Lawyer Ron Goes to Pletcher..

Originally Posted by oracle80

I was just going to post a piece about the Haisfield's. Its guys like you who claim to love racing and have all teh wrong ideas that make me sick.
Look, we NEED more people like them, new people who love the game and jump in with both feet first. They would be anti establishment, anti elitist people, too bad you did your research AFTER the fact instead of before your ill advised post bashing them.

Yeah but we need people like them to make good business decisions. Buying a Langfuhr for $6 million is a bigtime gamble. Sure the horse had a shot at the derby but the risk vs. reward wasn't balanced in their favor.

What put up the red flag for me is how one of the Hines' family members loved the horse and said they wouldn't consider selling until after the triple crown races. I was told this by them before the Arkansas Derby. And then all of a sudden the horse is for sale? Hmm.

Originally Posted by oracle80

Ok, so now they overpaid. But thats what the stallion game is at that point Pillow, do you know much about it? If you are buying one at the end of his career, its pretty obvious what his market value is. WHen you SPECULATE and buy one before the Tri Crown, its always gonna be a huge gamble, where you overpay based on the hope that he wins a classic race and then you UNDERPAID. But if he doesn't you have to make lemons out of lemonade.

I've got a relative who is a breeder and his livelihood depends on people overpaying for horse flesh. I believe one of his babies was purchased and put under the care of Pletcher. Could be wrong though.

It's amazing the ups and downs he goes through. One day he makes $200k and the next day he loses a mare because she kicked her stall.

Originally Posted by oracle80

Yeah, he overpaid perhaps. And everyone got rich except him.
A friend of mine brokered one of his stallions and after working in this business for 30-40 years, he finally got set for life. Says the guys a complete gentleman.
Obviously he loves the game, dove in headfirst, and is trying to make a go of it. Everytime one of those horses gets bought, a lotta people make a lotta dough. The kinda dough they might not make in 5 years of business, rising each day and working their asses off.
I find it hard to label him a bad guy or elitist because he made a business decision aimed at what he feels is his best attempt to make his dough back.
Most people who play in this business lose. He wouldn't be the first to overpay on a stallion.
We need more guys like this guy joining the business in order for it to survive the long haul. NEW money is what we desperately need. Self made guys who jump in and go for it. Its real easy for a fourth generation robber baron's offspring to kick up 100 mill out of the trust fund they were left. Its a lot harder for someone who worked their whole lives in business to get to the point where they can do something like this if they CHOOSE to.
If he violated a contract, I'm sure it will go to court, and the damaged party be awarded just compensation. I'm not gonna say if he did that, that its ok.
But I'm not gonna condemn teh guy either, and again, I don't find Pletcher to be the key part of this story. To me hes just a footnote. If it wasn't Pletcher it woulda been some other big name trainer whose already successful. I don't see the difference.

Hey I admit what I said about them was wrong. But part of the blame of the state of racing is the way these *******s who inherited their wealth/farm have squandered everything their kin had worked for. They end up selling the farm to a sheikh and then we have to endure those ungrateful pricks winning all of the big races and owning all of the top stallions and mares.

Makes me sick.

I root for people like the Haisfields. We need 1000 more of them.