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For all that, the evidence of recent downpours was underfoot in the thick claggy mud that sucked at every step. John Best greeted us as we splodged across the stable yard. He stopped to talk to a veterinarian about a racehorse he had been examining.
“He’s monorchid,” was the diagnosis. At my obvious incomprehension, John said, “It means he only has one testicle or only has dropped,” and went on to explain the significance of this in the bloodstock business, while my mind wandered ungenerously in the direction of Mr. Hitler and his particular experience of this problem.
We hopped into his truck and headed for the gallops to watch the morning exercises and sat chatting while the horses and riders thundered past us, John watching all the while for any information he could gather from an animal’s performance.
I had come to visit John Best because he typifies the kind of entrepreneurial flair that takes an established business model, turns it on his head and becomes hugely successful as a result. He really attracted attention last year by winning more prize money at Royal Ascot than any other English trainer, the high point being Kingsgate Native winning the Gold Jubilee Stakes at an outrageous 33-1.
Like any trainer, John loves his horses to win. It makes the owners happy because of the prize money and it keeps potential owners interested in what John is up to. Most importantly, a successful race pumps up the price of the winning horse, for to John Best, unlike most other trainers, racing is not the be all and end all of the sport of kings. For him, the money is in horse trading and it is something he does exceptionally well.
“I can buy a horse – untried, unraced, unbroken, a baby really – for £15,000 and in a year he could sell for £1,000,000,” John says. “That is exceptional obviously, but the point is I will always sell a successful horse. If I paid £20,000 and get offered £30,000, I will take it. If it goes on to win races and be worth £500,000, so what? I don’t worry about that at all; you have to take your profit the moment it’s there.”
It is a hard-headed, simple formula that brooks no second-guessing. Anyone thinking Best has got to be barmy not to squeeze as much profit from each horse, as one might a non-animate asset, doesn’t understand the racing business.
“It is difficult to make a profit just out of winnings, but that is what most trainers focus on. Added to which, prizes in the UK are pretty bad, so I concentrate on the horses themselves. Most of the time, owners take my advice about buying and selling,” John says, “but racing is a tremendously emotional business. People get attached to things. I know which races will suit a particular horse and give it a chance to raise its sale price, and I also know which ones will not. But if an owner is wedded to the idea of running his horse in a particular race, there’s not a lot I can do to stop that, even if I know he doesn’t stand a chance of winning and that by losing he could be worth hundreds of thousands less than if he’d stayed at home. It happens a lot.”
It isn’t just owners who can scupper John’s plans; fellow trainers are known to have done it too. Last year he sent some horses to the United States for a few races and ultimate sale. They are under the care of an American trainer who was entrusted with implementing the John Best formula.
“One of the horses, Flashman’s Papers, had already won two races, including a big one at Ascot,” John says, “so he could have been worth £300,000. The trainer decided to run him in a race with a $75,000 prize fund. It was a different distance from what the horse was best at and on a different, synthetic surface. If he had won, it might have added £50,000 to his selling price, but if he lost it would reduce it to about £150,000. The upside was £50k, the downside £150k. It just wasn’t worth it, the risk was too great.”
The horse lost, and while some more decent performances might bring his price back up, it is unlikely ever to be worth more than £300,000.
“Nine times out of ten,” John says with a rueful grin,”if people don’t take my advice, it goes wrong.”
When an owner does give John 100% control, it pays off. John Mayne knows something about racing, given he has retired after a lifetime in business as a bookmaker. Mayne is the owner of Kingsgate Native, last year’s Ascot star.
“The first horse I trained for John Mayne cost £26,000 and was sold later for £230,000. We then bought two more, one of which was for £32,000 going on to sell for £260,000. Kingsgate Native was bought for £20,000, won over £400,000 and was bought by a stud for a seven figure sum. The thing is, the money the horses win means they don’t cost anything to keep, and while we make major decisions between us, he doesn’t really interfere at all.”
Given the money being made on his behalf, one can see why.
John got into the business as a point-to-point jockey and in 1997 became a National Hunt trainer. He got his flat licence in 1999, since when he has concentrated solely on flat racing. He was swiftly spotted as the one to watch and has not disappointed those who say he has the capacity to become one of England’s best ever trainers.
Being camped out on the North Downs make seem a bit remote, given that the two key racing centres in this country are Newmarket and Lambourn, but John likes to be far away from the madding crowd. “It’s a very small industry and everyone knows, or wants to know, what everyone else is doing. Out here at Hucking we can get on with it on our own.”
The process of training a winner starts at the sales. Best has always bought half his horses in the UK and Ireland and half in the USA, although the plummeting pound has made anything outside the UK unusually expensive and explains why he put some horses in the US last year. He buys half on his own account, which is on spec really, and half on commission from owners and it is a long, hard slog.
“There are generally 300 horses on sale in any one day. I look at two thirds of them, winnow that down to 50, have 30 of them vetted so I end up with a choice of 15, then buy one or two of them. It takes a lot of patience and hard work.”
John has ambivalent feelings about the growing influence of owners from the Middle East. “They don’t really have much influence over what I do, but they have a massive influence in racing generally. They are actually propping up the market this year. But you can’t beat them in the sales. You’ve got to be very careful…if you do beat them, you’ve paid too much. As soon as you know they’re in the game, stop.”
The thing about owning racehorses these days is that not only can it be a very profitable enterprise in the hands of someone like John Best, but it is possible to get into the game for as little as £400.
As well as offering syndicate ownership in particular horses, John has created joint syndicates that spread the cost – and the risk. The top one is Kent Bloodstock, which invites 8 investors to put in £50,000 each which will be used to buy at least 8 horses. The first such syndicate has already made £400,000 guaranteed profit after five horses were raced and sold for £650,000 and there are still four horses left in the pool, including Flashman’s Papers which even if he doesn’t make it back up to the £300,000 mark is still a very valuable asset. The second tier is Hucking Horses, where 14 investors own three horses for an investment of £10,000 each. And then there is GG Racing where £400 could buy you a piece of a horse…not a very big piece, granted, but enough to add a touch of spice to your day at the races.
Source: John Best Racing www.johnbestracing.com
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