1,000 BP Challenge Comes To Conclusion!!! Target Achieved!!!

The end of the self-challenge comes on the 22^nd day of July where the 1,000 Breeding Point objective was achieved!!!  The challenge was to start with a bunch of bum horses, mimicking what a new barn would start with and a nominal amount of cash and see if 1,000 BP’s could be gained within a year.  A little over 7-months and the target has been hit.  Through a variety of claiming horses and buying through the auction, placing horses primarily in low end claim races with an occasional starter allowance or even an allowance race was the working strategy in pulling off the challenge.   Since many were racing in claiming races, it was expected that horses would be lost and a need for replenishment would be required, so I tried to keep the farm loaded with three horses in order to keep 10 active runners in the stable.

Throughout the 6 ½ months, numerous horses ran for the stable and moved out, some lasting for only one race.  A few turned out to be bombshells and left the stable via the auction.  A couple earned 100 or more BP’s and were very fruitful in the challenge.

RACERS

 The following ran for the stable during the past week plus since my last update:

Capelli has boasted speed over 90 as recent as May but still struggled in his second start for me, going 81 SP in a $2k claiming race, finishing a lousy fifth, losing ground in the process.   Still, fifth brought in 2 BP’s to put in the bank, and any BP is a good BP.

After running the 7-year old Not So Divine on the dirt last time for his first dirt race, and pushing him a punishing 2 miles, I brought him back to the turf and watched him finish last for the second start under my watch.   A much easier 5 furlongs didn’t seem to excite him any and I’m back to the drawing board.  One more race and he’ll be out of here unless he gets some results

Xureyev ran in a $15k claiming race in a small field of five and ran a mile distance.  He stayed in Thailand, avoiding any travel penalties and was not competitive but did finish third, some five off the winner.   This performance earned 15 BP’s pushing, enough to break through the 1,000 BP level!

SUMMARY

A total of 1,007 BP’s were collected throughout the challenge that started in January.  It took 83 races to get to this level and the Claimchallenge stable that was used had a record of 23-15-17.  I’m excited by the near 28% win percentage which was double of what I thought it would be in the challenge.  66% ITM was also about double what I imagined the final result would be.   Not so impressive was the $250,000 bank roll, but the low end races do not attract big purses.  Albeit, cash flow was necessary as horses were obtained through the auction and claiming routes, which did have a negative impact on it as did the daily cost of maintain the stable (but everyone has that).