Can anyone tell me the best way to contact trainer Rigoberto Velasquez at Portland Meadows?
He has a horse in his barn named Rich Debut that I’m interested in acquiring — I trained her dam for a new career off the track. I’ve been following Rich Debut’s career and she’s running in $2500 claiming races and is older now, so I thought I’d see if the owners are interested in selling. But have no idea how to go about this.
Thanks!
I will check with a friend who works at the track…but that may not get you any better info than calling PM - or email them. Here is the link to do either:
http://www.portlandmeadows.com/horsemen/contact-racing-office
Best wishes with Rich Debut.
By running the horse in a $2500 claiming race the owners are “saying” they accept the risk that someone could buy their horse for the claiming price. So if you really want the horse pony up the $2500 and have someone claim it for you the next time it runs.
More often than not a horse that is running for $2500 is worth much less than that. Unless the horse is running every other week and hitting the board every time there is a good chance they would be happy to take less or even give the horse away to get it off the feed bill. It never hurts to ask in these situations.
There is a person who lists OTTBs in the Portland area (some from Emerald Downs too). There is a chance Rich Debut is already for sale…but names are not listed. The person will be able to find the trainer for you…You can find contact info and some albums showing current horses at
Facebook page: Hidden Fox Farm Horse Sales.
Prices are anywhere from FTGH, $800, $1200 to $3,500.
Just a FYI when you do get a hold of him, he goes by Jesse. I am trying to find his number, if I do I will pm it to you.
Thanks for all the info. I’m going to call PM and get contact info for Jesse and go from there.
MTA: Called Portland Meadows and they were weird about giving me his contact info. They offered to page him and give him my phone number, but I’m not 100% they will. So if anyone has his contact info, it would be appreciated. Thanks!
MTA: Katie at Hidden Fox Horse Sales is helping me contact the trainer.
still haven’t found it and I know I’ve got a million old condition books around here SOMEWHERE with it in it, kind of silly they wouldn’t give it to you since it’s in the back of the condition books
Does Portland have HBPA or an equivalent horsemen’s group? The track number usually only deals with the actual racetrack as in a stable gate number where you would be speaking to a security guard. A horsemen’s group would probably be more wiling to try and relay your message. I always checked the stable gate for messages but not all trainers do, nor do all security guards like playing secretary to trainers. 
Hi All, I got a call from Rich Debut’s trainer, Jessie Velasquez, this afternoon. Nice guy. He was happy to hear from me. He’s planning to run Rich Debut one more time in a few weeks and see how she does. If she doesn’t run well, he’s going to contact me and we’ll try to negotiate a price. Either way, he’s agreed to contact me when they are done racing her.
I made it really clear that my friends wanted to acquire Rich Debut in order to do a nice thing and retire her with her dam, and there was not much money to throw at her purchase. To that end, what might I expect to pay?
She would have been a giveaway months ago in my barn. I assume $2500 would be the ceiling but she isn’t worth remotely that as a race horse.
Thank you Laurie. That was my thought too. I’ll let you all know how this winds up. Thank you for your help.
Any horse would be lucky to wind up in your barn, Watermark Farm. Any horse. Hoping they wise up.
Devil’s advocate here. They have put a lot of money into that horse. I don’t recall her running the whole year at Emerald which means they rested her over the summer. This time a year ago, she was the winningest horse in the NATION. They don’t know you from Adam and have no way of knowing if what you tell them is the truth. (Many racetrackers have been burned by people buying horses from them off the track.) The trainers I work with don’t do giveaways because they have BTDT as far as people taking greater care of something they’ve shelled out money for.
He is a good guy, one of the very best riders you’ll find on the track. Don’t finagle. Offer $500, $700, $1000 for the horse. That will make her people feel good/better/confident about selling. She has been good to them.
Slewdledo, Watermark Farm has a long and well-documented history as someone who has taken remarkable care of some very unlucky horses. She has a stack of vet and other refererences. This trainer might be skeptical, but I think WF can allay any reasonable worries about whether she is legit.
Thanks for the kind words, Lori B!
Slewledo, thanks for the input on price. We shall see what happens…
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