Like grand prix race cars, thoroughbred horses have always been fragile. In order to be competitive, both have to achieve an exquisite balance between power and weight; between speed and sufficient structural soundness to complete the race. In the United States, thoroughbred horses are becoming even more fragile, making fewer and fewer annual and career starts. (There is great debate over the reasons for this growing fragility; I doubt that it is a coincidence that in the other major racing countries horses are not permitted to run with aid of medication.)
A key determinant of the gross earning power of a stable of racehorses is the number of races that they contest. Thus, all else being equal, a horse owner has to maintain more and more horses to generate the same gross revenues. An owner has to have great passion for the game to stay in it: Few stay for long. Since 1973, my wife and I have owned-- on our own and with partners-- fluctuating numbers of horses.
Last year, we sold one horse and found a home for another that was no longer racing sound. Because of my surgeries, I did not go to the yearling sales last summer to replenish our stock. Consequently, we now have only three horses, Hot Money, Mustang Island, and Backslider.
It was tempting to ask our trainer, Christophe Clement, to race at least one of these horses-- Mustang Island, a sound horse coming off a winning race-- in Florida this winter, so that I could have the pleasure of watching him train and race. But I knew that, if Mustang Island ran in the winter, he would not be at his peak in the spring in New York, when he could run for higher purses against weaker, restricted competition. So I never broached the subject with Christophe, There is a right way and a wrong way to do most things in racing, and I would find no satisfaction in doing things the wrong way.
Like Mustang Island, Hot Money is a four-year-old gelding. Both are shipping to New York from Florida tomorrow. Hot Money has proven that he is a fast, competitive racehorse, and he is training very well. He will be entered in a six-furlong allowance race for New York-breds, to be run on the turf on May 5. Christophe thinks that Hot Money is at his best on firm turf, so we will now start worrying about rain.
According to Christophe, Mustang Island is not quite in peak condition, but could possibly be ready for a race on May 8. As he won his last race impressively-- albeit against moderate opposition-- in his first start on turf and only the second start of his career, we can still dream a little about his potential.
An old racetrack aphorism has it that no man ever committed suicide with an unraced two-year-old in the barn. Although Backslider is a three-year-old, he is unraced. He has not yet-- to use another horseman's expression-- come to hand, but I am guessing that he might be ready to run by about the end of May.
I hope that I will physically be able to go out to Belmont Park to inspect our horses and to attend their races. If not, I should be able to watch them race on television in the knowledge that, win or lose, we gave them their best opportunity to succeed.
If I had never owned and bred racehorses, my net worth would be higher. But I would be poorer. Most important, it has been a family activity. I made a good trade.
