Visitors

Monday, January 18, 2010

All that glitters is not gold...


A couple of years ago while looking at the horses available for purchase at auction, I fell in love with a filly named Titanium.  I liked the name a lot and loved the breeding.  Dubai Gold x Dulcinea seemed like a sweet match to me and I fully expected a horse with the capability to run 9-10 furlongs on either surface.

The bidding started to get up, but I was determined to have her.  I won the auction, spending a formidable $750,000 in the process.  That amount may seem modest compared to some of the enormous bids we've seen over the years, (Lazy Loper $6M and Princess Royale $2M come to mind) but it was the most I've ever spent on a single horse.  She currently sports a career record of 6-0-1-0 with $18,000 in earnings.  I'm thinking that the investment may not pay off.

This is why I'm pretty much done buying horses at auction.  They are simply too speculative.

I'll produce my own for a fraction of the cost.  If they don't pan out, I can cut bait and I haven't blown a huge wad of cash.

Titanium is a young filly who yet may fulfill her destiny as a successful racer.  She just may not be doing it at Otsego Farms.  Bottom line: She gets one more start.  If she doesn't hit the board, she's out.  As I said in a previous post, I'm ready to make tough decisions.  This will probably be the first of many in 2013.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If u are going to give her 1 more start Sir Jim maybe u should keep her in the barn for awhile and wait till maybe 1/2 way through the season till u give her another run ... U dont want to sell her in say a month and then she starts turning her form around ... What i tend to do is give my horses a run early on if they dont do anything then i wait till about 1/2 way through the season then run em again and if they dont do anything still i will most likely sell ... Thats just an option



Foxie

Jim Webber said...

Sounds like good advice Fox. I'll rest her until June, then see what she has. Thanks!