[QUOTE=Plumcreek;8241519]
gumtree,
CANTER Colorado has an owned-horse retraining program, and your horse might fit right in. They are very active in promoting trainer owned and their CANTER owned horses for sale. I think Simkie has contacts with them but also here is their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/CANTERColorado?fref=ts
I do have a stall and would be a back up possibility for you, was planning to possibly horse show Sat, but horse is not really ready…
It would be nice to know the current state of soundness.
Edited to say: gumtree, you are pretty dialed in to racing. Why can’t 5% of a horse’s winnings go to a retirement bank account managed by a volunteer group with accounting skills? Paid directly by the track. Everyone gets a percentage of the winnings, except the horse. At only 5%, this horse would have close to a $10,000 retirement fund.[/QUOTE]
To be clear Cowboy did not win/earn us $200,000. We lost him as a 4 year old in his 8th start having won broken his maiden in his 7th after running in non-claiming races. At that time he had won around $15-20,000 for us. We had far more into him with breeding/raising/training expenses. He ran claiming once more I think but we didn’t have the money to claim him back. The person who took him won over $150,000 with him and then sold privately. It would be nice to think that they are on the “look out” for him also. But I doubt it.
Some tracks, Penn National being one collects $10 from the owners of each horse that gets in the gate in every race. The money given in grants to re-homing organizations like Canter, etc.
I hear what you are saying and in a perfect world owners and breeders would make sure their horses are provided for upon retirement. A lot do, at least owners, not so sure about breeders. Owners are footing the majority of expenses. When a horse shows earnings of $200,000 over a couple of years of racing people forget that is the horse’s total earnings. Subtract 20% that the trainer and jockey takes, around $35,000 a in training expenses, thousand more in vet, and other nickel and dime stuff and the cost of the horse. So, taking another 5% might seem excessive. A lot of the big KY commercial breeding factory don’t do much more than provide “window dressing”. The have the land, facilities and funds. IMO they could allocate and fund a re-school program also on their farms.
Taylor Made Farm makes huge money from selling thousands of horses a year at 5% commission plus expenses for small breeders. They contribute little to nothing.
The TB industry is by far, bar none that is and has been making great strides in helping with the re-homing. I personally think the “end user” should shoulder a big part of that responsibility. Unfortunately claiming horses are usually the ones that get the very short end of the stick. They can go through a lot of “owners” by the time their usefulness as a racehorse comes to an end. A lot of the bottom level owner/trainers are just scraping by they are not that interested nor have the funds to do “the right thing”. They’re just hoping that they are not the last “claimer” to be left with the horse “when the music stops”.
It’s a part of the sport/industry that I try not to let horses we have bred fall into. I and others can only do so much.
Thanks for the reply and interest.
