I’ll Have Another may make millions more for his Canadian owner

Sure is a shame that Canadian-owned horse I'll Have Another didn't get his shot at becoming the first American triple crown winner since 1978. A win in the Belmont Stakes would have cemented the horse's place in history and may very well have provided his owner, J Paul Reddam with some extra cash going forward. That's not to suggest that the winner's share of the Belmont purse would have been the end financial game.

No, the real cash to be made in horse racing is not won at the finish line, it is gathered hand over fist in the days after a champion retires and is put out to stud.

With that in mind, Reddam's choice to scratch his prized pony for the third leg of the triple crown may cost him some money in the immediate future, but didn't put in peril his ability to maximize equine profits going forward.

Had I'll Have Another been entered in the Belmont and suffered a catastrophic injury, Reddam would have lost far more than a horse you have to assume he has an emotional attachment to.

The world of stud fees is not a guaranteed windfall for a horse's connections. Nor is the amount of money based on any easy formulas. But, considering what champion horse daddies can make for their owners over the long haul, you have to like the possible fortunes I'll Have Another can make for Reddam.

There's been speculation that the horse may have brought Reddam a very tidy sum in syndication fees, even without a Belmont win. Investors looking for a share in the horse's future breeding profits will not be scarce. A figure of 12 to 15 million has been bandied about, as the total Reddam could get in such fees. That's chump change, based on the syndication fees reportedly paid for 2000 Kentucky Derby winner, Fusaichi Pegasus, who reportedly raked in 60 to 70 million for his owners at retirement.

Still, 15 million is 15 million and not a bad return on the 35 thousand dollars Reddam paid for I'll Have Another last year. That's money up front, with Reddam retaining, very likely, his own shares in the horse, providing him with his cut of stud fees moving forward.

It must have been a bitter disappointment for Reddam and company when the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner came up lame, as it's also been assumed that a triple crown capping could have sent those syndication fees soaring into the 25 million dollar range. But the decision to shut the horse down and not gamble with its well-being would have been a two-pronged one; Reddam's love for the horse would be one, and so would the bright financial future he's on the cusp of, even without a Belmont win.

Even if you look at the situation solely on the basis of money and remove all the understandable emotion involved, it's the right decision. As mentioned, if I'll Have Another were to race again and suffer an injury that forced its owner to have it euthanized, the earnings would have stopped at 2.6 million dollars - the amount the horse has won in race purses.

Looking ahead, with the possibility of the horse living into its twenties (it's three years old now) and having the ability to breed for the lion's share of those years if not all of them, you can see the dollars piling high. The yearly breeding season for thoroughbreds runs roughly from February to July, with stallions being matched with mares up to three times a day, if they are prodigious enough. Stud fees vary greatly, but it is not hard to believe Reddam could get 40 - 50 thousand dollars per "date" based on industry standards. That falls far below the record of one million dollars per breeding, set by Canada's famed Northern Dancer, back in 1981. (The Dancer, that year, could have been sold to a consortium for forty million dollars, but his owners declined)

When you add up all of those fees over all of those years... you get the picture. A fortune awaits Reddam if he keeps his horse healthy and happy and producing. Even at that, there's a bit of a gamble in place. Great racehorses don't always make great papas. Cigar, an almost unbeatable horse that won 16 consecutive races before losing to Alphabet Soup in the Breeders' Cup Classic at Toronto's Woodbine Racetrack in 1996, was sent to stud with high hopes. However, the horse turned out to be sterile, much to the chagrin of investors who'd paid millions to be part of a breeding syndication.

If I'll Have Another can produce champions from his wild oats, the breeding fees will go even higher. That's why Northern Dancer's price kept going up, as he became one of the greatest sires of all time. Indeed, I'll Have Another's father, Flower Alley, had been getting around 7500 dollars per session, until his son won the Kentucky and Preakness Derbies. Apparently, his handlers have now doubled that price.

J Paul Reddam's horse did not win the triple crown. But, in time, I'll Have Another may just make its owner forget all about that disappointment, as he thumbs through the millions in cash that might be coming his way.

That might not be historic or fabled. But it sure might ease the melancholy a touch.