Triad Farms

I called the boarding outfit today to pass along the billing information they requested and to ask about our charge. The filly is happily noshing bluegrass in Bourbon County. Kathy Watkins and her husband Steve run the horse farm just outside Paris where our li'l bundle of joy is stabled, and in the most delightful Kentucky dialect she declared "what an absolutely lovely filly you have..tsk...just beautiful." My heart swelled.

In a less delightful turn of events, the boarding fee is $20/day, which is more than I had hoped. Although my heart was proud, my billfold cowered.

There's a Sucker Born Every Minute

When I bought the filly, I didn't really know what I was going to do with her. I got a sensational deal from Frank, but I knew damn well I couldn't pay the feed bill for long. Jamey assured me Allison would go in for a cut, but I hadn't talked to her myself yet, and I also didn't know if the cut she had in mind was a mere five or ten percent. Eight or ten bucks a day for boarding adds up in hurry.

By the time I got back to San Francisco Allison had lined up a cadre of suckers, er, investors, rather. I tried to be as honest as I could on the phone, but still felt like a seedy used car salesman afterward. I was ecstatic over what a bargain this filly was, but didn't want my fervor to overshadow the realities of horse ownership. I emailed them because I wanted to stress a few points that potential horse owners should know.

First, here's the catalog page in pdf. Print it, frame it, put it on your wall, because there is a distinct possibility she never sets foot on the track, and an even greater chance you never get a picture taken in the winners circle to frame.

Note the sire stats. Exploit is reasonably typical--not a standout, but no hack, either. He has 3 crops of racing age which includes 213 foals of which 128 have started and 79 of which have won a race. That means 40% never even ran in a race. Maybe that number will go down as the 2 year olds (which represent a third of his foals) continue to make their debuts, and maybe even a late blooming three year old or two will still start. You can do the same exercise with the number of winners. Armed with this data, draw your own conclusions about the intelligence of racehorse owners.

I bought this filly for a song, but the purchase price will represent a fraction of the outlay by the time she starts a race, if she's even lucky enough to do so. As an example, suppose everything went as well as could be expected and we vanned her out in May of next year, schooled her and worked her under tack, then started her after being on track for just 6 weeks, which is ambitious. We're already committed to ~$500 in fees related to the purchase, then there's maybe $1,680 for 7 months of boarding in Kentucky, at least $1,000 for vanning her out, then the day rate kicks in for training the filly. $60/day for 42 days is $2,520. On track we've still got to pay the farrier, medication, and god forbid if she needs to see the vet. Lets add another $300 there as a starting point.

Now it's raceday. We've got to pay the starters fee, and the jockey, complete with workers comp insurance. $125.

She's not even out of the gate and the owners are out of pocket over six grand plus the purchase price. She could break poorly, throw the jock, jump the rail, and be retired right then.

Maybe we get lucky and she wins her first race with a purse of $10,000, of which she'll earn 60% or $6k. Then the jockey gets 10% and the trainer gets 5-10%. That only leaves $5,100 or less for the owners, the day rate is still ticking away, and the soonest she'll start again will be in 2-4 weeks. Once you get this far, you really only hope she pays most of her own feedbill and you get to enjoy a few races from the owners lounge. Come in third and your horse only earns ~10% of the purse money--not even enough to pay the bills until she starts again.

With all this said, we did get a sensational deal on this filly. Less than 6 hours before I bought her, she left the ring after the bidding reached $4,700 for her, but the reserve was not attained. Check the sales results for Friday 9/23/2005, Hip number 4006: Keeneland Sales Results.
In my opinion this means the odds are not as stacked against us, but make no mistake, they are still stacked!

Our other advantage is we were on site, with third generation horse trainer Jamey Thomas. Not many have the organic knowledge and eye for a horse from growing up on the backstretch that Jamey has.

I hope I haven't talked you all out of it, but these are the cold hard facts. Allison and I had some success with the gelding Tech Two, who paid most of his own bills. There's no assurance this filly will do the same.

Best,
BRAD

I thought for certain they would each politely return their change purse to their hip pocket and smile britely secure in the knowledge they had averted financial disaster. Luckily, two of them are as foolish as I am.

Keeneland September Yearling Sale

Jamey Thomas, a trainer based at Golden Gate Fields in Northern California, called me in mid September. He was headed to Keeneland in Lexington, Kentucky for the sale. Of course I wanted to go.

Jamey has trained a few horses in which I've had an ownership interest before, which is to say I owned about a hoof's worth, or a handful of mane. A neighbor and good friend of mine, Allison, even went in on an old gelding with me in the spring. These horses were all claimers, and I was more of an also ran than a principle owner. Nonetheless, Jamey acts like you're Bob Lewis or the Ramseys, even when you only own ten percent of a $4,000 maiden claimer.

We touched down in Kentucky late afternoon Thursday September 22 with plans to hotfoot it over to Florence, KY for the twilight card at Turfway Park, a track I hadn't visited, but desperately wanted to scratch off my list in a quest to visit all black type tracks in North America.

Plans change. Brian Koriner, a NorCal trainer and good friend of Jamey's, invited us to hit Taylor Made Farm with him to eye some buybacks and private purchase stock. Taylor Made is the real deal. They stand the likes of Tiznow, the only horse to win back to back Breeder's Cup Classics, and Northern Afleet, sire of Afleet Alex. We couldn't pass that up. Brian apparently had clients with a budget and critiqued the confirmation on fifteen or twenty colts, and a couple fillies ranging in price form twenty grand upward to three hundred large. He was workman like in his evaluations. "Walk him down and back. Turn. Other side. Again. Put him away." He exuded professionalism and it was clear he was at work. He was in the office.

Afterward, the three of us went to the Taylor's steak house in Lexington for bourbon and red meat. Now I was with horsemen I recognized again. Recounting exploits, on the track, at the windows, in bed. Swilling booze. Cursing stewards. Telling lies.

Frank Taylor, one of the brothers that jointly own Taylor Made Farm and the establishment in which we sat, was there glad handing and talking breed. He spent a few minutes at our table asking how the steaks were, whether we liked the quarter of a million dollar War Chant colt we looked at earlier, if we knew where the titty bars were. He was charming, vivacious, but mostly an unpretentious horseman.

We concluded the evening at the hotel bar where I delighted in more chatter from buyers and breeders. One fella with a small farm in Florida recounted a hungover morning at the Ocala sale when he mistakenly bought a colt for 40 grand, thinking he was by Tale of the Cat. Turns out he was by Cat Tail or some such no name sire. Never ran a lick. He ordered another whiskey and chided us, "careful with the sauce, boys." Horsemen are legendary for deadpan humor. Whether this cowboy was, we never determined.