Luo Yong's Suggestion: The Trainer List

It was already four in the afternoon when they left the Racing Association. Luo Yong suggested having dinner together, and Zhang Jun agreed.

The two found a local specialty restaurant in Mindu and ordered several signature dishes. While waiting for the food, Luo Yong gave Zhang Jun a detailed explanation of how the horse racing industry operated.

"As a horse owner, you mainly have three sources of income." Luo Yong gestured across the table with his chopsticks.

"First, race prize money—the most direct source. Second, breeding fees. If your racehorse performs well, it can become a breeding stallion after retirement, and you can charge a fee for each covering. Third, horse trading: selling the outstanding foals you breed to other horse owners."

"However," he suddenly changed the subject.

"The income can be substantial, but so can the expenses. A horse's daily upkeep costs at least five thousand yuan a month. I already told you about training fees during its racing career. Then there are veterinary fees, transportation costs, and so on. A single horse's basic annual expenses come to around one hundred thousand yuan."

Zhang Jun calculated silently. Excluding future annual dividends, the funds his father had left behind were enough to cover the annual expenses of more than twenty horses, but that did not include the cost of purchasing horses or unexpected expenditures.

Besides, he planned to buy a ranch. Once he bought one, there would be maintenance costs and employee wages. It was better to be cautious and purchase only exceptional horses.

"So you'd better manage your money carefully and not buy too many horses," Luo Yong advised.

"I understand." Zhang Jun nodded.

After dinner, Luo Yong drove Zhang Jun back to the ranch. The sky had already darkened, yet the ranch remained brightly lit.

Luo Heng was waiting outside the main building. The moment he saw the headlights, he ran over.

"How did it go? Was the registration smooth?"

"Very smooth." Zhang Jun raised the document folder in his hand.

"I'm officially a horse owner now. Shadow Hunter—Jianzhou Flying Shadow, that is. I renamed him—has also been registered under my name."

"That's great!" Luo Heng said excitedly.

"Come on, I'll take you to see your horse. It seemed to know it was getting a new owner this afternoon. It's been especially well-behaved."

The three went to the stables. Shadow Hunter had been placed alone in a spacious stall, leisurely chewing hay.

When he saw Zhang Jun, he lifted his head and pricked his ears forward.

Zhang Jun approached the stall and reached out to stroke his neck.

"From today onward, you're my first racehorse. Let's work hard together and win races, all right?" Zhang Jun said softly.

Shadow Hunter snorted and gently rubbed his head against Zhang Jun's hand.

Luo Yong and Luo Heng exchanged smiles.

According to Luo Yong, after registering as a horse owner, Zhang Jun needed to choose a trainer certified by the Racing Association for the racehorse under his name, place the horse in the trainer's care, and have the trainer enter it in races.

Zhang Jun was a new horse owner with no trainers he knew in the industry. Fortunately, the ranch offered a service that helped buyers contact trainers they were familiar with, not to mention that Zhang Jun had a fairly good relationship with the Luo Family.

Therefore, after Zhang Jun completed his horse owner registration, Luo Fei provided him with the contact information of many trainers on good terms with Jianzhou Ranch. The sheets of paper were densely covered with names and phone numbers.

Luo Fei had originally wanted to help Zhang Jun make appointments, but Zhang Jun refused. After all, Luo Fei was the owner of Jianzhou Ranch and had many things to handle. He and the Luo Family had already helped Zhang Jun a great deal. In particular, after learning that Zhang Jun planned to establish his own ranch, Luo Fei had even given him the notebook in which his family recorded their ranch management experience.

Zhang Jun chose to ask Luo Heng, who had just started summer vacation and had more free time, about the nine local racetracks in Min Province.

Although Luo Heng had not personally been involved in the family business because of his studies, he had grown up on the ranch and knew the racetracks in his family's main area of operation extremely well.

When he heard that Zhang Jun wanted to learn about the racetracks in Min Province, he immediately patted his chest. "Brother Jun, you came to the right person."

Luo Heng turned on his computer, opened the official websites of Min Province's nine local racetracks one by one, found their lists of graded races, and explained them all to Zhang Jun.

Through Luo Heng's explanation, Zhang Jun came to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the nine local racetracks in Min Province.

Horse races all had their own entry requirements, whether graded races or ordinary races. Some were restricted to fillies, meaning female horses; some allowed only two-year-olds, also called new horses; some were for horses aged three and above, the Classic-year horses; while others were restricted to horses aged four and above, known as older horses.

The race schedules at Min Province's local racetracks followed a three-by-three structure, with three racetracks in each group and each group having a different focus.

The graded races at Longxi, Funing, and Sanyuan focused on two-year-old new-horse races, with some three-year-old Classic races included, but no graded races for older horses.

The graded races at Jian'an, Mindu, and Qingyuan focused on three-year-old Classic races, with some events for two-year-old new horses and older horses aged four and above.

The final three—Xinghua, Jiahe, and Xinluo—focused their graded races on older-horse events, with some Classic races included. As for new-horse races, they had none at all.

Zhang Jun had previously studied horse racing through the internet and physical books. Combined with his observations of the horses at Jianzhou Ranch through the system's attribute panels, he knew that horses differed in growth rate and decline rate. Growth rate corresponded to the growth type displayed by the system, so he had specifically asked the Jianzhou Ranch staff responsible for horse breeding about Shadow Hunter's situation.

Shadow Hunter's sire, Jianzhou Swift Cavalier, and his dam were both the type that had average results as new horses, began to show their strength in the latter half of their Classic year, and declined sometime between the end of their first older-horse year and the middle of their second.

Therefore, Shadow Hunter would most likely reach his peak in the latter half of his Classic year, meaning the latter half of age three, then begin declining around the end of age four or the first half of age five, when he could prepare for retirement.

Considering Shadow Hunter's developmental trajectory, Zhang Jun immediately ruled out Longxi, Funing, and Sanyuan, the three racetracks focused on new-horse races, where competition during the new-horse year was especially intense.

Then, based on the schedules for graded races, he also eliminated Xinluo and Jiahe. They focused on older-horse races, and their Classic graded races were all scheduled for the first half of the three-year-old season, which happened to miss Shadow Hunter's peak period.

Of the four remaining racetracks—Jian'an, Mindu, Xinghua, and Qingyuan—three focused on Classic races. Of Xinghua's three Classic graded races, two were scheduled in the latter half of the year. All were suitable places for Shadow Hunter to make his debut.

Zhang Jun looked at the sheet still densely packed with trainer information even after five racetracks had been eliminated, leaving half of them behind, and pondered for a moment.

"Seeing is believing. No matter how good their records look, I still need to inspect them in person."

Having made his decision, Zhang Jun spent the next few days contacting the trainers on the list in the order of Mindu, Xinghua, Qingyuan, and Jian'an. Using the phrasing Luo Fei had taught him beforehand, he asked whether their stables had vacant stalls that could take in Shadow Hunter, then arranged visits with those who still had room.