Horse training's long odds

Maryland-born King T. Leatherbury, the nation's third-winningest trainer, discusses the economics of the sport and Maryland's slots debate

By Todd Beamon | SunSpot Staff

May 14, 2003

Second of three parts

King T. Leatherbury is the nation's third-winningest horse trainer, with 16 victories from 6,000, according to the Daily Racing Form.

Leatherbury, a Shady Side native who was raised on a farm with horses, experienced his first victory in 1959 with Mister L in Florida. He celebrated his 5,000th victory in May 1993.

Leatherbury's career includes 25 training titles at Pimlico Race Course and at Laurel Park. He also has raced three horses in the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico: Indigo Star, which placed fifth in 1978; Thirty-Eight Paces, which placed fourth in 1981; and I Am the Game, which placed fourth in 1985.

Interviewed recently at the Maryland Jockey Club's lounge at Laurel Park, Leatherbury discussed a wide range of issues on the sport, including this week's Preakness Stakes.

SunSpot will feature more excerpts on Friday.

What's involved in preparing a horse to run in, say, the Preakness?

If you purchased a horse, which anybody can do, you'd have to get a horse trainer. He's the general manager, basically, of your horse business.

The trainer pays all the expenses -- the hay, the feed, the straw, the exercise boys -- all the help that's around, the groomers. All that he pays, and he charges you on a per-day basis.

Different tracks have different fee schedules, as far as the trainers go. In New York, you're probably going to pay about $75 a day. In Maryland, it probably averages about $45 to $50 a day. That's what you're going to have to pay to own that horse.

It's very expensive and, chances are, you're going to lose money on it. Most horse owners lose money. If you take all the expenses involved in horses all over the country for a year, and then take all the purses that are given out, you'll find that there's not enough purses to cover all the expenses.

So, then, who finances horse racing?

The bettors. They finance it by the take that comes out of the pot, and the owners, who are willing to try to race horses. Hopefully, they'll win enough in purses to cover their expenses. Sometimes, you get that good horse, and you're way ahead of the game. But for the average horse that's running, chances are that you are going to lose money on it.

Can you give me an example?

[In his program of horses racing that afternoon at Pimlico Race Course, Leatherbury pointed to a 5-year-old thoroughbred that was to run his seventh race since 2000. The horse lost.]

This horse has won only $6,000. Now, this horse has cost a whole lot more money than $6,000 to raise and to get to where he is. Somebody's paid the bills on him for five years, so that's a big loss.

You never know when you're going to have a good horse or a bad horse. If you knew, of course, you'd never have a bad horse.

How can you tell whether the horse is a good one or not?

Well, you can't tell. You basically go by the conformation, the appearance of the horse and its bloodlines. That's if he's never run.

Once he gets running, then that's out of the window. It doesn't matter who his parents were. Then, it's strictly ability. What abilities does he have? So the faster the horse, of course, the more valuable he is.