Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Oh, Kat! I never said that they DO make money off flat racing. I only said that there is the expectation that it can be done. BIG, BIG, BIG difference there. I'm one of the few people I know who actually make money with my horses and I do it by major amounts of work online and in connecting with travel companies and so on. I have lots of friends who are big breeders for Egyptian Arabs and some of them actually break even because they've paid off their capital costs eons ago and have big names in the breeding world, but most other people only think that they make money because they don't factor in all the costs.

One of the things about our underdeveloped countries is the fact that most of the people that I know  here in Egypt...PARTICULARLY those involved with horses... have only the most rudimentary concept of economics and when they see cash prizes, they see income. You can talk yourself blue in the face to try to tell them about the costs involved in winning those prizes, but it doesn't register. So virtually no one in Egypt does endurance as an amateur sport...they look at you as though you'd suddenly turned blue and grown a second head if you suggest that someone would ride 160 km (100 miles) just for the hell of it. You do it for the prize money, stupid! Of course. LOL

On Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 7:32 AM, k s swigart <katswig@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Maryanne Gabbanni said:

> Living in one of those underdeveloped countries, you
> can have all the classes available in the world, but if
> you have set up the expectation that endurance racing
> is a way of making money like in flat track racing, ...

I don't know what flat track racing is like in underdeveloped countries,
but around these parts flat track racing isn't considered a way of
making money.  Sure, there are a handful of people making money playing
the low level claiming game, but flat track racing is well recognized as
a way to SPEND money, not make it.

There IS a reason that it is called "The Sport of Kings"...because kings
(and other ridiculously wealthy people who don't have to worry about
where their money comes from) are the only ones who can afford to play.

Of course, you are spending it on paying jockeys, trainers, farriers,
vets, grooms....

So, some of these people are making money off of race horse owners.  But
few of them are very well paid, so they aren't making MUCH money.

kat
Orange County, Calif.





=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

 Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net.
 Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp
 Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp

 Ride Long and Ride Safe!!

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

-- 
Maryanne Stroud Gabbani
msgabbani@xxxxxxxxx

Egypt Face to Face
www.alsorat.com

Weblogs:
Living In Egypt
miloflamingo.blogspot.com
Cairo/Giza Daily Photo
cairogizadailyphoto.blogspot.com

Turn Right At The Sarcophagus
haramlik.blogspot.com
Da Moose Is Loose (a blog for kids)
mstroud.blogspot.com
Photos of Egypt:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/livinginegypt/