Ed. note: This story has been updated from its original version, published in June of 2015.
American Pharoah has begun living the fantasy life of a blossoming male teenager. He lives and roams luxuriously. He eats and sleeps a ton. And he’ll have sex up to three times a day.
That's life for a big-time stud.
LIFE OF A CHAMPION GELDING:
When sex doesn't follow Kentucky Derby glory
“They enjoy it quite a bit,” said Stewart Fitzgibbon, commercial manager at Castleton Lyons farm in Lexington, Ky. “And it’s not hard to see why.”
The Triple Crown winner ran three more races last year before retiring to a life lavish life of fornication and relaxation. His breeding rights were sold to Coolmore Stud for an undisclosed amount in 2014. He now commands $200,000 per cover (impregnation), and according to the New York Times, has taken to his new career with the same drive and skill as he did on the race track. He should make about $30 million for Coolmore this year alone and has already has success in the breeding shed with an 80 percent "strike rate."
The best race horses don’t always make the best sires, though.
Tapit finished ninth in the 2004 Kentucky Derby and now garners a stud fee of $300,000, the highest in the United States. It started at $15,000 in 2005 but since his offspring have had so much success on the track, it’s risen incrementally over the last decade, said Michael Hernon, director of sales at Gainesway Farm, where Tapit stands.
MORE: All-time Kentucky Derby winners
These stallions quickly learn their new responsibilities. When Tapit leaves his wide, comfortable stall, there are two possible destinations — the paddock or the breeding shed, the latter more likely around 9 a.m., 1 p.m. or 6 p.m.
Many of the biggest breeding farms are located in a 40-mile radius in Kentucky, so the best personnel — from groomers to vets to the horses themselves — are close by. Breeding season runs from February to July because the heat helps female fertility. It slows down in June, so thoroughbreds enjoy a four- or five-month sex romp with a whole lot of food to meet energy demands.
The breeding sessions take just a few minutes. A group of supervisors lead the stallion to the mare (female) in the shed to make sure the deed gets done. They then examine a small semen sample to make sure it will swim adequately.
Beforehand and afterward, there’s no room for cuddling, foreplay or breakfast. A stallion gets in and gets out.
“(Tapit) knows his routine,” Hernon said. “He’s got great libido and great energy.”
PHOTOS: Triple Crown winners | Triple Crown misses
Horses do need a break from all that unemotional sex, so for half the year, they don't breed at all. David Ingordo, a bloodstock agent for Lanes End Farm who advised Zayat to buy back American Pharoah in 2013, said it's critical horses get a break — over breeding can lead to back problems.
"It's strenuous activity," he said. "So for half the year, they get to roll around in the dirt, lay in the grass, and just basically play."
Most race horses are never ridden again once they retire to stud. They get exercise in their several-acre paddocks by running on their own. They're born and bred to run, so it comes natural, Ingordo said. But per the Times, Thunder Gulch, the 1995 Derby and Belmont winner, has taught American Pharoah how to live a more laid-back life. New studs love to run free, but not the 24-year-old Thunder Gulch.
Food and sex for half the year and bumming around for the other? Doesn't sound so bad. The teams at their farms never stop working, though.
Throughout the fall, management at various farms looks into possible matches with mares and works on acquiring new stallions. They look at four things — pedigree, performance, physical makeup and price. It’s like any other market, so cost will rise and fall based on demand.
MORE: Best Kentucky Derby horse names since 2000, ranked
"It's a form of handicapping, like at the track. It's a similar sort of process," said Glenye Cain Oakford, an author and bloodstock business correspondent for Bloodhorse.com. "Farms take calculated risks buying horses and paying stud fees for their mares. It's a form of high-stakes gambling."
In the fall, stallions are “booked” for the spring, but not necessarily on specific dates. Breeders only pay the stud fee when the mares produce a foal that can stand on its own 11 months later. Last year, Tapit sired about 130 foals, Hernon said. This year, with a stud fee of $300,000, he could net nearly $40 million.
Once breeding season begins, mares are closely monitored by their veterinarians. They look at ovulation cycles and forecast what day would be best for impregnation. The stallions, on the other hand, just do their thing, day in and day out.
“They can hear the vans pull up with the mares,” Fitzgibbon said, "and they know what’s happening.”
It will be a few years before any of American Pharoah's children are in action. Horses begin training and racing as two-year-olds, but his foals won’t even be born until early in 2017. They'll be yearlings — the most common time to be sold — in 2018, and will begin running in 2019. They could hit the Triple Crown circuit in 2020.
MORE: Where does Pharoah rank among all-time greats?
Ingordo said American Pharoah's value has a built-in floor because he won the Triple Crown, and not much can change that. Even so, there's no guarantee American Pharoah ever produces big-time race horses.
“It’s very much an inexact science," Hernon said.
"You need a crystal ball for that," Fitzgibbon added.
Regardless, American Pharoah stands in Versailles, Ky., where Coolmore management hopes he’ll breed the next Triple Crown winner, or at the very least, some graded Stakes victors.
Oakford said Coolmore knew exactly what it was doing last year when it bought the breeding rights for American Pharoah before he had even become 2-year-old champion. Although it's a high-stakes gamble, it's one that should pay off.
"(The Triple Crown) is the ultimate accolade," Fitzgibbon said. "Plenty of horses have tried in 37 years and only one succeeded. It has to mean good things."
The ability to earn his employer millions of dollars just by having sex and rolling around in the dirt is well-deserved for a race horse that captured America's heart with its first Triple Crown since 1978.