JULY is fast approaching and, for those involved and following racing, it marks the halfway point of the flat season.

However, for my fellow trainees and I it represents the halfway point of our Godolphin Flying Start journey.

We are currently completing our first year eight-week externships at some of the world’s leading training yards and stud farms, ranging from the Curragh, Newmarket, Chantilly, Kentucky and the Hunter Valley. I’m currently based at Osborne Lodge with Ken Condon Racing and it’s been a brilliant experience so far. The build-up and hype surrounding Royal Ascot has been a definite highlight.

The majority of the trainees got to experience the same excitement and some even managed to make their way through the gates! It was a great week’s racing, with a great variety of owners, trainers and jockeys in the winners’ enclosure. One particular winning owner worth taking a closer look at is the RacehorseClub, whose colours were carried to victory by Create Belief in the Sandringham Handicap.

The RacehorseClub is the latest microshare site on the racing scene and, for an operation in its infancy they have enjoyed some tremendous success already with the aforementioned Create Belief and Balko Des Flos finishing second in the Grand National.

Microshares have become extremely prevalent in the last 18 months and are undoubtedly the standout emerging market in the thoroughbred industry since Covid-19 arrived.

Kentucky Derby

MyRacehorse is the leading microshare company in the industry, a position they cemented when Authentic carried their colours to victory in the Kentucky Derby and subsequently also won the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

In doing so, Authentic gave over 5,000 people the thrill of feeling like they’ve just won two of America’s most prestigious races.

So what does the success of MyRacehorse and the RacehorseClub – during a time when racecourse access has been very limited – tell us about the spending habits and desires of those who so far have purchased shares?

David Skelly

Microshare providers offer a high standard of communication, updates and access, albeit virtually for the most part, highlighting that less value appears to be put on one-to-one engagement and, as the last year has shown, the on-course racing experience (or lack of) doesn’t appear to have a significant impact when the price to get involved is in most cases less than €100.

Experiment

In October of last year as part of our Irish phase of Flying Start, we created a hypothetical business which sold micro-shares in racehorses, stallions, breeding stock and also pinhooking opportunities.

The project allowed us to delve deeper into the scope for microshare ownership in the industry across racing and breeding.

The overall desire for content was quite obvious from an early stage and we all came away from the conference feeling as though microshares were sure to expand and grow within the industry, especially with the younger generation who see huge value in online content, access and communication.

It appears that the microshare that can gain the highest standard of these aspects will undoubtedly be leading the way with shares sold and gain the greatest level of interest.

An interesting aspect of the RacehorseClub is its association with Qatar Racing, which I’ve no doubt has been a huge help in getting the venture off the ground at a fast pace.

Elite access

It made me wonder if there is potential for more large scale breeding and racing operations to follow suit? If there is a clear desire for elite content and access, who better to provide it than some of the industry leaders working with the horses on a daily basis?

The level of insight which could be shared would be unrivalled by any microshare company and could be used to brilliant effect by bringing in an even higher level of interest.

I know what you’re thinking: the world’s leading racing and breeding operations are where they are because of racehorse, stallion and broodmare success, so why would they get involved in ownership? The counterargument, in my opinion, is that the growth and interest levels of the sport directly influence their success and position in the market.

By setting up their own microshare platform, leading industry players could play a major role in offering an innovative form of ownership and one which could go a long way in ensuring the sport’s future health and success, which of course benefits them hugely.

In syndicating some of their horses in training through microshares, they would still maintain ownership of the horses for any prospective sale or breeding potential.

The annual end-of-season horses-in-training sales highlight the number of horses which are looking to be offloaded by the industry’s leading players, so I wonder could some of these horses be the ones that are put into a microshare syndicate and sent out to trainers with smaller numbers on a one-year microshare plan?

The costs would be covered through the microshare purchase price and in some cases may even outweigh what the horses make in the ring.

What if we had a situation where the sports leading owners had their respective microshare clubs fighting out the finish at Royal Ascot? The level of rivalry and excitement it would create could mirror that of other sports, and potentially even outweigh it as fans/owners would have a financial interest in their favourite ‘team’.

This opens the door to more innovations such as fantasy leagues, et cetera.

The opportunity is there to create an elite product offering, and a never-before-seen level of access to some of the sport’s greatest players.

Cheap thrills

The current prize money situation has made high-stake syndicates a hard sell. The chance of a return on your investment is minimal and there are much cheaper ways of getting entertainment than having a horse in training.

Microshares offer a much more affordable opportunity to get involved in ownership and those companies which have been successful have honed in on what it is their client base want in terms of access and communications.

It appears there is a price people are willing to pay for the right experience and microshares companies are the ones who have identified it.

When Covid-19 hit last March and we became accustomed to racing behind closed doors, ownership was a huge worry for most industry stakeholders. Yet during this difficult time one of the industry’s most exciting innovations in years has been allowed to blossom.

As the saying goes, “necessity is the mother of invention”. Hopefully, with attendance levels increasing and as we make our way back to normality, the micro-share concept can continue to thrive and develop within the thoroughbred industry.

Visit godolphinflyingstart.com for more information on the programme.