Howard Hamilton

This week, we continue our series on the publication put out jointly by the Breeders' Association and the Racing Association of South Africa.

The joys of ownership and the excitement of participation are covered in a series of very interesting articles that seek to encourage new investors.

Why invest in racing and not other sports? One obvious reason is that racing allows one to participate directly in its outcomes.

Certainly, it's true that punters can wager on almost every sport going today, but how many members of the public actually get to send their own representatives into sporting contests? Only racehorse owners do that.

This fact sets racing apart. It provides the owner with a chance to participate directly in the action.

This means that however old, unfit or untalented in sport an owner may be, he becomes a sportsman in a very real sense when his runners are entered into races. For many, owning a horse provides a once-in-a lifetime chance to become a sporting personality, and even a champion.

Through the achievements of one's horses, one is quickly elevated into the limelight as a serious player in the Sport of Kings. Few things in life are more satisfying. Some would say nothing is.

Racing is a great leveller. The small owner and the novice owner race on the same terms as the big players, and their runners frequently beat those belonging to more highbrow connections.

A good animal, unfashionably bred but with the heart of a lion, can beat a substantially more expensive yearling and make a big name for his owner. It has happened countless times before and it will keep happening. It's one of the things that makes racing great. In the Sport of Kings, many modest owners have found themselves elevated into the ranks of equine royalty.

Over and over again, it has been shown that a shrewd judge of horse flesh can pick up a relatively inexpensive horse that proves to be a demon on the racetrack. Seeing how those horses develop and improve over the years is one of racing's greatest rewards.

Investing in horses

The new owner, however, does not need to invest big money. Far from it. In partnership with others, or on his own, he can lease a runner from a farm and put it into training for a relatively minor investment. If luck is on his side, the runner will finish in the frame a few times and give his owner the cash to invest in a few more runners. In this way, a modest hobby can gradually become a grand passion. Once the bug bites, an owner will find his life transformed while his sporting horizons expand infinitely.

Become educated! This is common sense, but good sense isn't always so common. The point is, if you're to invest a fair amount of money in a sport/industry like horse racing, you should understand the game as perfectly as possible.

Not only will you enjoy it more, but you will be able to determine how well your money is being spent, and how it might be better invested along the way.

Most fundamentally, an aspiring owner must appreciate right at the outset that he is entering a world characterised by risk. There are few certainties of any description in racing. It is an incomparably thrilling world because of this very fact. Those who want guarantees of success up front should not apply!

For those of the right mettle, the risks represent a challenge not a barrier. As with all things in life, knowledge helps one minimise risk.

The better an owner understands the racing game, the more likely he is to end up placing healthy, competitive horses in good stables.

While hard work does not always produce the desired results, it does so more often that not. The owner who loves the racing game and enters it with passion and boundless enthusiasm has half the battle won. His interest, and his desire to learn everything there is to know, will reap the due dividends.

The world rewards those who commit themselves wholeheartedly to worthy enterprises. Racing is a very worthy enterprise that brings great financial, emotional and intellectual rewards. It simply cannot be beaten.