from Blue Chip Farms

Blue Chip Farms today announced that Art Major, in addition to his stud duty in North America, will be standing the 2005/2006 breeding season in Australia.

“We’ve sold a lifetime lease for the southern hemisphere breeding rights and we’ve (the northern hemisphere) also retained one third of the southern hemisphere rights,” said Blue Chip Farms owner Tom Grossman.

Art Major’s breeding rights have been sold to Rob Van Dyke and partners, of Pepper Tree Farms in Australia, for $1.5 million.

“We spent a week or two with Rob Van Dyke, working on a potential deal and Dr. Burns, Blue Chip’s veterinarian, spent a week in Australia at his place, and we spent some time with the people at Coolmore (a leading global thoroughbred breeder), learning how they do it and the ins and outs of the business.

“Since taking an ownership role in Blue Chip, I have really been searching for a way to do it in a properly risk controlled way,” Grossman said. “I could never get very comfortable with the previous model of shipping a horse down there with someone who doesn’t really have an interest in the longevity of the horse.

“They’ve come up with $1 million cash,” he added. “They’re in no hurry to over-breed the horse or damage the horse.”

Grossman couldn’t stress enough that a great majority of getting this deal done was about building relationships and due diligence. “We spent some time with Carter Duer at Peninsula Farms. He got Jennas Beach Boy back in great condition and we were very comfortable. We think that between insurance and all the homework we’ve done, we’ve taken all the risk out.”

Art Major will stand for $6,000 (AUS) while Down Under.

“I think that is the highest there is (in Australia),” Grossman said. “There will be absolutely no problem. They expect an absolutely full book.

Grossman expects that harness racing will, over time, gravitate towards the thoroughbred model in which leading sires are sent to Australia while in the prime of their stallion careers.

“We’ve always realized that our interests are perfectly aligned with that of our syndicate members, our partners,” said Grossman. “We tried very hard to do something that would work for all of us.”