How much would you pay for an ex-racer?

Rudey

Rudey

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How much would you pay for an ex-racer? :confused:

My friend is interested in an ex-racer, and I will do my best to describe the chap in question! :D

He's a 5 year old 16hh gelding, failed ex-racer (was too slow), he's been out of racing for a year plus. He is very green on the flat and needs bring on. He can appear a little cold backed at times (don't know if he actually is mind!!). The owner said sometimes you can get on him straight away, other days you have to walk him round for a few minutes. But once you are on him, you can get on and off him fine.

The girl that has him has taken him over coloured poles, and has just started a few small jumps with him. He hacks out alone and in company well. Great in traffic, doesn't bat an eye lid at tractors etc..

He has a lovely quiet temperment and is lovely to handle. He lives out during summer months and is stabled during the night in winter. He has no stable vices.

Conformation wise appears good, has a very slight pigeon toe, however, with a good farrier I'm sure that can be corrected given his young age. He has had his teeth, back and saddle checked recently. The back lady said she thinks he has some filling out to do still. :)

He has tack - wintec saddle, snaffle bridle with a martingale.

How much would you offer the owner for him with tack and without tack?

If I have missed anything, let me know and I will try to answer the best I can! xx :D
 
I haven't got much experience with pricing horses but speaking generally I personally wouldn't be willing to pay a great deal for him given the fact that he requires a lot of re-training although it's good to know he has a sound medical history and all the appropriate checks for his general health and well-being have been made.

Perhaps around the £2000 mark at the most? Like I said I have no experience with the pricing of horses but that figure seems about right for me. I'm sure there are plenty more knowledgeable users on here that will give you a more definitive answer (and probably prove me wrong!!)

Dewdrop_Roses xxx
 
Personally nothing. I have been offered a good few free tbh.

Wintec saddles I don't rate so I would rather get my own tack sorted.

Sorry if that's not what you wanted to hear but they are ten a penny.
 
I would be worried about him being cold backed. Granted, it may not be a problem with some propper muscle... but it could be a sign of underlying issues which could get worse. Could be nothing, could be something. Worth the risk? There's loads of ex racers out there who aren't cold backed, and although anything can go wrong with any horse... why increase the chances?
 
Thank you drewdrop_roses for your opinion, muchly appreciated.:) In fairness I had that as a price tag in my head too, but I wouldn't like to encourage my friend to offer a huge amount for something that is only worth half of what she has paid, or tell her to offer something too low that will insult his owner (if that makes sense)! I'm no good at these things :o xx :)

LMAO Persephone, no offence taken - just don't get me started on TB bashing, I will never stop! ;) They are my least favourite breed (that was very polite of me :eek: ) - my friends TB smashed my ankle up when her mare reared over backwards with me! I sat up and my foot was facing the other way! :( My friend that is interested in this ex-racer fancies a bash at ex-racer showing, each to their own! TBF, the horse she wants is a lovely chap, very handsome, but he's still a ruddy thoroughbred to me lol! :D

A very sensible answer, thanks Somethingorother! :) I do see where you are coming from, and totally agree what you have said, but my friend has grown rather fond of this horse as she has been helping look after him. It's highly likely the owner will sell him as she struggles putting the work into him he needs due to her job - hence why my friend asked me how much I'd pay for him! She loves him to bits! :rolleyes: xx :D
 
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I have two ex-racers. I paid £300 for the first one - he had several injuries, but they don't affect him and as I wasn't bothered about showing, only dressage, he has been fabulous and is now the grand old age of 20.
I bought another one a few weeks ago for £1200 directly from a trainer. I paid more for her mainly because of her temperament and conformation and paces. She had done nothing, but went out a week later and won her first dressage, so she is proving her weight in gold.
You can get them free, but I think you get what you pay for unless you are lucky. Pay what the horse is worth to you. The fact that it is bombproof in traffic is worth it's weight in gold. Flatwork is easy enough to do providing it is safe, which it sounds like it is.
My first one was funny with the saddle, but we discovered that it wasn't the saddle, it just didn't like it's girth being done up tight at the beginning, so we put the girth on loosely and then just did it up as we were leading him round. It might be the girth where the issue is as it will have had a cinch on racing and will be waiting to get the cinch yanked up.
If you think the horse is worth £1000, then offer that. Any ex-racehorse which is good in traffic, sound and has good conformation will bring its own rewards.
 
Lol, I don't mind TB's at all!

I just wouldn't pay for something that I know would come along for free in a few weeks :p

However if your friend knows him and likes him and sees potential then he is worth whatever to her.

I think given the climate and that he is not straight forward then no more than £ 1500 with tack.
 
Ah, love changes everything. My answer remains the same... BUT. A couple of years ago before he died, if i had the money for a horse, i would have spent it on a 24 year old gelding with arthritis, a fat leg, always slightly lame, unridable and hard to keep weight on. But he was the love of my life, and that's worth going through strife for sometimes. So i do understand. It's a tough one.
 
I paid £650 for my 3 year old - flat bred 15.3hh all round little star apart from the farrier and I got my older one through my dad as his bonus - insured for 5k but I think at the time would have been somewhere around 3k as he did have some bsja winnings . I think it depends how much work they want to do - if you don't mind the work then you can pick them up cheap (anything from free upwards) but if you want one that has had some sort of retraining then I think 1.5k upwards is a reasonable amount.
 
Thanks for all of the replies so far! :) You have given me food for thought. Some very interesting reading, nice to hear of your own personal experiences! :) So far, you are all singing from the same hymn sheet which helps me advise my friend what he maybe worth. :)

It's so difficult! :rolleyes: One of my friends use to have an arab on loan years and years ago, she loved the mare so much and her owner became ill and it was heard he was selling up. A lady advised my friend the mare was worth something daft like £300 -£500 and my friend offered this to the owner. He was so offended he took the mare off her and sold her to somebody else! :eek: My friend was gutted, she loved her so much! :( xx
 
we bought from doncastor bloodstock sales for £600 :) with a couple months work he was jumping 3ft nicely and his flatwork was coming along!Just pointing out that you can pick up a nice sort for well under a grand :)
 
GiftedFlame said:
I have 5
costing me, £200, £500, £450, £650 and £150......not a thing wrong with any of them ;0)
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Do you still have them ? they sound incredibly cheap, are they sound and rideable for that money? I love TB,s I have had several over the years a bit highly strung but they all hacked brilliantly, were not spooky and all were easy to handle. One an ex hurdler was a brilliant show jumper. If you do not mind me asking where did you get yours?
 
i'd pay between £600-1000 for the one in the OP depending on the cold backed part etc.

i'd pay up to £3-4k for a good ex-racer to go eventing though- unfortunately the ones which have potential to go eventing also look good prospects for racing so tend to go for much bigger prices.
 
troubleinstore said:
Do you still have them ? they sound incredibly cheap, are they sound and rideable for that money? I love TB,s I have had several over the years a bit highly strung but they all hacked brilliantly, were not spooky and all were easy to handle. One an ex hurdler was a brilliant show jumper. If you do not mind me asking where did you get yours?
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Mine came from York horse sales and yes I still have them all. One won't even look at a pole on the floor but is good at dressage, one has the biggest boldest jump I have ever known but is totally sane and the others whilst no amazing talent are good allrounders you'd feel safe to put your granny on.

I've only had one that was hard work and that's putting it mildly lol.

There are a few studs sell their youngsters who don't make the grade through York and you really can pick them up for peanuts.
 
I bought mine for £900. That was 6 years ago. He needed complete re-training. MIne is just like the the chap that has been described in the thread. With time and patience tbs can do anything!
 
I paid £500 for my girl. She was 3, no schooling other than on the gallops and go fast! Nothing wrong with her as you can see from my sig. every one falls for her every single time, as she is a lovely person.
 
One of my TB's was £400 (5 years ago), she went on to be competitive at 1* before breeding a beautiful foal. The other was £100 (last year), she has gone on to win 2 BE90's, and has placed many other times.

I would say the horse you describe probably £600-1K maximum. TB's are ten-a-penny, so unless it has a good competition record I wouldn't pay over £1K.
 
My friend is trying to sell one at the moment, absolutely stunning looking & temperament to die for. A true gentleman that will be kind to anyone who gets on him & work accordingly, whether total novice or very experienced competition rider.

Unfortunately this doesn't take away from the fact he is a TB and people are virtually giving them away! She has tried to sell him for £1200 or £1500 with a jeffries saddle that was fitted to him new a year ago and had no luck at all. The best offer she has had is £1,000 to include all tack and rugs. ( I would have ripped their arm off!)

I know when emotions are involved it's never easy but I would expect to pay around £800 for the one your friend is interested in, preferably less but certainly not much more than that.
 
If I was to buy one, I'd only buy from the trainer or the sales, anything from £800.00 to £1200 depending on the individual horse, some are even given away, due to the cost of taking them to sales.

A lot of these ex racers that are in magazines have been bought, brought on a bit and then sold for profit, so personally I'd cut the middle man out but then sometimes it better for some people to do this because least then you can see a bit more of what your getting, rather than what it may turn out like.

A good temperment goes along way, if he's just green but not stupid and if he's good to hack out by himself, with traffic etc, your half way there, any sound horse that can do this in my eyes is worth a grand all day long even if its an ex racer.
 
The lad in my signature was gifted to me (ie FREE!) He was 9 years old at the time.

There are so many out there looking for a good home. It drives me nuts when I see them overpriced in the back of H&H mag. Its just become fashionable to show ex racers these days and a lot of people want them - hence pushing the price up. The horse in question in your thread is not worth more than 1k

Hx
 
I bought a 9 year old irish TB, who had hunted after being utter sh*te at racing years ago for £1500 (including all tack and rugs... not that the tack fitted mind), couldnt ride him in a circle, had appauling feet, but passed a vetting, and was great in traffic. Was the best £1500 ever spent, we leant shed loads off each other, and he truely was my horse of a lifetime!

ETS- that was a very very long time ago tho!!!
 
i went shopping Jan 2009 for an ex racer with a max budget of £1k. i ended up paying my max budget for my boy but he ticked every box exactly and has been well worth it.

most of the ones i looked at were £500-£700 and just too slow/too backward. as someone has said, ex racers are ten a penny and i refused to pay over the odds!

i did look at one, very immature looking 3yo, quite underweight but nice confo and nice looking horse.......girl wanted £3750!!!!!!!!!!!!!!told her id be looking to pay no more than £900 and she said "ok then" which just goes to show how much people try it on!
 
i paid £1500 for mine. He was bombproof and shockingly a massive confidence giver. So to me he was worth that.
(going back a few years...)
Although now i wouldnt pay over £500 as you can pick them up at the sales v.cheap.
 
troubleinstore said:
Do you still have them ? they sound incredibly cheap, are they sound and rideable for that money? I love TB,s I have had several over the years a bit highly strung but they all hacked brilliantly, were not spooky and all were easy to handle. One an ex hurdler was a brilliant show jumper. If you do not mind me asking where did you get yours?
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Are the £ signs flashing again? Seen another way to make a quick buck?
 
I think it's a shame that people have the view that they're '10 a penny' (even if they are!)

My OTTB is the best horse I've ever had and would be worth a lot (to me). I was gifted him from his trainer.

Buying them cheap and trying to make a buck out of them is what gives them a bad name, especially when they are bought by unsuitable novices.
 
As they are so easy to come buy i would not pay more than 500-600 from a private home/off the trainer as if they get offended by the price i am sure your friend could find another which she would like just as m,uch for that price, another thought would be a place like moorcroft they ask for a donataion think my friend paid 500 a few years ago now and she events hers he is a really lovely chap. http://www.mrwc.org.uk/re-homing-process.php
 
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