Page 57 - New Mexico Horse Breeder Spring 2018

NM Champion TB Stallion of the Year
ATTILA’S STORM
(Forest Wildcat-Sweet Symmetry, Magesterial) Bred by: Lajos Kengye
Owned by: R.D. Hubbard
Farm location: A & A Ranch/Fred and Linda Alexander
The name Attila’s Storm is as familiar as the name of the 16-year-old stallion’s 81-year-old owner, R.D. Hubbard.
In 2017, Attila’s Storm was at the top of
the state’s Leading Sire list with $1,774,455
in progeny earnings. It was also 2017 when Hubbard sold historic Ruidoso Downs, allowing both to bask in the headlines.
Attila’s Storm has held the “household word” status for so long that it’s easy to think of the stallion as much older than his 16 years. The truth is, the bay stallion still has a lot of years in front of him, with more than enough time to add to his vital stats.
Standing a stud is not easy and proving a stud can often feel like pulling teeth.
Whether colt or gelding, whether mare or filly, whether Thoroughbred or Quarter Horse, the horse is inherently magnificent. It’s not just his size or his beauty. It’s not just the money
he earns or the babies she produces. What it’s really about is the mysterious way each horse becomes a walking repository of history. Each name forms the door to a vault, loaded with a multitude of stories....and each story is hooked to the one before and to the one after.
There’s a beauty and a pageantry tucked within the pages of the hundreds of stories that barely peek from the pedigrees that lead from one generation to the next, from sires and dams to sons and daughters. We can almost see and feel those lines bending from arc to arc until they form a circle, accented by that blush of immortality.
NM Champion TB Freshman Sire
LATIGO SHORE
(Malibu Moon-Carson’s Vanity, Carson City)
Bred by: Caldara Farm/Kentucky
Owned by: Tucumcari Thoroughbreds/Gary Balzano Farm Location: Tucumcari, NM
Standing a stud is not easy and proving a stud can often feel like pulling teeth.
Gary Balzano is a dentist by day and a stud owner by every other hour of the day and night. It’s difficult to determine which job is the more difficult of the two. Dentistry has the benefit of long, long training that results in the technical skills needed to wander around on the inside of someone’s mouth. It helps tremendously to have a light hand guiding the needle into the soft, tender tissue of the cheek and a comforting bedside manner definitely adds a positive vibration to what could be a tense and fearful experience.
Unfortunately, there is no such training for the person who decides to stand a stud to the public and, even worse, there are no guidelines when that same stud happens to be unproven.
What tools are needed to convince mare owners to bring their ladies to your stallion? What makes your guy stand out from the rest? Does he have a respectable race record? Is his bank account stout? Are his bloodlines recognized in the commercial marketplace?
And what about the people behind the stallion? Can you step forward with a smile on
There’s a beauty and a pageantry tucked within the pages of the hundreds of stories
your face and hold out your hand to greet a complete stranger? Can you make that stranger feel like an instant friend? Someone you’ve known for years? Have you studied up on bloodlines, so you’re able to speak about the attributes offered by your stud and how perfectly they complement this never-before-seen mare?
It’s just not easy.
Latigo Shore is a 2007 bay stallion by Malibu Moon and out of Carson’s Vanity by Carson City. He hails from the Blue Grass state and has some of the greatest Thoroughbred names in history coursing through his pedigree. It’s like a royal road map leading to this one horse, with double crosses to Mr. Prospector, Raise A Native, Gold Digger, Native Dancer, Nijinsky II and others. His bloodline flexibility makes him easily compatible with a variety of ladies.
Latigo Shore competed in the United States from 2009 through 2013. He pounded out 19 starts from four seasons and deposited close to $150,000. He is a half-brother to black type winners Tonopah (by Rock Hard Ten) and Kindle (by Indian Charlie). His pedigree essentials are solid.
It takes a while before reaching the moment of building the first ad for an established sire, and there’s no way to shorten the process. Fortunately, Latigo Shore has navigated his way through the first steps. He has 13 foals from three crops, including nine foals of racing age from nine crops to compete. The stallion has
a ways to go but Balzano definitely has him moving in the right direction.
Will the circle be unbroken... Yes, it will, indeed, remain unbroken
as long as there are mares to be bred, stallions to stand and babies to be born. That’s just the nature of this business.
SPRING 2018 55