“those stupid sonofabitches paid $36 million for that horse”

Happy Big Brown Syndication Sheik-dication Day everybody and remember to drink your Big Brown Kool Aid today (it will numb you and make the news easier to take).

Yes it's the big payday for IEAH, they took the gamble and it paid off and since Sheik Mohammed missed getting the colt last fall, what are the chances he will let the colt slip through his hands now(that's a rhetorical question)? Imagine if Dutrow has a share, he'd be able to buy Pfizer after this and then he can cut the middle man right out!!

As we await the final syndication amount, I thought we would celebrate the momentus occasion with a few stories of syndications from the past, some that worked out, some that didn’t. You know, back in the days when Arab sheiks didn't have more money than God, the Canadian dollar was worth 60 cents and Ronald Reagan was scaring the shit out of the Russians with Star Wars, geez I am getting a little teary eyed.

The first is the mother of all syndication deals gone bad.

Some of you may remember the story of Seth Hancock and the syndication of Conquistador Cielo. CC was syndicated for $36.4 million in early August of 1982 but in his next start the Travers, CC did not run like a $36 million horse. He was retired the next day.

After the race a lot of really rich people, feeling that they had been snookered, were not happy with Seth. So in a valiant display of heroism Seth made a beeline from his box in the clubhouse to the bowels of the grandstand in order to escape being pummeled by a bunch of pissed off guys in Brooks Brothers suits.

"Not wanting to face the syndicate members and their questions, a stunned and
shaken Hancock left his seat as Cielo hit the wire. He hurried down the
clubhouse staircase. Then he turned right and headed through the grandstand, the
home of the $2 player. He heard bettors laughing, jeering, crowing the way
bettors do. Hancock remembers: "They were saying things like, 'How do you think
those stupid sonofabitches that paid $36 million for that horse feel about him
now?' I just ducked my head and kept walking. I felt stupid. I felt horrible,
about as bad as you can feel, what with all these people who bought a share in
the horse, clients of the farm. It was the worst moment in my life."

CC was not a total dud at stud but he did not live up to expectations. He sired more than 60 stakes winners with Marquetry, Forty Niner Days and Wagon Limit among them.

Here and here are two articles about the ups and downs of the syndication of Secretariat (and Riva Ridge), These will get those tired old neurons firing if you were a fan back then; not a lot has changed except for the amounts.