Good article. If my memory serves right Auric queen owned by your family. I think on Derby day it lossed to shd to zubinsky due badly drifting in the last 200 meters ridden by jockey E. Phillips. You people blamed jockey. Next time you engaged jockey R. Corner same way it drifted out loosed the race. But jockey E. Philips career affected badly from that incident. Maybe I'm wrong. Your stable flourished very well up-to jockeys G. B.Khade and E. Philips ridden days

https://bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com/bangalore/cover-story/the-stables-have-turned-at-the-turf-club/articleshow/77642406.cms

@ Aravind : To become horse owner first you have to select a trainer with whome you want to keep your horse.  Each trainer can keep maximum 60 horses under him for training .  ( This is the present rule position at Hyderabad ). After that you have to convince the race club authorities about your annual income and obtain a permission to purchase a horse, so in case if your horse is not winning any stakes, you must be in a position to meet the monthly maintenance expenditure. You  can purchase unraced  or raced any horse, but upto 7 yrs of age only the horse is allowed to run at Hyd.
    In our early days when we became owner,  we use to get good subsidy as run money from the race club upto rs 1200/- per horse per run and the monthly maintenance of a horse  was rs 1500/- per horse,  including stable rent, syce salary, feeding of the horse and some other  miscellaneous expenses. When Mr N N Reddy became  Secretary of HRC  he introduced many innovative ideas and plans for the benefit of small owners. He introduced category system and highest stakes   ( prize money ) in entire India by giving stakes  upto sixth place for owners. This boosted the confidence of many small local owners. Owners use to get upto rs 50,000 as  interest free loan  repayable in two years time in four instalments.  But as time progressed, stakes not increased much and not upto the  expectations of owners  but on the other side taxes increased and monthly basic training fee increased year after year.
    Now at Hyderabad the monthly maintenance of a horse covering all your points is around Rs 30,000/- per horse.  Subsidies, like run money per horse is no more in force. Further you have to pay certain percentage of your stakes to trainer, jockeys and to some other welfare funds ( which may come around  30 percent of your total earned stakes.) . So if a horse is not winning  or not coming on board than it is a different scenario and difficult to manage for small owners. In our days due to run money subsidy if a horse wins 1 -2 races  or comes in places for 2-3 times than it was easy to maintain. Luckily our average and cheap purchase horses gave us impressive stakes and proved too good for us and we got good breeding value too for some of our retired mares. 
   Lastly to became sole owner of a horse is a costly affair in present situation and scenario until and unless you have other good income sources. Now a days  most of the small owners are buying horses either in partnerships or in syndicate system. ( I am not talking about big industrial house owners or big breeders and owners. ) 

   For more details you can also refer a prospectus of any race club or log on to  respective websites of race clubs to get more detailed informations. Thanks. 
 

Sharmaji thanks for response. But actually what I wanted to is 1) what is monthly average expenses to maintain a Race Horse 2) what is minimum wage for handlers 3) what is remuneration for track work, 4) jockey fee 5) average medical expenses 6) stable rent  if we are clear about minimum requirement new oersons cud show interest to buy Race horses.

Keep it  up  S C Sharma. Good  luck...

@ Rajesh Kumar Khatri : What you pointed out is very true. Now a days the purchase and maintenance cost of horses increased manifold and it is becoming difficult to survive for small owners, particularly for those whose horses are not even earning their corn bills. Earlier there was a  limit of  maximum four persons to become partner in a horse, now race club's introduced  syndicate system  which is becoming popular in which ten like minded persons can become a partner in a horse with ten percent share to each. But despite this also small owners  are disassociating from racing and  new ones are joining. This is a fact.  This show is like that and will go on..... First and foremost thing is our limit of bearing loss or taking risks, otherwise we have to work on alternate plans for our survival and nothing unusual in that.
@ Sun : You quoted correct example of Deccan Prince. The owner A K Jaiswal and his partners got success from average horses only and they reached to the top and still they got tremendous passion and enthusiasm for racing. In my earlier post I quoted the name of late P Pentaiah from our stable whose average purchase horse Sikander-E-Azam won derby. Few of my partners too enjoyed racing and remained in profit but due to some other reasons later  they disassociate themselves. Apart from profit and loss personal satisfaction is also must for everyone .

@ raghavan and Aravind:  With all respects to both of you I wish to mention that horses are purchased either at public auctions conducted by race clubs or at private sale of breeders or of owners in case of old age  horses. The cost of   public auction purchased horses are known to everyone and as far as purchase in private sale is concerned the same is disclosed to clubs or to IT authorities by purchaser and seller. For insurance of horses too purchase cost is must which determines the value of the horse. About income from stakes and expenditures related to maintenance all aspects pointed out by raghavan are covered in race club statements which they forward to owners from time to time. In our 400 and above months racing career we might have faced few months as lean period but many months proved good and lucky too for us and the broader perspective is we submit all such details where we are expected/suppose  to submit. To remain in this activity for over 400 months itself is self explanatory. No person can continue a activity  for such a long period  remaining in loss. More than this I have nothing to say. To make you believe is not my concern. You believe or not is your freedom and lookout. Our father use to tell us fix a limit for your risk and loss with a worst scenario in mind and do whatever is best in that limit otherwise disassociate yourself from that activity. For gains fix no limits. For  success and growth sky is the only limit. Fortunately we never crossed our that limit. The first purchase itself gave us a flying start. When nobody dared to purchase a setback horse,  we dared and purchased and given best care to that animal with  all love and patience and with courage to accept the loss if we incurr in that situation. We didn't expected the results to our favour.
   About profitable racing I posted number of  articles on HT forum containing the details of management theories, allocation of budget, selection of bets, winning ways and how to pick winners but in turn few continued to criticise  me personally also  sensing some personal interests. I know still  few are very selective and personal in their comments and they want me to take the responsibility of their losses. One must realise and own his responsibilities and accept the hard truth that how someone else is responsible for their losses and irresponsible acts. Your happiness lies in your hand and my view of looking at things is different. I always see a glass is half full with water instead of seeing a glass is half empty. That is a sign of positivity to look at things, why I should look at negativity. My happiness is not at the dislikes or at the mercy of others. I enjoy my freedom in my own way and expect the same for  others to enjoy the flavour of life, instead of  blaming. Accept others as they are. Allow them to live with their own freedom. All activities permissible under law and within limits are good and not bad as few ones are projecting. Yes, I do agree that when you cross your limits than anything in access is not good for you. 
   There is no due date nor deadline for personal growth. But there will always be room for improvement because life is a learning curve.

You need guts to do. All people who ventured adventurously cannot say they have won or successful. You had a guiding force in your elder brother who took you in his wings and you left your lucrative job also. How many are blessed in that way ?  Racing as owner is a profitable venture as long as you keep your betting within limits. 

As per your records you seem to have done excellently well as owners when the competition were tough and no give and take was there. 

My appreciation for your achievements and also expressing in this forum.

Brothers duo are still owners or only punters as of now.

Sharmaji

Mr. Ragavan has asked some details reg stake money and how to make profit on race horses. I wud also like to know abt it. Your details of earning through stake money, subsideries from club, maintenance cost etc wud be guidence for ppls who are interested own race horses. 

@ Sharmaji,

  As your horses are based at Hyderabad,did you come across ant other small time owners of the centre who made big.

 From my racng days I vaguely remember a horse named Deccan Prince owned by a Owner who ventured into owning horses in a small way who ended up in a big way.

From your head post I thought you were taliking about a Booking Window clerk who made it big.

Congratulations to you and your brother for adventure undertaken and task accomplished.

It was they luck every one can't get that habeebullah who take them to in their business circle so all things depend on luck 

Luckily he got as colic but things now has changed no one supporting to any one so good luck 

@Sharmaji,

Undoubtedly God has been smiling at you and showering his blessings on your pariwar by keeping you all safe and healthy. I must thank you for posting excellent articles on various aspects of racing, including this current post.

some of us like me, do not have this memory of racin g. Even though I have been punting intermittantly over 4 decades, I am not able to remember any major tidbits in racing! I have won and lost both in a big way, but is it not odd that one remembers only the winnings and now over time, I cant even remember some big coups.

Keep it up Sharmaji. You bring a spark to the posts here.

Since racing is not going to commence soon in any format, retirees like me have to look for new pastures to be alive!!

Warm Regards,

Venkat

Respected sir ,u r lucky to own horses at that time ,the stakes offered by hrc were the best .now u can't afford to own and maintain race horses because the stakes have come down drastically and maintainance and cost of a race horse have gone up .iam writing this because I too own horses ,race them at HRC and I too enjoyed racing from 2009-2019.i had little to shell out from my pocket at that time but now maintainance is more than the reutrns 

S C Sharma,

With a modest number of horses, your balance sheet shows about 100 wins and may be 200 places.  This is your score in about 30 years of racing.  

Other than being a horse owner, I believe you had also indulged in betting on horses not owned by you.

I do not want to know about your profit & loss account as a punter. 

But as a horse owner, the stakes that you earned must be substantial.

I am curious to know one thing from you as horse owner.  Whether the stake money you earned fully covered the expenses on your horses during those 30 years.  The items to consider on the minus side will be (1) cost of the horse, (2) trainer's fee, (3) stable charges, (4) expenses towards food for horses, (5) jockey's fees (6) riding boy's fees (for track work)  (7) medication charges  (8)  income tax (9) amount required to be paid to turf club to enter a horse in a race & (10) miscellaneous charges.

The items to consider on the plus side will be the stake money you earned.

If the stake money earned covers all expenses and still leave you with a decent surplus, than you have every reason to sing & dance.  

OF COURSE, YOU ARE FULLY AT LIBERTY TO IGNORE MY QUERY.

You have stated that you gave up officer's job during 1988 after serving in a bank for about 8 years.  I do not know what to say.  You have given up the job that must be paying decent salary, and instead tried to earn your fortune in horse race.  An extremely daredevil decision from you.  Normally one quits services to explore other means to earn his bread & butter only after completing the minimum service required to be eligible for pension.  

Thank God, that you survived!   Normally such acts always (99%) end in misery to the person and hs family.  The system ensures that all persons who give up their  job on hand  & try alternate business, will learn to their horror the dangers in the new profession only after it is too late.

"Arasanai nambi purushanai kai vittalam"...A lady banking on the benevolence of a King, deserted her husband.   

I only hope that other punters do not get tempted & indulge in such misadventure.

My understanding of racing is simple.  Punters always lose.  And it is profitable to only a small fraction of owners & trainers.  Almost every bookie earns in big volume.  People say such thoughts are highly negative & pessimistic.  BUT I THINK IT IS REALITY.

Sharmaji an excellent positive article on racing on what a punter can achieve if he is focused. A good answer to all the negative people out there spreading all kinds of negativity about racing.

As a punter for last 10 years I can say that if u r focused ,have a good planning and patience u can win money in racing.it is not always a loosing proposition.

dear sir, your write up has given hope to lot of small owners that any thing can be achieved in racing with discipline and proper planning. thank you for inspiring.

Dear Sharmaji,

Very thought provoking article. Many big punters remains and ended as just punters eventhough they have re to invest.But most of them feared to do so , by thinking that they will be cheated or get bank rupted. Those people never achieved anything more than  a gambler status. You proved yourself by thinking and actively entering into the circle 

This is an awesome effort. Thank you for opening up your mind to HTisns