when winning isn't fun

General racing discussion.

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xfactor fan
Breeder's Cup Winner
Posts: 2212
Joined: Thu Sep 16, 2004 8:46 pm

Postby xfactor fan » Wed Apr 11, 2012 2:54 pm

Mac,

It sounds like you have an "eye" for picking decent horses. Also it would seem that your training farm is doing a nice job. The word that may have gone around is that you know a quality horse, and know how to get the horse to the track.

These are both very good things. And quite rare in the racing game.

Is it possble to avoid claiming races? Or as a couple of other posters have mentioned, claim the horse back? Sounds like your filly might be worth making an effort to get back.

Given that you've only been in the game 5 years, it sounds like you are doing very well. Now you have to figure out how to hold onto the great horses you have selected.

Good luck.

zinn21
3rd Year Sire
Posts: 3307
Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2005 8:23 pm

Postby zinn21 » Wed Apr 11, 2012 6:38 pm

Mac where are your horses getting claimed? SoCal? I don't know anyone who has every horse they owned get claimed. I do know plenty who wished every horse they owned would get claimed...

majxmom
Grade I Winner
Posts: 1539
Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 4:12 pm
Location: Knightsen, CA

Postby majxmom » Thu Apr 12, 2012 6:01 pm

I hate to say this, but sometimes you get a reputation for being a person whose horses are sitting on a win, and then they pick you like a chicken. My latest trainer usually has about 20 horses in his barn, and they've claimed him down to 8 lately. Fewer people are bringing in freshly developed horses (fewer owners = fewer new inventory), so anyone who has got a live one right now won't keep it. But if they are stepping way up consistently after they leave you, that's a sign that you are leaving value on the table.

Sometimes you have to look at the condition book and the extras, though. Lately they haven't been writing that many $6250, $8000, or $10,000 races near me. So if I lost a horse for $4000 and it won for $12,500 NW2L, I can't get mad. There's hardly any races in between right now.
"When I am on my deathbed, I imagine I will say, 'Thank God I did that'" - Arthur Hancock, on buying back Gato del Sol from Europe after Exceller was killed in a slaughterhouse in Sweden.