MILLIONAIRE earning racehorses.

1...There has been a lot of focus recently on the new Millionaires
MINE THAT BIRD-(5wins-Kentucky Derby-$2,011,581) and
RACHEL ALEXANDRA-(Ken Oaks, Preakness)- the earner
of $1,618,354.

2...We have been collecting information on MILLIONAIRE
earning racehorses for over a year now because they represent
the absolute pinnacle of achievement and its a measurable
comparison with all other horses in competition at the moment.

3..I think that this information will give newcomers into the
breeding and racing ranks some odds to consider, an aim or
target , or an idea of their chances of breeding a super star.

4...My parents and 2 sisters have carefully kept and beautifully
appointed properties that have been mooted as million dollar
properties and we joined the club ourselves, which all helps
to be able to keep a very expensive racehorse. Reminds me
that to make a small fortune racing horses, you need to start
with a large fortune.

5..We selected RED MAGIC's sire Istidaad to come to
New Zealand, and he won $1,757,236 and was a G1
winner and about 9 time G1 placed. He ran 2000m in
1m 59.4 when winning the G1 Australian Cup and over
1800m in the G2 George Main Stakes he ran 1m 45.32,
so was a very serious racehorse.

6...We also trained, and raced a colt called MAGIC MILLION
over 30 years ago. He had a phenomenal finishing burst which
was predicted on his breeding methods. Among his wins, he
came from last to be first twice at Trentham but unfortunately
he broke down several times.
We have endeavoured to include the same MAGIC METHOD
that he had into RED MAGIC's pedigree, hence his name.

Yesterday was a really nice sunny day, and after I took his
cover off, he was rearing in the air, flying around the paddock,
snorting and really putting on a great show for all the neighbours.
Even in the middle of winter, he has a nice shiny, healthy coat.
Was able to settle him down and get him wormed this
morning even though he wanted to rear, rush around, bite
and play. He is alert, physical and very well at the moment,
probably overfed for a horse not in work, so keen to get him
away into pretraining in a couple of weeks.

7... RED MAGIC is bred on a cross of 2 MILLIONAIRES.
His sire ISTIDAAD-($1,757,236) across the MILLIONARE
earning broodmare sire MOUNTAIN CAT-($1,478,901)

8...The special crosses in this pedigree were known about 6
or 7 years ago when research revealed a very powerful
method. Since that discovery we have noticed more than 14
current MILLIONAIRES racing that have the special
combination of crosses in their pedigrees, and in most cases it
is the primary or main cross in their makeup.

9...With this impetus, we've been actively looking for and
collecting data on horses that reached this magical status.
The aim is to delve into these pedigrees thoroughly and
see just what is making them tick, check the consistency of
the background intensities, check for the variations on the
main themes that Nature rewards, and to increase knowlege
on neccesary trends, selection, and ancestor performance.

10..There are dozens of ways that horses can be matched
and compared, such as number of races won, amount of
money won, Free handicap rankings, Match Rracing, number
of G1 or Graded Stakes won, Timeform Ranking, speed
ratings etc.

11...In the gathering process, I soon realized that ranking
horses on MILLIONAIRE earnings did not always measure
the best because of differences in time and locations, but it
does isolate and identify a very special group of horses.

12...Many potential champions just never get into a major
Stakes Race because they break down, have an accident,
are poorly trained, or are rushed off to stud prematurely.

13...Also, there is a great disparity in Stakes on offer in
certain countries. New Zealand cannot compete with the
vast resources of Australia. Italy cannot compete with
the U.S.A. and Britain can't compete with Japan/Hong Kong.

14...Initially, I thought I might be able to collect data on about
200, perhaps up to 300 MILLIONAIRES, but its been an
eye-opener as the painstaking search kept adding and adding
names to the list, but my method has probably only allowed
me to find about half the possible candidates. Just wish I had
access to the Jockey Club lists, or someone would kindly
publish a definitive list from a source like the current USA
AMERICAN RACING MANUAL.

15...Like all research into technical areas, someone, usually
individuals, have to put in countless thousands of hours
of painstaking data collection so that it can be analyzed carefully.

16...We have been really surprized with the huge upsurge
over the last few years with the huge increase in MILLION
DOLLAR races being carded and made available.

17...Even here in little New Zealand, we had an inititive
developed and implementated with Government help last year.
The $2 million Kelt Capital stakes and the $1million Karaka
sales incentive race have been added to by another four more
million dollar races. eg..$2.2 million Derby, $1 million Auckland
Cup, $1 million 2000 Guineas, and $1 million Telegraph Sprint.

18...There is a difference in the value of the dollars being
offered in different countries. The Australian dollar is worth
over 20% more than New Zealand dollars. The USA
dollar is worth 40% more, and the Euro is worth 200% more.

19...I do have an old 1966 THE AMERICAN RACING
MANUAL and it lists 174 horses that won over $300,000
and due to the lowered value of money at that time, only 5
of those horses were actual MILLIONAIRES over 40 years
ago in the days before the following very high and continual
inflation rises.

20..Looking at the list, and number of wins etc, it would appear
that every one of these horses would rank as MILLIONAIRES
today based on the money available for the same races today,
that they won many years ago.

21...This shows clearly that inflation spoils the ability to be able
to make a fair comparison of racing class when comparing
the best racehorses of different eras.

It does make a good comparison with horses that raced against
each other in the same time frame many years ago, and it does
compare present day horses against each other where a
graduated difference can be seen between those that have won
over a Million dollars and those that haven't at the present time.

22...What struck me most forcefully was the huge number
of wins some of those older greats achieved.

Without making an exhaustive comparison, it seems that there
were sounder, tougher horses that raced and won more often
40 years ago, especially in the USA compared with today.

23..Here are examples from the 1966 AMERICAN
RACING MANUAL. Llook at the soundness, toughness
and ability to repeat of these examples.

2 horses had more than 40 wins
2 horses had more than 35 wins
7 horses had more than 30 wins
11 horses had more than 25 wins
34 horses had more than 20 wins
52 horses had more than 15 wins.

24..Compare that soundness and toughness with the
breakdowns, injuries and defections among this years
and last years USA classic contenders.

25...Having just worked through 8 catalogues of the 2008
September Yearling Sale held at Keeneland, I have been
struck by the large number of commercial matings which are
totally unbalanced. A huge number of sires with very restricted
racing careers are being used. An overemphasis is being
placed on matching speed with speed, and this tends to
produce shorter pasterned horses with less shock absorbtion.
Plus it produces horses which are unbalanced physically, and
leads to many precocious youngsters being overstressed as
2yos.
Speed x speed matings tend to mature early, and fail to train on.
They also have limitations with distance, and being on the
outer edge of Natures continual search for balance, they tend
to be less able to repeat performances at 3,4,5 and 6 years
of age when mature middle distance conformation horses
are showing their toughness and have the build to wind up,
accelerate at the end of their races and repeat top
performances year after year.

26..The Commercial breeders find it much easier and much
quicker to put Black Type sires to Black Type mares/families
where the speed comformation produces better muscle and
a more mature yearling for the sale ring.

27..To put classic and staying bred yearlings in the ring can
produce a proportion of immature yearlings, finer builds, and
attract less bids. Staying bred yearlings take more time and
it definitely is much harder for the breeder to ensure class or
speed is put into this staying framework.

28..I wonder if the lure of lucrative Stallion Fees, greed,
commercial breeding for huge yearling returns, determined
selection for speed traits, over-emphasis on early 2yo speed
for ever increasing glittering rewards, or over reliamce on
drugs are affecting the soundness of American racehorses.

29...This is a concern to us here in New Zealand, because we
have gone from a few USA bred stallions at stud here in the
60's and 70's progressively through to a total dominance of
USA breeding in our stallions.

30...We had a reputation for soundness, toughness and stamina,
but our commercial breeders have mostly become dedicated
Sales yearling sellers. The dozen major studs have achieved
huge success and many minor studs have disappeared.

31...The emphasis now seems to be on precosity, early
maturing, early growth, and good muscling for the sale ring.
This seems to have resulted in an overall growth in sprinting
speed, less hardiness, more breakdowns, and less sounder,
tougher and stamina orientated horses being produced.

32...The best type that breeders should be aiming for is the
Classic 3yo that will win the middle distance classic races,
and then will be even more mature and tougher to win the
richly endowed Cups races as 4yo. These are sound, tough
types we want to be the best sires of the next generations.
These staying horses have real speed as well, and have often
demonstrated their ability to finish over top of the sprinters.

33..However, these horses are rare, and much harder to
breed. It is probably up to 5 times easier to breed a useful
horse by putting a good speed sire to a good speed mare,
allowing for the hybrid background, and common methods
of breeding principles to provide the necessary stamina to
get the minimum distances and allow slightly further.

34...The Major breeding studs in NZ alluded to above have all
increased their acreage 2, 3 or 4 times over. This indicates their
commercial pedigrees and emphasis on speed are working well
and resulting in good profitable returns. All these studs have
good numbers of staff-(although, we've heard their
universal grumblings at the sales. Their consensus is that
they appear to work long hours for less than enviable pay
rates) and the acquisition of these extended properties has been
very beneficial in minimizing the Stud owners tax liabilities.

35...It is now harder to breed a maiden winner because of the
increase in basic speed across the board. Maiden sprints are
being won in 2 to 3 seconds faster time than several decades
ago, forcing intending new breeders and owners to apply
extremely good selection techniques including a high
component of speed in the ancestry of their new horses.

36...Thoroughbred breeding in New Zealand seems to be
following the trend in Europe, USA and Australia which
specialized over the last few decades putting speed horses
to speed mares. We already have evidence of the several
very predictable patterns of earlier maturity, fading, inability
to improve with age, and decay of staying ability.

37...The much vaunted imported Shuttle sires have not made
an impact on our speed records, but have made horses two
to three times more expensive to buy. This places an ever
increasing burden on the poor owner, and it is clear that the
middle-man Stud owners , the Yearling Sales Companies, and
the millions going to the Shuttle Stallion Owners overseas are
the only ones that are making a whole pile of money.

38...If you are a new owner, then you need to stop blindly
following the policies of the above groups of people who are
very organized in their endeavours to make you pay them an
excessive amount of money. You need to get into a position
where you can write the rules. You need to work out a strategy
where the existing structure can be used to your benefit when
you add further value to your product. You need to be able to
select horses of merit from whats available and be able to
identify the potential champion from among the dozens or
hundreds of highly priced ones that will not perform. Again,
knowledge, thorough research and sound thinking should be
essential parts of your plan along the road to consistent success.

39...With Stake Monies only increasing by about 50% in
recent times, owners are worse off than previously. Feed,
transport, farrier, training costs and just about all other
expenditures have doubled or tripled. However, Stud Fees
have soared out of sight in numerous instances. As a general
guide, all Stud Fees in New Zealand should be halved, and
the top half of the Australian Stallions would be much fairer
if they were reduced to a third of their advertised Fee.

40..The yearling Sales are a contrived money making operation
and bear almost no correlation with the actual ability the
horses will demonstate on the racecourse. As a rule of thumb,
about 1 high priced horse out of 10 will succeed and return a
profit on it's purchase price.
OVER 90% FAILURE RATE.
Make sure you are highly selective in your choices!!

41....Looking at the 1966 AMERICAN RACING MANUAL
again, I added up the 1st 100 highest priced yearling sold at
auction to get a rough percentage of the number that would
have earned enough to repay their purchase price.
Out of the top 100, I FOUND ONLY 7 EARNED AN
AMOUNT IN EXCESS OF THEIR PURCHASE PRICE.
This backs up the rule of thumb of 1 in 10 quite well. In fact
when agistment, breaking, training and racing costs are
added, those horses making a profit for their owners could
very well recede to about 3 or 4 in each hundred.

42...These figures must be a big ALARM BELL for an
intending buyer who has very little knowledge of pedigrees,
breeding principles, conformation etc. and therefore has no
demonstrated advantage when bidding against more
knowledgeable buyers.

43....Don't forget these 100 horses are the top or best and
many people were prepared to pay the best money for them.
This probably means they looked well, were well grown with
good muscling, passed the walking test, had the most successful
sires and the best of families, and related to many Stakes
Winners. As the buyers were prepared to pay a lot of money
for them, we could also asssume they had the best training
that money could buy, YET ONLY 7 OUT OF 100
EARNED ENOUGH TO REPAY THEIR PURCHASE.

44...Perhaps your first purchases should be away from the
highest priced lots, perhaps you should get expert help from
the most knowledgeable trainers on conformation, faults,
type, althletic ability, legs and action, and ensure your
intended pedigrees have very good competitive speed.

45.. Then you need to delve into the background of many
hundreds or thousands of the absolute best gallopers and
ensure the principles that helped them become standout
gallopers appear in your pedigrees....Sounds simple?

46...If the 3 or 4 horses out of each hundred that will
realize a profit for the new owner is correct and holds
good today, THEN WE CAN ASSUME THAT MOST
PEOPLE PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTING MATINGS
DO NOT KNOW THE NECESSARY PRINCIPLES OF
SELECTION, SPEED, STAMINA, CONFORMATION,
TYPE, HITTING PREPOTENCY, BUILD-UP OR OTHER
IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES NEEDED TO BREED
OUTSTANDING RACE-HORSES.

47...To succeed, you will need to acquire all this information.

48...Perhaps in your initial plan, you would be advised to
set a BUDGET for the amount of money you would be willing
to pay for your first horse or horses. Remember, there will be
thousands of other horses on offer later in the sale, and the next
year and the year after, so the next tool would be PATIENCE.

49..To minimize the risk, select some good partners and form
a syndicate, but remember even if the group allows more
capital, the higher priced ones are notorious for not throwing up
very many top class gallopers, so shop for quality at VALUE-
FOR-MONEY-RATES.

50..Remember, you still have to buy ABILITY & QUALITY
and CONFORMATION and GOOD BREEDING.

51...A huge number of the MILLIONAIRE EARNING
GALLOPERS I have been studying continually slip through
the sales rings for what can best be described as BARGAIN
BASEMENT PRICES.

52...Some of the constants apart from the generally lower
prices, are that they are indeed very rare, that they do come
in all shapes and sizes, but they can all gallop, so their
conformation and action must be in line with Natures
requirements to withstand the stress of racing.

53...They seem to have multiple talented gallopers close up,
or just behind their initial ancestors, and their pulmonary and
nervous systems are exemplary and highly developed and
efficient.

54..The other constant we have found is the intensity of the
breeding methods and the discernible principles that seem
to also produce very constant results.

55..Over the last 12 months or so, we have been looking on
the internet, in New Zealand cataloques, Australian and
U.S.A cataloques, and we have found details of 951
horses that are listed with their earnings which surpassed
ONE MILLION DOLLARS.

56..During this search, nearly 3 times as many horses have
appeared which won over $300,000 but we have not
had the time to look at these pedigrees in detail yet, but
in a future article, we are contemplating comparing them
with the MILLIONAIRE EARNERS, as well as with
a similar sized group of horses that showed some form by
winning 1 or 2 races, and we already have a huge group
of NON WINNING horses to compare some of the more
involved breeding principles with.

57...we are not quite sure just what the ratio of named foals to
MILLIONAIRE EARNERS would be, but if we assume about
half or 450 of these horses were USA bred, and accept a
recently published figure of 354,878 named foals in the U.S.A
for the years 1991 to 2000, we can arrive at a very loose
GUESTIMATE OF 1 MILLIONAIRE FOR EACH 800
NAMED FOALS.

58...So if you are a newcomer to racing, and intend to breed
or buy a yearling that will win you a MILLION DOLLARS,
you would have a pretty reasonable chance of achieving that
target if you have about 800 shots at the target.

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