Preakness reminds us of the pros and cons of MyRacehorse.com
Seize the Grey, a horse with thousands of owners, wins second leg of triple crown
The impressive victory by Seize the Grey in yesterday’s 149th running of the Preakness stakes in Maryland was unique in that the horse’s owners, well, there were a lot of them. 2,570 in fact, since the winner was owned by MyRacehorse, an innovative business that is helping to expand the tent of horse racing “ownership.” That said, it also highlights why other paths to ownership, particularly those that involve a next level of participation in the sport by those seeking entertainment and perhaps some profits, is an idea whose time has come.
My family and I have been involved with MyRacehorse for a couple of years, long enough to have formed some strong opinions about its pros and cons. The pros are obvious: you technically “own” shares of a horse. But the ownership sizes are so small, there’s not a financial aspect to it, other than the money that goes out. Case in point: Seize the Grey’s fractional owners who paid $127 dollars to buy 1/50 of 1% (0.02%) of the horse, the lowest unit offered by MyRacehorse, won $158 of the total $2 million Preakness purse. Of course, that’s in addition to the horse’s previous earnings on the way to this big win. Note, however, that’s about as good as it gets. That’s a 1-100 outcome, at best. MyRacehorse now has a Kentucky Derby winner (Authentic and its more than 4,000 owners in 2020) and a Preakness winner under its belt.
My own experience with MyRacehorse: fun, but left me wanting more
I own a very, very, very small portion of about 7 horses through MyRacehorse. The information flow and website are great, and owners get to learn how the business works. I know I learned a lot, because I wanted to. Owners also get to see the other side of major stakes winning horses. The injuries, the performances that cause a horse to be sent back for more training, the long wait in anticipation of a 2-year old racing…or maybe not until age 3 or even 4. You really get to see it all.
The only reason I didn’t buy a “micro share” of Seize the Grey when it was offered is because I decided if I was going to spend $100 here, $150 there to “get into the game” as a newbie, I wanted to maximize the chance I’d get to see my horses run live. So I only went in on the ones aiming at racing in Florida and New York, as we get to Saratoga each summer.
So I’ve had a chance to see my horses run up close, and even attended a really nice event with hundreds of other owners in Ocala, Florida last year, to get a behind the scenes look. The picture of me in the About section of this site is with one of horses we have a tiny little piece of.
So, MyRacehorse is a great, innovative, forward-thinking idea. And I suspect the folks who run that organization are doing well with it, and I hope they are. I know it has taught me a lot. But one reason I started HorseRacePace.com is to see what the next step in horse ownership is. Between $127 for a “fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the action” via crowdfunding, and spending 5-6 figures most folks don’t have lying around to devote to entertainment, there has to be something else.
Before each race involving one of their horses, MyRacehorse offers a lottery for those who want to go into the walking circle prior to their horse’s race. I’m not a newcomer to that experience, so having lost every lottery so far is not a biggie to me. But it does sort of sum up the other side of crowdfunding, the limitations. According to the article I cited above, 512 applied for ownership privileges. From the picture above, looks like maybe 1 in 20 “won” that lottery.
Bottom line: MyRacehorse is a terrific way to get the flavor of thorougbred ownership, even if it is not really true ownership. Sort of in the way that owning 1 share of Tesla stock doesn’t get you in the “room where it happens” with Elon Musk.”
As I noted in another post today, I am about to venture into the next level. It is not a giant leap, but it does occur to me that for those who like the idea of owning a “fraction of a fraction of a fraction of the action” across several horses, might really love the next step up, whereby roughly the same money gets you in the door with a smaller number of horses at one time, but you are truly in the door, rather than essentially watching the action from miles away. I’ll explore this more as my own journey continues.