So now the racing year has wrapped up, how’d you do?
Vaucluse had its best year yet. We finished with 940 starts for 181 wins (19%), 167 seconds (18%), 153 thirds (16%) and 111 fourths (12%). OTB finished at a solid 53%. Total prizemoney was $45,822,500.
My 2014 foal crop did well with 37 starting as 2YOs and 21 winning (57%) and 6 of these being stakes winners (16%). Average 2YO earnings topped $118k.
A great year with quite a few stable stars discovered!
Well for me it was a much better planned year - with races, entries, training, breeding… but most of my horses were 2yo’s and 3yo’s (some very lightly raced) so I couldn’t expect too much from them. I’m really happy that I left [color=red]GCh. The Woman In Black on the track; she was even better than a year before. She’s one of those lucky purchases; I bought her for $1,000 and she earned $788,800 total. Most of the other horses should show their best in 2017.
So in 412 starts I had 98 wins (24%), 66 places (16%), 56 shows (14%) and 57 fourths (14%). Earnings 56%. Seven of my current yearlings should be mature enough to race as 2yo’s so I’m really looking forward to the next season. Some of my broodmares and racehorses will be auctioned in April.
Happy New Year!
Quite a good year for us, though I wish more ponies could have been entered in races (especially the 2yos). New year’s resolution for next year. 
Races: 923 (most ever! 
)
Stakes: 284 (31%)
Wins: 236 (26%)
Stakes Wins: 38 (13%)
Places: 171 (19%)
Stakes Places: 39 (14%)
Shows: 125 (14%)
Stakes Shows: 33 (12%)
Fourths: 102 (11%)
Stakes Fourths: 39 (14%)
Earnings: $15,706,350
Stakes Earnings: $10,889,350 (69%)
OTB: 58%
Stakes OTB: 39%
Definitely improved on win percentage, OTB percentage, and annual earnings. Would like to improve stakes OTB percentage next year.
Breeding-wise we had 53 2yos, with 29 winners (56%). 5 of them won at least one stakes race (10%). Average earnings currently at $76k, though we expect that to triple once they’re 3yo+.
Here’s to 2017!
While we didn’t have any consistent stars, this year topped our best year when I had the like of WCh. Subzero Justice, ICh. Sleipnir and NCh. Yes It’s Paddy running.
181 wins from 998 races for our best win percentage of 18%
162 places 16%
143 shows 14%
118 fourth places finishes 14%
$11,304,950 in earnings
I really can’t believe its the end of the year already! Holy Moly time flies. We had a good year, had a few horses really blossom this year which was awesome
This Year
Races: 730
Wins: 134 (18%)
Places: 105 (14%)
Shows: 102 (14%)
Fourths: 85 (12%)
Earnings: $13,624,650
OTB: 46% - I believe our best yet!
Highlights
[color=blue]GCh. Ace Of Hearts - EXPLODED as a 5yo with 7 stakes wins, he has qualified as a stud, i’ll put him in a few starts and see how he is as a 6yo before deciding if he is ready for the breeding shed
[color=red]GCh. Anglesite - Won 5 stakes starts and 299 points, shes a homebred making it extra special
[color=blue]GCh. Run Jenny Run - Won 6 stakes starts, 5 of them in a row. Another homebred
[color=blue]GCh. Sunday Paper - Won 7 stakes, 5 in a row, earned 2.2 million and out of a stallion that doesn’t have any foals standing at stud, so we are really hoping this boy gets a few more wins under his belt
Excellent year for us, our best ever since we joined in 2013.
Our ponies ran in 357 races, broken down as follows:
72 wins (20%)
69 places (19%)
42 shows (12%)
51% of our runners finished on the board and we were in the top 10 OTB stables for a large part of the year.
In total we earned $5,668,850 - 65% of our total earnings since we started.
It would be nice to continue 2017 in similar form.
Highlights were two of our runners earning Grand Champion status (Quarren and Baringa). Hopefully we may have some more next year. Quarren isn’t far from stud qualification so am keeping everything crossed he can achieve that in 2017. He also became our first Breeders Cup and Breeders Series runner and winner. Definitely our stable star this year.
We did pretty okay.
Raced more. Won more. Earned more. Last year, percentage wise OTB was better 54% vs. 46%.
Third year ever we’ve earned $10+ million. Of course, we lost a lot of that too. I have a spending/hoarding issue.
I think my happiest moments this year was seeing HC’s foals really start to thrive, notably in our own races NCh. Chance of Rain and almost-studified GCh. Black Cherry.
You have my sympathy as a fellow hoarder. I think one of my aims for next year is to try and buy less ponies and cut back on some of our existing stock.
That’s a goal of mine every year, and I have yet to do it. 
Yes, I do have a problem…no, I’m not sure I’ll do anything about it.
Hate to be the one to rain on your parade, but Ace of Hearts needs one more win/place/show at the Gr. 1 level. (7 wins, 1 of which is a Gr. 1, and at least 3 win/show/place at the Gr. 1 level). We’ll keep our fingers crossed for him!
He has 8 wins, 2 of which are Grade 1 and 7 places/shows (none at GI in this area but I though 6 GI wins was enough?)
Unless I dont understand how it is written in the FAQ, it says “Thus, if your stallion wins 10 stakes races, including 2 Grade 1s, he can qualify even if he never finished 2nd/3rd in a stakes race” - In my case 8 stakes wins including 2 grade 1s plus the 7 places/shows…
Perhaps have a look at ‘Edit horse info’ on his page, if he’s met the requirements you should be able to see the options for racehorse/stallion/retire. If not it’ll say racehorse/retire. Just don’t actually change it if you want him to keep running.
Actually, you won’t until tomorrow. The code won’t let you retire a horse to be a stallion if it’s outside breeding season, so that you don’t get taxed on him as a racehorse and then an (inactive) stallion.
The “checklist”, though, is:
Is the colt at least 4 years old?
Ace of Hearts is 5, so yes.
Has he won at least 7 stakes races of any grade?
Yes, 8.
Has he won at least 1 Grade 1 stakes race?
Yes, 2 Gr. 1 races.
Has he placed in the top 3 in at least 10 stakes races of any grade?
Yes, 15.
Has he placed in the top 3 in at least 2 Grade 1 races?
Yes, 2 Gr. 1 wins.
So he should be OK to retire. You can check this tomorrow, though, to be sure.
I’ll be coding this checklist into the beta as well.
This year, our horses were on FIRE. It also probably helped that we changed our training routine and I was a much better, more active owner than previously.
We entered a grand total of 448 races (from an overall stable lifetime of 1220 entries) - so we were WAY more present in the races this year.
143 (32%) of those were wins - nearly one out of every three runners we sent out ended in the winner’s circle. That’s impressive. Previously, our highest percentage was only 20%, in 2013.
We also had 17% places, 10% shows, and 8% fourths…which adds up to 67%. Two-thirds of our ponies hit the board.
As a result of this success, we had the highest earnings we have ever made in a year - $8.67 million. Our best year before that? A mere $1.7 million in 2012. We blew earnings out of the water this year, and that has helped us make some investments previously unseen at Ivy Creek - including a stallion, finally! We’re going into tax season with plenty of money sitting in the bank, and for the first time, will be essentially unaffected by taxes, and certainly not in the red like we started 2016. It’s incredible to look back and see how far we’ve come in that 1 year, where we were pauper poor and selling stock in an attempt to keep afloat.
And we had an amazing year with our 2YOs, but also our 3YO crop seemed to blossom this year as well. I think that helped us succeed. As for 2YOs, from our grand total of 23 babies, 91% have raced, and 62% had their moment of fame in the winner’s circle. They earned, on average, over $54,000 - not too bad! By comparison, our 4YO crop (of only 2 foals) is now at 100% stakes winners, and the 3YO crop is at 25% stakes winners. Only 10% of the 2YOs are stakes winners, but we expect them to mature more next year, anyway!
This has been the best year in our history - by a lot. Here’s hoping that 2017 will be more of the same.
Nice! Congrats on having such a great year, too.
Coleman Branch had a fantastic year, thanks to a shift in training and a little more experimentation. There was a period where I wasn’t around at all, but the barn doesn’t seem to have suffered for it.
Previously, the best year was 2014, but we nearly doubled the earnings this time around, with 48% on the boards (best ever) and 23% wins (also best ever). Our first homebreds (now 3) really started to turn around, with several becoming stakes winners. The 2yo’s have given some perspective on where we want to go with breeding in the future, and thanks (mostly) to Pay the Boatman, our star 2yo, we are completely financially sound going into the new year. All in all, 100 wins in 430 races, with $4.73 million in earnings. Not too shabby, considering most of that came from the second half of the year!
Congrats to everyone and happy new year!
Black Storm West had 35% on the boards (same rate since 2013, haha) but only 9% wins. We won’t top 2014 earnings anytime soon, mostly because that was the year I had two awesome MSW 2yo’s who have since fizzled. Either way, I think this was the first year we made it through taxes the best (albeit with Holly’s gracious help).
Congrats to all!
By far our best year since we started.
Runners:- 987
Wins:- 201 (20%)
Seconds:- 128 (13%)
Thirds:- 111 (11%)
Fourths:- 101 (10%)
Purse Money $34,831,850
OTB 45%
Our horses won a massive 102 Stakes races in 2016 (previous overall total 64), including 40 Grade 1 wins (more than double previous overall total of 18). The Stables earnings for 2016 was just short of the total of all our previous years earnings.
We had a total of 10 horses earning more than $1m, including 4 horses who earned more than $2m:-
[color=blue]NCh Lucky Streak ($6,216,200 - 324 pts - 7 wins - 6 SW, all G1W)
[color=blue]NCh In The Navy ($2,890,750 - 412 pts - 7 wins - 7 SW including 5 G1W)
[color=blue]GCh Worthy Victor ($2,045,000 - 234 pts - 5 wins - 5 SW including 3 G1W)
[color=blue]GCh First Born Son ($2,039,000 - 342 pts - 8 wins - 6 SW including 3 G1W)
Both [color=blue]NCh Lucky Streak & [color=blue]NCh In The Navy will be standing at stud starting in 2017, and, [color=blue]GCh Worthy Victoris stud-qualified, however, he will remain in training in 2017.
In addition to these, we have three horses who are only one SW away from being stud-qualified, [color=blue]GCh Cup O’ Tea, [color=blue]Ch First Born Son & [color=blue]GCh Lucky Sunset. They will all be remaining in training in 2017.
We have a number of 2016 2YO’s that showed much promise, especially towards the end of the year, so hopefully they will continue to improve in 2017 as 3YO’s. These, as well as the returning older horses, promise a good year for us again. Don’t know if it will be as good as 2016, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Happy New Year to everybody.
This was a huge year for Freedom Acres! We acquired a whole 35 horses throughout the year, most of them being weanlings, yearlings, and broodmares. But anyway, onto the racing! We didn’t have the best percentages, but we races twice as much as we ever have before.
Races: 249
Wins: 37 (15%)
Places:41 (16%)
Shows: 35 (14%)
Fourths: 29 (12%)
Earnings: $1,714,850 (27%)
OTB: 45%
I also ended the year on my stable’s 100th win!
The star of our stable was definitely [color=blue]Ch. Alfresco. His 2yo year was filled with success.
Record: 15(7)-7(3)-5(2)-1-2(2)
Earnings: $337,500
Points: 232
Last year he never placed below fourth! I truly am hoping to studify this one. He almost got halfway there last year, so if he can keep up the good work this year, then I might be able to studify a homebred for the first time!
Happy new year to everyone! May 2017 follow with continued success.
Wish I was as cheerful about the past year as you guys are.
Races: 329
Wins: 22 (7%)
Places: 29 (9%)
Shows: 40 (12%)
Fourths: 33 (10%)
OTB: 28%
Earnings: $836,350
Looking back it seems that what happened was that my more consistent runners from the year before petered out halfway through the 2016 season and none of my 3YOs and 4YOs stepped up to replace them, forcing me to quit racing in August and just stick around for the Color Wars. Sounds like my real life, where the first half of the year was fine and the second half was a complete disaster, lol
I have hope that this year will turn out to be more productive. Fingers crossed!