Shared ownership

It has always struck me—as someone with a keen interest in most sports—that the lack of harmonisation around various rules and issues such as interference, jockey’s weights, and doping isn’t helpful as racing remains such a puzzle to most of the world.

This is evident too in the area of shared ownership, of syndicates, racing clubs and the developing area of micro share groups.

Never has it been more important for racing to attract fresh blood, with its core support ageing and the sport barely causing a ripple in mainstream media. Shared ownership is a foolproof mechanism for unearthing new acolytes because emotion and feeling will trump catchy slogans or slick promotional videos every time. If you want converts, having them in the parade ring as part of the inner circle and seeing their horse run and contend or win is your best bet.

Piers Winkworth, racing manager of Kennet Valley Thoroughbreds, summed it up well after Dragon Leader maintained his 100 per cent record from three runs by landing the £147,540 first prize in the Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes at York’s prestigious Ebor meeting in August.

Dragon Leader with Ryan Moore up wins the 2023 Premier Yearling Stakes at York’s prestigious Ebor meeting in August.

“This is what syndicates are all about really—having cracks at these ultra-valuable sales handicaps with modestly bought horses,” Winkworth noted. “Dragon Leader, a £45,000 Donny yearling, goes and wins the big race by some distance under Ryan Moore. It was thrilling for all of our owners. We had about 16 people up at York to see him, and there were great celebrations after the race”.

Johnny Murtagh has participated in many such celebrations, having had a hefty number of syndicates at Fox Covert Stables since he took out a licence to train at the conclusion of a stellar riding career.

The Curragh-based conditioner secured his first Gp. 1 triumph with Fitzwilliam Racing’s Champers Elysees in 2020, and bagged his first Classic the following season when Sonnyboyliston swooped to score in the Comer Group International Irish St Leger for Kildare Racing Club.

This season, Murtagh has had runners for 11 syndicates, saddling winners for six of them. So enamoured is he with shared ownership that he has just launched a new racing club, Racing Revolution, more of which anon.

“There’s nothing better than coming back into the ring and seeing people who never thought they’d ever own a horse so happy”, reports Murtagh.

“We’ve been very lucky with Fitzwilliam. They ended up winning a G.p 1. We now have the likes of the Brunabonne Syndicate—lads from where I grew up. They’ve been so lucky with Mashhoor. He won a couple of big races (including at Gp. 3 level), brought the lads to York and Ascot, and ran on all the big days”.

The idea of the racing club came out of Mashhoor’s Listed triumph on Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas day at Curragh Racecourse in May. In particular, it was the reaction of Tommy Dowd, a celebrated former Gaelic footballer who led Meath to All-Ireland glory in 1996, that resonated.

“Tommy Dowd picked up the Sam Maguire as captain of Meath and he said, ‘This is the same feeling as that.’”

Dr Paull Khan, secretary-general of the European and Mediterranean Horseracing Federation summarises the overall situation brilliantly.

“In many countries (in and outside our region), racing is struggling to maintain its popularity and relevance, as societal practices and preferences shift,” notes Khan.

“Broadening the base of racehorse ownership may well prove a key weapon in countering this trend. Quite simply, the more people that have an involvement in owning a racehorse, the more our sport becomes embedded in society.

“For racing authorities, the challenge is not limited to promotion. Appropriate Rules of Racing must underpin such activity, which allow for and define co-ownership options.

“But there is also a potential downside, in that the creation of ownership entities which encompass large groups of individuals brings with it increased risks of incompetent or, yet worse, fraudulent management. Any examples of people suffering bad experiences, which are not satisfactorily dealt with, are likely to gain much publicity and have the effect of putting off future owners. So the final aspect to which racing authorities must give thought is the need for effective regulatory oversight, to minimise this risk”.

What follows is something of a potted overview of the situation in Europe, thanks to a number of different stakeholders from governing bodies to trainers and plenty more in between. 

BRITAIN

Establishing a new syndicate isn’t laborious in Britain, and only the manager/syndicator must register as an owner. The members do not have to register, but an updated list of members must be provided to the BHA as well as the percentage share held by each one.

Racing clubs are focussed entirely on the experience of ownership but without having any equity in the horse or share in whatever proceeds it accrues while racing. Members pay an annual fee to enjoy most of the other benefits of ownership, on race day and while in training. Once again, only the person setting up or running the club must register.

Micro share groups are becoming more visible and are a very cheap way to become involved in racing as a tiny percentage of a share, normally a fraction of 1 percent , can be acquired for as little as £40. Like racing clubs, they are primarily experiential, though members are owners and are entitled to the equivalent cut of any money accumulated.

All forms of shared ownership in Britain are subject to a code of conduct that includes specific mandatory clauses in each written contract. Transparency and protection are the key tenets of the code. The BHA has committed to auditing a proportion of syndicate/racing club/micro share contracts to ensure compliance.

George Baker’s ‘Have horse, will travel,’ mantra has always made him attractive to shared ownership groups. The Robins Farm trainer has saddled winners all over the world and is as good a host as he is a trainer.

The Surrey-based conditioner has his own racing club, the George Baker Racing Club, which provides all the perks of an involvement in racehorses, including open house visits, parade ring passes, regular communication, picnics at Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, and even a share in a prize money. 

Baker joins Andrew Balding and Harry Eustace as trainers for the MyRacehorse fractional share group, making a big splash on this side of the Atlantic and having initially enjoyed stupendous success when established in America by Michael Behrens.

The relationship with MyRacehorse began with Get It and Watchya racing in Bahrain; and the ambition was rewarded by the former being awarded a victory after the winner on the day was disqualified due to a positive sample.

“The key point here is making racehorse ownership accessible to absolutely everybody in the way that it has been for a few years now and obviously in Australia, where the big syndicates have had massive success”, Baker declares. 

“Like our horse (Get It) at Wolverhampton (on September 7) that won the Racing League race—a share in him was £45. The wonderful thing about a share at whatever level [is] the horse becomes your horse, regardless of whether you’ve paid a million pounds or forty pounds. 

“We all know it’s the way forward because we’ve just got to get as many people as we can into this game, and of course you hope that some of them become more heavily involved in the sport and that it evolves to a longer association; but the most important thing is showing racing as a viable means of enjoyment”.

A degree of suspicion has lingered around micro share operations, but Baker is happy to go to bat for MyRacehorse. 

“I can’t speak for any of the other micro share entities, though obviously I’ve heard rumours of numbers not quite stacking up or that horses worth ‘x’ have been marketed for ‘x + y + z’; but that’s not something I can be quoted on because I haven’t had intimate involvement or knowledge.

“I know from the MyRacehorse perspective, they are wholly transparent and very keen to be treated as you would treat a security in the stock market. They want to create a secondary market so people can trade in and out of their shares. 

“People demand absolute transparency and absolute integrity and from my experience, clearly that’s what MyRacehorse have based their brilliant business on in America and Australia; and they’re trying to bring the same criteria here. And that’s absolutely correct. I don’t want to be involved with any organisation or micro share entity where there’s a level of suspicion around the numbers. And that’s why MyRacehorse is creating a niche and an attractive market”.

Baker returns to Get It and Wolverhampton to ram home his point about the impact feeling a winner can have regardless of financial outlay.

“There was one of the guys in the winner’s enclosure who’d won a share that night in a race card competition that MyRacehorse had organised with the Racing League. And there he is in the winner’s enclosure being photographed with (jockey) Paul Mulrennan and the horse. The guy was almost in a state of shock, but he was absolutely loving it”.

IRELAND

Ireland is among the most proactive European jurisdictions for the promotion and growth of multiple ownership. Figures from 2022 indicate that the number of syndicates increased by 24 per cent to 825, comprising 8,030 people. 

The number of racing clubs increased by 6 per cent, comprising 1,683 members. 

People can join existing syndicates or racing clubs or establish their own. Syndicates in Ireland comprise 3–100 people, while racing clubs can have an unlimited number of members.

The above figure for syndicates also includes the evolving fractional ownership model, with MyRacehorse having horses in training with Joseph O’Brien and Michael O’Callaghan.

“It is a great way to dip your toe in the water and see if it is the pastime for you,” says HRI’s owner development manager, Amber Byrne of shared ownership, who adds that plenty with the means to indulge in sole ownership prefer syndicates as a means of spreading their risk or because they derive more enjoyment from them.

HRI maintains a register of racehorse owners and can void or suspend owner registrations. The onus falls on the agent to ensure the syndicate/club and its members complies with the rules of racing, HRI directives, owner eligibility policy etc. Unlike the BHA, they do not have a specific code of conduct in place but advise that all syndicates and clubs provide them.

Agents must be registered as full owners and provide necessary ID, bank details etc., while a full list of membership including addresses and contact details and shares held must be supplied and continuously updated. Syndicates/clubs must declare if they are selling shares publicly and declare the maximum number of shares available in a particular horse. 

Jack Cantillon, founder of the hugely popular Syndicates.Racing, says HRI has it just right in terms of regulation and oversight.

“We recently registered in France, and it took over a month for our application to be successfully processed; so we should be thankful for how quick it has been for us to do so in Ireland”, Cantillon relates. “We also are registered in New York, and they even wanted my fingerprints before we got over the line! Ireland strikes a balance of enough protections while not over burdening with ridiculous red tape.

“Syndicates are the backbone of building the pipeline of ownership of racehorses throughout the world”, he continues. “We’ve had incidents of people taking a €200 share as their first share in a racehorse and progressing to owning horses worth €100,000 on their own. It’s an amazing journey to see in full sight and something that’s incredibly rewarding”.

Syndicates.Racing has enjoyed spectacular success in a short period in both codes, with runners and winners at a host of major meetings and venues, including graded-winning mares Cabaret Queen and Grangee. Their trainers include Willie Mullins, Joseph O’Brien, Henry de Bromhead, Jessica Harrington, Gavin Cromwell, Peter Fahey, John McConnell, Jack Davison and the aforementioned Johnny Murtagh. They also have horses in training in Britain and America.

Grangee with Jack, John and Tom from Syndicates.Racing.

“We have been blessed with over a thousand owners that have gotten involved in Syndicates.Racing since its inception and bringing so many of them to the winner’s enclosure has been a hugely rewarding thing… If you do have a positive experience, there’s very few more rewarding experiences of intimate involvement that you can get in any sport”.

As mentioned earlier, Murtagh is such a believer in the benefits of shared ownership that he has just launched his own racing club.

“You’d love people to have a good experience of racing. They’re going to be racing, but they’re going to see behind the scenes as well—even things like a horse being shod or going through the stalls; the ins and outs of JP Murtagh on a weekly basis with a horse ready to run. You’ll have a morning on the gallops, a few get-togethers. I think there’s going to be a great take-up and plenty of entertainment.

“There’s a bit more work, but I only speak to the racing manager and they keep everyone else informed. You’re going to have to employ somebody to take videos and keep it updated every day. I want people to see what’s going on and to feel part of it.

“You like to promote the game as best you can and show it in a good light and maybe in a way that people with some bit of interest want to see more and you never know what it leads to. One fella might say, ‘I enjoyed that; can you buy me a horse?’ Rather than jumping into it straight away, they get a good feel.

“I think it’ll work. We’ve a good horse, and we’ve a plan for the horse. We have everything in place, ready to go. I think people will like to be part of it.

While there is “a bit involved” in setting Racing Revolution up, “Murtagh found HRI very helpful. Ireland’s governing body is full square behind shared ownership as a means of growing the sport and industry.

“The promotion of shared ownership is central to our domestic marketing strategy”, Byrne emphasises. “Syndicates and clubs are key in introducing the ownership concept. We see it as an affordable entry stage into ownership and a way for those interested in racing to get closer to the action and behind-the-scenes access.

“For the most part our domestic marketing promotion concentrates on highlighting multiple ownership. There is no other sport that allows the kind of access that ownership offers and allows fans to get fully immersed in a sport that they love”.

Cantillon sees one area of potential improvement.

“I think we as an industry should invest in a comprehensive customer relationship management system for our owners. We should take advantage of affordable technology available to improve owner experience tenfold. Send a special deal to owners on their birthday, invite them back to the anniversary of their winner last year, issue tickets digitally so there’s no mix-ups at the gate. It’s simple stuff but makes a huge difference”.

FRANCE

Syndicates are known as ecurie de groupe in France, which translates directly to racing stables but are generally known as racing clubs. They are not to be confused with the experiential model of racing clubs in Britain and Ireland and which do not exist in France.

Neither are there any micro share companies, though there have been some initial discussions with MyRacehorse.

“It is certainly an interesting model, one which is full of potential in France,” outgoing managing director of France Galop, Olivier Delloye tells us.

There are 44 syndicates in operation in France, and that figure—while low and down on the 72 recorded in 2014—will increase “in the coming months” according to France Galop’s marketing and ownership development manager, Raphaël Naquet. Ecurie Team Spirit, Shamrock Racing, Ecurie Vivaldi, Ecurie Brillantissime, and High Heels Racing Stable are among the flourishing factions; and there are links to several syndicates on the France Galop website.

As Jack Cantillon touched on, the process of registering a syndicate is more arduous in France than elsewhere. Irish native Timmy Love, who is a colleague of Naquet’s in the ownership development wing of France Galop, concedes that point but insists that this is due to the law of the land rather than the racing regulator.

“Setting up a racing club is probably slightly more bureaucratically heavy than what it would be in Ireland or in England, but that’s just the nature of the French system”, Love asserts. “It’s not a reflection on France Galop. It’s just in France (by law); there is quite a rigorous administration system. It’s quite demanding, but it’s to protect the people already within the sport or those trying to come into it.

“It’s by no means rocket science to get set up over here. Once you get all your different documentation together, it’s no more difficult than anywhere else. You just need slightly more documents in the first place”.

The syndicates must be registered as a company, and that means articles of association, declarations of the company, certificates of incorporation are required to establish the company’s eligibility. Once that is done, the usual proof of identification for the agent running the syndicate is required.

Every member of an ecurie de groupe has an owner’s card that entitles them to the exact same benefits as a sole owner. These include being allowed to bring four guests to every meeting at all the France Galop racecourses, with no exclusions. Being able to do that on Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe day is a phenomenally attractive perk as a syndicate member. 

The provincial tracks are not bound by general rule as regards to how many people are allowed to attend per owner card or runner, but according to Love, they are generally very hospitable.

“For example, I know Middleham Park (Racing) had a winner in Cagnes-Sur-Mer over the winter (Brave Emperor), and the racecourse was very good to the members of that syndicate that travelled over. That is just to give one example, but there are lots of country tracks that look after their owners extremely well”.

France Galop is considering being more proactive in going out into the marketplace to sell the benefits of syndicates as an ownership option. 

“We can see more and more shared ownership is more attractive. It makes the sport more accessible, so it’s certainly something we’re considering; and now we have a good base of racing clubs that are well set up and having a bit of success. It’s becoming an easier product to market”,

French trainers are not as enamoured with shared ownership as their British and Irish counterparts, however, as illustrated by Hélène Hatchiguian of the Association des Entraîneurs de Galop, the French trainers’ association.

“We have more and more owner agreements, but mainly for shared ownership, because having a racehorse is a cost. The consequence is that we have less horses in training,” Hatchiguian observes.

“For a trainer, it is easier and better to have one owner per horse, but now we have less of these owners and more shared ownership. It represents more work for the trainer, and more time (to communicate, for invoicing etc.). If trainers do not have time for it, they need to employ someone to do this job.

“When some shared owners do not pay their training fees, we can appeal to France Galop, the horse cannot run, and it is penalising other owners. In the future, it will be necessary to change the rules: if one or more shared owner does not pay, the horse can still run but the money won by the horse is not paid to the owner but to the trainer’s account”.

GERMANY

Christian von der Recke is cut from the same cloth as George Baker. Land and sea borders are no impediment to the multiple-champion jumps trainer travelling and running horses.

He says running a proper syndicate is difficult in Germany and points us in the direction of Lars-Wilhelm Baumgarten. A former sports agent (with Grand Slam winner Angelique Kerber among his clients), now breeder and board member of Deutscher Galopp, Baumgartner founded Liberty Racing with his wife Nadine and realised a lifetime ambition when Fantastic Moon won the Deutsches Derby in Liberty silks.

Members are glorying in the anticipation of a tilt at the Breeders’ Cup and/or the Japan Cup at present – wherever there is good ground - after the Sarah Steinberg-trained son of Sea The Moon recorded a decisive victory in the Qatar Prix Niel. Some hefty offers came in for the German-bred colt after the romp at ParisLongchamp but they have been rejected by shareholders and he will continue to race for Liberty.

“I worked as a sports agent all over the world and was a lot of times in Australia and saw the syndicates there,” Baumgartner explains. “I decided to sell my company and do what I want—horses, poker, real estate, and coaching. I started breeding and was on the board of German Racing, and I saw the problem: less owners, less breeders.

“I started eight years ago with my partnership ownership, only with two or three friends. We had a lot of success together. Then I decided to make my three- or four-people ownership syndicate bigger and started in 2020, to bring all my owner and breeder know-how to bring more people to horses. That was in my mind, but also in my mind was to win bigger, not just to buy handicap horses for people. We wanted to buy stayers with stamina from good German families for the Classic races, the Derby, the Oaks, and the Leger. 

“The idea was that new people can dream and be part of the bigger races. That was the main vision for Liberty Racing. Nadine and I started with 12 shareholders and four horses. The next year, we had 22 shareholders in four horses and then 30 in five horses. This year we will buy 10 to 12 horses with 90 or 100 owners.

“It’s not easy with the German tax situation. We have a lot of law restrictions to bring money together. It’s not like in England and America. They have more share culture, but we did it. We created a good contract, and we have the okay from the government to do it, and so we started”.

Deutscher Galopp is very helpful, Baumgartner tells us, not least than when he brought 50 people to shout on Liberty Racing’s two Derby runners.

There are more racing clubs in Germany than syndicates, but Liberty Racing is a poster child for the latter model with its professionalism and specific departments to cater for acquisitions, financials, social media, and so on.

“German racing was a closed shop. We have to open it. At the moment, we have 1,800 horses in training. That’s not good. We have to find 1,000 new shareholders in horses, and then we find 100, 200 horses more for trainers to train”.

ITALY

Former top trainer and now flourishing bloodstock agent, Valfredo Valiani, is looking forward to attending all the major European sales in the coming weeks and months, but he won’t be buying for Italian syndicates.

“Italian people usually don’t like syndicates, and it’s something that never took off in Italy,” Valiani remarks. “When I used to train, I tried myself with a couple of friends to set up a few syndicates for a few horses. We had results with the horses. We went up to six partners. But Italians are pretty individual. We’re not used to doing syndicates in anything and especially in racehorses. 

“It’s not that easy to register a syndicate over here. You’re going to need all the papers for every single partner in the syndicate. So it’s really tough. And then, just the representative is allowed to get to the parade ring. 

“We need syndicates because Italian racing is not flying, especially in quality; and when you get a few people together, of course you have more money to spend and more power, and you can look for better horses.

“We do have one syndicate, which is named Equos. It’s very public because it belongs to somebody that runs the only racing paper in Italy. But nobody emulated that, so far at least. Italians are proud to be THE owner, and they don’t feel like being ONE of the owners. There are horses in partnership, but it’s not the norm.”

SCANDINAVIA

Norway does have company-regulated syndicates, but there are some operating on a private level.

“The main reason is that Norwegian rules and regulations do not allow ownership of racehorses to be defined as a business,” says Marianne Ek of the Norwegian Jockey Club. “It has to be taxed as private. This means that there are no incentives for companies to offer this service.

“The industry is constantly working towards our politicians to try to change this, but no luck so far.

“This does not mean that we don’t have syndicates and shared ownerships, but they are set up either by the owners themselves or the trainers.”

In Sweden and Denmark, syndicates are allowed to trade as businesses. Also, there are some companies that specialise in putting syndicates together and running them for a fee. 

CONCLUSION

As noted at the start, this is by no means a thorough investigation of shared ownership from the perspective of all stakeholders in all regions—lengthy and all as it is.

It is evident though that while some jurisdictions are more open to shared ownership than others, for a variety of reasons, there is a growing acknowledgement that for trainers, and thus the industry, the model has far more upside than any perceived negative once all stakeholders are protected by watertight regulation and rigorous oversight.

Make it as easy as possible, and make it attractive. After that, the smiles will go miles.