The Good Deal Story

A Tale of Horse Ownership

The story of Good Deal goes way back to 1992 when WRTC was still RTC and not WIT. In those days we were backing horses and going to Tramore, Gowran park, or Clonmel. The idea of buying a horse began in the pub ( where else !!! ). Its hard to say when it was decided to follow it through but in '97 when 3 of the current syndicate were in Oz for the year the idea became a bit more concrete.

By the start of '98 we were drawing up plans in terms of cashflow, training costs etc. We had absolutely no idea how to go about getting a half decent horse. The only thing we were settled on was the name of the horse, it was going to be Whissst. It was decided after a while though that we didn't want to get a new born horse because basically we wanted to be up and running and on the track as soon as possible. We put an ad in the Irish Field looking for syndicate members and we ended up meeting some dubious characters who ended up wasting our time. We also replied to an ad in the paper for a farmer looking to sell a horse to a syndicate. He was looking for a certain sum, I think it was about £16000-£20000. We decided against it anyway and he failed to sell it for 2 grand in the sales soon after !!!!!!!

We settled on the current line-up of 7 soon after. The syndicate name was never really given much thought which is unfortunate now since the name we came up with is plastered everywhere, one member badly wanted to call it the no chicks syndicate but since we were desperately looking for members at the time we couldn't be so picky. At the last minute I was offered the choice of 2 names, nags head syndicate or the knackers yard syndicate. I went for nags head but its not a name we are proud of !!!

We heard from a contact that the Cox stables in Dundalk had a few horses around the age of 3 or 4 who might be suitable for us. We looked at 2 horses, Good Deal and Diamond strike I think it was. We liked the look of Good Deal anyway, it had a fairly good family history but it had/has a fussy temperament. We negotiated with the Coxes for a few weeks and we settled on a situation where they are part owners of the horse. For us it keeps the costs down a bit and we figured they would have an interest in it doing well if they had a share in it.

It has raced a number of times now since we became involved in it about 6 months ago. It definitely has potential and hopefully will make its breakthrough soon. We have collected prize-money twice so far for a 2nd place and a 4th place finish. Ideally it will win enough to pay for itself. Thats the plan anyway................