Chuck in Kentucky last week- Horsing AroundKEENELAND SALES
Geologist hopeful of breeding next rare gem
FIPKE WANTS STALLION TO BE 'NEXT STORM CAT'
By Maryjean Wall
HERALD-LEADER RACING WRITER
Charles Fipke discovered the Queen of Sheba's gold in Yemen and outraced De Beers to find diamonds in Canada's Northwest Territories.
So what's Fipke's next frontier?
"The challenge is to make Perfect Soul the next Storm Cat," said the geologist from Kelowna, British Columbia, as he talked about his young thoroughbred breeding stallion.
The man who has been called "Kelowna's most famous billionaire" paused to talk between buying mares this week at Keeneland's November Breeding Stock Sale.
He's representative of so many horse buyers who come to Lexington looking for a diamond strike in horseflesh -- and who have some of the most amazing life stories to tell.
Low-profile, somewhat shy, the man who made the strike that launched the Canadian Arctic's first diamond mine has equally big plans for his stallion, standing at Darby Dan Farm.
The horse bred his first mares this year -- with the first offspring due in 2006. On the track, he won significant stakes races including Keeneland's Grade I Shadwell Turf Mile. He was champion male turf horse in Canada and set a course record when winning Keeneland's Makers Mark Mile in 1:33.54.
Turning any young stallion into a success is almost like searching for diamonds or gold. You can use all the latest science and still fail to make a strike. Or, you can hit big and perhaps end up with another Storm Cat, the world's most expensive stallion whose breeding fee is $500,000.
The challenge, Fipke said, is to find the right mares to breed to Perfect Soul. This is as close to exact science that horse-breeding gets. The hope in finding the right matches for the stallion is to produce quick success on the race track. Nothing raises breeding fees like success.
This year, Perfect Soul had a stud fee of $15,000. His first offspring won't race until 2008.
The son of Sadler's Wells was a gold-strike himself for Fipke, and the result of much research. Some years ago, Fipke came to Keeneland's November Sale intent on buying a mare sired by Triple Crown winner Secretariat because, he said, "all the best stallions come out of Secretariat mares."
He bought the only one he could afford at the time. But of the 25 Secretariat mares at that sale, she was one of 11 he'd liked for her pedigree. Of the group, he recalled, she was the best-looking.
This was Ball Chairman, a mare Fipke sent to Ireland where he had her bred every year to Sadler's Wells. From among several foals, one was Perfect Soul. Fipke returned to Keeneland to see Perfect Soul win the Shadwell Mile, then returned last November to begin buying mares for the horse.
In the world of geology, Fipke represents an even bigger success story. His patented process for analyzing mineral samples aided him in outracing De Beers to find the Canadian diamond fields in 1991.
For years prior to that, he'd roamed the globe as a geologist working in heavy mineral exploration for international conglomerates. His life story has been the subject of several books, one of them titled, Fire Into Ice, by Vernon Frolick. A screen play is being taken from that book.
Throughout his career as a geologist, Fipke has managed to escape harm from big snakes to grizzly bears to unfriendly natives. He's climbed mountains, suffered jungle fevers and crossed the tundra.
And still considers breeding the perfect race horse a frontier worthy of all these.