The 'Hidden' Costs of Horse Ownership In The Sim

Original article written by Abe Froman posted 11 years 0 weeks ago

What does that horse you just bought for $1, or any price for that matter, actually cost you? As I sit here on my 'Friday' night after work, I have decided to do some math behind that. This is being done mostly for entertainment as I assume people don't really need to consider this the majority of the time. There are two ways to look at this, as a new player, who pays no day rate, or as everyone else that pays a day rate. I know that I, and I assume most advanced players, don't really consider these costs during our season, but there are newer players, and smaller stables that may need to worry about these.

So, what are these costs? The first is the board. Everyone has to pay board. Based on the assumption that most people use $5 farms, this amounts to $80 a year. If you say that you use some other farms, at least for part of your string, maybe you average paying $8 or $10 per horse. At $8, it becomes $128/horse per year, which is probably a reasonable number to consider.

Next is shipping. Again, this is something that everyone pays, and we will be using a couple assumptions here. The average horse you might say starts about 5 times which I think is a reasonable number. You have your sprinters that may start 6 or 7 times, and a 2yo router who may only start 2 or 3 times. The other part makes the assumption that you are going to be shipping close by. Maybe, a couple hundred to and from the track, each way, so $400 per race, $2000 per horse per year.

The last area where horse costs can add is day rate. New players don't have to worry about paying day rate, but when you lose your new player status, you then have to start paying day rate, which in the SIM is currently $5 per day per horse. For your racing stock that then becomes $35 per week and $560 per year for each horse that you own. The one note about this part is that you are not charged day rate for foals, nor are you charged day rate for pensioned horses. You will pay day rate on all yearlings, runners, and stallions/mares though.

Chances are you will not me moving mares, stallions or yearling s around as much, so you can consider their cost just $5 day rate x seven days, making it same $560 per year. Making an assumption that you keep most if not all of your breeding stock at a $5 farm, that will equal $5 a week for each horse, and a yearly cost of $640 for them. This breaks down to a weekly cost of $40.

Now, when you consider everything, this is how it looks for the average horse in your barn, since we often overlook this aspect of the cost of our horses. Day rate will always be $560 per horse per year, and $35 per week. The average racer will compete about 5 times a year, and like most people, shipping to the track, and then to a farm. I figure this cost to be about $2000/year, which over `16 weeks looks like $125 a week. The last assumption with board we made is that it is unlikely that every single horse would be stabled at $5 farms, so we base that average a bit higher, calling it say, $8 per horse each week, and $128 per year.

These forgotten costs of a horse now add up to $2688 per year, or $168 per week. New players not paying the day rate basically just subtract the $35/week, and pay $133 per week or $2128 per year per horse. If you are operating a budgeted stable, this could be something you need to consider before you buy some questionable horses, though for the rest of the SIM, this was probably just a boring read. Anyways, food for thought. Maybe I will have more later.

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