LEADING THOROUGHBRED SIRE STORM CAT BRED TO QH MARE

January 16, 2009 – Leading Thoroughbred sire Storm Cat will be bred by artificial insemination to Your First Moon, a Grade 1 winner and American Quarter Horse racing’s champion 2-year-old in 2001.

The resulting foal will be co-owned by songwriter and recording artist Lyle Lovett and Frank “Scoop” Vessels III, the owner of Vessels Stallion Farm at Bonsall, California.

Storm Cat was retired from stud last year because of age-related subfertility issues. Although quality and quantity of sperm in ejaculates of the stallion were failing, a new procedure developed at Texas A&M University was used to obtain high-quality sperm from the semen, followed by insemination of the mare using a guided low-dose technique, whereby less than 1 ml (less than ¼ teaspoon) of semen was used as an insemination dose.

Dr. Dickson Varner, Professor and Pin Oak Stud Chair of Stallion Reproductive Studies at Texas A&M, Dr. Joe Yocum, Farm Manager and Resident Veterinarian at Overbrook Farm, and Dr. Stuart Brown II, Partner of Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, combined forces to collect semen from Storm Cat.

“The procedure has been applied successfully to many American Quarter Horse stallions, but this represents the first attempt at using the procedure in a Thoroughbred stallion,” Dr. Varner said. “While the Jockey Club prohibits the use of artificial insemination, semen processed in this manner from a Thoroughbred stallion can be used for insemination of American Quarter Horse mares. This represents a means to prolong the breeding career of a stallion whose fertility declines as a part of the aging process.”

Semen from Storm Cat has also been processed in the laboratory in the same manner, followed by freezing in very low doses, such that sperm from one ejaculate would be sufficient for establishment of pregnancy in hundreds of mares, through a process termed intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI).

Drs. Katrin Hinrichs, Professor and Link Endowed Chair in Mare Reproductive Studies and Young-Ho Choi, Research Scientist, both at Texas A&M University, are international leaders in the field of equine ICSI and have done much of the research on this technique, which requires only one viable sperm per egg. The egg is collected from the mare’s ovary before ovulation, then fertilized in the laboratory by injection of a sperm. The resulting embryo is allowed to grow in culture for about seven days before it is transferred non-surgically to the uterus of a recipient mare to be carried to term.

Texas A&M will provide the ICSI procedure for breeding to the famous stallion in 2009, through semen being offered by Overbrook Farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

“”It is rewarding to see the research we have done on ICSI applied clinically to obtain foals from such an important stallion” said Hinrichs. “Storm Cat was not available to non-Thoroughbreds when he was standing at stud, but now American Quarter Horses can benefit from the infusion of his great racing genes into the breed. These are exciting times for people working in equine reproduction.”

A 26-year-old son of the Northern Dancer (TB) stallion Storm Bird, Storm Cat won the $500,000 Young America Stakes at The Meadowlands and ran second in the $1-million Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Stakes at Aqueduct. He was Thoroughbred racing’s leading sire in 1999 and 2000.

Your First Moon is a 10-year-old mare by all-time leading Quarter Horse sire First Down Dash. From 2001-03, she earned $750,726 from seven wins in 19 starts, and she won the '01 Los Alamitos Million (G1) and Governor's Cup (RG1) futurities.

Storm Cat’s fee is $20,000 per live foal. He stood for a $300,000 fee in 2008 after six seasons at $500,000.

Parties interested in accessing Storm Cat through this special arrangement can contact Dr. Joe Yocum of Overbrook Farm at (859) 273-1514. For more information on the Stallion Reproductive Studies program at Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences, contact the Large Animal Clinical Sciences Department at (979) 845-9127.