BB before you go headfirst into buying an entire stable and stud farm, why don't you start off buying ONE race horse, giving him to your gf to train, and you go to the barn everyday with her to help train the horse? As you may remember, I used to own/train race horses, at one point I had 25 or so, but I always had at least 10-15 under my care. I didn't just start out with 15 horses. I bought one, saw how that went, bought another, kept going from there.
I don't know how much you know as far as caring for race horses (types of feed, hoof/shoe care, equipment, proper nutritional supplements, conditioning, pre racing, how to classify your horse as far as types of races to enter, etc etc etc), but it's not something that you are going to just learn overnight. Plus, getting into this business is a FULLTIME job. I mean EVERY DAY...15 hours a day. I used to train my horses from 9-5, go home for an hour, go back to the barn, ship my horses to the racetrack to race, race them, care for them post race, ship them back home, and start over the next day. They are like kids, they constantly need to be looked over and watched and cared for. No days off.
I think you could combine the best of both worlds if you wanted to. Get a horse, give her to your gf to train, go with her every day and learn the in's and out's of training and caring for a horse. That way you could spend time with her AND learn. I used to have a gf that helped me out at the barn every day. Would clean stalls, jog horses, do them up, help feed, etc.
As for the gambling aspect, again you are talking to a guy that has bet on the horses since I was 16. I've had hits of $11,000, $21,000, $7,000 etc etc on superfectas and other bets. But I'm realistic. I just don't see how you can expect to make a consistent living betting on the ponies. To try and do that fulltime and make a living is imo not gonna happen. Though ya never know.
Dude I've been in this business for 20 years, don't be afraid to ask me questions and use the resources at your disposal.
Btw my name here, cordoncordon, is from a racehorse in Michigan. An open pacer. Very fast horse back in the early 90's. Used to bet him alllllllll the time, and he came through for me more than once
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