Looking for people’s experience getting a horse from here. Good and bad.
Feel free to send in a PM
Pretty sure it use to be run by a couple Cothers or a couple of the main volunteers were on here. Definitely remember some lovely horses finding homes with Cothers.
Never had any personal experience.
P.
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Isn’t FLF really just a listing service? You’d really be buying directly from the race trainer/connections so experiences may vary based on that.
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FLF is a listing service like CANTER, just limited to a single track. It’s been around a long time (I have one that was listed in 2011, though I didn’t get her through the list) and several forum members have bought from there.
If you search old threads there are a couple of long ones about Fingerlakes horses.
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Buyer beware.
There and good ones and bad ones, like everything.
I met the nicest people…and the horse had MAJOR dangerous issues. Another friend went to pick up a “puppy dog”…The “dog” was rearing when he was supposed to be walking. She picked another and absolutely loves him and he doesn’t react to much.
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FLF is just a listing service. Volunteers list the horse based on trainer/groom’s information. Experiences will vary depending on how truthful the trainers are.
That being said the wonderful women that list these horses are very knowledgeable and have a good sense of the pulse of the horse’s connections. They will help you and be totally transparent. Give them a call/DM on FB and let them know what you’re looking for. They are very good at suggesting appropriate matches.
I have two FLF grads. Midnight Tucker and Fugedaboudit Sandy. “Fudge” technically came through Second Chance Thoroughbreds (NY) but he had been listed on FLF and was on a few volunteer’s watch list as a horse in need of a soft landing. I believe the FLF volunteers coordinated to get him to SC. I can’t recommend both enough.
I owe so much to Lucinda, who helps the listings. I went to look at a different horse and he didnt end up working for me. Lucinda told me to look at this big tall bay and the rest is history… I now own his “half” brother Fudge and they both are a pleasure to have in the barn. Midnight Tucker, now called Holden, has been my horse of a lifetime and I would have never gotten him if Lucinda didn’t call me one day in September to let me know she thought she had a good match for me.
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this is exactly what I was looking for in terms of info. Thank you.
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My FLF graduate is Bayshore Gal. She was listed in 2011, but I picked her up, along with two other Fingerlakes horses for a friend (the person that actually found them), out of a rescue situation on Christmas eve that year. The story is on one of the Fingerlakes Finest threads.
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No problem. It’s been a few years since I’ve been backside but there are still quite a few trainers there I recognize and can endorse as good connections. Feel free to shoot me a pm if you want to know more or want a third/fourth set of eyes on the prospective horse.
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sent you a message
Finger Lakes Finest does a huge service for a track that is less well known and might otherwise not have as many resources to place retiring racehorses in second careers. They are a listing service, are all volunteers, and don’t get any type of commission or monetary kickback when a horse is placed.
The process is generally that trainers reach out to the volunteers who run FLF, volunteers go look at the horses and take pictures and jog videos, and then they list the horse with a description and price based on what they are told by the horse’s connections. They supplement that with their own opinions, such as disciplines that they see see the horse being suited for or their own observations of temperament from their interactions with the horse during the photos and jog. But anything about the horse’s soundness history, its demeanor, what it is like to ride/gallop, what it has done, why it is being moved, etc, the volunteers are reliant on the connections to be upfront about. Some are. Some are not.
There are some amazing trainers at that track. I’ve gotten three horses that raced or trainer at Finger Lakes, and actually like @beowulf one was listed there and came to me through Second Chance. Another was listed and then was given to me by a h/j “trainer” who was ill-equipped to restart a horse straight off the track. The third I bought directly through track connections I know. I’ve also looked at others through FLF.
I’m also happy to be PM-ed about my experience and have many friends who have gotten horses through FLF or from Finger Lakes directly through connections.
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