The Truth about 2-Yr. Olds
Many racing syndicates offer hyped-up, unraced, two-year olds. Shares are sold in just one horse and sell at a premium often much higher than the actual purchase price. The competition's profits are guaranteed when the public invests no matter what! At FLS we don't believe this to be fair. We charge only a 10% commission based on the purchase price and retain a 10% ownership interest in the horse. Our fortunes are tied to you and with success of the horses we buy.
Whether you make a good or bad investment and before your horse ever races, if at all, your agreement requires an additional monthly fee for training expenses. Therefore, before you invest, it's important to learn all you can.
Two-year olds in training present a tremendous upside in that you just never know. But there is also the chance that the horse may never make it to the races at all. Throwing obscene amounts of money at horses (The Green Monkey in 2006, $16,000,000) doesn't necessarily guarantee success. There is no correlation between what one pays and the ability of that horse once he/she reaches the racetrack. The racetrack is littered with million dollar horses racing in $10,000 claiming races and the reverse is true too. There are many modestly purchased horses such as Skip Away ($30,000) who go on to earn tens of millions of dollars and then are syndicated as studs for millions more. Thoroughbred racing is never an exact science and why it is so attractive to the masses.
With due diligence and some luck sprinkled in you can in effect catch lightning in a bottle. You just never know? The horse we purchase may turn out to be the next Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, War Emblem, Charismatic, Monarchos, or Seattle Slew? All were bought for a mere pittance?
All are illustrious winners of the most sought after prize in thoroughbred racing, The Kentucky Derby. And lest we forget 2005's near miss of the Triple Crown in Afleet Alex. And what did all these great champions have in common? They were all available to the public for less than one hundred thousand dollars, and all went on to become stars.
Statistics support that most two-year olds rarely race more than four times during their first year and, unfortunately, for some they never even make it to the races at all. The reason is two-year olds are no different than human athletes.
With a baby two-year old who is young and inexperienced, you're buying simply on potential and promise. Baby two-year old horses are no different than human babies in that they're prone to throat infections, bucked shins, etc. It's the equivalent of a newborn having an ear infection, or later on, as a teenager developing a case of acne. You can count on it happening as no one is ever immune.
And, if you're one of the luckier ones in that your baby breaks (winning) its maiden early,then the youngster must be capable of competing in stakes. If not, the horse must be stopped with and turned out to the farm until the following year when the competition becomes a bit softer at three.
Why you may ask?
Because there aren't enough two-year old winners to fill most allowance races, so it's either being overmatched in stakes competition or not racing at all. And whenever you ask a horse to do more that it's capable of doing, it's usually a recipe for disaster in that they have a tendency to break down.
But when you do find that nice special two-year old, capable of turning into a top notch three-year old, you never want to race more than a few times. By turning the horse out, it enables the two-year old to physically grow and mature giving him or her a solid foundation. When one abuses these cardinal rules, it's the main reason why many highly touted two-year olds disappear form the racing scene, never to be heard from again. At FLS we nurture our babies so that they can realize their true potential and last.