i have had a couple of mates who were new to the game decided to buy a lightly raced dog, then all prizemoney they won used it to buy that speculation pup and hope that the race dog paid majority of costs until it raced.

this worked quite well for them and gives them a chance of jagging that champion whilst still enjoying the thrill of racing a dog that was no champion but very competitive and paid his way.

but it all depends on what way you want to go, make sure you get good advice from people you can trust and then the rest comes down to good old plain luck.

good luck with what way you go morgan.

Thanks everyone, thought id get the views of a few experienced trainers, owners here before jumping into anything. Going to have to look at what i can afford and if im willing to wait before having my dog race.

I am moving towards buying a older pup that is about to be broken in or in the process of being broken in.

I play footy and the whole team wanted to buy a dog and get into it we had about 4-5k to spend and they all wanted to name a dog so they could have our team name or whatever.. Anyway I was searching for a break-in for months it was just too risky and to pay 4k for a dog that has only broken in it just was not going to be worth it, I ended up going for a young dog with only 6 starts had one win and a few 2nds. Breeding was hallucinate x flo jo tears. Got him from NSW and to be honest I wish I didnt we paid 4.5k and he was here for 2 weeks Id hardly touched him then he trialled pretty well and after that Ive had nothing but injuries and sheer bad luck. He did get one win at Angle Park on a Wednesday only went 30.75 and we won $375 out of it so we have a long way to go to get our money back.

Be very careful buying young dogs unless you trust the person 100% because it can be quite heartbreaking.

I just brought 3 flying scott pups a while back. had been broken in and running ok times. Two should be fairly good and the third tries but is not real good. Anyhow i waited for ages looking for a dog to buy and found these three and after some time worked out the partnership that had them was breaking down major. I soon found pat hennesey who stands flying scott and he could give me some more info, (which is how i worked out the partnership break down was for real.) I got all three for $2300 and moved them to tassie because the boy is a sizey dog and the trainer was over the moon with them. They were in great knick. These are my first three but it took me nearly 6 months of looking around before i brought. I guess the more you walk away from the closer to a good dog you may get.

PS. Mine still haven't raced so i might have dudded myself yet, but two are putting down nice times over good distance. Racing is different tho

Pat H is a great person!! You have got your pups through a trustworthy source!

Good advice. I never thought about buying a dog that was lightly raced or just broken in. At least you know it can run. Otherwise you purchase a pup, hope it is looked after, then have to wait until it is 17 months old before it can race. Good advice about spelling after breaking in as well. In the end you still have spent anywhere from $4,000 to $6,000in the hope you have something that can pay its way.

Buying an already racing dog is the easiest way to get into racing quickly although you dont have that chance of getting a group 1 winner.

More rewarding getting a pup as well.