Now that the year is over, how did you do?
This was probably my strongest year yet in several ways.
I joined in 2011, so this was my 7th year in the game. My ponies really stepped it up, and I earned a massive 60% of my stable lifetime earnings in 2017. 
I entered more races than I ever have in a year, which probably helped. I also modified my training regime, parted with ponies while they were in their peak instead of waiting for them to start fading, etc., which helped me to have my highest ever OTB percentage at 69%. My ponies won 39% of all the races we entered - even better than last year’s impressive 32%. Thanks to the increased win percent and (I believe) a higher number of stakes entries, we managed to earn $21,296,300 - putting our lifetime earnings at over $35 million now.
As for my 2yo homebreds, 59% are winners, and 15% are stakes winners. Average earnigns of $76,335. We expect most to do better at age 3.
My 3yos: 91% winners, with 48% stakes winners. Average earnings of $336,380.
My 4yos: 88% winners, with 44% stakes winners. Average earnings of $325,916.
My 5yos: 100% winners, with 100% stakes winners. Average earnings of $410,225.
But perhaps one of our biggest achievements was getting our first ever stallion stud qualified - and we did it TWICE! GCh. Ducati & GCh. Exit Poll will definitely join our stallion lineup someday, though they will keep running next year. We also have a number of colts who are well on their way to getting their qualifications if they keep it up, so hopefully next year will also bring good tidings.
Like Alyssa, we had our best year in 2017 - our 5th year in the game.
We finished with 31% winners to runners, were in the top 10 OTB stables and had a horse in the top 10 for number of stakes wins in a year (GCh Sionnach). Having said that I think we earned that position through consistency rather than quality, with most of our horses being most effective at allowance level rather than stakes performers. The exceptions to that would be Quarren, who became stud qualified and our first National Champion 
and Sionnach, who finished the year one win away from being stud qualified.
We stood our first studs in 2017 with Blue Smoke and Gilded Saint. We also acquired some quality broodmares who should help improve the quality of future homebreds. Having only two homebred runners to date there’s not much to report on that front. However, the eldest (3yo Pale Moon Rising) ended the year MW, MP - maybe not a world beater but we’re pleased with his performance since it only cost us $6000 to breed him and we had no clue what we were doing 
.
Here’s to an equally good year in 2018.
We had had a great year in 2016 with our horses earning just under $35m and thought that if we even came close to that, I’d have been happy. What happened in 2017 was way beyond my wildest dreams, with our horses earning just under $70m (double our previous best year). This was 49% of our overall earnings since we joined in 2011 (with our horses earning a mere $500k in that year). For the first time since we joined, we had over 50% OTB.
Some highlights of the year:-
23 Starfish horses had individual earnings over $1m during the year, ranging from [color=blue]G.Ch. No Guts No Glory ($1,002,000) up to [color=blue]I.Ch. First Born Son ($6,279,000).
32 Individual 2yo Winners who accounted for 62 Wins, including 23 SW (8 of which were G1W). 7 of these Winners have already earned their “Ch” titles.
2 Breeder’s Cup Winners ([color=blue]I.Ch. First Born Son in the Turf & [color=red]G.Ch. Office Hours in the Filly & Mare Sprint.
19 Classic Wins, between America (5 wins), England (5 wins), Ireland (4 wins) & Canada (5 wins). In 11 of these races, Starfish horses finished 1-2 (I can’t figure out what comprises the Australian Classic races so that figure could even have been higher.
75 G1 Wins, with [color=blue]I.Ch. First Born Son alone accounting for 9 of them.
4 newly Stud-qualified stallions to add to the 6 who were currently standing at the Farm. We actually had 5 who qualified in 2017 as one of the new additions had qualified the previous year, however, we decided to keep him in training for one more year and we had 2 who qualified in 2017 but who will be kept in training in 2018.
We focused more on home-bred rather than purchased horses in 2017 and this showed as Starfish-bred horses won 12 of the 42 Breeders’ Series races, including 8 of the 12 2yo races.
2017 was rather a middling one for my stable. I lost all enthusiasm halfway through the year when my ponies kept losing everything but towards the end a couple runners pieced together some nice victories. Maybe I should just skip the summer season and stick with spring/fall racing, lol
We finished with a 12% win rate and 31% OTB finishes with total earnings of $979,450, so a bit short of a million. The highlight for us were the number of homebreds that broke their maidens and then came back to win some more. No potential stars yet but we’ve got an eye on the newly-turned-4YO [color=red]Rahy On The Rocks, who strung together three victories, a second, and good SF numbers in her last four starts of the year.
2017 was also the year my stallion’s first babies hit the ground. Looking forward to seeing them run in 2019, so 2018 will be a terrible waiting game for us, xD
2017 was my third year in the game, and Clicker Lab horses entered half of the races they used to enter in previous two years. Win percentage was 23%, and OTB 63%. I had only around 20 racehorses, mostly fillies and some colts/stallions. I focused on planning their campaigns in advance and training, and I rearranged my herd of broodmares (which is significantly larger than that of racehorses).
I was very happy about [color=red]Ch. Embellished, which we purchased in 2015 and waited a whole year to start racing her, as she was born in May and very tiny. But next year she earned a speed record and started 2018 with a stakes placing.
[color=blue]GCh. Al Mundhir, claimed from FF in 2016, got really close to becoming stud qualified and I hope that he will be the fourth son of Almost Home to stand at stud, as he seems to be a consistent stayer.
My favourite 2yo was [color=red]Ch. Iyaiyai, a stakes winner by Giant’s Causeway. I really like her lineage, but I also hope that she will have a good year in 2018.
And the highlight of the year was the purchase of [color=red]NCh. Queen; now we’re hoping for a healthy Point Given baby!
This year should be very interesting as we will be running our first homebreds!
This was by far my best year ever! It was my 10th year (holy moly that’s alot of years!) in the game. My stats were as follows:
30% Wins
16% Places
10% Shows
9% 4ths
for a total of 56% OTB! We also made $18,841,850, not too shabby.
Some Highlights
[color=blue]NCh. Sunday Paper became stud qualified - he retired to stud this current season
[color=blue]WCh. I’m Your Angel and [color=blue]ICh. Whats Your Point both became gold rated stallions, their foals are rockin’ it!
[color=blue]NCh. Run Jenny Run became my first HOMEBRED stallion to become stud qualified! He will be racing another season
[color=blue]GCh. Lake Highlands exploded as a 4yo winning 6 out of 9 stakes starts including 3 GIs and setting 2 speed records. He also earned us over $2.2 million
[color=blue]Ch. Naval Commander had an amazing 5 wins out of 9 stakes starts, 7 OTB, including 2 GIs and setting 1 speed record. He earned us over $1.8 million
[color=red]GCh. Solo Sunset rocked it as a 4yo with 5 stakes wins, 8 stakes OTB. She also set 2 speed records and earned us $1.2 million.
[color=blue]Ch. Turnpike Wannabe had an amazing 5 wins out of 7 stakes starts, all 7 were OTB. He earned us over $1.6 million
[color=red]GCh. Uncanny Yodel on had 7 starts this season, all of which were stakes. She won 3 and was OTB for 6 of them earning us over $1.3 million
We also had a number of lightly raced horses who had a stakes win or two, hopefully this season I can spend more time actually racing them and seeing their real potential
2017 saw our stable grow kinda ridiculously. I really need to stop being a hoarder.
That being said, we had a really good year.
53% of our starts ended up being on the board, and we earned over $37 million. We raced more and won more than any previous year.
Highlights this year included
- Black Cherry getting stakes qualified and as a whole being pretty awesome. He hit the all time top 10 for Stakes Wins and earned WCh. status. I would love, love for him to hit FFCh. status. His accomplishments are especially sweet because he is by our stud High Chances.
- City Upon a Hill went from being an eh 2yo to stud qualified in 2017. He will be our 2nd Crystal Rainbow stud, and we’re super excited to see how he does as a 4yo.
- Jester’s Crown did extraordinarily well, winning 7 stakes in 2017.
- We had amazing 2yos, which made it incredibly difficult to race them towards the end of the year since they no longer qualified for limited allowance races. Highlights include Thank Goodness, Gonnabeamightyking, TheLaughoftheMedusa, Setlik, Repudiate, Roguish, Nairobi, Exuberant, and Rahmbunctious.
- Long Live the King’s first crop kicked butt. I’m super excited about how they’ll do as 3yos.
Delayed reply, but I wanted to record my 2017 results, for comparison with 2018.
Races: 356
Wins: 86 (24%)
Places: 83 (23%)
Shows: 43 (12%)
Fourths: 50 (14%)
Earnings: $3,746,400
One highlight was [color=red]Fights Just Begun, a 2yo I purchased at the annual 2yo auction in March for $1,000, who ended the year with a record of 20(9)-5(2)-5(2)-2(2)-4(1), and earnings of $271,400.
Another highlight was purchasing [color=blue]Triomphe, at auction from Ivy Creek in August. He had won 3 stakes in 2016, but had had a slow start to 2017. Two days after I bought him, Triomphe set a speed record in an OA, and he went on to win several stakes races, including the G1 Galaxy, which earned me $600k. His record for the year was 11(10)-4(3)-2(2)-1(1)-0 with earnings of $773,750, and I’m hoping he’ll continue to race well in 2018, so he can win (at least) one more race and become stakes qualified.
The biggest focus of the year was on growing my stable. I joined the game on Jan. 12, 2017, and ended the year with 147 horses, including 31 broodmares with 22 foals due in 2018. Thank you to everyone who sold me horses and helped me grow my herd!!!