The Easiest Racehorse? The Proven Gelding

Original article written by Regina Moore posted 13 years 0 weeks ago

A few weeks into Year 26, a major player was dispersing all his horses. The auction included two geldings, both 5yos, a turf sprinter with earnings over 350k, and a turf router with earnings closing in on 700k, including stakes victories in his two most recent races. At the auction’s end, I was amazed to acquire both those boys – who had collectively earned over a million dollars -- for a mere total of $29,000.

I couldn’t believe my good fortune. But the fact is, this kind of thing happens time and time again. Most SIMsters zero in on breeding stock and youngsters with untapped potential, when having an opportunity to pick through another player’s finest, leaving the honest, hard-knocking, proven wealth-building geldings and uncut mature racehorses to sometimes be had for shockingly low prices.

The above turf sprinter struggled somewhat. Now eight, and in the final weeks of his career, he’s earned just shy of 50k since I took ownership. The router, on the other hand, went right out and won a Grade 3 stakes, immediately earning back over twice what I’d paid for the pair. In thirteen subsequent starts, he’s won four allowance races, has been stakes placed a couple of times, and was fourth in the Grade 1 King George Stakes. He’s earned 215k under my ownership, and is still a formidable contender at the age of eight.


The older, proven gelding is an open book. There’s little or no guesswork. There’s no strategy needed to manipulate their careers so that they attract attention in a highly competitive breeding market. Just by looking at the proven older guy’s race record, you can usually know with confidence:

1. What his most favorite distance is.
2. What equipment he’s most happy with.
3. How he likes his races spaced.
4. The highest class level he can be successful at.
5. If you’re a SIMperior player, you can also have the horse whisperer tell you what kind of track condition he likes. (Often, this information is already posted in the notes by the prior owner.)

There, you have everything you need in the race record to campaign the horse successfully. All you have to do is enter races that meet the above criteria as much as possible, and sit back and count the money as the horse races. Granted, you may have picked up a boy that is about to start a downward slide in his career, and he’s not near as grand for you as he was for the prior owner. But if you didn’t pay much for him to begin with, you aren’t going to be out much.


Another example:

Once hearing that, at the start of this year, a departing major player’s horses had been taken over by AJ, I went looking for hard-knocking older guys. I didn’t find geldings, but found three uncut boys, aged four through six. I contacted AJ and asked to buy one, and listed the three in order of preference. I was delighted that AJ sold me all three, for prices that totaled 40k. I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that all three were still available.

I gelded them, since none could seriously be considered stallion prospects. The one I wanted most, a 6yo Steward-bred with over 200k in earnings, went out and won two small stakes in South America. He bombed in a Grade 2, and then came right back and won an allowance last Monday with a 75 speed figure. So, three wins in four starts under my ownership, and earnings thus far of $58,000.

Is this rocket science, or what? With proven old guys, you don’t need to be a savvy player. You just follow their orders, as presented via their race record.

The second of the trio was a 5yo Steward-bred with 200k in earnings. He didn’t show much in his first stakes start for me, so I dropped him into an 85k claimer and he won. He was also claimed, which I wasn’t expecting at all, but was very happy to have made over ten times his purchase price within two races. The third boy has started three times for me and only gotten a second. He’s just 4yo so didn’t have the history that the others did, though he had earned 150k. I’m still playing with distances, and if I can’t get anywhere with him, he’ll be switched to steeplechasing, since he schooled with potential.

The latter point is something to keep in mind. Don’t forget to train any 4yo+ you have over jumps. If you have a “natural”, the horse has the likelihood of being average to being a real star. If you have a horse with “potential”, my experience has been that you can usually get a maiden win from them. Even if you aren’t into steeplechasing, it can be a way of getting your money back, if you didn’t on the flat.


The proven older guy can also be found on the sales list. Not every day, of course, but every once in a while, a nice one will show up for a can’t-get-burned price. One of my most favorites was a newly-turned 5yo from a major barn with earnings of 125k that I bought for $12,000. Now, as a 7yo, he’s earned over 200k for me, despite not winning a stakes. He’s a super nice allowance horse (won three in a row at the beginning of last season) and is usually right in the thick of it in the stakes races. Again, easy money without much thought on my part. In a career that has spanned 29 races thus far, he has finished as far back as fifth only once. If he goes bad all of a sudden, there’s always chasing, because he has schooled with potential.


To drive another point home about geldings, here’s a brief story of two Steward-breds that I bought as youngsters.

One is a 3yo dirt router that showed spurts of promise, but I gelded him after he had lost two NW2 races in a row. As though to spite me, he went out and solidly took a NW2 (now that he finally was able to stretch his legs at 10f), and then flew from South Dakota to Saudia Arabia on a two-week turnaround (actually, his third start in a row with only two weeks’ rest) and blew away a nine-horse field in a 9.5f stakes, with an 80 speed figure. Not only was it his lifetime best fig, but the fastest of any horse I’ve ever owned.

In the meantime, I have a 4yo turf sprint colt that solidified my intent to stand him at stud when he easily won a Grade 1 stakes over older horses at the end of last year. This year, he’s headed for the Steward’s Cup as his final start.

When I think about the future with these two horses, I feel a sense of accomplishment with the colt, but also a sense of responsibility. Any mistakes on my part between now and the end of the year could be the difference between him seeing his share of mares, or being ignored completely at stud. With the gelding, I feel a sense of freedom at the idea that I can do anything I want with him. I don’t need to serve any preconceived notions of what a stallion prospect should look like. I can just race, race, race, year after year, and enjoy.


Under the FAQ section titled “How Are the Winners Chosen”, various factors that go into a race and individual horses are mentioned, and then the paragraph ends with, “Up to three generations of pedigree are a huge factor in this formula.” The real-life focus on pedigree is probably the biggest reason that SIM is so beloved by so many players. Therefore, it’s only natural that the pursuit of breeding stock is so important.

It’s that very emphasis on breeding that so often allows the geldings, whose only purpose is to race and earn money, fall through the cracks and go unnoticed. When a gelding has a solid record of accomplishment, and goes up for sale at a nearly giveaway price, he can be lucrative for the player who recognizes all that he has done, and his willingness to keep doing more.

Proven geldings are the easiest horses to manage. All you have to do is race them the way they’ve shown they want to be raced. There's usually nothing left to figure out. There’s no high pressure decisions to be made that risk messing up a pretty race record. They can be raced over and over again, until they show that they wish to race no more.

Good geldings are gems, and yet not all that rare or hard to find.

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