Chamberlain Equestrian Club Owner and vet doctor Marina Bukanova in an interview with Daryo correspondent said that the most expensive horses in Kazakhstan, from her personal experience, are usually bought as a gift by a group of friends or employees of some ‘respected’ person, claiming that horse business is a challenging industry to turn into profit.
‘Horse business is by no means profitable as it is difficult to sell expensive foals. Our market is small. I can’t tell anything about the horse racing business, as I don’t know anything about it, and I am not interested’, Marina Bukanova told Daryo correspondent, emphasizing that she believes that ‘investing in purchasing a horse does not make sense’.
‘Horses are very expensive to keep, even when one has the financial ability to own it. One can only profit by selling foals. But, as I noted, it is challenging to sell a good foal for an adequate price in our market; it is very small. There are just a few buyers who can afford such an amusement just because they liked a particular horse or buy it for their child as a gift’, she stressed.
Marina Bukanova owns horses of the Icelandic breed, Naela, and Lisingur. Each of them cost Marina €20,000, including the transportation costs. Besides, her club has become home to a show-class stallion of the Arabian breed named Nubian.
One of the most eminent breeders of our time belongs to the President of the Kazakh Association of Thoroughbred Arabian Horses Nurlan Tlevlesov. Its cost was initially even higher, Bukanova said. Producer Nubian, born from one of the best sons of the legendary Balaton (better known under the titles "Russian Arab" and "horse of the XX century") and one of the best breeding mares named Neapolitan, who was in the lead in 2004 at the championship of the North-West region (St. Petersburg), became at the age of two, when it won the championships of Russia and the Netherlands.
‘In Kazakhstan, mating with a stallion of this level is on average $4-5 thousand. More is possible but rare. Only mares of known farms with a full set of conclusions about the excellent state of health are allowed to mate’, Marina Bukanova stressed.
In general, today the cost of the most expensive horse named Frenkel is $131.6mn. At the peak of his career, the stallion, owned by Saudi Prince Khalid Abdul, reached $200mn. The list of other horse owners of horses in various sports areas includes Japanese Fusao Sekiguchi, founder of Venture Safe Net Inc in Tokyo ($70mn) and Emir of Dubai ($40 million).
‘Only the richest people buy horses in Kazakhstan. This is not profitable. Just one expense - analogous to buying any expensive useless things like watches, cars, yachts, and the like. Money at the races in our country does not fight back. Thus, investing in the purchase of a horse is not effective, Yuri Kitschenko, Executive Director of Almaty Race Course noted.
It is not customary for us, for example, among officials to buy horses. It is absolutely not profitable, at least it has been for the last ten years. Now, as I heard, prize money is growing in the races - accordingly, it should become more profitable for owners.
The last question concerning the effectiveness of investment in the purchase of a horse, a veterinarian in the conditions of Kazakhstan would rather call rhetorical.
Not effective, 100%. The industry is not sufficiently developed and all the other components (for example, the same veterinary) in order to make money on sports horses’ Umitzhan Zhanibekova summarized.
Credits: Svetlana Shesternyova
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