The Cost Of Living Like A Billionaire Hit A New High In 2025 |
Bythe time the final gavel fell at last fall’s Keeneland Yearling September Sale, wealthy buyers had smashed through records at the world’s largest thoroughbred auction, spending $532 million on racehorses, driving up the average price of a yearling to nearly $650,000, the most ever and 23% more than 2024. A major reason for such largesse: among the tax breaks in President Trump’s sweeping One Big Beautiful Bill Act was a provision cementing the ability to write off 100% of a racehorse purchase in the first year of ownership.
“[The bill] has been a big thing for a lot of people, to know that they can turn around and write off a substantial amount of what they're spending, depending upon what the rest of their tax situation looks like,” says bloodstock editor at equestrian publication BloodHorse Eric Mitchell. “Over and over again, we heard that from people who were buying at the auction.”
Mitchell says this kind of growth in Kentucky, the country’s hub of thoroughbred breeding, is comparable to the mid-1980s, when the federal tax rate was high, but tax shelters and write-offs for losses were abundant.
Racehorses aren’t the only aspect of the billionaire lifestyle that are getting more expensive. Since........