Horse racing has long been a sport for the rich, but lately even those who can spend more on a horse than most people spend on a house have been struggling with the bottom line.

Racehorses are selling at auction for a fraction of what they did a year ago, if at all. Breeding operations are slashing thousands of dollars off the fees they charge to mate with their top stallions. A volatile market for mares saw one sell for a record $14 million last month while others were discounted by as much as 50 percent.

“We’re just going to have to slug our way through it and wait for better times,” said Robert Clay, owner of Three Chimneys Farm, a major stallion operation in Lexington.

Three Chimneys paid a sum believed to be about $50 million in May for the breeding rights to Big Brown, the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner who faltered at Belmont to end hopes of a Triple Crown.

Last month, during a complicated ownership dispute, reigning Horse of the Year Curlin, the richest North American racehorse ever, was appraised at $20 million. Most thoroughbred experts consider his value as a stallion equal to or even greater than Big Brown’s.

What changed? Analysts say, “Big Brown was done in May, when the world was a totally different world,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “Now you’re talking about trying to sell or syndicate a horse when there is no cash.”

NTRA reported that handle was down for the third quarter nationally by 10 percent.