Vaal - Thursday

Would you mind sharing with us the ones you were hopeful of?

Sure, not just because of their names but Royal Double and Double Date. Double Date has shown she has ability and is super impresive at home. Being by Bezrin out of a Harry Hotspur mare she just boils over on race day. I am confident Chris will get to the bottom of her. Royal Double was very disapointing.no excuses he just ran a crap race.

Scotia, how do you get "spellcheck' on these forum pages I don't want to P Harris off. (See thread on jockey shortage)

We all piss each other off sometimes, don't even worry about it

Have nae idea oroange?

orange do you choose your horses?in my opinion and please dont take offence i would rather buy more expensive horses and have a few less horses ..they all cost the same to feed ...

Thanks pirates, I never take offence by the way. One dissapointing day at the races is not enough for me to change my stratadgy. 3 points:-

1.Compare what I spend on horses to the stakes I earn in a season against what the owners at the top of the owners log spend on horses and what they make in stakes. In terms of what you get out for what you put in, as a percentage, I think I am doing ok.

2. If you buy a horse for R50k at a training fee of R4k pm it takes 3years to spend R200k. You have fun because your expectations are not that high so there are many "little" victories along the way and as I have said before I love watching our horses run and working on their improvement etc.

3.I don't have the exact figures but I have noticed over the years that the percentage of "Expensive" horses that make it to the race track is not very encouraging. With my cheepies if they can't run no harm no foul we find them a good home and ante up for the next season. I wouldn't like to have spent a lot of money on a horse to find it can't run, that would make me sour and I think I would have chucked in the towl a long time ago.

Maybe I don't do it the right way maybe my thinking is retarded but after 5 years I am still having a lot of fun owning and breeding race horses.

Well reasoned Orange.

Imo, in general terms, every owner racing for a combination of fun and without going bankrupt, need to consider the following:

Are my chances better to recover my costs buying at the lower end (R50 000), the middle (R100 000 to R300 000) or at the top (R300 000+); so one needs to consider if a horse bought for R200 000 has a better chance recovering costs than a horse bought for R50 000; with current stakes on offer, I reckon that the better 'value' lies with the R50 000 horse - a maiden win will almost recover the purchase price and any subsequent earnings need only cover training cost to break abt square. And you still have a chance that the R50 000 horse could turn out to be a group winner (it happened to me) or even a JJ

Owners pursuing the dream of owning champions however, need to shop at the top end - I don't know the percentages, but I think it stands to reason that more 'top' horses comes from the top end - but if you happen to get a dud (and it happens far too often for my liking) you are losing big money.

To each his own, and that is what makes this game so interesting

well done 2 cents............ penny has only dropped now.......... I missed the boat on that one 7 / 1 sis.

Scotia i think u and I are coupled on the tote........... or we just getting old !