Managing your first good horse

[Ryan Express]

A good horse can help you build your stable. In fact, a great horse can alone support a modest-sized stable. So what do you do when you find your first great runner or breeder? Learn from our past mistakes. Be patient and maximize them. Horses have a limited number of good starts and breeds. Don't get impatient and waste them. For example, if you stumble into a great sire, don't breed him to bum mares just because that's all you have. Find a way to acquire better mares, and wait. We sure wish we hadn't wasted 1/2 of Catfish Hunter's breeds. Similarly, if you have an elite runner, don't run the horse in 3-5 horse allowance fields. How much can you win? Are you really going to run one of the game's best horses for a chance at a whopping $2? If you conserve the starts, the horse can run into its twilight years, never missing a stakes race. Wins are not the name of the game, money is. After your elite pony has started 80 times and starts to wind down, you'll wish you could have those 30 wasted starts against small fields. The big purses will come, and your best horses should be waiting for them, not itching to run for peanuts as soon as they are ready.