Equinties - BHA or MI5 ffs

Gm Equinauts

I’ve always said, BGP Capital’s success is wholly determined by the number of people who trust us and buy in. The larger the war chest, the more powerful it can be. Well, the initial numbers are strong and close to the ‘sweet spot’ fund size.

What is the ‘sweet spot’? It’s the amount of money needed to be able to spread risk over several horses bought at a specific target price (and cover all training fees for 12 months). If BGP Capital only bought 1 or 2 horses, there is a big concentration risk on those horses delivering yield. Concentration risks are never good when investing and ideally one wants risk spread across several horses. Why? Not every horse bought is going to make a profit. it’s a numbers (and luck) game and the more horses there are, the more chance of success.

If you’re deliberating on whether to join because you’re not sure how ‘big’ this is going to be, the cashflow forecasts are looking good. Trust me.

Register your interest here:

Now, let’s dive in.

Headline Roundup

Sean gets the all-clear

Following his suspension for potential drugs related issues last week, top jockey Sean Levey was cleared by the BHA after his B-sample came back negative for prohibited substances.

Levey will return to the saddle on Friday where he has currently been booked for three rides at Haydock; FODEN and KEEP ME STABLE for the Hannon and DAKOTA ELEGANCE for Brian Meehan – the last two are both for the 3:15, so he will have to hop off one unless he rides the like this:

Although the result is good for all connected to Sean, Matt Chapman still had his complaints about why the Swaziland-born rider was suspended in the first place - the ban prevented Levey from becoming the top jockey in the Racing League:

More:

Transfer Window

Yearling Sales season kicks off at the start of August and ends in December. Deauville, Doncaster, Newmarket, Saratoga, Keeneland, Kildare and Baden Baden generally host the major sales for the Northern Hemisphere (and BGP Capital members are getting involved!).

At the moment, there is a two-day sale in Ireland at Fairyhouse, which kicked off yesterday.

This time of year is about restocking for next year’s season, the ‘Transfer Window’ if you will. LAKOTA SIOUX and SYDNEYARMS CHELSEA were both brought here last year, SIR BUSKER and GO BEARS GO are two other graduates of the sale.

New, big-money owners, John and Jess Dance got stuck in, they brought an IINNS OF COURT colt for €110,000, a MEHMAS filly for €80k and an INVINCIBLE ARMY colt for €65k. Eve Johnson-Houghton who has had another fantastic season picked up a few beauties. Yearlings by KODIAC, SAXON WARRIOR, WALDGEIST and MAKE BELIEVE.

So far this year, the appetite for yearlings has been blockbuster. There were some serious fireworks in America which we haven’t touched on but all average and median prices across all the sales have been up 20%. At the end of the day, everyone loves to be involved in racing.

More:

British Racing remains clandestine, Racing Twitter don’t like it

@OBMRacing, the official Twitter account of Fergal O’Brien Racing, took to Twitter last night to slam the current two-day 18-member ‘critical strategy talks’ meeting about British Racing taking place in London.

The Gloucestershire-based trainer (or the person on the handle) was clearly left dismayed as to why only a few C-suites at the BHA were named, leaving 11 of the 18-strong panel unknown to the racing public. I think the tweets repping O’Brien’s yard are justified given the future of horse racing in this country is set to be shaped by the results of these meetings, not knowing the full panel is seriously laughable, even for British Racing.

Full story:

Gillard fined but not suspended

The stupidity of some people in racing often baffles me but this story is beyond that. Basically, Mark Gillard was VERY close to having his training license suspended because he didn’t call a vet when one of his horses, NO NO TONIC took a big chunk out of her leg when she got spooked and tried to jump out of her box.

Horses cut themselves, that’s normal (they’re massive and they’re flighty) and typically a little bit of savlon and saltwater cleaning will do the job for small cuts. The gauge on NO NO TONIC was 8 inches. Now unless Gillard has the cock of a porn star, surely 8 inches is a good size to anyone. Why he didn’t get a vet in when the horse got home is literally beyond me. A vet call out is about 80 quid… and he could pass that on to the owner!?

She was fine in the end; NO NO TONIC recovered after 288 days off the track and did go on to race (and win) but Gillard was fined £3,333.33 (weird number) by an independent panel yesterday following a breach in welfare rules. Bang on imo. Oh, and the legal fees have cost him 45k… he won’t be able to pass that on to the owner.

The BHA initially branded the experienced trainer with “neglect over a period of time” which usually results in a nine-month suspension of a license – the panel did not agree with this, though they agreed he was in breach of rule D1, which states: “All reasonable steps to ensure the safety and welfare of every horse in their care at all times.”

Full story:

Risk on

Waiting on some bits back, will post on Twitter.