellers, they were the only stallion owners that personally contacted us. We appreciated the offer.

To us, a couple of guys relatively new to this marketplace, this farm seemed to realize that if they could find a customer willing to spend X amount, they would have X amount more dollars at the end of the year. And they would have a very nice mare that might hit a home run and show another sale on the books.

Like every other facet of this sport, the marketing of a stallion is obviously complicated; nobody wants to devalue the listed fee. If word spreads that you are dealing, you might end up with irate customers. Then there could be a race to the bottom and no farm wants to make the listed fee irrelevant. Without a doubt, there are potholes when sellers travel new roads. But no stallion owner or syndicate wants to ship a mere handful of semen cartons to marginal mares and lose money.

Creating customers to buy your product is tricky. A breeding to a mare is already sort of esoteric. After all, buyers are really buying dreams based upon genetic tendencies that take years to hit the racetrack.

For a long time, a rather rigid value was the rule of the road in selling a stallion breeding. The internet may turn that wheel. Today, consumers have many options with the tap of a computer key. Some customers are fine with, “Take it or leave it.” Other customers, newer and savvier customers, are not.

In 1975, your airline ticket to Denver gave you a choice between first class and coach — two prices. Today, sitting on that same plane to Denver, you know that almost every passenger paid a different fare for basically the same product. Business people may have the company paying the tab, while a struggling college student may have surfed the internet for the absolute lowest price.

Should these principles apply to modern marketing of stallions? This is a small market with older demographics, but it is a market. In seems logical that new techniques will eventually creep into the equine world. Flexibility for buyers and sellers would seem to be the future. New questions and answers may be on the table:

• Would farms with a middling stallion have a stronger bottom line if they had a staff member whose job was to personally approach prospective customers?
• Would syndicates or farms, especially with new stallions, make more money in the long run by discounting to mares with strong pedigrees?
• Would seasonal discounting be applicable (the earlier, the more expensive?)
• Would it be a good idea to have a “clearinghouse” where customers list mares that are still undecided about a stallion or even undecided about remaining in the breeding game?
• Would it be a good idea to have additional incentives to customers to cross state lines or to have daily “blue light specials” on internet websites?
• What about one refundable price due when successfully getting your mare in foal and a higher price due after the foal is born?
• What about dynamic pricing (also called real-time pricing), where the cost for a product or service is highly flexible. The goal of dynamic pricing is to allow goods or services to be sold over the internet to adjust prices in response to market demands.

Maybe marketing of stallions with deals and variables are already in play between some sellers and buyers. Maybe these ideas have already been tried, or are under consideration. Maybe they have been tried and proved to be bad ideas. It is always hard to know exactly what goes on when you stand outside the curtain.

The season is approaching where those of us with mares are looking for stallions. We will do our annual mating dance. It will be interesting to see if the old “take it or leave it” tune continues to be the only song playing. Some buyers will be listening for new music in an ever-changing marketplace.