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I’ve been in a syndicate with horses with Richard Fahey for over 2 years and he’s never had a problem at all with us choosing where to place it. Having spoken to him about that subject his opinion was it’s no bother at all as long as connections out them in the right races. Considering we won 6 races from 17 runs with Saif Sareea and 2 from 3 with Smoothly Does It, and if we conveniently forget Big Bradford, I don’t think we did a bad job!
Overall despite how rich any owner is and what experts one can employ there is always a massive slice of luck needed when purchasing any horse whether or not it is a yearling or a horse purchased from a selling race.
Sheik Mohammed employs John Ferguson who is known as being about the best in the business when judging horseflesh.
It was this combination which paid $10.2 million (£6.7million) for Snaafi Dancer.
A horse described by trainer John Dunlop as ‘ a nice horse but no bloody good’ not even good enough to ever reach a racetrack and found to be un- fertile when sent to stud.
This horse is rumoured to be in the Sheiks paddocks as a reminder of how things can go wrong.Seattle Dancer cost the late Robert Sangster $13.1 million but only won £111,000 in prize money.
Retired London bookie John Mayne would never be on any ‘rich list’ but he has done extremelly well with his puchases.
(His Kingsgate prefix comes from Kingsgate Bay in Kent where he went for his summer holidays. So no luxury island holidays for that family)
Kingsgate Bay cost him just £26,000 and won 4 races earning him £19,000 prize money and sold for £230,000.
Kingsgate Prince cost £32,000 and sold for £260,000.
His G1 Nunthorpe winner Kingsgate Native cost just £20,000 and won prize money (so far) £197,000 and is up for sale for around £1 million.
It was the owner that thought up the plan to go for the Nunthorpe as his horse would get massive weight allowances.All Johns horses are trained by John Best and another horse this stable have done well with is Rising Cross purchased for just £14k and sold to Gary Tanaka for £235,000. This horse stayed in the same yard.
Just in case any TRF’ers were thinking of buying Kingsgate Native, I think he’s already been sold (or at least the breeding rights to him have) and he’ll join Chevely Park stud upon retirement, though until then he’ll stay with John Best in John Mayne’s silks.
What cost per mile are trainers currently charging for transporting horses to the races?
Many thanks for an interesting thread Alan.
Your comments about entry fees and the ROA lacking teeth strike a chord here. Just about everybody involved in owning a racehorse accepts that they will pay for their hobby. What, I think, people want to see is some equity between those who give and support the sport, and those who take. Perhaps a reasonable chance of breaking even if they strike lucky and find themselves with a good horse.
As well as Blackheath, who is an old boy now having had a similar career to your Greenwood, I also have a share in Pinpoint. Now you would think that a horse that has won two Heritage Handicaps and is good enough to run in Listed and Group races (Timeform 119) would be making a healthy profit. The fact is that he is only just doing so after four seasons in training.
The latest of my three flew to Dubai today. He is going to race for $110,000 upwards prize money per race for minimal entry fees and all expenses paid. It is a stark difference with this country.
But whether it is Wolverhampton in a 0-50 handicap or a Group race doesn’t matter, it is a great buzz to see your horse running. I just wish that the economics made more sense.
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