Ex-racehorse with previous injury - to buy or not? And how much?

[Elf On A Shelf]

The thing is the value of a horse as a racehorse and the value of a horse as an EX racehorse are completely different things.

You've hit the nail on the head there. Not many racehorse owners realise that their horse, especially geldings no matter how they are bred, are worthless out of training. The only EX-racers worth money are the ones that have been reschooled and are proven in their new job. I wouldn't pay 5K for one straight off the track, having had no reschooling work done with it.

 

[dominobrown]

I will go against the grain and say they probably will achieve £5k or close enough- if they sell him back into racing or as a potential p2p horse.

As a riding horse he is worth very little but if, as a racehorse, someone can patch him up to win a few races before/if he breaks down again, he will be worth the asking price.

You could be onto something there.
My pointer was free, he did his hind tendon (dislocated it). He was for the chop. He has stood up to a season of racing, getting placed (3rd with me ) and running in a few hunter chases. He is by Benefical too, one a point to point before the injury. He is a safe jumper, and would win another race. I could £5K for him.

So kit- If you want him for point to point maybe around £3k?? I went to Doncaster to get a pointer and they were all going for over £5K. There is a market out there for them if people are willing to take a gamble, which a lot of people involved in racing are!!

 

[kit279]

I've said that if he's not sold by the end of summer, I'll give them a few hundred quid for him But by the sounds of things, they'll sell him for much more than that as a racehorse - someone is coming to see him tomorrow!

 

[Laura_Grey]

I will go against the grain and say they probably will achieve £5k or close enough- if they sell him back into racing or as a potential p2p horse.

As a riding horse he is worth very little but if, as a racehorse, someone can patch him up to win a few races before/if he breaks down again, he will be worth the asking price.

I was just about to write the same answer. £5K for a horse that could pick up a few races is cheap. I was offered £4K for my pointer, who mildly broke down in his younger days, when he was 12 as he could still win a few races. With the right training regime and length of rest there is no reason why the horse couldn't go on to run. We have horses at the yard that have histories including fractures and tendon injuries that go on and win.

 

[Miss L Toe]

I think the point is that if the current owners are happy to pay another £15k a year to put him back into training, then good for them, but if he breaks down again he will still not be worth anything.
Owners are not trainers, and both start from different stance: smaller trainers may advise owners to rest the horse and try again, just to keep the stables full, but big trainers don't want a load of cripples when they have owners queing up with good horses to fill those same stables.
Big owners in general run their operation on business terms, small owners are more likely to be be desperate not to lose their original investment, some know nothing about horses, and assume if they paid £50K they were buying a certain winner, and a few years down the line, they don't want to believe the trainer has to give it away!

 

[Firewell]

My mums horse is by Halling and he is very very nice. She has lessons with a girl who has ridden on the British young rider dressage team and she says he's one of the most talented horses she's sat on! He has a beautiful round jump too and he is truly stunning to look at with a gorgeous temp.
Before we got him he had chased for 4 years and pointed but he had got fed up with it all and stopped trying. He also had a tendon injury and now has a slight bowed tendon. My mum paid £1,800 for him, he was worth every penny as has BD points at novice and qualified for stuff, he's been placed every time out county ROR and gives my mum fun jumping clear rounds and wot not. He passed a vetting with his tendon, the vet just said to watch him in deep ground and to only run him XC or hunting if the ground is good, which 1. My mum doesn't do much XC or any hunting and 2. We don't do more then a walk on deep or hard going on any of our horses.
Saying that he was pointing before we got him in deep mud and was fine on it!
Maybe get a vets opinion?

 

[Firewell]

Halling is a very good stallion and if he has won a race (did I read that correctly??) he then may be worth 5k. Our Halling boy when he finished chasing was brought by one of the lads at the yard for pointing with the old injury and I *think* she paid around 5k for him... I could be wrong but when my mum went to try him she told her that she had paid a fair bit for him to do point to pointing far more then the £1,800 we paid .

 

[boxcarhorse]

I will go against the grain and say they probably will achieve £5k or close enough- if they sell him back into racing or as a potential p2p horse.

As a riding horse he is worth very little but if, as a racehorse, someone can patch him up to win a few races before/if he breaks down again, he will be worth the asking price.

I 100% agree with this. There are two totally separate markets and you can't compare the pricing of one with the other.

 

[Aimzt]

Personally I wouldn't spend more than £500 either, ex-racers are 10 a penny and from dealings on my yard it seems most owners are happy to give them away just to be rid of them!

We've got two on the yard that were complete freebies, one 100% sound and a quality horse with an experienced rider on his back.
The other one, well I won't get started on that.

I must say I think that the comments being made like this one about ex racers are really unfair.

I have owned several ex racers and they can be absolutely lovely. I own one currently who I would say is probably the best mannered and most bombproof safe horse I have ever come across and I'm a groom looking after a lot of horses every day. I have owned all sorts of horses including cobs, tbs and irish horses and none of them compare to him.

I completely agree that some of these horses have a lot of problems but it is unfair to say they are all that way and as for saying that none of them are worth paying more than 1k for is ridiculous. Mine raced National Hunt for a long time and he is has evented successfully to BE Novice and if someone told me they would give me 1k for him I would just laugh at them.

 

[9tails]

A broken down racehorse with two significant injuries. It's a huge risk even at half what they're asking no matter what his pedigree. And a gelding so no chance of passing on those bloodlines.

 

[TarrSteps]

I must say I think that the comments being made like this one about ex racers are really unfair.

I have owned several ex racers and they can be absolutely lovely. I own one currently who I would say is probably the best mannered and most bombproof safe horse I have ever come across and I'm a groom looking after a lot of horses every day. I have owned all sorts of horses including cobs, tbs and irish horses and none of them compare to him.

I completely agree that some of these horses have a lot of problems but it is unfair to say they are all that way and as for saying that none of them are worth paying more than 1k for is ridiculous. Mine raced National Hunt for a long time and he is has evented successfully to BE Novice and if someone told me they would give me 1k for him I would just laugh at them.

I think you'll find there are lots of people on this forum competing successfully and generally enjoying their ex-racehorses. And I don't think anyone is saying a horse that's retired sound and shown aptitude for another sport is worth nothing but a pittance. A good horse is a good horse. I think the point some people are trying to make is that THIS horse is not proven, has two injuries and has already not stood up to one job - although he might be fine from here on in, there is simply no way of knowing. If he was out jumping Novice or winning in the show ring no one would be quoting those figures!

But the fact is there are a lot of "extra" horses coming out of racing, many of whom have not sustained injuries and some of whom may already have some rehabilitation under their belts from the various rehoming schemes or private individuals. These horses are priced very low as they are surplus to requirements and not proven in another field. So, from a riding horse equivalent, they're equal to, say, a yearling with "non-sport" breeding but with the added problem that there are miles on the clock and they may need retraining and/or attention for past injuries, even minor ones.

So they're a gamble, in other words. As are all horses, but there are also a lot of them and for all the success stories there are a lot that aren't! It's more a numbers game than a comment on the quality of any one individual. And the fact is, if a horse even MIGHT run again, a seller will get more selling it back into racing as the stakes are so much higher.

 

[soupdragon71]

Personally I would not touch a horse who has had any tendon injury, unless I was buying it as a gentle hack.

Every horse I have ever known with a past tendon injury, has broken down once in full work agian.

I know this is just one instance, but my old horse (now 19yo) did his tendon twice in race training as a 5 and 6yo, had been pin and bar fired, and went on to win the Perth Gold Cup among other wins/placings until he was retired as an 11yo from racing. He then evented for a few years with me, before bone spavin was detected.

He has never had a lame day in the time I've owned him. I did pay less than £400 for him and I was only looking for a nice horse to do a bit of riding club stuff with but he proved to be too nice a horse and had too much talent for that. We were rubbish at eventing as learning together and he was a bit of a worrier but we had fun. He is still sound now but have decided to retire him because I can and I think he is now happy to not be in work - he's loving keeping my other horses in line in the field!

I would think very carefully about this one - and definetely only offer them a fraction of what they are mentioning. It doesn't matter how smart he is if he can't stand up to the job. I've got one of those too - Sadlers Wells grandsire but couldn't cope physically with being turned out in a field never mind any workload!!

 

[BonneMaman]

What is the horse called?

I think I am going to visit Ascot in July for the next sale and having googled the hell out of my pc on the subject I can assure you that there is a vast difference between a horse that has been retrained and an ex racehorse that is too slow (roughly ££££s vs about £500!).

The fracture would not worry me too much but the tendon injury is not brilliant news.

Seriously not worth £5K for retraining but as a racehorse - well who knows!

In my mind though the temperament and soundness is worth way more than any fantastic movement.

Good luck.

 

[charlie76]

To put into context, I bought a 16.2hh 6yr old gelding from ascot in November, he was a grand total inc VAT of £550. He has been placed in every dressage he has been to so far and on sunday did his first event which he won with a 28.5 dressage and double clear SJ and XC.
No need to spen ££££££'s on ex racers!