Who better to be the Green Group Guest of the Week Than Mr. Green Group himself, Len Green. Green joined the 'TDN Writers' Room' podcast presented by Keeneland to discuss the latest goings-on with his DJ Stable as well as to offer advice on how those in the Thoroughbred industry can best prepare for the upcoming tax season.
The best horse DJ Stable campaigned in recent years was Wonder Wheel (Into Mischief), who won the 2022 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies on her way to being named champion 2-year-old filly. She did not live up to expectations this year, going 0-for-3. But Green said that, as much as racing is a hobby to many, it should also always be considered a business. The Greens bought Wonder Wheel as a yearling at Keeneland September for $275,000 and sold her at this year's Fasig-Tipton November Sale for $3.2 million. It was, Green said, the proper business decision to make.
“If you decide that you want to run this as a business, and I think it's very, very important that people see this as a business, you have to make business decisions,” he said. “And the business decisions are that when a horse is no longer a racing horse, it's time to cut bait. I might have said it's not worth taking a horse out of training after a tough campaign. Instead, wait several months and try to get her back into racing form. Maybe with other horses, it works. Now was the time to sow it as opposed to racing on. So that's the difference between people who are in this thing for a hobby and not as a business. Businesses, you make business decisions.”
Green believes he knows the tax business when it comes to racing inside and out because he has owned so many horses himself and has been active in the sport for decades.
“I know these things having owned 200 horses every year myself,” he said. “I know what the expense is. I know what the ratios are. I know what you're missing. Have you donated any horses? Where is this horse? Where did you buy it? Well, I bought it, but I didn't pay for it yet. It doesn't make any difference when you pay for it. It's when you take a title and when you put it in use, that's when it's deductible. Whether you use me or somebody else, you have to have someone who is knowledgeable. Someone who can look at your expenses and tell you, okay, here's the way to do it.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, which is also sponsored by the Pennsylvania Horse Breeders Association,https://www.kentuckybred.org/https://www.nyrabets.com/ West Point Thoroughbreds, Lane's End, WinStar Farm and XBTV.com, the team of Zoe Cadman and Bill Finley reviewed last weekend's races at Aqueduct where the fare included the GII Cigar Mile H. and a thrilling rendition of the GII Remsen S., won by Dornoch (Good Magic), the full-brother to 2023 GI Kentucky Derby winner Mage. The focus turned to Del Mar, where Chad Brown added to his incredible record at the seaside oval, winning two Grade I's, including the GI Matriarch S., where his quartet of starters finished one, two, three and four. Cadman and Finley also gave their take on the latest developments in the scopolamine case from the 2018 GI Santa Anita Derby, that has, at least for now, resulted in the disqualification of Justify (Scat Daddy).
Click here for the podcast video, or here for the audio version.
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