GUIDE FOR FIRST TIME THOROUGHBRED HORSE BUYERS

DO YOUR HOMEWORK ,PREPARE WELL, MAKE A GOOD PLAN.
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1...A new opportunity has now unfolded for anyone contemplating
buying their first Thoroughbred Racehorse here in New Zealand.

2...Catalogues have become available for the sale of 293 READY
TO RUN TWO YEAR OLDS, which is set for down for sale in
five weeks time at the Karaka Sales Complex on 17th November.

3...Do your homework by getting your Catalogue, check out all
those doing a breeze-up at Te Rapa Racecourse on Mon 19th and
Tuesday 20th October 2009. Check your funds, arrange agistment,
arrange float transport, & register as a buyer. If you require help
with bidding, then you might think about engaging an experienced
trainer or Bloodstock Agent to help you through this process.
Do lots of homework, make a clear plan, and be very clear in
your instructions, even to the point of writing it down for all
parties, so there will be no misunderstanding for everyone.

4...Of the utmost importance is a thorough reading and
understanding of the conditions of sale. You can be penalised if you
are not conversant with all the clauses, and like every situation where
dozens of rules are extant, they tend to favour very strongly the rule
maker, and protect all their options extremely well. Compliance can
be very costly, so be well aware of all legal and financial implications
and also your compliance obligations. Legal or experienced advice
could be very beneficial to you having a very smooth first transaction.

5...There are some good advantages from such a 2yo sale. Firstly,
the animals are much more mature than weanlings, or yearlings that
are usually offered. If you look carefully at the physical conformation,
you can see an almost fully developed animal that is getting very close
to its maximum height, balance, type, muscling and shape. There are
some really worthwhile clues here when allied with selection, ancestry,
and breeding methods.

6...The "BREEZE UP", or gallop for a couple of furlongs down the
straight should give you quite a lot of information. Look at its
"ACTION", its "LENGTH OF STRIDE", how settled the horse is
due to its handling, & the direction the galloping legs go. If the horse
has been "FORCED" or over sprinted it may be very nervous, or
tucked up, or too light in condition. This could minimize the future
potential of your investment, so do your homework on the stables
or breeding establishments that produce many good horses,
because they have got their handling and feeding right.

7....Look at the horses' "OVERSTEP", relate the horses shape
and make to its ancestors, pedigree and relations to see if it is
true to type. Look at its muscling, height, length, balance,
conformation and temperament which should give you good
indications on its speed or stamina potential. You should be able
to get a line on whether it is likely to mature early or later.

8...The time a horse runs in an unspecified, very short sprint down
the straight may have very little correlation with it's future ability
as a racehorse. Just about any horse can run quite quick over a
short distance, so look at its stage of preparation, its action ,
its maturity and if its breeding has speed on both sides of its
pedigree.

9...Many slower developing stayers that will win Cups races
would not be expected to sprint fast as an early 2yo, so some
common sense, and insight is needed here. Look at the type,
the action, how its handled and the horses attitude in relation
more to its type and pedigree. A stayer with a good action
and nicely held may need a careful check. If such a horse also
shows good speed, then it may warrant special attention.

10...Look especially for leg turn out, back at the knee, toe in, knee
maturity, offset knees, slope of shoulder, rein, pastern length,
sickle/straight hind hock, big/small hooves, down on it's heel,
brittle hooves, flat sole, contracted hooves, white horn, smaller
or leaner or bigger hind quarters, flat or rounded and defined
muscle, coarse or dense bones, and dozens of other strengths
or weaknesses.

11...This type of 2yo sale can save you quite a lot of time compared
with breeding or buying yearlings. A very, very small percentage of
yearlings pay their way as a 2yo, so in most cases you will be
paying a substantial amount for your yearling and then have to pay
for the next two years until it's 3yo career before you could expect
your purchase to mature and race consistently well.

12...If you intend to breed, you have to purchase and agist the mare
during the first year of pregnancy, (and remember the big risk where
about 50% of mares don't have a foal each year) and then add
substantial yearly Stud Fees and agistment for 3 more years until
your first foal gets it's chance to compete for a fuller mature season.
If you breed stamina to stamina, you may even have to wait another
further year for your pride and joy to mature sufficiently to race well.

13..This shows the advantage of buying a 2yo-( you save a big
three years up front compared with starting to breed a foal), and you
have the big advantage of being able to assess immediately and
thoroughly its growth, action, temperament, how well it's been
broken in, its type, speed and balance.

14..With breeding your own, you have more chance of not getting
a foal, automatic long years of wait, more chances of conformation
faults which you are then stuck with for quite a few years and may
prejudice your chances of having a good winner or getting a good
sale after putting in a lot of time, effort and money.

15..The advantage of buying a 2yo saves a lot of time...(3yrs?)
and there is a basic cost of $15,000 to $18,000 to put a middle
of the line well bred yearling in the sales ring, so you can calculate
the $20,000 to $25,000 production costs into your buying plan.

16...Because about 52 to 54% of horses racing each season
don't earn any money, an injudicious purchase or buying faulty
or slow stock can be very hard on the pocket. Make sure you
get the best advice available rather than rely on fickle luck.

17...Buying has another huge advantage over breeding because
you can compare your selection with hundreds of others and
keep culling lots until you have quite a lot of desirable traits that
would give you a big advantage over all the ones that failed your
high selection criteria.

18...You have to accept what you breed, and obviously there will
be just about as many CULL animals that fail the leg accuracy test,
or growth test, or action/speed/muscling/type/temperament tests
as compared with those that do measure up in a pleasing way.

19...Don't be misled, there are dozens of traps in the sale ring,
and its a very costly ring of experience for newcomers.

20...It's amazing how many people rush back to see the new horse
they have bought, only to realize upon close inspection big faults or be
shown a number of glaring inadequacies in the horses conformation.

21..The auction or buying ring is truly a LET THE BUYER
BEWARE situation, and reinforces the often repeated mamim of
THOROUGH INSPECTION STRATEGIES BASED ON
SOUND KNOWLEDGE AND A SOUND BUSINESS PLAN.

22...A veterinary inspection is a must for a newcomer, and also
get your intending trainer to thoroughly examine him based on
his expertise and years of experience. Both these methods are
not foolproof, but would certainly help you make less mistakes.

23...Some of the main problems with this sale are the reasonably
high proportion of horses that went through the Yearling Sales
and failed to find homes. Watch out for these slower maturing
ones especially those that also have leg alignment problems.

24...From experience of checking out the vast majority of 2yos
entered in some previous sales, it is easy to see faults of one kind
or another in over 80% of entries. Having looked very carefully
at several hundred of the best gallopers in NZ for over 40 years,
it has been an eyeopener to see that many of them also actually
had observable leg faults. The trick at Yearling or 2yo sales is to
be able to pick the big performance motors where the leg
conformation problems do not or would not stop the horse from
achieving its potential on the racecourse.

25...Faults will inevitably hinder soundness, cause soreness,
shorten stride, shorten a horses career, so be very, very careful
of faults that are deal breakers. It is hard enough if your horse is
sound , tough and free of leg problems, so keep on looking for
those nasty faults that make your intending purchase a bad
racing proposition.

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