Re: Matron & Atto Mile-- Hey Barry (617 Views)
Posted by: (IP Logged)
Date: September 21, 2005 06:22PM
TGJB,
I don't have any experience buying horses, but I've always thought there were two possibilities for finding "signficant" value.
1. Among claimers, based on par time figures at various tracks around the country, not all horses with similar claiming tags are equal. For example, some 10K claimers are vastly superior to others. It depends on the circuit. I think there may be ways to exploit that by moving the good 10K horses to the weaker circuits and running them for a higher tag and still having the best horse. One would also have to examine the comparative operating costs and purses etc..., but it's an obvious source of "potential" value.
2. Among higher quality horses on dirt, I would focus on overseas racing (the more remote the better) because few have speed figures to work with that can be compared to US figures and the classifications are even more difficult to make. On turf, regardless of what the speed figures say, IMO the major European turf racing lays over the American racing. I would focus my buys there and ship to the US.
In the US, everyone who is anyone is at least looking at the speed figures when buying and selling horses that have already run. I think the real value may be in stable management as in your recent purchase recommedation where you tried to exploit the weak older stakes horses in CA.