Chronicles of a New Stable Owner
Chronicles of a New Stable Owner
First by way of introduction, I am a new stable owner having just received my first stable (bergd) last week. While I have some basic knowledge and understanding of horse racing, I have spent the last few days reading everything I can find from the forums, Black Type Bugler and the web pages of other stable owners. Knightmare has a great site with a tremendous amount of breeding information that I’m just beginning to read through.
I’ve enjoyed the other “newbie” stories I’ve been able to find, so thought I’d attempt to make some contribution to the game and community. My intent in starting this series of articles is twofold: (1) I hope that other new stable owners may find something beneficial they can apply to their own learning process as they begin developing their first stables and (2) that other more experienced owners will point out the errors of my ways for my benefit and others who may be following along, whether those errors be misunderstandings of the game or how I (mis)handle my horses. I certainly welcome any and all input and constructive criticism as I begin the journey of building a winning stable.
First, a brief look at the wonderful stable of horses presented to me by the computer for beginning my career.
LIGHT BOARD (3 0-0-0 $0) 9-yo horse that hasn’t been raced since 2004! Not much here I’m afraid.
JOURNALISM (21 1-1-4 $11,369) 5-yo horse that last raced a little over a year ago. Broke his maiden on the dirt over 10f, but has shown nothing since in two claimers.
FIONA THE SECOND (13 0-1-5 $14,220) 7-yo mare that last raced in 2004. Best speed rating (SP) of 80 came at a mile on the dirt.
RATE CROWN (26 3-4-4 $18,282) 7-yo horse whose last win came a year and a half ago in a $10,000 claimer, but has been in the money regularly in some low priced claimers since. Seems to prefer on off track. Could be a good breeding point (BP) earner for now.
ROYAL ALPHABET (IRE) (36 3-2-4 $41,802) 6-yo horse that hasn’t raced since 2005. Been an unsuccessful claimer most of his career.
As none of these horses appear to be particularly well bred and most haven’t even raced recently, my only goals for them for now is to enter as often as possible in an effort to get 20 races in so that I can dump them at auction. In doing so, I’ll attempt to keep the travel costs to a minimum and hopefully find races for them at under $300 travel costs to take advantage of those savings. And if one or more should appear to show promise as a BP earner, I’d consider myself lucky!
At the same time, I’ll start browsing through the races for this weekend, looking to pick up some cheap claimers that can start earning my stable some immediate breeding points. I’ll mainly be looking in the $2,000 – $5,000 price range in hopes of filling my stable over the next few weeks. Next week I’ll report results as all five are entered for the weekend, discuss any claimers I’m able to find and talk a little bit about my goals and what I want to achieve with my stable.