Significance of private purchase

[CBYRacer]

Hi all,

What's the relative significance of a private thoroughbred purchase (vs. a claim) and when do these typically happen? Is there any way to tell in the racing forms when these happen and is there any insight that can be gleaned from these for handicapping purposes? Appreciate your thoughts on this topic.

Thanks!

[tbwinner]

Happens quite a bit, especially at the end of a meet if an owner does not want to move a horse or it's not performing well enough needs a lower tier track.

You'll see it most often as "Previously trained by XXX" but the owner change won't show unless you look up previous charts to find the old owner. I've done it before when investigating why a horse was in different hands without a claim. If the trainer didn't change it'll be a little harder to find out but you'd think the conditioning wouldn't change much.

[jay68802]

Why is this information not disclosed to the horse player?

[CBYRacer]

Originally Posted by tbwinner

Happens quite a bit, especially at the end of a meet if an owner does not want to move a horse or it's not performing well enough needs a lower tier track.

You'll see it most often as "Previously trained by XXX" but the owner change won't show unless you look up previous charts to find the old owner. I've done it before when investigating why a horse was in different hands without a claim. If the trainer didn't change it'll be a little harder to find out but you'd think the conditioning wouldn't change much.

Thanks, tbwinner!

In your experience, have you seen these changes make a positive impact on performance? Probably hard to say, I suppose.

[castaway01]

Originally Posted by jay68802

Why is this information not disclosed to the horse player?

Isn't it common sense that if there's a new trainer there is also a new owner? You don't see many private purchases where the trainer stays the same with a new owner.

[jay68802]

Originally Posted by castaway01

Isn't it common sense that if there's a new trainer there is also a new owner? You don't see many private purchases where the trainer stays the same with a new owner.

In a way, yes. Maximum Security comes to mind, however. Same owner, different trainer. This should not be a guessing game. Easy to report this, not asking much, just the facts.

[tbwinner]

Originally Posted by CBYRacer

Thanks, tbwinner!

In your experience, have you seen these changes make a positive impact on performance? Probably hard to say, I suppose.

Yeah hard to say. If I were to just subjectively say, I would say negative impact actually if it occurs at end of meet. Often its an owner trying to "dump" a poor performing horse...sometimes they even give them away. I know I have in the past or sold them for $500. Really I would pay attention to a horse going from a 3% barn to a 20% barn, then I would expect positive improvement.

[JustRalph]

Are taxes a factor?

[BMustang]

This goes on with great regularity at Mountaineer Park.

Mark Patterson, who does the handicapping show between races, often will talk about trainers who buy certain kind of horses privately, and gives the reasons for such purchases.

A lot of trainers who winter in Florida will often bring back private sale horses, that they feel would be a good fit at their home base oval, or have conditions remaining that would allow them to make a tidy profit with said animal.