The Blog
Short, specific answers to the questions new and experienced racehorse owners search for. Organized by category, searchable, and updated regularly. The four chapters are a guided introduction. The blog is the working reference.
A National Racing Compact license does not work in every state. Of the 32 US racing states we mapped, 15 are Compact members, 8 participate but still issue their own state license, 8 do not appear on the Compact’s jurisdictions…
The Claiming Crown is the championship day for claiming horses, and in 2026 it runs on Saturday, November 14 at Churchill Downs: nine races, $1,200,000 in guaranteed purses, and not one of them written as a claiming race. Making a…
Every owner of a covered horse is required to register with HISA, and a horse becomes covered at its first recorded workout or first race start — which can be long before you ever see it. Registering yourself is a…
A Thoroughbred lip tattoo is a letter followed by a run of digits, inked inside the horse’s upper lip, and a Thoroughbred tattoo lookup through The Jockey Club is free. The letter stands for the year the horse was foaled;…
Every Thoroughbred foaled in the Northern Hemisphere has an official birthday of January 1. Every Thoroughbred foaled in the Southern Hemisphere has one of August 1. Neither is the horse’s real birth date. Both are bookkeeping conventions that let a…
HISA fees on an owner’s bill pay for two federal programs — the Racetrack Safety Program and the Anti-Doping and Medication Control Program — at an average cost of $265 per start in 2024, up from $198 per start in…
It costs $50,600 to enter a horse in the Kentucky Derby and get it to the gate: a $600 Triple Crown nomination in January, a $25,000 entry fee, and a $25,000 starting fee. Miss the January deadline and the same…
A sale-attached bonus scheme should change where you buy only when the bonus you could actually collect, discounted by your honest odds of winning the qualifying race, beats the premium you pay to buy at that venue. At the two…
A horse sale agreement protects a retired racehorse only as far as the person who signs it. The two clauses that carry the most weight are a no-slaughter provision and a resale-notification provision — the pair the Retired Racehorse Project…
Entering one horse in the 2026 Thoroughbred Makeover costs an owner about $805 in Retired Racehorse Project fees, and the horse is only eligible if it has had no more than 15 retraining rides before December 1, 2025. The Makeover…