Bill and Ted's Excellentes Aventures

[Tal]

Superb. Excellent diary return.

Great to see you both doing well.

[edgascoigne]

Following a trip to the ‘home of poker’ this weekend I may try and find time to make a few posts on broad life updates on here.

Click to see full-size image.

Herewith (if I’ve managed to upload the photo successfully) the fam

[edgascoigne]

As a first topic what do we prefer out of…

Racehorse ownership and a reflection on the state of the game

Musings on the allure/attraction of poker for a VERY infrequent player

‘General life’ update - family, work, writing a book on ‘money’

[tikay]

Be nice to start with racehorse ownership. Seem to recall you had one which had "bingo" in the name?

[OverTheBorder]

As a first topic what do we prefer out of…

Racehorse ownership and a reflection on the state of the game

Musings on the allure/attraction of poker for a VERY infrequent player

‘General life’ update - family, work, writing a book on ‘money’

Played a big chunk of Saturday with you Ed and did not join the dots.  Scottish fellow drinking stupid quantities of dark fruits!  Good to share a table.

[edgascoigne]

As a first topic what do we prefer out of…

Racehorse ownership and a reflection on the state of the game

Musings on the allure/attraction of poker for a VERY infrequent player

‘General life’ update - family, work, writing a book on ‘money’

Played a big chunk of Saturday with you Ed and did not join the dots.  Scottish fellow drinking stupid quantities of dark fruits!  Good to share a table.

Ahah!! I had no idea either - good to play together and hope you ran deeper than I did.

[edgascoigne]

As a first topic what do we prefer out of…

Racehorse ownership and a reflection on the state of the game

Musings on the allure/attraction of poker for a VERY infrequent player

‘General life’ update - family, work, writing a book on ‘money’

As you’re “first in, best dressed” let’s roll with this…..now to find the time to pull thoughts together!!

[Doobs]

Following a trip to the ‘home of poker’ this weekend I may try and find time to make a few posts on broad life updates on here.

Click to see full-size image.

Herewith (if I’ve managed to upload the photo successfully) the fam

London has changed a bit since I left.

[edgascoigne]

As a first topic what do we prefer out of…

Racehorse ownership and a reflection on the state of the game

Musings on the allure/attraction of poker for a VERY infrequent player

‘General life’ update - family, work, writing a book on ‘money’

As you’re “first in, best dressed” let’s roll with this…..now to find the time to pull thoughts together!!

Horse Racing - State of the Nation

Right then….where to begin? Let’s start with a bit of my background …

Contrary to how it may appear now that Father swans it up at Cheltenham each year, I’m not from a racing family. Rather my passion for the sport began when working with the racing team at Betfair from 2008-2011 - tough not to develop an interest in something when it’s on the team TV 24/7!! Through those years my interest was principally in the betting side of affairs - the knowledge around me was incredible and anyone with half a brain could turn a gradual profit with such insights. Accounts, of course, got restricted and closed until eventually even getting £50 on something was a pipe dream. The monetary edge wasn’t great enough for me to bother running around shops // trying to open multiple accounts, and so the betting interest broadly fizzled out (big days aside) when I left the industry in 2013.

My love for the game persisted, however, and I continue to go racing ‘semi regularly’ (8-12 times a year?) to this day. A love for NH over flat gradually waned as my older, softer, self realised the weather is much kinder in the summer…..and also that if I was ever to broach life as an owner in any ‘meaningful’ capacity then I’d rather do so in a space where there is better resale potential.

Since my early days I’ve had interests in jumpers called Asian Prince and Malangen… and then on the flat Rotherwick, Gordonstoun and Jack Darcy. I’ve also now got interests in a ‘string’ of 2 year olds coming into 2023 *gulp*.

The common thread throughout has been social ties with the co-owners. For those uninitiated in the sport the annual cost of keeping a horse is, at the lower end around £25,000 and at the upper end approaching £40,000. This is true whether you bought the horse bargain basement or absolutely emptied the clip. The financial barriers to entry in the game are prohibitively high for any individual, almost agnostic of their net worth. Over time more and more ‘racing clubs’ have proliferated to seek to bridge this gap, but with regret an awful lot of them increase drain from the racing economy owing to selling 4,000,000 £69 shares for something of a true value of £80,000 (permit artistic licence, please). Ownership of a true % share with a group I know and trust remains my preferred approach. I would also rather have multiple %s in horses adding up to 100% than one single horse outright from a diversification standpoint.

What I find truly fascinating about racing is that an awful lot of very bright, successful, monied people (God bless them, the game would die without them) continue to pour vast sums into something which, provably, is a loss-making exercise. In France or Australia, where the prize money is kinder (principally as a result of their persisting with the PMU / TAB rather than permitting myriad bookmakers offshoring themselves and making insufficient levy based contributions) it is genuinely possible to break even on the game or perhaps turn a small profit.

With the economics of racing in the UK that is very, very hard. This drives people (in part) to ‘plot’ horses (setting them up to win a particular race), which the bookies etc. moan about, and the vicious circle goes on. Bookies may do well to remember that without horses in training there is no racing, without racing there is no entertainment, without the entertainment there is no betting market etc etc. As humans I typically find many are sadly very selfish / short-termist however.

A perception that trainers in the UK are coining it is, perhaps with a couple of exceptions, woefully inaccurate. Those that are lucky enough to earn their yards outright have a chance at making a modest living. Those that lease their yard always have to proverbial wolf at the door. To understand how £xx,xxx’s pa can so easily go up in smoke I would encourage anyone to take a yard visit and witness the sheer hive of human activity that is required to deliver these beautiful animals to the track in top condition. Tens of people, myriad logistical challenges, constant financial pressures. As glamorous as it may appear I can promise you that for all bar the lucky handful (typically driven by a large, single, owner in the yard who has multiple horses with the trainer) the life of a trainer is chuffing hard work.

In the next post I’ll talk about Rotherwick and Gordonstoun (I’ll dig some pictures up) and then we can move to Jack Darcy and what will be a ‘make or break’ 2yo campaign with *cough* 9 yearlings bought into at the back end of last year.

[tikay]

This is exceeding expectations, very very interesting, thanks Ed.

[RED-DOG]

Fascinating stuff Ian, and exceedingly well written.

Thank you for taking the time to include the uninitiated.

[edgascoigne]

The first flat horse I was involved with was Rotherwick, pictured below. I’m very fortunate to work in an amazing office environment with very many colleagues who have become great friends.

“Let’s get a horse”, I said. “It’ll be fun…”, I said.

Old Rothers, bless him, was already in Paul and Ollie Cole’s yard. I’d come to know Ollie through his brother in law, Henry, who is Director of the Racing Bank at Weatherby’s - THE horse racing institution. Formerly owned by a big owner of theirs Rothers was now running in their own silks, reasonably common if an owner no longer wants to keep the horse, but the yard feel there may still be mileage in him. After a good 3rd in a reasonable handicap, and with the option of a lease agreement on the table (pay ‘keep’, but no purchase) this seemed like a no brainer.

Here are the FLM silks in all their finery on the way down to the start at Windsor:

Click to see full-size image.

Alas the handicapper seemed to have his number but, as he fell in the weights, we spotted an opportunity for (a) a tremendous day out and (b) to try to win a race on a big day. The closing day of Glorious Goodwood was an apprentice jockey handicap for 0-95 horses if my memory serves me correctly. Old Rothers would be getting a decent amount of weight, and we remained suspicious there was one last day in the sun in him….

Click to see full-size image.

[edgascoigne]

For those who haven’t had the pleasure to visit Goodwood is just the most wonderfully picturesque place to go racing. Great views of the South Downs, good facilities and, if you can forgive the track the awkward journey there/away an all round fantastic day out.

And so, with each way vouchers at 25/1 all round, this merry band of men decamped for their big day out. Muggins here had been left in charge of the jockey selection, and we managed to secure William Carver who I thought was excellent value for his 5lb claim (jockeys have a sliding scale of weight allowance as they ride their first races/winners). Little did we know that the jockey booking would put me in Cole Snr’s bad books for months to come…

Click to see full-size image.

[tikay]

Loving the way you explain things to those of us who have never been involved in this side of horse racing.

[edgascoigne]

After a VERY enjoyable lunch in the owners and trainers we resurfaced into the sun and it became apparent we weren’t the only ones that had noticed Rothers’ mark slipping. Someone, somewhere, had punted him into around the 10/1-12/1 mark.

More excitingly still (certainly for) the Coles had been having a very strong Glorious Goodwood and, if they could nail one more win, would be top trainers for the meet. They no longer have a huge string of horses so this really would be quite the coup and could help to re-raise (see what I did there?) their profile.

Gathering on the steps the start for this trip is deeper down and out of sight, so you watch on the screen rather than on the binos. As the crowd cheered, appointed jock William Carver (remember the context here) appeared to be finishing a Rothmans, and was left about 12 lengths at the start. Now, winning a big field handicap is chuffing difficult at the best of times….doing so giving the field a headstart is like running A7o into Aces.

All hope seemed lost. “Let’s get a horse”, he said. “It’ll be fun”, he said. Suddenly the four hour round trip wasn’t such fun….

….then, as the horses spread across the track, old Rothers seemed to remember that he was once a c95 rated horse. With around 3f to go he started running them down like Ali Mallu in a rebuy.

He couldn’t, could he? He was still miles back. As we (I) started to roar him on he was closing and closing on the Godolphin owned Gifts of Gold. The mightiest racing operation in the world Vs the plucky underdogs. David and Goliath. The improving 3yo Vs a horse the world had given up on.

Alas, it wasn’t to be. Our boy finished third. Good for the each way money, but given an extra half a furlong, just 110yds more, he would have got there.

Click to see full-size image.

Truth be told whilst it was a shame not to win we were delighted - what a day, we thought. We were all smiles in the Parade Ring for the prize giving. Mixing it with the big boy on our grand day out with a leased horse. Friends in it together. The sun out. A journey home of glorious “what might have beens” ahead of us.

Until, out of the corner of my eye, I caught former Champion Trainer Paul Cole’s eye as he ‘debriefed’ (read, simmered) with William Carver. He missed out on top trainer of the week by just 2 1/4 lengths, having seen the horse give up 12 lengths at the start. Then the penny dropped. Whilst we had one of the ultimate days out for Paul and Ollie this was a real ‘crossbar’ moment. Their chance to get back into the big time.

A flopped flush draw with A7o against aces. An up and down draw picked up on the turn. An absolute brick on the river.

What a game it is. I was hooked.