Claiming a Horse

[Rupert Pupkin]

I agree with Cannon about having at least a few months of training expenses put away. Even at the Northern California tracks, you will have huge expenses. Your typical trainer up there charges $65 a day. So you are looking at training expenses of $2,000 a month. Your vet bill will probably be another $400 a month or so. So you are looking at approximately $2,400 a month in expenses.

You have these huge fixed costs which are the same whether you have $1 million stakes horse or a $5,000 claimer. I don't think it makes much business sense to buy a really cheap horse because of the huge fixed costs. You are looking at $30,000 a year in expenses in Northern California. The jock and the trainer each get 10%. That means that your horse would have to make $36,000 in a year just for you to break even. If you have a stakes horse that can make $200,000 in a year, then the huge fixed cost will not hurt you that much. But if you have a relatively cheap claiming horse, those fixed cost make it extremely difficult to make a profit.