The Sport of Kings

By Scott Moran

Now that it’s spring in the US, you may notice a few headlines about thoroughbred horseracing’s Triple Crown. To capture the Triple Crown, a three-year-old colt or filly must win the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes. For the mainstream sports fan, horseracing fans may seem like their minds are trapped in time from a few centuries ago. Although the “sport of kings” may bewilder millions of people in civilized society, horseracing’s Triple Crown has become a time-honored tradition over the last century.

Let’s take a few steps back in time (aren’t the horsemen already there?), to delve into the sport of horseracing. Long before the time of trains, planes, and automobiles; horses were the primary means of transportation for Europe and later on the United States. They pulled carriages for transportation in the cities; medieval knights stormed into battle with them and they were used for various agricultural purposes. The more horses owned equated to a higher status in society.

With owners having a lot of horsepower around and a sporting spirit, an owner would challenge another owner’s horse to a race for some cash. These “match races”(races with exactly two running horses) were the only races around in this time period. There were no racing stewards to monitor the contest for fairness and no formal way to claim foul. All disputes had to be settled between the two owners.

In the United States, the formation of the American Jockey Club in 1894 put some regulation into this emerging sport. The American Jockey Club, which followed the similar model established in England two hundred years earlier kept a registration of thoroughbreds so that records could be maintained. This spurred more interest in regulating the sport, and the creation of racetracks and racing organizations followed.

Fast forward to the year 2007, there is still a strong horseracing business in the United States. Although there are not as many tracks compared to thirty years ago, the expansion of full card simulcasting has filled this void. Betting handle (the total dollar amount of legal wagers) is at an all time high. That statistic does not track the amount of illegal wagering that takes place offshore.

Today, there is not a need to use horses for transportation or farming. Who actually owns the modern thoroughbreds at racetracks today? Although there still is a good amount of international royalty owing the extremely high-end horses, the “well off” individuals do not own all the horses stabled at racetracks today. Quite the opposite is growing in popularity. The formation of racing syndicates allows several everyday citizens to own a fraction of the thoroughbred. A group of individuals organize and pull money together to buy one or more horses. The horse is owned by a stable name that describes the owners’ identities.

One of the most famous racing partnerships is the Sackatoga stable. This stable started with a handful of high school buddies who pooled resources together and bought thoroughbreds. After going through several different types of horses, the stable hit the jackpot when they bought a yearling of Distorted Humor (sire) and Bella’s Good Cide (dam). A yearling named Funny Cide won over $3,000,000 throughout his career. The cost of the purchase was only $75,000.

If only every racing partnership had that much success. The cost of owning a thoroughbred in training is around $75 a day at the track. And that cost does not include vet bills and trips to the blacksmith for shoes or chiropractor. The average thoroughbred will earn around $24,000 in purse winnings. It clearly does not pay well to be average.

Why would anyone own a racehorse if the financials are stacked against you? Although every owner may have their own reasons, a lot of them will say it is the challenge involved in selecting a winning racehorse. Several owners consider this similar to owning a sports franchise, but on a much smaller scale. The owner has to hire a trainer (head coach), jockey (athlete), and racehorse (equine athlete). The owner has all of the power to hire and fire the jockey or trainer. The horses are subjective to trades at any moment. There is no trading deadline; a racehorse could change ownership via private purchase with a prospective buyer at any time.

Another unique aspect of horseracing is that you cannot buy the Kentucky Derby. It has been tried several times. A tremendous amount of money could be spent buying the best stock at the two year sales and still be left with a horse that cannot win at the cheapest track. Smarty Jones, Funny Cide, and Barboro all came from modest breeding, just to mention a few.

Capturing horseracing’s Triple Crown is a true test of a champion. It has only been done eleven times in the past. The last successful Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978. The races are extremely competitive. Not only are the horses running for purses of over 1 million, just winning one of the three races could demand millions more in breeding value as a stallion. In the last ten years Silver Charm, Real Quite, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide, and Smarty Jones yesteryear today were able to win in the Derby and the Preakness, but failed in the Belmont.

In 2007, here is my list of the top five prospects to win the Kentucky Derby.
• Street Sense: Captured the Grade 1 Breeders Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs in a very impressive fashion. He certainly is a “horse for the course”.
• Ravel: This colt from the Fusaichi Pegasus breeding. This colt has a lot of upside to him. He should be the favorite for the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby.
• No Biz like Shobiz: Everything was going perfect with him until the disappointing third place finish in the Fountain of Youth race in Florida. However, many consider him to be the early favorite in the Derby.
• Great Hunter: The one-and-a-half length victory in the Robert Lewis put him on the map. He’s expected to race in the Kentucky Blue Grass stakes.
• Any Given Saturday: From the same sire as Funny Cide, he is one of the several highlights for Todd Pletcher’s barn.

After spending more hours than I should at the racetrack, there is one fundamental of the game that applies to all levels of horseracing. That is uncertainty. Longshots will win a fair share of races and unfortunately, favorites will not always cross the line the first.

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