NEWS
Stoneriggs drops first season fee for Flame Thrower
Posted: Thursday, December 20, 2001
The stud fee for multiple Grade 2 winner Flame Thrower, who is slated to stand his first season at Robert Slack's Stoneriggs Farm near Morriston, Florida in 2002, has been reduced from $8,500 to $6,500.
Slack indicated the reduction was made due the current economic downturn in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
"We set the stud fee prior to September 11 and a lot of things have changed since then," Slack said. "So, (owner) Mr. (Gary) Garber and myself thought it a good idea to realign a little so as to give the horse the maximum opportunity."
Slack said Flame Thrower has already been booked to 58 mares and the drop in stud fee will allow the farm to "be more selective with the applications." Mare owners already booked to Flame Thrower will also receive the lowered fee, Slack said.
Flame Thrower was one of the country's top two-year-olds in 2000 with four wins in five starts for Garber and trainer Bob Baffert. He won the Del Mar Futurity (G2), Norfolk Stakes (G2), and Best Pal Stakes (G3) during that campaign. He suffered his only loss that year in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1), in which he was sixth behind champion and winner Macho Uno.
Flame Thrower made only two starts this season and suffered a lateral condylar fracture of his left foreleg during a second-place effort in the Riva Ridge Stakes (G2) on June 9 at Belmont Park. He underwent successful surgery for the injury and is expected to start the 2002 season on time.
