How Much Is A Win Worth?

Several responses this week to the results have prompted me to ask this question “How much is a win really worth”? Do you measure the win purely in monetary terms, or by the prestige, who your horse beat or just simply enjoy the feeling of winning?

Lets start off with a new player, Jamie Calloway of Sunset Ranch. He has been playing for a few months and has been a vibrant contributer to the forum but so far none of his horses have managed to find the winners circle, not through bad management just simply his horses were finding a few too good/fast. This week he entered his 4yr old colt, G Major in a 4 furlong (1/2mile) Starter Allowance on the dirt. G Major was sent off the 9/4 joint favourite and fully justified the bettor’s faith by winning by 2 lengths and earning $12,000 in the process. OK wasn’t a $million dollar purse, nor was it a G1 Triple Crown race but to Jamie it must have felt as good as and why shouldn’t it? The first win is always the hardest and the longest savoured. He was quoted on the Forum as saying “we finally got our very first WIN, our new purchase from HT Stables looked very good yesterday all be it a grade 4 sprint he came in first place paying off his purchase price, we are very excited with this colt and think he has a great future ahead, since he brought home our very first, first place trophy he will be a part of our stable for a very long time”. And no one can begrudge him this feeling.

OK – so we have had the debut winner, lets move on to a more experienced stable with a win that’s been a little harder to come by. I am talking about the highly successful FDL Lodge stables who have had several high profile winners over the years, including All For Camena, Madam De Francis and Braveheart to name but a few. This week he sent out one of their highest priced purchases, St Cay, who is a half brother to a Melbourne Cup winner (Bally Doyle’s Case Closed) both being out of the mare, Grinders Daughter. According to stable sources, St Cay has been a little frustrating since his purchase and been tried over a variety of trips and surfaces but not quite fulfilling the potential he shows in the mornings. He was entered for the G1 CF Orr Stakes, over 7f on the turf open to 2yr olds and up. He was sent off the 5/2 joint second favourite behind Godolphins Half Speed who was Evens. At the end of the race, St Cay was the winner by just under a length from Half Speed and his win meant a further $250,000 added to the account of FDL Lodge. How can we tell this meant so much to a stable who enjoys success at this level regularly? This is how - “the most satisfying of the trio of wins has to go to the $2 million purchase St Cay who eventually paid his dues with a fine win at the top level. This brought me a lot of joy.” – not the comments of a stable who expects wins every time out, just the elation of having picked a horse out based on its raw talents and nuturing him along to get the best out of him on the track.

Then there was the win from a horse who does nothing but win, but this time winning at a distance never tried before. The horse in question is Scenic Sheba from the stable of Foxies Lodge (like FDL before based in Australia). She has been doing most of her winning over 8f and has an impressive set of G1 victories to her name but her owners felt that that wasn’t the end of her talents and had been looking around for a suitable 10f turf race for her which would attract a good field for her to be tested to the maximum. So this game 4yr old mare was entered in the $200,000 purse G2 New York Handicap over 1 1/4miles (10f) on turf. Several quality mares opposed her including the 1000 Guineas winner from England, Unbridled Analysis and the two tough and consistent fillies of April Carrot (Parklands) and She’s A Prize (Bonai Farms). The outcome was never in doubt as Scenic Sheba routed the field, leading from start to finish and setting a new track record. (Oh and earning the small matter of $120,000). That wasn’t the cause for the joy in the winners enclosure, it was the fact that the mare had got a win over a distance many said was too far, against good opponents and several other reasons as to why she couldn’t win. Foxies Lodge was moved enough to post the following “Well what else can i say stepped up to 10F for the 1st time runs a 1:59:02 in TR time with some still left beating last years BC F/M Turf winner over 10f in She`s A Prize ... New record of $4,110,950 20-14-2-2 ... What cant she do?”

Another stable celebrating a win for different reasons was Bally Doyle from England who had the winner of a 2yr old Starter Allowance. Not that exciting you ask but when you look at the card you will see that it was a homebred colt called Knight of Ni who won at his 4^th attempt and over 7f on a dirt track against a full field of horses. He dropped out early but made startling progress late in the race to win in the last 16^th of a mile from two very well regarded horses in Play Nice (Port Pirie) and Faldo (FDL Lodge). He may have only won $21,000 and lowest grade race in the game but a stable representative was overheard in the winners enclosure as saying “nothing beats breeding your own stock, racing it and having it win” . So looks like some players take as much pleasure from breeding winners (even if they no longer own them) as to actually winning a race. (Also on the card Bally Doyle sent out another homebred Rain Man to win a G2 race).

Nothing can take away from the feeling of euphoria felt when you have that first win in Photo Finish, be it winning a Triple Crown race (or even the Triple Crown itself!), a triumph at the Breeders Cup or even a $5,000 Starter Allowance! Or perhaps they take the pleasure in breeding the winners of racers rather than racing them personally?

So does that help explain How Much A Win is Worth? No – well that’s the point! A win means many different things to many different players. Some players believe that a G1 win is the only win that counts, others that it’s the money value of a race that makes a good win great, some feel that its how the horse won that’s important and so on and so forth.

But its all agreed that once you have that winning feeling than it’s a feeling worth repeating again and again and.....