I’ll Have Another was sold to Japanese interests for $10 million, owner J. Paul Reddam wrote today on the "Hangin' with Haskin" blog on bloodhorse.com. Given an opportunity to respond to a blog post by The Blood Horse's senior correspondent Steve Haskin and reactions to that piece, Reddam penned a 1,500-word post in which he laid out the thought process by which he retired the dual classic winner and subsequently made the stud deal.
Reddam said that he received only two written offers from American farms for the son of Flower Alley, who this spring won the Santa Anita Derby, Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands, and Preakness Stakes (all gr. I). One offer was for $3 million and the other for $2.5 million for half the rights plus nine lifetime breeding rights, a value Reddam put at $5 million.
Big Red Farm approached Reddam with a $10 million offer, and Reddam said another Japanese farm came in just under that. He sold I'll Have Another to Big Red Farm because the offer was superior to American offers, and because he felt the colt would have a better chance to succeed at stud in Japan.
The American stud fee projected out to "between $17,500 and $20,000," wrote Reddam. "That means he wouldn't get the best mares or be given the best chance to succeed. He will get a much better book of mares in Japan and a higher chance to succeed."
Reddam wrote that he hopes to buy a few mares in foal to I'll Have Another and bring them to California to foal. He assured readers that I'll Have Another will get "top-quality care in Japan," and added he'd buy the horse back if he were to become available.
Reddam wrote he was "saddened and surprised" that the decision went down the way it did. He also noted that I'll Have Another was diagnosed with a "tendon tear" the day before the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), a condition much more serious than the tendonitis that some believed he was suffering from. Reddam said the decision to retire I'll Have Another was made "in less than a minute. It was the right and dignified thing to do."
