ANDREAS PUTSCH: UNDERWATER TORCH

By: Andreas Putsch

Why this Blog? Nov 9, 2018

 

Dear Follower,

 

I have been doing this for 23 years now – breeding, racing and trading racehorses.

 

Combined these three disciplines make for a unique microcosm. Let`s simply call it the horse world. It is the world I choose to live and act in. I love it passionately. I thrive on it.

 

I am lucky and privileged because I have the good fortune to play this game at a high level, work with wonderful and talented people and be associated with good horses. By always observing, being curious, talking to every horseman and horsewoman that I find interesting, and traveling to all the countries where there is breeding and racing I have made precious contacts and friends all over the globe and gained an enormous amount of insight. I do not pretend that I have seen it all but it certainly has been a lot.

 

What I know today is vastly different from the shiny surface I encountered when I decided to become a player in this game almost a quarter of a century ago. This “shiny surface” is a beautifully crafted web of dreams, ego, glamour and competition. It is also a very good thing since absolutely necessary to lure new owners and fans into our game – today we need them more urgently than ever before, at least in Europe.

 

However below that surface looms an altogether different world, the pocket universe of trainers, jockeys, handicappers, gamblers, farm managers, stallion managers, bloodstock agents, syndicators, pinhookers, pre trainers, vets, pedigree advisors, statisticians, journalists, publications, sales companies, insurance companies – you name it …

 

In order to be successful in our business one has to navigate this underworld carefully and skillfully.

 

This is where my new blog comes in. UNDERWATER TORCH intends to shine a bit of light on a few things that interest or bother me. Or tell an inside story from time to time when I feel it is worth telling. It is not intended to be a “how to do it” guide. I rather would like to provoke your own thoughts and thus help you to find your own navigation equipment.

 

I will stay away from polemic “Trump style” prose. But you can expect me to be always clear and straightforward about what I see, feel and think.

 

Of course you are invited to think and – even better – act with me. Your comments are always welcome!

 

Andreas Putsch