New Business Model

The racing action for the stable was a little light this weekend (3rd place run by Blumin Won), so it gave me a chance to work on some administrative duties. Specifically, I re-negotiated the monthly expenses we pay. The arrangement I was looking for was to shift the mix of fixed/variable costs. If the horses run well, the "commission" costs go up, but if they don't, we'll pay a lot less in fixed expenses. Essentially, it takes a little off the top but raises the floor significantly in a worse-case scenario.

This expense mix gave me the motivation to claim another horse todayfor $5k - a 3 year-old gelding named Swift Progress. He ran an ok 4th today in his 3rd lifetime start. Even with the addition to the stable, the overall fixed costs will be much less than our 4-horse stable under the old expense model. The lower fixed costs will also give us the opportunity to run races during the fall at a number of tracks in the midwest while basing the stable in Illinois and shipping to a handful of tracks within driving distance.

Time will tell if this new model will prove profitable, but I wanted to give it a shot and will re-evaluate the effectivness in a few months.