Breeders Cup Still Falls Short

- Breeders’ Cup officials announced an increase in the total purses to $20 million. That’s up from $14 million, but still a million short of Dubai for the richest single day in the sport. If they increased the purses that much – a 43% increase – wouldn’t you think they could scrape up another million or two to match Dubai? Seems kinda like Barry Bonds getting to 754 homers and then going, “ah, that’s enough.” The Classic will now be worth $5 million (as opposed to $6 million the World Cup.)

- Steppenwolfer’s trainer Dan Pietz is not exactly objective on the subject, but he saw what I did watching a replay of Brother Derek’s race in the Santa Catalina. "He rated in that race, but he didn't relax….If you're going to go 1 1/4 miles, you can't pull the first [six furlongs] and expect to be there at the end.” [Thoroughbred Times]

- Jerry Klein of Fox Sports.com:

In fact, the total amount bet on the Derby — last year it was over $100,000,000 — is only exceeded by the number of words written and spoken before the race by supposed experts that generally leave everyone trying to decipher a 20-horse field as confused as ever.

You can count me amongst them. (The confused, not the supposed experts.)

One lucky bettor who cut through the confusion and hit the triple with a $230 investment last year parlayed his winnings into a spot in the owner’s box on Saturday. St. Louis dentist Ray Nikodem is part of the West Point Thoroughbreds ownership group in Flashy Bull.

Nikodem was one of three investors paying $38,000, or 10 percent, of Flashy Bull's $380,000 syndicated purchase price last spring. There are 17 owners overall in a group with Pennsylvania-based West Point Thoroughbreds, Inc. [Belleville News Democrat]

As you may know, most partnerships will mark their horses up from their purchase price before syndicating them to partners. (A few, including my Castle Village, do not, and take a percentage of earnings instead.) Those markups can vary, and in the case of Flashy Bull, it looks like a substantial one. The colt was purchased as a two-year old at Ocala last February for $205,000. That’s a markup of some 85%. Now, that price includes, according to their website, all training expenses and mortality insurance (generally 5% of his sale price) through last year. But even if that comes out to $50,000, which seems on the high side if anything, that’s still over 60%. But hey, did you think West Point pays for all those advertisements strictly by making money with its racehorses?

In fact, Flashy Bull is a money-loser thus far, having earned just under $160,000. That could change big-time in a little over two minutes on Saturday, though that’s extremely unlikely in my opinion. He looks to me like just another horse that needs to sit just off the pace, and an outclassed one, at that; his lifetime high Beyer is 94. Do you really expect him to improve on that? If you buy the "thumps" excuse for his Florida Derby, he hasn't had a meaningful race since March 6. But I’m sure West Point will do just fine for itself. Flashy Bull is the first thing you see on their website, and their founder Terry Finley comes right out on his website and says: Of course we are in the midst of our selling season so we think (and hope) getting to the big dance will help our cause.. Indeed, their cause of selling horses to the public at profits of 60% certainly seems to come before what might be best for Flashy Bull.