Are thoroughbred race horses as expensive to purchase as the most expensive cars or an F1 race car?
The thoroughbreds that don’t do well in their first races are sold at the sale barns in Kentucky for less than the registered quarter horses and others so you can pick up one cheap. But, if you want one to race and win, yes, you will pay ALOT of money. Secretariat’s stud fee alone was $300,000 (with live foal guarantee) after he won the Triple Crown. That doesn’t match Storm Cat though, as his stud fee was $500,000. So, if you want a baby off of one of the winners, you’ve already got that much money invested in a prospective race horse before it ever hits the ground. And, you can’t ride it until it’s at least 2-3 years old! (Oh, and the income received from Storm Cat’s breedings in 2002 for 50 foal contracts was 21 million.) Here’s a link for the January 2008 prospective race horse sale–these are horses that have placed well and have excellent breeding. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/horse/news/story?id=3188308 Of course, you’ve got tons of expense involved with horses, i.e., feed,
Thoroughbreds like the ones that are ready to race in the Kentucky Derby this weekend can be as much as $100,000 dollars or more. They are bred especially from the top Thoroughbred pedigrees, are trained to race already, and usually have already won several races with large purses. A pure-bred Thoroughbred yearling, that you could get registration papers for if you wanted, not trained to ride yet and with no proven race winners in its immediate ancestry, and with the general Thoroughbred traits but not the specific conformation (body shape) that indicates real running potential, is probably more along the lines of $500-$2000.
There are all kinds of Thoroughbred races, from the small fair circuits to stakes to the big purses. Horses on the top of the game can command over a million dollars — far more than a car. Horses on the fair circuits are generally a few thousand, sometimes more, depending on their win record. As far as foals go, it depends entirely on the bloodline. A yearling with an excellent bloodline can command five hundred thousand or more easily. It goes down from there. Here are some Thoroughbreds for sale. Some probably junk (as racing goes) and some look like they have decent blood and prospects. Nothing outstanding that I could see, anyway, in terms of the kind of class you would see running the Triple Crown races. http://www.equinenow.com/thoroughbred.htm Here are some recent sales results: http://www.fasigti
