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You Have Your First WOW Horse -- Now What?

Original article written by Brenden Marcotte posted 13 years 3 weeks ago

When I realized I had my first “wow” yearling, I dreamed of a million dollar earner, a Louisville Derby and Steward Cup runner, a retired stallion bringing me in another million every year, etc. When my largest Steward Bred auction purchase (at the time) did his first workouts and ran five furlongs on the dirt in 0:58.59, I felt my dreams would be realized in the near future. Before he ran he ran in his first year of racing, Over Eager bested that work and ran it in 0:58.34. This is where my lesson learning began, and I hope it does for you as well.

After winning his first race over 1 mile with an ok speed figure, I put him right in a grade 3 stakes thinking this shouldn’t be much of a problem! Lesson 1: there are many other ‘wow’ horses out there, yours probably isn’t that special. I should have learned from the name that Steward gave him, but instead I totally was over eager! Showing my over confidence, this grade 3 race had two other Steward breds in it. Their total purchase price combined was over $11,000,000 while my little wow horse cost me only $194,000. Just because my horses workouts were just as good if not better didn’t necessarily trump the pedigree my opponents had.

Lesson 2: Stop being stubborn. After placing 5th in the above referenced race, he next placed 4th in a NW2. Not good. He was bumped up to 1 1/8 miles next and won, oh goody! Not learning from my past mistakes yet, I put him right back into graded stakes territory, assuming this future million dollar earner had finally figured it out! Another poor finish, this time placing 4th in the particular grade 3 stakes.

Since that race I’ve entered him in three non winning races, and his best place was second. At this point, my 0:58.34 work WOW horse has a record of 8:2-1-1 with earnings of $32,140; not quite what my dreams for him consisted of. Not only that, but any dream of a stallion career was recently crushed as well (as if the race record didn’t do that already) as he was recently gelded.

This all being said, what is the point of this article (besides money in my pocket for breeding purposes?...hm…)?

Be patient. Bottom line. You may have the next great horse, but give it some time to realize the potential that is there. What harm is it to run your wow horse in an NW2 after he breaks his/her maiden in the first race? If they are that great, they will have plenty of time to win graded stakes races, and as is obviously by Over Eager’s career, the NW2 and NW3 races have plenty of stiff competition to run your great wow horse against.

Since this point, I have two other wow horses currently racing, and I have finally begun to learn from my mistakes. My favorite filly, Girl Meets Guy, had the best 2 furlong dirt work in the sim last year (if I remember correctly). This, obviously, warranted starting her in a stakes race where she didn’t disappoint. I just knew I had a Stewards Cup runner here, or even a Sprint Championship runner, and heck, I was confident I could win (or at least place top 3) after my filly dominated her second stakes race. At this point I decided I would most likely run her week 10, 13 and run week 16 in the Steward’s Cup.

Since then, Girl Meets Guy finished second in a grade 2 (with an 89 speed figure however, showing her potential), and then finishing third just this past Friday (to the same horse that beat her three weeks earlier…BLAST!). My old self would have been stubborn and run her in the Steward’s Cup no matter what. However, my new patient self realizes there are many other wow horses out there, and while my filly may race in the Steward’s Cup next year, may make over one million dollars, etc., it doesn’t necessarily look like this year is the one, and that’s ok!

I still have much to learn, but I’m glad I’ve learned my lessons in this area. This is not to discourage you from spending the big bucks on Steward Bred horses obviously. Just realize there are so many good horses out there, with trainers that are much better than you at this point in their SIM careers. Learn from my mistakes everyone, I’m still trying to!


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