Different Ways to Buy

After you have made your decision about where you’re going to race, the next could go a couple of ways. You could pick your horse next. Now if you already know about horses this may not be too bad, if you have no experience then this could present a problem. If that is the case you may want to pick a trainer next to help you make that choice. Another, and in my opinion sometimes better, idea is to get with a Bloodstock Agent.
If you’re going to be doing this on your own then there are plenty of ways to go about your purchase. There are actually web sites that have horses for purchase posted on them, this is in fact how my husband and I found our first horse. There may be local farms, training tracks as well as many sales across the country. I highly recommend that your first purchase is of racing age and is an experience racer, more than likely you’d like to see your horse race within a year of purchase. It may sound kind of silly but that’s something to consider and helps keep you motivated.
If you’re not confident on doing this on your own then you can go to your trainer and they can, in most cases, help to find you a horse that will meet your needs. The backside of a track is like a small town and everybody knows about everybody else, including when someone may have a horse that they would like to sell. Or your trainer may have a good recommendation on a horse to claim in your price range. One of the things to remember about claiming is that you won’t have the option of getting the horse checked out before hand, it’s a kind of “As Is” situation.
The benefit of the Bloodstock Agent is that they usually have more information and connections than a trainer. While a trainer may only know about what is on the track that they are at, the Bloodstock Agent usually will have a connection to, not just the trainers on that track, but others in the area as well as the farms. Plus they research stats and bloodlines that the trainer may not have the time to do. They are distinct and specialized jobs. The trainer trains and the Bloodstock Agents only job is to find you the right horse at the right price.
Either way, once you’ve narrowed down the field to a few choices something to think about doing is going to Equibase.com, a site that has the racing and work information for any horse racing in the US, and yes around the world, this way you can get the real race history of the horse you are looking at. Side note to this, when I say “real race history” I mean just that. We dealt with an owner that gave us the incorrect race history of the horse, if we hadn’t checked on this ourselves it could have been a major problem. Then I would go and find a website, such as Calracing.com, where you can watch the past races for free. This will give you a good idea of what you have to work with, i.e. the type of equipment the horse is use to running with and such. Another tool we use is called Truenicks, this is a site that looks at historical data and gives you information about how the breeding of the lines of the dam, mother, and sire, father, mix. It gives you grades from A++ and down and information about probable best distance and such. Now this is not an end all be all, since many horses have run beyond their Nick, it is just one more tool to help you make the best choice you can. The final thing would be one of the most important, get a vet check, remember that if you claim this isn’t available to you. This is just what it sounds like, you have a vet check the horse out before the purchase. You may even want to do x-rays or sonograms to double check for soundness. The x-rays will cover you for bone issues and the sonogram for soft tissue matters such as tendons. I know this could cost you but just think what you could save on making sure the horse is sound. In fact we almost purchase a horse that during the check the vet found something he was suspicious about and recommended we should x-ray, when he looked at it he found a fracture on the cannon bone, we didn’t buy the horse which potentially saved us thousands. If you’ve claimed your horse I would get this done when he gets to your barn.
Claiming races, or running for a “Tag” is the bread and butter of horse racing. In a claiming race you can pick up a horse as long as you pay the tag, or price listed, on the race. A very large percentage of races that are run are “claimers” as they’re called and can range from $1500-$80,000, this is just an example. As a rule if you don’t have an owner’s license already you can get a conditional one at your track, in our case we had to interview with the stewards so that they could determine that we were getting involved in good faith. If we hadn’t gotten the horse then there would be no license issued so be aware of that. Then we got the “Claiming Slip” and set up our Horseman’s Account with our Paymaster, or Horseman’s Bookkeeper. In California we not only had to put in the cost for the claim but the state tax as well, this is not common in all states so check first. Once that was done we filled out the slip and met up with our trainer so that when the time was right he could “drop the claim” on our chosen horse, there is a box that is kept near the paddock to drop these slips in. In most cases once the horse makes it on the track the claim is in play. Once the race is over there will be a track official that will put a tag on the horse’s bridle to let the, now ex, trainer know the horse was claimed. Usually the new trainer will have a groom meet the horse in the test barn and that is where the exchange takes place. Now you could be in a situation, like us, where there are multiple claims put on the same horse, this will get you involved in what is called a “Shake”. A shake is when all parties that have put in a claim choose a number, in our case 1-3, and these numbered balls are put into a special jar which is shaken and then a number is chosen, this is the lucky winner, us.
Now the claiming game can be kind of secretive, many times a horse may be run in a claimer but the connections really don’t want to lose them. Rules have gotten tougher but you can still find that if the connections for a horse get wind of the potential claim they could scratch it, I’ve seen people find out at the gate and come up with a reason to scratch the horse. So it can be secretive and you never want to let anybody know that you’re interested in picking up a horse this way. I know of trainers that have posted people so they could watch the claim box, tried to disguise a horse or even sent grooms out to try to spy on other barns and get info on potential claims.
The one down side is that once you claim a horse you could find out that there is a problem with it, this is where your research can come in. It can be pretty obvious when a horse is doing well but keeps moving down the race ladder, usually a sign that the connections want to dump the horse and just keep moving it down till it finally gets picked up. Take a good long look at cases like this and be aware that this is a potential risk that you take with a claimer. And remember you get no disclosure of the condition of the horse in advance.