The Bottom Line
Long-time fans of racing who have never visited a farm or attended an auction do not fully understand where the real money is made in the racing business. Highly respected bloodstock business writer Glenye Cain sets the record straight in her new book. Going behind the scenes, behind the product on television and at the track, Cain examines racing's billion-dollar backbone, and the pains by which owners try to breed or buy a "home run horse", one that brings immense long-term profit.
Pros
- An eye-opener for racing fans who do not understand the breeding business
- Well-written, easy to understand language, and very entertaining to read
- Excellent history of how the breed was established and of Eclipse
Cons
- No fault could be found. An enjoyable learning experience for any reader.
Description
- The auction business is explored first, using Satish Sanan's purchase of Vindication as an example.
- Horses are no longer living things. They have been reduced to raw data of pedigrees and vet reports.
- The system is not perfect, as horses can be misdiagnosed as having a flaw that does not exist.
- The sales business dates back to the foundation sires, and began in earnest at the time of Eclipse.
- Like many horses today, Eclipse was owned by a commoner who was not respected by the establishment.
- Cain's brief history of the start of the Thoroughbred breed is a good lesson for new fans.
- Farm owners take a seemingly paranoid approach to protecting their expensive horseflesh from harm.
- Despite all these measures tragedy can still strike, as we saw with Mare Reproductive Loss Syndrome.
- Trainer Michael Dickinson feels tracks are unsafe so trains his horses at a custom-built facility.
- Funny Cide showed that a group of high school buddies could defeat a Saudi prince at his own game.
Guide Review - Book Review: 'The Home Run Horse'
Cain's definition of the "home run horse" is not the same as what a casual fan might expect it to be. Most fans would consider a Kentucky Derby, Breeders' Cup, or graded stakes winner a home run horse, but this is not the case. Unless the horse can parlay those wins into a successful career at stud, profits have not been maximized. Racing is less about purse money and more about stud fees and auction prices. It is a business like any other, run in the background by powerful, cold-blooded billionnaire investors and tycoons. To them, purse money is chump change. The real money is made when horses are bred and sold, and when horses are retired to stallion duty at ridiculously high stud fees. How else can Coolmore survive at a negative 80% return on investment, when simply comparing auction prices paid for yearlings with purses earned by those yearlings when they hit the track?
If you would like to sample the book, you can read a free sample of Chapter One online.
