So you want to own a racehorse

Owning part of a racehorse can be an awesome experience. This narrative is by no means comprehensive.  It is meant merely to give you a bit of insight into some of the possibilities based on my own experiences and those of people I know.

 MyRacehorse offers micro shares of well bred Thoroughbreds who are conditioned by high profile trainers.  I know of several people, including a handful of SIM players, who own part of a few horses.  Their impressions are mostly favorable.  Having some skin in the game adds a layer of fun and excitement to the sport they love.  A few complained about a lack of communication.  Check out the MyRacehorse website for further information.

My personal owning experiences are strictly with standardbred pacers.  Back in 1977, it was virtually impossible to get involved in harness racing unless you knew someone in the sport.  An enterprising trainer placed a small ad in the classifieds of a Chicago newspaper and after a few calls and meetings, I was the proud part owner of New Zealand import Gordon Lyn.  My 1/8th share cost $2250.00.  Gordon finished 2nd in his North American debut at Maywood Park on March 30, 1977.  A win was right around the corner.  Or not.  His first win wouldn’t come until March 14, 1978.  I learned patience the hard way.  Gordon won 5 races for us before being claimed spring of 1979.  I was out of the business for the next six years.

In early 1985, three friends from work and I decided we wanted to claim a horse.  We would each own 25%.  We lined up a trainer and made a comprehensive list of all the horses racing in Chicago for claiming prices between $8,000 and $14,000.  Those would be our limits.  We decided not to get an $8,000 claimer unless we all really liked him a lot because there was nowhere to drop him if he went south.  After weeks of study we narrowed our list to three.  They were Fox Valley Bullet, Fantastic Image and Loto King.  A Sunday night visit to Balmoral Park eliminated Loto King.  The little black horse raced only so-so in an $8,000 claimer.   There were stark contrasts between Fox Valley Bullet and Fantastic Image.  Both had pluses and minuses as do virtually all claimers.  Fantastic Image was in brilliant form winning or sharing every week for $10,000 or $12,000.  His only real negatives, but huge ones, were that he was seven years old and he had raced 43 times in 1984 and already started 15 times by April of 1985.  We knew that his schedule would take its toll sooner or later.  In contrast, the lightly raced five year old Fox Valley Bullet had recently arrived from Los Alamitos where he raced with mixed results.  I loved the way he looked and his racing style!  Very quick off the gate but able to rate once he established position.  We watched each of them race one more time before deciding. As expected, Fantastic Image battered a bunch of $10,000 types.  Fox Valley Bullet raced for $12,000 and got himself hopelessly boxed in.  It looked like his trainer/owner/driver, Marc Aubin,  had a ton of horse but nowhere to go.  The following week both were entered for $12,000.  Image on Thursday and Bullet on Friday.  Tough decision.  I strongly preferred Bullet.  I had a hard sell as the others all fell in love with the more glamorous Fantastic Image.   I finally convinced them to wait for Bullet.  We went out Thursday to watch Image.  He absolutely crushed that field.  And was claimed.  The next evening, Friday, April 19, 1985, we put in a claim on Fox Valley Bullet.  I was afraid others would too but we were the only ones.  With the claim entered, Aubin was not going to take any prisoners.  He gunned Bullet off the gate and won for fun, wire to wire, and set a new lifetime mark.  1:59.4.  We were owners! We decided to enter Bullet in a  $14,000 claimer the following Saturday.  We were at the draw for post positions on Wednesday.  Two bad things happened.  Bullet drew post position 9 which is in the second tier, thus negating his good gate speed.  And our driver of choice, Ron Marsh, chose to drive another horse.  We ended up with Illinois Harness Racing Hall of Famer Daryl Busse, so no big loss. April 27, 1985.  Fox Valley Bullet’s first race for us.  We were pumped!  We had family, friends and co-workers on hand for the big event.  Bullet was second or third choice on the board behind Pilot Renvaeh and the aforementioned Fantastic Image.  Neither Image nor the Pilot were ever factors as the speedy Kentucky King shot to the lead and set the pace while Bullet stalked him closely throughout.  Bullet was boxed in the entire way until he finally got room at the top of the short Maywood Park stretch.  Here is track announcer Tony Salvaro’s call.  “Kentucky King has the lead, Fox Valley Bullet second, Kentucky King and Fox Valley Bullet.  Heeeere comes FOX VALLEY BULLET!  Fox Valley Bullet is fastest of all!” For sheer, unadulterated joy, that moment was number one in my entire life.  I will never forget the feeling.  I knew when it happened that it would remain unsurpassed so I savored it as long as possible.  The winners circle was a madhouse.  People everywhere.  We greeted Bullet and his driver and posed for the picture. Bullet won right back for $14,000 the following week and was 3rd for $20,000 the week after that.  We lost Bullet twice in claiming races and claimed him back each time.  Once we had to wait several months because the owners were afraid of losing him.  All in all, Fox Valley Bullet won 27 races for us from 1985 thru 1990 at which time he was retired to a long and happy life of leisure on our trainer’s farm.

Horse ownership is very risky.  Lots of potential pitfalls.  But partial ownership can be fun and affordable.  From 1977 through 2007 I owned a piece of a few dozen pacers including several my partners and I bred.  We had stakes winners, $4000 claimers, and everything in between.  The most I owned of any one  horse was 25% and the least was 10%.  But when they crossed the line first, it felt the same regardless of %.  It was a great ride with many ups and downs. 

These days there are several groups that specialize in fractional ownership of standardbreds.  The two I’m most familiar with are VIPStable.com and https://thestable.ca/

VIP has been around a long time and was a positive experience for the people I know.  TheStable is based in Canada but has members all over the world.  Everyone I know who owns shares are well pleased with their experience.