Feature Race | Auction | Breeding | General | Hall of Fame | Harness | Interviews | Mixed Breed | New Players | Racing | Site Updates | Steeplechasing | Steward's Cup | Triple Crown

Shooting Yourself in the Foot - A Guaranteed Loss

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 8 years 0 weeks ago

Did you know that one-third to one-half of all horses bred in SIM never even run one race? Really. Actually, I can't prove it with Thoroughbreds, because the search page stops at 10,000 results. But at least 10,000 Thoroughbreds that are currently 4yos have never raced. (I don't know how many were in the crop.) With the other six breeds, when searching on the 4yo crop, the percent of unraced horses ranges from just above one-third to just below one-half, so I'd expect Thoroughbreds to be similar.

If you're a player that gets rid of a whole bunch of your homebreds before they race, and you're happy with how your SIM stable in going along, then this article isn't for you. But for everyone else, who wonders why they can't achieve the success that other players are having, especially in terms of building up their bank balance, then you might want to pay attention to this four-part series of articles.

I'm one of the wealthiest players in the game. I breed a few hundred foals every year, and a huge portion of them gallop claimer, and another handful are "different career". I don't discard any of them. They're all assets -- money makers -- unless and until they prove that they aren't, and there's very few that fall into the latter category. Yet, despite racing so many bottom level horses, I earn at least ten million in purse money every game year. That's because, again, almost all those bottom level horses earn more money than they cost to maintain. In the vast majority of cases, I'd be shooting myself in the foot to discard those horses before racing them.

Let me illustrate why it doesn't make sense to discard bottom level horses. For this example, I'm going to pick on my own stallion, War Lock. He's a turf miler that stands for $40,000, which is toward the higher end for his division. He was a wonderful racehorse and is a successful sire, so you find yourself a decent mare, and decide you're going to pay the $40,000 fee and get yourself a nice War Lock foal.

The game turns over to the new year, and when you gallop your yearlings, your War Lock youngster gets the "claimer" comment. Well, that's a great big bummer. But it doesn't mean you did anything wrong. This kind of thing happens all the time, to players throughout SIM, even when they breed quality mares to quality stallions.

In your depression, and inevitability of defeat -- perhaps even anger at the money you wasted -- you take all your claimer yearlings, along with the "different career", and maybe the solids, and decide you're going to sell them off cheap, for a dollar or something along that line; or, you don't want to mess with hoping other players will take them off your hands, so you pay the 1k each to send all those disappointing yearlings to Greener Pastures.

Congratulations on shooting yourself in the foot. You've just guaranteed yourself a 40k loss on that War Lock yearling -- actually, a 41k loss if you sent your Big Disappointment to Greener Pastures. Added to the loss on all the stud fees for all the other yearlings you've rid yourself of... well, that can add up to quite a bit of money. Is it any wonder that you always seem to struggle with money, and never have the funds to buy a fancy Steward-bred yearling, etc.?

You might be thinking, "But I'm cutting my losses. Isn't it smart to cut one's losses sooner than later, so you aren't losing even more money with the passage of time?" If we're talking real life racehorses, I would agree with that logic. But SIM horses cost almost nothing in upkeep, compared to real life racehorses. Let's estimate what it would cost to keep this War Lock yearling through the end of his 3yo season:

$1680 in stall fees ($5/day x 7 days/wk x 16wks x 3yrs)
$960 in weekly board ($20/wk x 16wks x 3yrs)
$2640 TOTAL

So, it costs less than $3000 to have that horse hang around through the end of his 3yo season.

Of course, there's going to be shipping, maybe the horse whisperer (just paid once for $1000), maybe some vet costs, but those are going to dovetail with your intent to race the horse, and presumably there's going to be purse money coming your way. For simplicity's sake, let's just say the horse costs $5000 to keep through its 3yo season.

You can recoup that $5000 with one maiden victory in a race with a 10k purse. Most likely, the horse isn't going to win right out of the box, so there's going to be some placings, and the accompanying purse money, along the way. So, you're going to make a little money, above racing expenses, even if you call it a day with the horse after one win. If the horse wins $10,000, and you have 5k in expenses, you've now lost $35,000 on the stud fee, rather than $40,000. If the horse earns $20,000 and you have, say, $7500 in expenses, then you've cut that $40,000 loss down to $27,500, by choosing to race the horse. Isn't that worth bothering to race it?

If you're not believing it's possible for your claimer galloper to earn, say, $20,000, then I ask that you do a search on a horse named Warring Pacific. He's a claimer galloper by War Lock that I bred. (Of course, since I own War Lock, I didn't have to pay a stud fee, but let's pretend that I did.) In one game year cycle, (Week 9 of Year 41 through Week 7 of Year 42) he earned $40,700. Most of that money was from finishing fourth in stakes races. But he also won two races. Note that all his bad races were in cheap claimers in Alaska (more on that in another article). Considering shipping all over the world, and stakes entry fees, let's say his expenses were $10,000. So, add that 10k to the 40k for War Lock's stud fee, and one would have 50k invested in the horse. Since he earned 40k in purses, he only lost 10k. Isn't a 10k loss much better than a 40k loss? If you get rid of a horse before it ever races, there's nothing you can do to decrease that 40k loss.

Let's look at another low life by War Lock that I bred. This is a gelding named War Leave. He galloped claimer as a yearling, regressed to different career after the gallop adjustment at 2yo, was still DC at 3yo, and then moved back up to claimer at 4yo. He didn't break his maiden until his second start this year, as a 4yo. But he has earned money in every start but one. Guess which one he bombed in? His only start in Alaska. When he finally broke his maiden, it was for a 15k Maiden Special Weight purse at Premium Park. All told, he has earned $24,090. Let's call his expenses $7500. Add that to the 40k stud fee, and he's cost $47,500. He's earned back right about half of that. Isn't it better to lose $24,000 on a horse, rather than $40,000? If I'd gotten rid of him before ever racing him, I'd be looking at a 40k loss, rather than a 24k loss.

I know many players are still highly skeptical that their bottom class horses can earn enough purse money to make it worthwhile to race them. Proceed to my article "Shooting Yourself in the Foot - What, When, and Where to Race".



Back to New Players articles

Copyright © 2024 SIMHorseRacing.com | Legal