Starting A New Stable – Hoping To Earn

Starting a new stable is always an interesting experience.  Your first stable is always the hardest.  You start with 5 terrible, terrible horses and a bit of money and a few bps.  The quickest way to earn more is to dump those initial 5 horses in the auction.  Very rarely do they end up being even decent earners.  Once you have your first stable you can add a new stable which comes with $10,000 and no bps.  The theory is that you have other stables to help finance your initial startup costs.

In February I started a new stable, spinsanta2.  The goal for this stable is to run cheap horses and run them often in the hopes of earning lots of bps to finance major breedings in other stables.   I populated the stable with an initial 10 horses costing just under $60,000 and 36 bps.  A few of the auction buys were paid for from the initial $10k.  One auction buy cost nearly half of the $60,000 total – Ballingry a $28,000 buy from the auction.

The first run for this stable came on February 24^th and so far five horses have run in spinsanta2.

Pine Grove RCH was an auction buy.  He cost less than $1,000.  He’s a 7yo California bred gelding with 9 wins and earnings over $300,000.  In 2016 he competed successfully in local bred allowances.  He only made three starts in 2017, twice running 2^nd in a low level claim and a starter allowance.  He started on New Year’s Day in a $150,000 starter allowance where he finished 5^th of 7 and then ended up in the auction.  He became the first spinsanta runner when he finished 4^th in a $150,000 local-bred claiming race.  He earned 10 bps for the effort.

Highland Spur was another auction buy and again cost less than $1,000.  She is a three year old Welsh bred filly who had run 4 times prior to the auction with her best finish a third in a maiden claiming race.  She raced on January 23^rd in a $5,000 maiden claiming event where she finished last in a field of 11.  After the auction I shipped her to Sweden which is among the group of countries that share local-bred racing in Europe including Norway, Holland and Greece.  Overall there are 13 countries covered by this particular local tag with Italy being the largest producer of thoroughbreds in the group.  The race I selected for Highland Spur was a $20,000 claiming event for three year old fillies.  There were only two entries in the queue and the field was filled out by a CPU runner.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity to earn bps.  Sadly I forgot that running a maiden vs. winners cost you a bp penalty so her solid 4^th place finish did not net any bps.  For that reason this filly might not last long.

Marimacho is a four year old Pennsylvania bred filly who again came out of the auction for a pittance.  She came to me with an 8-1-1-0 record.  Her best speed was a 65 run in a $7,500 maiden claiming event at 8f on good turf where she finished 4^th.  I shipped her to Pennsylvania and entered her for a $150,000 NW3L event.  The race had two other entries and again a CPU horse rounded out the field.  This one was more successful for me as Marimacho finished second and set a new lifetime best speed of 66!  She netted 30 bps for the effort.

Ballingry became the first winner for spinsanta2 exactly a week after the first run.  He was the expensive auction buy at $28,000.  He’s a three year old by Japanese sire Lord Kanaloa who was the Horse of the Year in Japan in 2013.  Lord Kanaloa was the leading freshman sire in Japan in 2017 and his progeny are selling like hotcakes.  Ballingry had won twice from thirteen starts for his previous connections.  Thirteen starts for a three year old early in the year is a lot but he was pretty consistent and I thought worth a chance for the price.  He last race in Paris on February 14^th where he finished 9^th in an allowance.  I brought him back on March 3^rd and sent him to Japan for an open allowance.  He faced one other player-owned runner in the race who he beat quite handily, as well as two CPU runners who were well beaten.  40 bps was mine!

Wonderlights raced shortly after Ballingry.  He was also bred in Japan but from a less fashionable sire.  This 4yo came out of the auction for $9,000 with one fewer race than Ballingry but one more win.  He was gelded in October of 2017 after nine races in turf sprints.  He returned in a turf route allowance and then dropped to a dirt sprint for his 2018 debut on February 14^th.  He was off the board in both of those runs and was sent to the auction.  I shipped him to Japan for a local bred NW4L at 7f and the result was a win over six others and a 100 speed, tying his career best.  Another 40bps.

So after a week of running horses in this stable the current stats are $81,000 in the bank and 120 bps.  There are four runners slated for next weekend, hopefully the good times continue!