Horse racing through the eyes of a small-time owner
LINKS
Bottom left: Katskill Bay in the winner’s circle after his maiden-breaking win out at Aqueduct. Top right: the view from the rail out at Aqueduct.
The Stable
The Derby Dream’s stable is currently comprised of three horses- a colt, Katskill Bay, and two fillies. These 3 horses comprise 2 separates ventures- a racing and a pinhooking partnership.
Racing Partnership: Katskill Bay
This racing partnership is fully invested in one horse- Katskill Bay. This partnership’s objective is to race Katskill, while trying to make a profit along the way. The length of this partnership will depend on the success of Katskill’s performance on the track; and any value propositions the partnership’s management may or may not face as the partnership progresses (if Katskill were to win a G1- and the partnership were offered a couple million in a private transaction- the partnership would likely end in the sale of Katskill).
Making a profit in horseracing is a difficult task. Consider that roughly $1 billion is handed out every year in purse money to horse owners; and yet, horse owners spend roughly $2 billion annually to race these very same horses. The distribution of earnings for horses is far from normal- a few horses make a lot, and a lot of horses lose a little.
So the odds are always stacked against the horse owner when they enter into a partnership. But horse owners have never let the cold, hard reality of numbers stand in between them and their dreams. I am no different.
Katskill Bay is 3 year-old Desert Warrior colt out of an Alydeed mare, Cat in Deed. I purchased my share of Katskill Bay in the early part of 2008.
What intrigued me about Katskill’s pedigree is its linebreeding to “the pocket battleship,” Northern Dancer. And the first time I saw Katskill in the stables at Belmont, I couldn’t help but to see the remnants of the great Northern Dancer. Katskill, like his great ancestor, is a compact colt. He is short- but balanced and strong. His demeanor is not as fiery as Northern Dancer’s, but the appearance similarities are striking.
Desert Warrior was a second-crop sire in 2008. As a sire, Desert Warrior has been slow out of the gate. His chief earner, Desert Scents, has brought in just over $85,000. But I remain optimistic about this sire’s future. Desert Warrior’s sire, Deputy Minister, has produced some son’s who have been successful in the breeding shed - Awesome Again, Touch Gold, and Dehere- and with time I think Desert Warrior could develop into a more desirable sire.
With a win and a second in just four starts, Katskill has earned $36,900 (as of 2/20/09), and is slowing working up the ladder to becoming Desert Warrior’s chief earner.
Pinhooking Partnership: Saratoga Stable VIII FLEX, LLC
The Saratoga Stable FLEX partnership is a pinhooking venture I bought into in the mid-part of 2008. It is comprised of two beautiful fillies (see below).
The objective of this venture is to purchase two fillies with high-quality pedigrees at a major yearling auction. The difference of this pinhooking venture from most is that the “FLEX” component of the partnership allows it to evolve from a pinhooking to a racing partnership.
At targeted 2 year-old sales, beginning in March of ’09, we will look to sell either of the fillies for the right price, with the hope to sell at least one. And depending on the market, we will take either the remaining filly or both to the track.
The strategy is simple- pinhook if the price is right for our fillies; race them if it is not. The reason we looked to fillies in particular is because of their superior residual value. While fillies typically go for less at auction than colts, a well-bred filly’s life after the track is on average more valuable than that of a colt’s, particularly if they come from a coveted female tail line.
The reason for this is simple- a smaller number of colts go on to be commercial sires than the number of mares that go on to become successful broodmares. Biology dictates this difference- while one sire can produce say 100 foals in a breeding season, a broodmare can obviously only produce one. So you need 100 broodmares to cater to the production of one sire. 85% of sires end up being failures at stud. Every owner thinks their horse is going to be a champion daddy. 8.5 out of 10 of them are wrong.
Of course, if you own a sire like Northern Dancer, the income you stand to gain will far outweigh that which you could earn from any broodmare. But the likelihood that your colt is a Northern Dancer are miniscule; whereas, it is far more likely you are sitting on a commercially viable broodmare prospect– hence the superior residual value of fillies.
Fasig-Tipton Keeneland July – Hip #250
This was the first Ghostzapper yearling ever to hit the auction ring. He cost our partnership $275,000, which is just under the 2008 average cost for a Ghostzapper yearling ($283,765). But this is an above average Ghostzapper filly. In his preview of the F-T Keeneland sale last July, Mark Taylor said of this filly, “there is a lot of anticipation around this sire...and this filly has great balance, a lot of class, and she’s correct. She’s a unique commodity.”
The anticipation around Ghostzapper as a sire stems from the fact that he was an excellent racehorse- a winner as a 2 year-old with a stunning maiden-breaking win at Hollywood Park going 6.5 furlongs in 1:15.57. A winner of the Vosburgh Stakes (G1), King Bishop’s Stakes (G1), Woodward Stakes (G1), Tom Fool Handicap (G2), Philip Iselin Breeder’s Cup Handicap (G2), Metropolitan Handicap (G1), and Breeder’s Cup Classic (G1). He was a winner at 2, 3, 4, and 5 years old. And he brought home just under $3.5 million in earnings across his racing career.
Fasig-Tipton Saratoga August - Hip #152
This beautiful gray filly is a daughter of Macho Uno, who is a sire from Eclipse Award-winning breeder Adena Springs. This Macho Uno filly has a balanced confirmation and a likeable demeanor. In recent years, Macho Uno has put a number of star performers on the track including Uno Mas, Macho Again, and Harlem Rocker.
We paid $160,000 for this filly, which is well above Macho Uno’s ’08 yearling average of $67,461. But this filly was an eye-catching and coveted horse in the auction ring because of her confirmation and demeanor, and so she went at a premium.
Management Team: McMahon Bloodstock
McMahon Bloodstock is the pinhooking arm of Mike McMahon’s business. McMahon and his partner Eddie Woods have long been recognized as some of the premier players in the pinhooking arena. According to Bloodhorse from 2002-2007, McMahon and Woods teamed up to purchase 8 yearlings, for an average price of $62,000, that all went on to be eventual stakes winners, which tied them for 11th among all North American buyers.
Eddie McMahon is based in Ocala, Florida, a prime locale for selling 2 year-olds in the United States.
The Stable
PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Katskill Bay crossing the finish in his maiden-breaking win.