An aquantance of mine bought about $1.5m worth of yearlings about 10 years ago to pinhook. This was the 2yo sales were becomming big and the market was at that time pretty stable. He bought 10-11 babies, not "superstars" but decent solid "get to the races" breeding with athletic looks and no medical issues.
Two died by January after incurring thousands in medical expenses. A filly ran off on a rider in Fla and charged through a fence and is now a pleasure horse with a chronic limp. The best colt got colic right before the sale and was an "out." (He sold later for a reduced price because the colic ended with surgery.) A couple RNA'd and he had to sell them privately or keep them to race, which he didn't want to do.
One of the colts who he paid about $100k for sold for almost a million and everyone was wowed by how well he'd done. The fact is that after expenses for shipping, breaking, training, board, shoes, vets, sales prep etc. He made about $150k for the entire lot.
He had alot go wrong, but the fact is that alot can go wrong and the big successes have to cover alot of disasters.
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RIP Monroe.
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