as a rule of thumb, anyone who can only buy a 16th share of a horse, or even multiples of 16ths is an habitual and unstoppable gambler... the thing about horses, as entering the industry, is ... if you buy shares in companies, or property, you lay down the principal , but with horse owning , racehorse owning, you lay down your principal buy and then you continue to spend high amounts for the entire horse's life thereafter... you'd have to have big money to buy a horse outright with the breeding to give a reasonable chance of a win, but that's merely another sort of gamble. Really expensive and well bred horses crash into gates and break a leg just before a big race, after a few years of chewing thru $ 100,000 worth of feed, vets fees, farriers fees, registeration fees, management fees, stabling, air conditioning, trainers, dear oh dear on and on..
Like farmers, in many ways, it requires a gamblers soul. There isn't any science in it, it's all guesswork , you can train 10 horses exactly the same, and get 10 different results, and the odds are against you from the start..
in 2013/2014.....•4,200 did not earn any prize money
•15,000 earned $1,000 to $10,000
•10,200 earned $10,000 to $100,000
•700 earned $100,000 to $500,000
•50 earned greater than $500,000.
or to put it another way.....
•18,000+ did not win a race in the year
•7,000+ won one race
•3,000+ won two races
•less than 2,000 won 3 or more races.
obviously the odds are overwhelmingly against buying and / or breeding a winning mare or gelding.. Astronomical odds against it every day, without a gamblers mind it is such a glaringly obvious way to throw money away.
Calling race horse owners gamblers is the only correct term, nothing else would do.
