Rating: 
Summary: Most expensive 30 seconds in sports
Review: The text on the back cover of this book says it all: "The most expensive thirty seconds in sports." You will need a lot of pocket change plus a very good mare before you book a cover from Storm Cat, the Thoroughbred stallion with the world's most expensive stud fee---$500,000 per mare through 2004. And there's no 'payable when the foal stands and nurses' clause in his contract, either."Stud" is a two-year labor of love by "New Yorker" staff writer, Kevin Conley who became intrigued by the amount of money that a Thoroughbred stallion could earn after retiring from the racetrack. This is an exuberant, stylishly-written book that will tell you everything you wanted to know about what goes on in the breeding shed, but were afraid to ask. I also learned some things I didn't know I wanted to know, like the diameter of a certain stallion's testicles---this is a book for horse-lovers who have already been through sex education class. The author spends some time at the Keeneland sales in Lexington, Kentucky, where the 'Doobie Brothers' (four sheiks from the royal family of Dubai) duke it out with the 'boys' (Ireland's Coolmore Stud) for the most expensive yearlings in the sale (often Storm Cat progeny). Conley doesn't neglect the smaller breeders who make a profit by buying and breeding inexpensive mares with good blood-lines, and then selling their yearlings and two-year-olds for a profit. (There was a story in a recent "Thoroughbred Times" about a filly "who clearly did not have enough pedigree to shoot for the stars," yet was sold for $1.9 million at Barretts March sale because she showed that she could run.) Finally, Conley details the differences between a 'natural' cover (Thoroughbreds), artificial insemination (A.I.) techniques (Standardbreds), and pasture breeding (semi-feral Shetland ponies). Speaking for myself, I wouldn't exactly use the word 'natural' after reading that it usually takes five or six people plus a stallion, plus a twitched and hobbled mare to complete the breeding process. Thoroughbred folks tend to be very conservative and have already rejected A.I. even though it is a safer, cheaper, and healthier method of getting mares in foal.
Rating: 
Summary: Fairly accurate and funny
Review: This author conveys amazing insight into the nitty gritty of Thoroughbred horse breeding. And he's funny, particularly if you've had anything to do with the business. It's the city boy sports writer goes to the country, but with certain awe and respect for the importance and economics of it all. Who would have thought you could ever convey in words the subtle humor and ironies of the Irish and the Arabs bidding in millions of US dollars against one another for a single racing prospect at the annual Lexinton sales event. The only boring part was the pedigree discussions, but they come across just as they do in the real live world, and they can be easily skipped over. The humor is probably best when Conley fairly tastefully and accurately, but obviously anthropomorphically, describes equine breeding behavior and modern veterinary management of the ...equine blind date.
Rating: 
Summary: Monotonous
Review: This book is about breeding, and I hate to say it, but breeding is boring, as there are only so many ways to describe two horses in the reproductive act. Nearly every chapter has at least one trist, which by the middle of the book is tedious to say the least. The descriptions of the farms and the people who live and work there are excellent, and save the book. However, I personally would have enjoyed the book a bit more if there was some more continuity. Each farm, and consequently each set of characters only appears in a single chapter. I would have enjoyed the book better had the author followed a colt thru the conception, birth, training, etc all the way to retiring to stud himself.
Rating:
Summary: A great book!
Review: This book, in addition to being well written and interesting, covers the oft-overlooked foundation of the racing industry. I loved the portrayls of the horses and the owners!
Rating:
Summary: Overall, A Good Book
Review: This was a pretty good book, though I don't know why anyone would write a novel on horses' sex lives, it was still an interesting read. I liked how it described not only Thoroughbreds in many different regions of the United States (California=Cee's Tizzy, New Mexico=Demons Begone, Kentucky=Seattle Slew, Storm Cat, etc.), but it also took a look inside a Standardbred breeding shed and gave a glimpse into the life of wild horses.
Rating:
Summary: Horsing Around for Hire
Review: We may be used to hearing about millions of dollars paid to athletes in different sports, those who can swing a bat or throw a football with near perfection. Such athletes are expensive, but we have not had the spectacle of their being paid for inseminating other athletes. _Stud: Adventures in Breeding_ (Bloomsbury) by Kevin Conley centers on this spectacle, though of course his subject is horses, not humans. There is plenty of excitement on the racetrack, and classic races like the Kentucky Derby get much media play, but the purses of such races are relatively small compared to what goes on in the breeding sheds, and money, of course, is what this game is all about. Horses that aren't so good at the track may be great at siring horses that are good at the track. Conley spends a good deal of time describing the complicated, and surprisingly unnatural, ways thoroughbred mares get pregnant. Artificial insemination is not allowed for thoroughbreds, but coitus is a strange affair involving a "teaser" stallion to get the mare excited and receptive before the stud comes in, and five human handlers to make it all go as planned. The costs are so great, and the horses are so valuable, that leaving it all to nature is unthinkable. Conley writes, "In the middle of all the rearing and bellowing and heaving of loins, there's one quality that's easy to miss when you visit a breeding shed: how normal it all is to the people who work there." He even shows them chatting about the politics of the local school board in the middle of the act. But Conley doesn't do horses for a living. He is a writer and editor at _The New Yorker_, and had no prior doings in the sport of kings. He is thus easily able to be surprised, and in fine, lively prose, convey surprise. He is especially adept at comparisons; about a spinal operation on a horse, he says it "requires an unusual mixture of skills: the nitpicky dexterity of a bomb defuser and a carpenter's ease with power tools." He tells about standardbreds as well, and the small farms which try to have a go in this big business. He gives a compact history of racing. This is a brightly written look into a world foreign to most of us. Although it roams into plenty about specific farms, history, and curious personalities, it all centers around money and the particular coital act that makes it all keep flowing. Such a theme powers a surprisingly riveting book, but perhaps it is not so surprising. After all, as Conley knows, the thoroughbred stud's life involves enormous amounts of cash, copious sex without any responsibility, and not much else besides eating and sleeping. It isn't far from standard male fantasy.
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