Question for horse owners

[kev]

Sometime in the next 1 1/2yrs me and my wife, is looking to own a horse ( looks like claiming one ) in the 25k range. My question is would 35K be good enought to start out with?? Is the 10K left over enough to cover cost for whatever might come up?? I also live in ky, so the cost of keeping them might be lower. Thanks for any input.

[sjk]

That will keep you going for a few months. Expenses can run $2,000-$3,000 per month.

Bear in mind that any money you put into owning horses has a pretty significant chance of being mostly or entirely gone six months later.

[CryingForTheHorses]

35k is a lot of money to put aside for 1 claiming horse,Start small and never exceed your limitations, Claim 1 for 10k and make that 35k..Also remember being a "new" guy in the business, Very easy picking for the "BS" trainers, Tend to stay away from them "Kitchen" trainers.You need a trainer who can teach you and a trainer you can trust.Very hard to trust someone with your investment..There is a old saying on the racetrack...."Dont Go Too Far Too Fast" Im sure a lot have wished they heeded this warning in the world of horseracing.

[cryptic1]

On the information you provided I don't think $10,000.00 is enough
cushion. Training at the track is a minimum of $2,000.00 a month. There
are also the extra costs, do you insure the horse, added vet bills if the
horse has problems. The horse may need time off and you have to finance
it, etc etc.

I would suggest trying to find a partner who has some ownership
experience. It can be difficult to find a trainer that will meet your
particular needs. There are many novice owners who are taken to the
cleaners by what I call 'sharp practices'. Really spend time with the
potential trainer to get a feel for his or her methods and interactions with
others.

Its just as expensive to train a cheap claimer as a high priced one, so
though I agree with Mcshell to start small, if you can partner with someone
your exposure will be more manageable. Hopefully you can find a partner
that you are comfortable with and who has some on track connections
which will make your transition to ownership more enjoyable.

good luck

cryptic1

[The Judge]

I have to keep my post short until I figure out what's wrong with my computer it keeps going off. I actually typed a long reply but it shut down and it was lost. I owned a horse Lady Glorious trained by Jeff Bonde. Its fun lots of perks must pay for owners lincense name in DRF and program get to go on the backside owners room and box etc. Go partners share the risk. We had about 6 owners. Better stop now

[The Judge]

The track and trainers take away alot of the worry you don't have to deal with the partners that much the track sends you the checks according to your present ownership. The trainer divides the bill. You get a check thru 5th place. Our horse was claimed for $16,000 we had up 22 or $ 25,000 we let the trainer make the call on who to claim but you can do what ever you can agree on. Go light at first get your feet wet the claiming game isn't going anywhere. Go Partners.

[lsbets]

Get to know your trainer before you do anything else. Will he take the time to explain things to a new owner? That is important. If you have one horse, are you worth his time? Some will take your money and you will never get to talk to the trainer, only an assistant. If that's the case, go elsewhere. Also, make sure your trainer is someone who does well at the claiming game. My wife and I have played around a little bit claiming horses, and what has worked best for us is claiming horses off mediocre trainers and trying to improve the horse one level. Claim for 10, run for 12.5, hopefully win, run back for 12.5 and lose the horse. When it happens like that, it works great. When claiming we never wanted to have a horse more than two months. Also, get claiming insurance. I haven't claimed in about 18 months, but I think it costs about 1.5% of the value. All I had to do was call my agent and leave a message and I would be covered for that race as soon as the gate opened and the horse was mine. I also went with the 5% mortality, which worked out well when we had a horse break down for us rounding the turn (and pulling away to an easy lead - that night sucked). I cannot reiterate how important it is to find a trainer you trust. Two grand a month is a lot of money to most people, and that is what the trainer is going to cost you. You need to trust him, and when he says you need the vet, you gotta do it. He shouldn't have to call you after a race to see if its okay to have the horse scoped. You need to trust him to make a lot of decisions that will cost you money, so wait until you find one you trust. Also, once you find one you trust, let him pick the horses spots. Too many owners think their horses are better than they really are and run them where they can't win. Racing is a lot of fun when you win, but a couple of months worth of bills with no checks coming in makes it a very expensive habit.

[kev]

Thanks guys, this is very helpful info. We was talking today and maybe getting my dad in on this horse biz ( he's the man with the bucks anyway's ). I never though of it like that ( someone said ) start small maybe a 12k hoss and go from there. What do you all think about buying a baby horse?? That seems like something you do, if you make some bucks after awhile.

[Zaf]

Baby horse will cost a fortune to get to the races.

ZAFONIC

[kenwoodallpromos]

Contact the KY TOBA for advice.
Investor groups may be a good way to learn the ownership business.
I like Isbets' idea to at first claim a low priced "meal ticket" that makes the rounds and is ITM a lot. Maybe claiming one at just the right time so you can run it several times at 1 meet.
Be careful about any that has had more than 1 layoff in the last year of more than 2-3 months.
A 4 or 5 year old would have a longer record to look at for stability.

[lsbets]

Here's the deal on baby horses. I just came in from the barn feeding the baby we bought a few years ago. He worked out great in the mornings and looked better than a lot of older horses. But on the track, he would get spooked by noise and lights, and in every race he ran he was on the lead in the middle of the turn, and faded to last - he didn't have the heart to finish a race. So, he is now my wife's riding horse. A very expensive riding horse. Your risk goes through the roof when you get into horses who have never raced before. I agree on looking at 4 or 5 year olds - they have arecord you can evaluate, and 3YOs tend to be overpriced.

[Storm Cadet]

Join a no-load or no mark-up partnership for between 5-10% to start with,you get all the benefits of ownership, but reduce your loss potential. Buy claimers to start that are racing and show healthy signs...then go deeper if you want.

[keilan]

Do not enter into business relationships with anyone unless they have something to lose.

Cryptic1 makes a good point about the cost of maintenance of cheap claimers, that imo is not the way to get into ownership. Claim horses that have an upside – 4-5 yo’s, claim from inferior horsemen/barns, decently bred with some backclass.

Anticipate giving the horse some time off to get him right before racing, be patient.

[headhawg]

kev,

I'm not sure this is right for you but I thought that I would post the link. Someone I know through my brother told me about it, thinking that I would be interested. Maybe there are other partnerships like this out there as well.

http://www.mikecampbellracing.com/

Good luck.

HH

[The Judge]

You can start your own partnership this means you take on most of the responsibility but it's not that must especially if all the partner are on computers e-mail one e-mail all. You want to have fun not worry about losing bunch of money. You are trying to break even or make a little profit which is hard to do. No one might claim your horse so you may have to sell the horse when its no longer profitable. Mares sometime are best for resale it they have a little class in their pedigree. We had six partners . The tracks I'm sure have some literature on the claiming game.