May 8, 2008 7:01AM

And the Beat Goes On

By Alexis Glick

A couple of updates to past blogs:

1. Paul Pompa Jr. and Michael Iavarone, co-president & CEO of I.E.A.H. — the co-owners of Kentucky Derby winner Big Brown — joined me again on Money for Breakfast a couple of days ago after winning the Derby. They received many offers for the horse the following two days. Those offers range from $60 million to $80 million dollars!!!!! Is that unbelievable? Remember when I first posted the blog, Big Brown was Paul Pompa Jr.’s horse and he sold a 75% stake to I.E.A.H., a hedge fund made up of former Wall Street guys, for reportedly $3 million dollars. With his remaining 25%, the horse prior to the race was valued at $4 million. Look what a winner can do! If he wins the Triple Crown, Big Brown will be worth $125 million. Why so high? The value of the horse is determined by future breeding rights.

2. Senator Trent Lott joined me yesterday on Money for Breakfast. He called ethanol a “hoax.” He said we should drill in Anwar and agreed with Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison’s call to stop filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Lott is a big supporter of McCain. When asked who he would recommend for VP if McCain asked him, he threw out the newly elected governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal and Robert Portman, former House member from Ohio and former director of the Office of Management and Budget.

3. In response to my blog yesterday about the risks to FNM, a friend in the credit markets sent me some anecdotal evidence to the point I made about international investors buying agency debt. Here’s what he sent: 

Foreign official institutions have tended to invest primarily in Treasury securities, but in recent years have increasingly purchased agency securities as well. During the period between the 2004 and 2007 surveys, foreign official holdings of U.S. agency debt securities grew from 34 percent to 58 percent of total foreign holdings. 

4. Yesterday I interviewed the CEO and founder of the Sports Museum of America, Philip Schwalb and Mike Ryan, an investor and member of the board of directors. The museum is located next to Ground Zero. It opened yesterday. It took seven years for Philip to realize his dream. It took $100 million to fund. Sixty-two different sports are represented. It is now the official home of the Heisman Trophy and the first women’s sports hall of fame. A portion of the ticket sales go to charities like the Jackie Robinson Foundation (a frequent guest and friend of Money for Breakfast) and to Children’s Hospital Charities. If you’re in New York, stop by! One of the cool parts is that some of the memorabilia is not behind glass. Kids can take a swing with A-Rod’s bat or take a shot with Wayne Gretzky’s stick. Big time Wall Street executives like the vice chairman of Merrill Lynch, the president of Goldman Sachs, the chairman of Blackrock and many more invested in this property.