Welcome back to the Tribe!
Today we continue with post #3 in our series where we ask the BEST stables in Zed Run questions and get to post the answers here for you to learn from!
Our third post of this series will be – ON THE TRACK with BALGOOD FARMS!
For those curious, here is a list of the questions we will be asking Balgood Farms:
- What Is Your Stable Name?
- When did you start in Zed?
- What Is Your Proudest Achievement In ZED?
- What Is Your Primary Focus In ZED? Breeding, Racing, or Selling?
- How Many Hours A Week Do You Dedicate To ZED?
- What Is Your Favorite Horse You Own And Why Do You Love It?
- What Advice Would You Give To Someone Starting A ZED Stable Now?
- Who Is Someone In The ZED Community That You Respect And Try To Learn From?
- What Are Your Thoughts About The Blood Tool And Why Did You Buy it?
- Where Will ZED Be 24 Months From Today?
- If You Could Change One Thing About Zed What Would It Be And Why?
- What Is One Secret You Hate To Give Away But Will Tell Us About Your ZED Strategy?
- Any Last Comments?
- How Can People Follow Your Zed Journey Or Contact You?
Nothing should be considered investment or financial advice. Enjoy the ride!
ON THE TRACK WITH BALGOOD FARMS
This week we had the privilege of video chatting with Balgood Farms. On the chat, we got tons of juicy information we can’t wait to tell you about. Buckle up because this post is a meaty one!
Here is the interview!
Q – What Is Your Stable Name?
Our stable name is Balgood Farms. You can find it here – stable.
The stable is co-owned, so we came up with the name as a combination of both our last names: Baltz and Hobgood
We currently own 38 horses. To date (9/23/21), we have won over 77 races. In addition, we have placed second 83 times and third 66 times for a total of 226 races shown.
The amount of horses we currently own is partly due to the down market. Typically we would sell more of our offspring, but for now we have decided to hang onto them and race them till the market recovers.
Q – When Did You Start In Zed?
Originally, both of us were big into NFTs from Topshot. Once that fizzled out, I (Baltz) kept a pulse on the NFT space incase I came across something of value.
Back in March, some prominent Topshot people started talking about Zed Run. There has always been apart of me that loved sports betting and horse betting in particular, so naturally I saw the uniqueness of the utility of the platform.
The idea of making money from investing, breeding and racing was like a light bulb moment. Quickly, I pitched Zed to my group of friends (we had a collective in on Topshot), and one of them wanted in (Hobgood).
We entered Zed Run in April of 2021 by investing together.
Early on we wanted to start with quality in our stable since we saw how important that was in Topshot. Our first purchase was a lightly raced Z3 Szabo Genesis who we analyzed correctly and turned out to be a solid horse (playing hunter).
From that horse we started learning more and more, picking up trends in the game and making additional investments. Over time, we were picking up more quality horses through Opensea. Our main priority in the beginning was trying to identify lightly raced horses with strong upside potential.
Our proudest achievement so far in Zed has to be breeding Bright and Early.
That horse is a top 1% racer using a combination of the Blood Tool and our own inferences.
That horse still makes us smile thinking about her.
Q – What Is Your Primary Focus In ZED? Breeding, Racing, or Selling?
Right now we have shifted to being a primarily breeding stable.
We have about 20 mares that we have identified as solid breeders. Our goal is to try to sell out most their offspring.
In general, we think there’s 3-4 steps down the line from a low Z to a mid teens Z that we can checkpoint along the way at different price points that are proven combos.
Although, at the moment, nothing is selling now, so we have continued to optimized our stable in the mean time.
We will probably not let go of this recent batch of offspring in the market downturn, so we’re trying out new racing strategies with all of them in the mean time. We typically try to breed, get a few races on their profile and sell.
This keeps us liquid while we are moving up and allows us not to get too attached. It also covers some risk because early races can be misleading. We didn’t sell Bob the Beginner after his Griffin after being offered ~5x which was a mistake.
That scarred us, so we sold Bright and Early after her Griffin for a 5x since she performed similarly in her Griffin.
Q – How Many Hours A Week Do You Dedicate To ZED?
Probably too much time if we are being honest.
Between my partner and I, we spend at least 40 hours. I (Baltz) spend 25+ hours, but my partner (Hobgood) has a newborn, so it can be hard to dedicate the necessary time.
Q – What Is Your Favorite Horse You Own And Why Do You Love It?
Our favorite horse is hands down Jupiter Place – a Z4 Genesis Szabo Female.
We bought her after three races very early on right when we were deciding to make a larger commitment to ZED.
Her and another similar horse had shown some promise, and we were hemming and hawing between the two. Fortunately we ended up being torn, so we asked one of our girlfriends at the time what name she liked better which is how we ended up with Jupiter Place!
Jupiter Place ended up being a top 1% racer and the other horse turned out to be glue (a donkey).
Q – What Advice Would You Give To Someone Starting A ZED Stable Now?
You are not too late to join Zed! We are still in the early stages of this platform.
Our advice would be to go with low Z value Exclusive Fillys with multiple families of blood in them to begin building a stable. This really is your best bet for breeding solid horses down the line.
Q – Who Is Someone In The ZED Community That You Respect And Try To Learn From?
Our top three go to people in the community are: DanShan, SoulsVanish, and Alhambren.
We highly suggest for any new players (or even those with experience) to find a group of people you trust and can learn from. We found ours, and they save us a lot of time and money in Zed Run.
Q – What Are Your Thoughts About The Blood Tool And Why Did You Buy it?
Initially, we just wanted to get a method to the madness.
We were just starting to pick up on patterns before we came across DanShan who we had run into in the general zed discord.
The turning point (when we bought in) was when we saw a mutual friend from sports betting in the discord. He is a super sharp guy, so it was surprising to see him in there. Quickly, we reached out to him, and he told us more about DanShan.
We studied up on some of Danshan’s articles that were sent to us and found out he is a super smart guy as well.
Shortly after that was when breeding opened up and Danshan created his tool.
We decided to pivot to a breeding stable with this new Blood Tool. We sold hunter and picked up some females that had ability to produce some of these combos and got in the blood chat.
Once we got there we met more intelligent people that loved talking theories and strategies. Some of the people include SoulsVanish, 2 Fools & Their Moulah and Alhambren who are all undeniably sharp.
At first we just tried to soak up as much as we could.
The group even helped us secure a Z1 breeder that popped up around the floor price on hawku. I ran the idea by Dan, Moulah, and Al, and they all agreed it was a worthy acquisition.
We reached out to the seller and offered a deal for some Artblocks and Ethereum. The seller accepted and now we have a Z1 to breed that we found with the Blood Tool!
We couldn’t be happier.
Q – Where Will ZED Be 24 Months From Today?
We were just talking about this today in the Blood Tool Discord how we would like to see it take a line of online poker and DFS.
It needs to cater to all skill levels. I think if there is a chance to “class up” and hit it big due to some combination of luck and skill it could experience similar type booms.
In addition, streaming with max 2 minute races could gain a lot of traction for Zed Run.
I think increased exposure could lead to increased sponsorships which could go to the extent of selling your horses to wear skins. (skins are already in the works).
In short, the platform will start to leverage more sponsorships and stables will become individually sponsored as well.
Q – If You Could Change One Thing About Zed What Would It Be And Why?
We would like to see odds reincorporated.
We understand why they removed odds, but still think it is better for the game in the long run.
In addition, we would also like to see some reversion to mean catering towards beginners and experienced players. Also for continuing to gain more exposure for the gambling sphere.
Another great feature would be a multisig type wallet to allow us to “hire” people to run our horses. Racing as you know is very time consuming and a talent. With breeding and sales, it can be a lot to keep up with. One of our friends @ElkinsRacingCo who is also into zed is a very good racer, and we have worked out situations where we send horses to him to race to either earn a profit or get them some volume. Splitting profits etc.
It works well when it’s a friend that we trust but would be great for expansion if zed was able to incorporate this into game play.
We learned recently that there is similar arrangements in the blood chat and there is definitely demand for it in community.
Q – What Is One Secret You Hate To Give Away But Will Tell Us About Your ZED Strategy?
Something that we learned along our breeding journey is that parent’s racing prowess doesn’t ensure good babies.
While you might think a natural successful horse would breed champions, it is not always the case.
Q – Any Last Comments?
Our main goal is to find a niche breeding affordable racers that perform above baselines and gain a reputation for that.
Q – How Can People Follow Your Zed Journey Or Contact You?
You can contact us on @Balgood_Farms on twitter
Or find us on Discord: hobnasty | Balgood Farms#6484
On The Track – Balgood Farms
Thanks for reading our interview post of On The Track With Balgood Farms!
We are going to continue to post these interviews from the top stables around the community, so make sure to subscribe to not miss your chance at learning their secrets!
We’ll see you on the track!
Cheers
