Today’s Show Stoppers post will include models that are in my show string for breed in the Sport section. I have other models I show in Sport, but those are mainly for collectibility, so they’ll get their turn in the spotlight another day.
My most successful breed horse in the Sport section is this guy, #711048 Riesling, a run of 1250 pieces for BreyerFest 2008. I bought Riesling from a seller at the very first live show I attended, CRAB, in 2010. I had seen him for sale at the show, decided not to buy him, and then immediately regretted it, so I contacted the seller through her ad on MH$P. In my opinion, Riesling is one of the nicest chestnuts they’ve ever produced. I show him under the name Appassionato. He’s got 10 breed NAN cards and many other ribbons, and I’m happy with every one. Breyer has a number of really excellent warmblood molds and the classes are often overwhelmingly large. I consider any breed ribbon a win.
The year 2017 was the 100th anniversary of the birth of Man O’ War, my favorite racehorse of all time. Breyer released this guy, #9149, in celebration, and kept him in the lineup through 2018. I purchased him from the Kentucky Horse Park gift shop during BreyerFest 2017.
Maureen Love was an excellent sculptor and her Classic Thoroughbreds remain some of the most conformationally correct molds to this day. I show this guy frequently because I believe he’s the most technically correct TB Breyer has, even though he gets overlooked a lot by judges in favor of Traditional molds. His show name is Fortunate Son. As the second Classic Man O’ War in my show string, I wanted him to have a name similar to the next horse, who I’ve had and shown for much longer.
Maureen Love was an excellent sculptor and her Classic Thoroughbreds remain some of the most conformationally correct molds to this day. I show this guy frequently because I believe he’s the most technically correct TB Breyer has, even though he gets overlooked a lot by judges in favor of Traditional molds. His show name is Fortunate Son. As the second Classic Man O’ War in my show string, I wanted him to have a name similar to the next horse, who I’ve had and shown for much longer.
I bought this guy, a member of the #710601 Racehorses special run set from BreyerFest 2001, in room sales at the Clarion during BreyerFest 2012. He was the last one I needed from the set; I’d purchased the palomino Kelso and the peachy dun Silky Sullivan during BreyerFest 2010. Due to his coloring, I show him as an Akhal-Teke, with modest success. His show name is Fortunato.
This guy’s got a story.
#90188 Bristol was instantly popular upon his release in the 2018 Premier Club and still sells well beyond his original issue price today. I got mine on 11/20/2020 from Breyer’s early Black Friday sale. I generally don’t participate in those sales, not appreciating the way Breyer ups the price on everything by $5-10 over original issue price, but I knew that even with Breyer’s markup, I’d never be able to get a Bristol that cheap on the secondary market, so I hurriedly threw one in my cart and checked out.
I didn’t get a shipping notice … and didn’t get a shipping notice … and didn’t get a shipping notice. Then someone posted on MA that they hadn’t received their Bristol either, and others joined in saying the same, and then someone said that customer service told them there was “an issue” with them. I called customer service myself on 12/3/20 and was told they might have oversold their inventory. People started getting refunds. I was prepared to be disappointed.
It was an early version of this year’s Shindig-gate and Tuxedo-gate.
I did eventually get a shipping notice for him on 12/9/20 (that mysteriously had an order date of 12/8/20, a full 18 days after I actually ordered him) and received him a few days later. I had joked with a friend about potential show names for him - Website Disaster, Inventory Mismanagement, Warehouse Issues, or I Was Nearly 2020’d. We liked Inventory Mismanagement best, but there’s no way, even with my relatively decent handwriting, that I’d have fit that on a show tag.
So I went with WH Snafu instead, with the WH standing in as a tag-friendly substitute for Warehouse.
#90188 Bristol was instantly popular upon his release in the 2018 Premier Club and still sells well beyond his original issue price today. I got mine on 11/20/2020 from Breyer’s early Black Friday sale. I generally don’t participate in those sales, not appreciating the way Breyer ups the price on everything by $5-10 over original issue price, but I knew that even with Breyer’s markup, I’d never be able to get a Bristol that cheap on the secondary market, so I hurriedly threw one in my cart and checked out.
I didn’t get a shipping notice … and didn’t get a shipping notice … and didn’t get a shipping notice. Then someone posted on MA that they hadn’t received their Bristol either, and others joined in saying the same, and then someone said that customer service told them there was “an issue” with them. I called customer service myself on 12/3/20 and was told they might have oversold their inventory. People started getting refunds. I was prepared to be disappointed.
It was an early version of this year’s Shindig-gate and Tuxedo-gate.
I did eventually get a shipping notice for him on 12/9/20 (that mysteriously had an order date of 12/8/20, a full 18 days after I actually ordered him) and received him a few days later. I had joked with a friend about potential show names for him - Website Disaster, Inventory Mismanagement, Warehouse Issues, or I Was Nearly 2020’d. We liked Inventory Mismanagement best, but there’s no way, even with my relatively decent handwriting, that I’d have fit that on a show tag.
So I went with WH Snafu instead, with the WH standing in as a tag-friendly substitute for Warehouse.
In March 2012, the great Thoroughbred racehorse Zenyatta gave birth to her first foal, a dark bay colt sired by Bernardini. Breyer issued a regular run later that year, #1490 Zenyatta’s First Colt. (Thoroughbred babies often remain officially unnamed until they’re a year or two old, hence why Breyer didn’t isue him with his official moniker, Cozmic One.) In October 2012, the Zenyatta website offered a limited run of 500 glossed #1490 models, which came with the usual pedigree certificate and a special letter. I don’t remember how I heard about the release, but I was able to get to the site in time to buy one on 10/6/2012. I show him under the name Houdini and he has had modest success in both breed and collectibility.
Idocus isn’t the best warmblood mold Breyer has made, but I chuck this guy into the show ring anyway. He’s #711517 Chablis, a store special from BreyerFest 2022, designed and named after one of the guest horses, a Wurttemburg gelding.
It was our first BreyerFest back in Kentucky after a two-year span of online-only thanks (no thanks) to Covid. I always, always prefer to hand-pick my models, but I was still pretty anxious about Covid and my friend Kelly and I were 100% not interested in standing in a crowded line or wading through the inevitable crush of people in the Breyer store. We headed to the beer tent instead, where we frantically refreshed and refreshed our phones until the store specials popped up online. I got my order through, and then gave Kelly my phone to do her order, since the site wasn’t working on her phone. We then sat back, drank our beer, chomped on our pretzel necklaces, and reveled in the fact that we were finally back at BreyerFest. Of all the Friday mornings I've had in Kentucky, that was one of the best.
As I perused social media during and after BreyerFest, I started to see some less-than-stellar reviews of the Chablis model. Many looked to have a boring, flat paint job. I started to regret not hand-picking one out myself in the Breyer store and resigning myself to whatever the warehouse picker grabbed from the case … but then this guy showed up, and he was freaking amazing. His show name is Yonne. I’m pretty sure he's only earned a fifth place ribbon so far, but that’s okay. I’ll keep plunking him down on the table. Someday, a judge might love him as much as I do.
I don’t see my Sport breed show string growing considerably in the future. I’m an Arab and Stock Horse collector through and through, and since most shows I attend are double-judged, I tend to choose my show string based on collectibility, not breed.
As I perused social media during and after BreyerFest, I started to see some less-than-stellar reviews of the Chablis model. Many looked to have a boring, flat paint job. I started to regret not hand-picking one out myself in the Breyer store and resigning myself to whatever the warehouse picker grabbed from the case … but then this guy showed up, and he was freaking amazing. His show name is Yonne. I’m pretty sure he's only earned a fifth place ribbon so far, but that’s okay. I’ll keep plunking him down on the table. Someday, a judge might love him as much as I do.
I don’t see my Sport breed show string growing considerably in the future. I’m an Arab and Stock Horse collector through and through, and since most shows I attend are double-judged, I tend to choose my show string based on collectibility, not breed.
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