The Story of Bad Wine

THE STORY OF BAD WINE



The bull that is leading the ABBI futurity standings named Bad Wine was consigned last week in our sale ring. A bull of this caliber is very hard to find, and when he is found, very rarely is he offered for sale. After negotiations with Gene Baker & Jim Mattocks, an agreement was reached to put Bad Wine in the sale ring. Because Gene and Jim are both aware of how hard it is to get a great bull in this business, the agreement called for them to retain 50% competition interest in Bad Wine through the end of 2011.

Phone calls poured into the EG office, and we heard everything from "What in the world are those guys thinking?" to "I should sell my house and buy that bull!" It was a fun week discussing Bad Wine. When the dust settled the final bid was in at $56,000.

Bob Schaaf of Chetek, WI was the person to place that last bid and became 100% owner in Bad Wine. Bob was excited to be the new owner but also nervous that he spent that much money on a wild animal!

But that was only half of the story.....Fortunately Gene Baker nominated Bad Wine in March of 2010 for The 2011 American Heritage Futurity. This is the largest ABBI futurity each year and is known as the futurity that "pays over $100,000". Bob spent $56,000 to purchase Bad Wine and immediately secured insurance costing $3,000. After spending more than most people make in a year at their day job, Bob flew into Ardmore, OK to watch his bull compete at The American Heritage Futurity.

This year The American Heritage had so many entries it was divided into two sections of approximately 100 bulls each. The first section was Friday morning and the final section being Saturday morning. Bob sat through 147 bulls before Bad Wine finally got to show his stuff. He watched "Fire Show" from D&H Cattle score 22 points and set the benchmark high. Later he saw "Here We Go Again" owned by Stoney Hariman equal that mark of 22 points. He knew it was going to take a flawless trip by Bad Wine to beat either of those bulls.

Bob tossed and turned as he tried to sleep Friday night in excitement but also in suspense - wondering if his $60,000 investment was going to pay off. Daylight could not come soon enough for him!

Finally, after a morning that seemed like eternity, Bob Schaaf got to see his bull buck in person for the first time. Bad Wine did his part up until about 1 second before the buzzer when something terrible happened. He slipped and almost went down to his knees in the front end. Bob cringed as he saw Bad Wine slip. What happened next is why Bad Wine is a true champion. He recovered from the slip and seems to say "that's not gonna stop me. Let me show you what I got!" With about a 1/2 second left before the buzzer sounds, Bad Wine takes one huge leap, kicks straight into the air and goes right back into the spin that has impressed everyone all year!

After a couple short minutes, which seemed like hours to Bob, the inhouse announcer begins a sentence with "and we have a new leader....." The whole section around Bob yells as the score is annouced. Bad Wine scored 22.25 points out of possible 25 to win The American Heritage Futurity.

Bad Wine, just 4 days after he sold for $56k, won $119,577. Because of them retaining the 50% competition interest, Gene and Jim left Ardmore, OK with just under $60,000. Bob Schaaf left Ardmore, OK with a nice shiney buckle and big smile on his face! Oh yeah, he had $60,000 in his pocket, too!