It has always been my dream to own a race horse with my business partner in The Profits. I will be the first to admit that investing a significant amount of money in a race horse is not the best financial decision I will ever make, but just like horse racing, there is an element of risk and analysis involved. After a profitable start to the year, I was given the go ahead and searched far and wide for the best value horse going around.
The factors I was looking for in a horse were fairly extensive. The first criteria was that the horse MUST be out of a mother who had produced a successful horse. The second criteria was that the father must have been successful over the distance that the ‘successful horse’ out of the mother, won at. The third criteria was that the horse must be born within three months of ‘horses birthday’ and finally, it must be trained in Victoria. While not critical, I was also looking for the trainer to be a part owner in the horse, this means that they are taking as much of a risk as I am with where they run the horse and it is in their best interest to train it well.
It took a while but eventually I found a horse on offer that met all of the above criteria and we were lucky enough to purchase one of the few remaining shares. Miller Street went on to win his second ever race at Bairnsdale in commanding style and was all set to run on Caulfield Cup day… but it all went pear shaped from there with an illness preventing him from running and plaguing his career which led him to eventually bleed twice during races and to be banned from racing. We were lucky enough at our first attempt to not only buy into a winner, but a horse that had potential. Unfortunately, we had our run cut short by issues you just can’t see coming.
When looking at purchasing your own share in a horse, it is important to know the majority of syndicated horses lose money for the owners. If you are up for a great deal of fun, without any expectations, then horse ownership may be for you.
Two of the best websites we found when looking for a horse were:
www.bloodstock.com.au
www.gavelhouse.com
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We currently own shares in two horses.