No runners imminent so a few comments on picking horses and trainers. I still have a lot to learn as an owner, but these are my thoughts at the moment.
I believe in meritocracy in all areas of business, and horse racing should be no different. In picking a trainer, the plan should be to find the best trainer for your horse, and that should be all. The truth is that I have not done that - more often than not I go with someone I know, or in many cases who my co-owners know and get on with. That said, I am pretty happy with what I have.
The bulk of my two-year-olds are trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam and Brian Meehan. These guys know how to educate and train young horses, and their records speak for themselves - Pete trained the two top rated 2yos in the UK last year and Brian has also had a lot of 2yo success. Brian is now at Manton, and with all those facilities at his disposal his performance should improve further. There are of course other trainers who are excellent with their 2yos - Jeremy Noseda and Kevin Ryan are two that come to mind - although I don't know either of them.
I have four horses in partnership with Nick Gifford. Nick is a young guy who has spent his life in racing and knows the game backwards. He is energetic but thoughful, and most of all patient - I trust him implicitly. I didn't know him before - he first came onto my radar with Straw Bear and I watched his results for a while. One of the syndicate members lives near his stables so we went with him. Most of the horses we have with him are "slow burners" - big rangy horses that won't be peaking until they go chasing in a couple of years.
I have two jumping recruits from the flat with Gary Moore. Gary is a hard working no-nonsense sort of guy who just gets on with it. I have another with David Pipe, who I think will turn out to be a top trainer. I also have horses with Tom Dascombe - Tom is just starting out, but he spent many years as assistant to Mike De Kock, a top trainer in South Africa. His results with cheap horses are impressive, and I will continue to support him.
It's fairly clear that different trainers do well with different types of horse - certain trainers (i.e. Dandy Nicholls) seem to do very well with sprinters, whereas others (i.e. Mark Johnstone) seem to excel with staying types. Henry Cecil and Michael Stoute are both exceptional with fillies. I'm not sure I understand why this is, but I know that there is a lot of style in how they train.
There are other considerations. Horses with small trainers often go off at longer prices than they would do otherwise. As an example, I had a horse with Tom Dascombe in 2005 (Political Intrigue) who had been rated 89 on the flat - in his first hurdle he was up against a horse from the Hobbs yard who was rated 87 on the flat. We went off at 6-1, the Hobbs horse went off 4-6 favourite. We won and landed a nice touch. Against this I don't think horses from small stables sell well - they just aren't trusted as much and they are not as well networked.
Buying horses is difficult. I don't know how to assess a horse on looks, so I have to rely on others. I prefer to buy at auction, as it feels safer. Always get a vet to check the horse out beforehand, and always get an expert view from a trainer. Trainers can generally be relyed upon for an honest assessment - they don't want bad horses in their yards and they don't want disenfranchised owners. Buying abroad is very tricky, and you have to put more leg work in.
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Interesting entry and one I shall have to take heed of as I should be investing in a couple of horses of my own this year. My initial reaction would naturally have been to just pick my favourite trainer and go from there but this is no doubt the wrong way to approach matters. I've had some discussions with one of the owners of Hurricane Spirit and particularly like what John Best has done with him. I will continue to note with interest the form of Invinsible Spirit progeny on the all-weather. As for the jumps side of affairs, I'm located very close to the Twiston-Davies yard and have met Nigel on a number of occassions. Having seen how things are run at Naunton I'd have no qualms about having a horse in training there.
Someone asked me about Hurricane Spirit the other day - he's a very interesting prospect but hard to put a value on. Twiston Davies is class - I think I would prefer him as a trainer of chasers to hurdlers as I think he is a long termer. My one concern about him would be that he tried to retire a couple of years ago, which makes me wonder if he is still in love with the game.
Having purchased an Irish sports horse from Inverness, I would say: speak to the person who cares on a day-to-day basis for the intended purchase. See also the horse in its base at the yard. BTW I haven't bought an athlete!
That's a good point regarding NTD's 'retirement'. On the one hand he may have lost some of the passion, and on the other he may have come back precisely because he still has the passion. But I'm sure the real reasons, whatever they may be, are ones that I'm unlikely to discover for certain.
Over the past few months I've been evaluating exactly what I want in terms of ownership. The family have been owners for generations but solely in the jumps arena, and whilst I do enjoy the jumps the flat is my real passion, specifically the turf flat. When I go ahead with a jumps horse it will be solely to provide some interest over the winter months. What I'd really love to do is get a couple of sprinters in training with Mick Channon but as stated earlier, I don't know if going with my 'favourite' is necessarily the right thing to do (funnily enough as I write this Mick has just come good in Dubai with Obe Brave).
I feel that these days there is more viable choice in terms of deciding upon a yard and I suppose, to use that old football cliche, it's a nice problem to have.
That's an impressively long list of bloodstock running for you. I wonder if you could design the dream season for yourself which races you'd ultimately like to win?
In my case, having had a few slow boats running round the jumping gaff tracks, I always dreamed of winning a race at Hexham, my local track. Eventually I did it and it felt fantastic. Mind you, just as well that was the limit of my equine ambitions as the horse that won was never rated higher than 100!
I wish you luck with your 'string', think you'll struggle to win too many races with Prince Ary as, in my view, he only just gets two miles over hurldes, but look forward to following him and the rest through the blog.
I see from your list of horses that Captain Hurricane is now with Brian Meehan ? Is this an error, or if not, why has he moved from Peter Chapple-Hyam ? Presumably it can be awkward moving horses from one trainer to another ?
As we're on the subject, why is it that trainers prefer particular courses over others. They seem to have a lot more winners at these preferred courses than they do at others?
In deciding which trainer to choose for one's charge it's worth bearing in mind the success rates at different tracks, e.g., one might be a galloping track or another might put a premium on jumping or require a stiff test etc.
Just knowing this one fact can improve one's chances of success both as an owner and a punter.
We moved Captain Hurricane because he was clearly not doing it at Pete's and a change of environment can work the oracle. As an owner it's hard to know exactly what is making a horse unhappy. The Captain is not the friendliest horse around - he's been pretty vicious in the past and has bitten a fair few people. I don't think the stable staff at Pete's liked him very much - apparently he is a lot more relaxed now at Brians, although we have had him gelded which may have made a difference. He should be out fairly soon.
I can only think of two reasons why a trainer will do well at a certain course. Firstly they might just understand a certain course well, and use it for horses of a certain type. Prince Ary won at Fakenham - a flattish track and an easy 2 miles probably suited him, and Pipe will no doubt use this track selectively for horses that that only just get the trip. Secondly a lot of horses don't travel that well, and will perform best at the nearest course to the stable etc.
Hi Bert,
Just recently started my own horse racing blog, hopefully if profits permit, I'd like to buy a few flat horses myself, look forward to reading your blog. Would appreciate the add too.
johnsdreamon.blogspot.com
Good luck with your blog Andrew.
please can you add my link Thank you.
http://ash-hight-punter.blogspot.com/
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