does anyone understand horse racing?

cameragirl21 wrote: ok, so more background noise while correcting pictures...just caught the tail end of the movie "Dreamer" and i'm just wondering how all this horse racing works...i understand it costs about 6 figures to enter a horse into the race but what do you get if (if anything) when your horse wins? i mean, is it profitable financially, do you at least get some money for winning?
i know people bet on horses but you don't have to enter your horse into the race to bet so what do you get if your horse wins?
btw, thanks to all who gave me kind words in my post about the pod people taking over my clients...one of my clients called me at 7:30am this morning, is it just me or is that a bit early to be calling a photographer about pictures?

Calimama replied: Sorry I'm no help about horse racing.. but I wanted to add that if people didnt wait until the last second to get their pictures done they wouldnt have to be calling you so early.

sparkys2boys replied: sorry no help with the horse racing either..lol.. what did you say to the early morn wake up call?? I would of told them to call me back after I actually had the chance to shower and have some caffine. These people are insane!!!!

Kentuckychick replied: As a born and bred Kentuckian I may actually be able to answer this question

For individuals who own horse farms and breed horses that are potential "Derby Winners" or potential racers this is their life and their business. It does cost a lot of money to enter a horse into a race, but typically each horse has sponsers and for the most part these owners do have money.

What the owner wins from the race depends on the race and the number of bets placed on the horse, it's odds to win, etc... An owner doesn't have to bet on their horse, but they do and they usually have everyone they know bet on their horse as well... the more $2 bets a horse has, the better the odds for that horse are and the more money that horse will make if he wins. One example would be Barbaro, last year's Kentucky Derby winner. Had he not been injured in the Preakness it was believed he would have brought in several million dollars last year for his owners.

It's kind of confusing, but it boils down to the horse and the dedication of the owner.

Come to Kentucky and check out the farms they live on though (gorgeous!)... they aren't hurting that's for sure!!

cameragirl21 replied:
Actually, i have boot camp (exercise from hell) at 8am so i was up and on my way out the door but i mean WTH, why would someone call at the crack of dawn to ask about pictures?!
but, lol, if you want to hear something hilarious...remember i mentioned that i took a pic for a designer that's going into a major magazine and there have been problems as far as the ad being to specs? well, yesterday the magazine called me and said the ad is too big and they can't size it properly because they're not in the graphic design business, they take the finished product and publish it. anyway, i was on the other side of town and couldn't get to the designer's to resize it so i called her graphics guy and he said he'd do it...by the end of the day the magazine's assistant to the president calls me again to tell me she doesn't have it yet so i called Yosef, the graphics guy and reminded him to do it and he said he'd do it.
WELL...this morning i hear that they still don't have the pic so i was just plain livid, i was taking a walk in the botanical gardens after boot camp when i got the call from the magazine and had to go straight to the designer's in my sweaty workout clothes so i get there and the designer and her whole crew are Latin American so they always give me kisses when i show up, it's a very common thing to do in the hispanic community...anyway, Eliana, the designer's assistant comes running to give me a kiss and i was like, "i'm all sweaty, you really don't want to give me kisses." and the thing is, Eliana always has a gigantic smile on her face, i seriously think she'd need plastic surgery to remove the huge grin from her face and she always, while smiling says, "o-K" to everything, chipper as ever. and she's from Peru but her English is quite good for the most part but anyway, i get there and as usual, she's smiling broadly and gushes, "how are you, Jennifer?" and i said, "i'm very angry, Yosef did not resize the ad like i asked him to and i'm going to chew him a new one." and i said this all matter of fact and everything to which Eliana, still smiling says, "o-K!" as if it were the greatest idea she'd ever heard so i said, "Eliana, do you know what that means?" because like i said, her English is good but this is slang so i wasn't sure if she understood me and still smiling she says, "yeah, i have an idea what that means, but go ahead." still smiling, lol! if i hadn't been so furious, i would have been laughing my butt off.
and lol, lately my assistants have been calling me "Little Stalin" because i've been ordering everyone around like crazy because i'm so stressed to get everything done properly and lol, i walked right into Yosef's office where the designer and her hubby were sitting with him and i was so angry that i didn't say hi to anyone, just turned to Yosef and loudly said, "Yosef, i got a call from Sofia that you didn't size the ad and she needs it NOW so we're going to resize it right now." and he's like, "but Jennifer, i'm in the middle of--" and i just cut him off and said, "i don't give a sh** what you're doing, you're going to come with me to resize the ad."
lol, poor guy gets up off his chair and meekly says, "ok...."
yeah, i guess i have earned the "little stalin" title afterall, poor Yosef actually looked scared....

cameragirl21 replied: and KentuckyChic, thanks for the answer about the horse racing.
hmmm, so there is something in it for the horse owner, if the horse should win then, interesting.
i wonder if the horses like racing though....
seems like a very cool sport though.

sparkys2boys replied: omg Jennifer, you need a vacation girlie!!!!! Or if you drink,a big tall glass of your choice..lol!!! You sound soooooo super stressed out right now. I can almost feel your blood preassure going up as you were typing all of that!!!! So, in the end did he finally get it done after you chewed him a new..LMAO!!!! Pardon the pun!!

gr33n3y3z replied:
If they dont like racing then they would take a break in the middle of the track and shake their head no LOL
Just kidding
Most horses like to race and you can tell which ones do

redchief replied:
That's not to mention the fact that racing horses are pampered like no others.

cameragirl21 replied:
lol, yeah, he did it and poor guy probably doesn't like me anymore because the whole time i'm standing over him going, "why isn't this done right, why doesn't it look right, do you know how to do this, are you sure you know how to do this?"
resizing an ad is hard because you add text to the picture and she wanted a size that would totally mess up the ad, taking out text, etc so i told Yosef we had to resize the original pic i took and then add the text to the resized pic.
and lol, we had to do this on another assistant's computer, and she wanted her computer and we were both sitting at it all morning and someone comes up to me and says, "Jennifer, Maria needs her computer back, she has to work on--" and i just cut him off and said, "well, Maria's going to have to wait a bit because we have to do this for the magazine right now."
omg, we'll see how many kisses i get next time i show up there...!

luvmykids replied:
We are in the horse racing business, more as a hobby...we probably won't ever have a horse in the Kentucky Derby but it works the same way...at the "regular" races there usually isn't any entry fee and if your horse wins, you win. Futurities and derby's cost money to enter for a few reasons, to pin the best against the best (you don't waste the money to enter if your horse isn't racing at that calibur) and to sweeten the pot. There's a lot more to it than winning the money in that race though, it's credential for your horse and trainer, etc. We have horses that are worth more than others because of certain races they've run in and even if they don't win placing in a certain futurity means your horse is worth more money. Especially if you're lucky enough to have a stud that does well in the big races, you can make a ton of money in breeding.

As far as do the horses like to race....I have to say definitely yes. They are bred for it and in my experience are miserable when they aren't actively training/racing. They get restless and high strung and very, very antsy to get it on.

And don't even get me started on how pampered they are, all I can say is those horses have it darn good Some even have their own pets

luvmykids replied:
Although if you're an average Joe betting on a horse, you win less on a horse that everyone else is betting on, you're not going to get rich betting on the favorite. The biggest bet I won was on a horse who was a total underdog, his odds were 78 to 1

If you're the owner though you definitely want everyone to bet on your horse.

TANNER'S MOM replied: ETA with Monica..I raise horses I own 7 currently.. some have been roping horses..borm to cow.. some have been barrel horses born to run some have been horses to play around on a trail on.. but I promise you if a horse didn't give their heart to running they wouldn't do it.

They like to run, it's a gift God gave them. I love to ride fast horses.. You know fast horses pretty women.. all gifts from god.

Most are pampered..but I will say they have a ton of heart and most true horse lovers say you can't measure the heart in a horse or it's try!

Not only do they get money from the race..but they can live off the stud fee's and the foals from a good winner. All sporting horses and the price they are worth goes back to who their Momma and Daddy are..plain and simple. The more money daddy is worth the more you will pay a man to breed your mare to him. And we are talking big money.

They are also doing this expensive breeding in cows and bulls these days.. It's neat to study really.

Kentuckychick replied:
Yeah, lol, the most money I ever one was betting on the underdog
I still didn't win much, but oh well.

My brother's best friend bet $2 on the horse with the worst odds at Keeneland a few months ago and ended up walking away with $2500... now THAT's a poor man's payoff if I've ever seen one!

punkeemunkee'smom replied:

Lisa is right-you can tell which ones do and the ones that don't you don't see on the track. If they are not willing to run and dont want to do it then they don't-You know the old YOu can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink...all horses run-they play in the pasture (racehorses are usually not in a pasture) Some breds have a gift for that type of running...If a horse can 'like' something other than oats I imagine that alot of them do...Of course I would guess that then there would be those that probably like it as much as that bobcat in your picture the other day liked being drug around by that darling little boy....

luvmykids replied:
ITA Abbie

One of our horses is a perfect example...she's not fast by any means but loves it, you can tell when she's in last place getting dirt thrown in her face by the horses ahead of her and there she is, pulling with every ounce in her, stretching her neck and legs out as far as she can. Lots of horses will quit and give up when they're behind like that but she pulls herself to the inside and steps on the gas. I doubt we'd ever win a dime on her but we still race her because she loves it and like Mel said, you can't measure her heart in dollars

cameragirl21 replied:
i hope you all know by now how much i love all animals and i never meant to imply that a horse is worthless if it doesn't produce money either at the derby or any other way. to me, any animal's worth is immeasurable in dollars or any other form of currency.
i was just trying to understand the incentive of spending six figures to get your horse into the derby in terms of what one gets in return if the said horse wins and i realize that there are sponsors but i spent the last 2 years of my life trying to get sponsorship and raise money for ALS research and i know how hard it is to get sponsorship so i imagine that in order for any sponsor to fork over 100k dollars there must be something in it for the sponsor if the horse they sponsor wins.
i was just trying to understand how this works, that's all.

luvmykids replied:
I wasn't implying anything about your opinion of an animals worth, just giving an example of how you know a horse wants to race and since she isn't competitive we actually lose money on her as a race horse but shell it out anyway to allow her to do what she loves. We'll probably give her another year and then train her for some other kind of competition involving speed, like roping or barrels.

TANNER'S MOM replied: Horses are my favorite topic in the whole world. I think horses are like peopple in so many ways. Some are fun and kind hearted very giving, some are sometimes a little hateful but most usually good natured. Some are okay unless they are backed into a corner..and some are just not nice people. I think horses have jobs just like people. I think you have your free spirit runners, You smart thinkers, such as cow horses and cutting horses, You have your work hard for a days pays horses, and for them a days pay is grain and a pasture full of grass, You have your family men and women who want to spend all day playing with the kids and babysitting. You have your loafers who just like to come out every now and then but are content to just laze around and do nothing but eat.

But they have all their own personality's and you can't change who they are. They will do what they want no matter what. The part of being a good horse trainer is like being a good parent. You have to find the best quality and nature it. Yes there are some people who try to break a horse by breaking their spirit.. that's been going on for years. But in the end it does no good.. b/c a horse that doens't want to run.. won't run especially if her spirit is broke. You take a horse that is made to do what it doesn't want to do.. it won't eat.. you can't catch it.. and when you do you might wish you hadn't.

Like I said horses are my greatest love over my family. I have had some that were pretty sourly..but I have loved something in all of them.