How much does a race horse sell for?

Question

My science teacher (at a public school) sold race horses so we all figured he was making quit enough money selling his horses and wondered why he even taught. But I never figured out how much he was really making from selling his horses

Answer 1

how long is a piece of string!

Answer 2

it depends if the horses are fast runners and breed from other great horses then they can be worth alot of money .

Answer 3

There is a great saying in the Horse Business......The easiest way to become a Millionaire is.......To start out a Billionaire and then get into the Horse Breeding Business!!

While it is true that some horses sell for huge sums of money, like any business you must deduct expenses from that price.  The top selling horses at Auction and by Private Sale are almost always from the top Sires.  Here are some of the stud fee's for the top Sires

Storm Cat (now retired from Stud)    $500,000

A.P. Indy                                               $300,000

Distorted Humor                                  $300,000

Kingmambo                                         $250,000

Smart Stike                                          $150,000

Awesome Again                                  $150,000

Unbridled's Song                                 $150,000

Dynaformer                                          $150,000

So as you can see, if you want to Breed what we call a "Home Run Horse",   you are going to have to lay out some big bucks just in the Stud Fee alone.....buying a Quality Mare that can be Bred to the Above horses is going to set you back some more!  Expenses like Vet bills, pregnant Mare care, insurance, sales prep expenses, transportation, Sales fee's all add up!

Here are two nutshell cases of my horses from last year.

I bought a stakes winning and graded Stakes placed mare for just under $200K.  Her bloodlines were not from the bigest names, but I liked her when she raced and thought she would throw great babies.  I paid over $100K to breed her to one of the big name Studs.  The first year, she did not carry the foal to term.  The second year she didn't conceive.  The third year, she foaled a small sickly fillie.  She never made even to the sales ring, my daughter rides her on the trails!  That is one expensive trail horse.

I have also had some cases where moderately priced mares that I breed to the lesser studs have gone on to have great racing careers and then solid stud careers!  So it is a game of chance.

This is a great time of year to learn about the horse breeding and selling business.  We are about to start the auction season.  Monday the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky yearlings Sales start. Then on August 4-5 their Saratoga Select yearlings sale will start. You can look up the pedigree's of the horses as well as the results of previous years sales at this website

www.Fasigtipton.com

One of the other great sales takes place in September at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, KY

You can find information about their sales at:

www.Keeneland.com

The highest price ever paid at auction for a horse was $16 million dollars for a horse named The Green Monkey who went on to never win a race and be retired with career earning of just over $10,000

The highest price ever paid for a yearling was $13.1 million for Seattle Dancer won went on to win only  $164,728 dollars!

If you want to see how highly scrutinized the horses that are sold at auction are, browse the Keeneland website as well at this one from the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association

www.Toba.org

I always though of horse like cars.   The come in all shapes, sizes and price range!  You might think of a Cadillac as an expensive car....but if it has a bad motor or bad wheels...how much is it really worth?

Horses are the same...a breeder might pay $300K to breed his mare to A.P. Indy and have the foal be born small, or with crooked legs, or with breathing problems, or have some other small defect that makes that foal not worth eventhe $300K that the breeder paid in stud fee's!  While another Breeder might pay only $10K to breed his mare to a Sire named Boundry and end up with a horse named Big Brown!!  It is all a gamble, and the truth of the matter is that most Breeders make only a small profit if any at all!

So maybe instead of thinking your teacher is rich...you might want to chip in and buy him lunch!!

Answer 4

What is your race horse selling?

Answer 5

It depends on how many points they get, and how popular they are. A well known race horse could sell at 3 million dollars.

Answer 6

Anywhere from $400 (current kill price) to hundreds of millions.  You can even get them for free, if you're at a track and someone wants a home for one.

Big Brown was reportedly sold to Three Chimneys for over $50 million just before the Preakness.  He'd have been worth even more if he'd won.  His stud fee will make that back in less than 5 years.

Unfortunately, most racehorses sell in the low end.  He probably needed his day job.

Answer 7

depends on breeding/earnings/health/etc

average 40,000