Purchase Price
The median price of racehorse’s sold at public auction in Britain in 2005 was just under £15,000. However, the value of each individual racehorse varies greatly depending on their pedigree (family lineage), individual conformation (the horse’s physical make up) and previous performance if raced. The economic climate and demand for an individual are factors that will also affect prices that are fetched at auction.  

Although it is important to seek professional advice when entering Ownership, there is no set formula for success in the sport of racing. This has been proved on many occasion when horses have defied the opinion of racing professionals and gone on to claim some of the world’s greatest races.

Running Costs
The average cost to keep a horse in training per year is approximately £16,000 all inclusive, however this amount will vary depending on your choice of trainer and can broadly be expected to include:

• Training fees include the costs to feed the horse (and they can eat a lot!), exercising, wages for stable staff and the professional eye of the trainer monitoring the horses progress and ability.
  Training fees will vary and some trainers will have an all inclusive rate, which means that costs such as routine veterinary care, gallops and farrier costs are included. Others will charge a base rate with the items listed below charged additionally.
• Gallop fees are charged in order to upkeep the gallops that the racehorse is trained on. Gallops are either privately owned, in which case the trainer will generally include the maintenance costs in their training fee or alternatively, public gallops such as Newmarket and Middleham are owned by independent organisations, in which case, owners are charged individually for use.
• Routine Veterinary Care is generally incurred to aid the horse’s state of health. In order for the horse to perform at the race track, certain routine veterinary care needs to be administered such as vaccinations, blood sampling, respiratory investigation (“scoping”). A racehorse is a highly tuned athlete, susceptible to injury, just as human athletes are. In the unfortunate event of an injury, on-going veterinary costs may be incurred in order to help the horse recover.
• Shoeing of all four of a horse’s hooves is essential to provide support and protection to the hoof and leg when the horse is in training and racing. The shoes need to be renewed about every four to six weeks and a new set costs between £40-£60
• Transport costs to transfer the horses to and from the races.
• Staff overtime at the races
• Race Entry Fees vary from £20 for a lower grade race to £000s for the Derby!
• Jockey Fees, a jockey receives a fee from the owner for riding their horse in a race, this fee is administered and paid via Weatherbys. The 2007 fees are:
• Flat Jockey £96.36 per race
• Jump Jockey £135.52 per race
• Ownership Registration Fees are levied for various aspects of ownership, by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and the fees are administered by Weatherbys. Owners must register.
• The Ownership
• Colours
• The Racehorse (if it's not already registered)
• Horse's name (if unnamed)
• Insurance is available for owners, who can insure against All Risks of Mortality for the market value of a horse. This means the policy will respond if the horse dies or has to be destroyed on humane grounds.