Is a fond farewell even possible?

I'm a sentimental guy.

If a horse puts in a great career, and has the necessary value, I'll make every reasonable attempt to keep that horse on board as a stallion or broodmare.  But right at the moment, my stallion situation is getting unwieldy.

I've got Nightwing, War Machine, Union Jack, Refractor, and Alphabet.  Plus, Methy Bus is waiting in the wings with a full book for the next breeding season.

For an 80-stall stable, six stallions seems excessive.  Wouldn't you say?

It gets even more complicated when you consider that Le Chiffre will certainly be pressed into service when he retires.  Battlestar and Jackhammer are both worthy as well, but there will not be room for the Dubai World Cup winner, nor the winner of the Melbourne Cup and Dubai Sheema Classic.

This logjam has me considering a radical change in my thinking.  Rather than expand my base of stallions to accommodate the newcomers, I may contract this aspect of my breeding program.

Looking at it realistically, and throwing out all sentimentality, how many stallions with 74 stamina do I need?  Nightwing, Refractor, Alphabet and Le Chiffre are pretty much the same horse, sire-wise.

Refractor was and incredible talent at 16F.  Just look at the times he churned out.  He had 18 starts at two miles and 11 of them were under 3:18, with a handful more at just over 3:18.  That really is spectacular.

As good as Alphabet and Nightwing were, neither had the unique talent of Refractor... although Alphabet comes close.  Le Chiffre is freakishly good, probably better than Refractor.

War Machine is also uniquely good, with a very rare combination of speed and stamina.  He'll always stay on as a stallion, even though his very short career span is a chink in his genetic armor.

Methy Bus is also gonna stick on for a while due to his particular strengths.  He's an 88/73 type with a long career and he churned out 100+ PSR's in 37 of 56 races. 

So, when the dust settles, it looks like Nightwing and Alphabet will be the odd men out.  At this moment, both have very small books for next breeding season.  If I sell them, the new owner would have to honor those.

It kinda hurts to even consider letting Nightwing go.  Sometimes it sucks being sentimental...