The other thread about buying small shares in racehorses has piqued my interest and I’m now itching to give it a shot myself. With the extent of my racehorse experience beginning and ending with my OTTB, I figured I’d come right to the source for tips and how to select your horse.
Is there any real difference between Commonwealth and MyRacehorse?
How are you choosing which horse(s) to back? How has your experience been so far?
I, personally, wasn’t very happy or impressed with Commonwealth & probably wouldn’t ever buy into them again.
I’ve heard they have gotten better in the past year or so, but no first hand experience of it.
Wasabi Ventures is another that offers shares. I’ve heard good things about them.
CW…
Minimum purchase of 2 shares @ $50/share.
Not many or frequent offerings, but they seem to typically be decent quality.
Infrequent updates (supposedly this has changed)
Not much of a SM presence & they don’t have “owner groups” on social media (not necessarily a bad thing) unless put up by a fan.
Payouts are not immediate, about every 6 months it seemed.
Very different “experiences” than what MRH gets you.
Not sure what they do for aftercare or their previous CW horses.
MRH…
Offerings pop up fairly frequently throughout the year.
Some with very low share percentages (but also lower buy in price).
Regular updates & emails.
They have a huge SM presence (FB, insta,X). Private groups for each individual horse on FB as well as community groups.
Wins are often paid out immediately, if not within a couple weeks. Exceptions for higher caliber races where purse monies are held pending testing outcomes or if the horse’s reserve is in the red.
They offer a variety of “experiences” at different price points.
Race day get togethers , etc.
You can also often times set up private tours through them, for barn/track visits.
They have an aftercare fund & keep watch on all previous MRH horses, stepping in to make sure they get a soft landing if/when needed.
MRH also now offers “syndicate” shares for those wanting a smaller more intimate experience.
Limited to about 500 shares per horse, the price per share is higher ($1000 or more) but it’s still a one time fee, with no extra fees or expenses.
Edge (an off shoot of MRH) offers true syndicate services. A much higher buy in & regular fees/expenses to be paid.
Last time I looked the buy in was upwards of $5k a share.
Do not enter into buying shares with the intention of making money. Purchases should come from your entertainment budget, not your retirement plan. (You know–the best way to make 1 million dollars in horses is to start with 2 million.)
I have bought into a total of 9–had a few wins, nothing major, but that was fun! 6 now active–one yearling still turned out, one un-raced 3 year old who keeps getting minor injuries, 4 running in claiming races. Had one pretty good one, lost steps as he aged, claimed away. One had physical issues, was retired, chronic pain, had to be put down. One sold by MRH before he got to the track.
I have overall enjoyed the MRH experience. I have followed horse racing since I was a kid, but come from hunter-jumper land, and I learned a lot.
Just don’t expect to make money.
This 100%!
Some owners moan that their ‘investment’ is not paying out and it always surprises me that they expect to make money.
I have a few shares in a few horses and we’ve had lots of fun going to the track and cheering them on when they are racing near by. We make a day of it, get all dressed up and bet all the races.
I’ve won the paddock lottery a few times so was able to be there when my horse was being saddled.
Its just a fun neat thing to do that involves horses. Doesn’t hurt that we both own OTTBs so have that connection to the sport as well. 
Shoot a PM out to @dressagetraks - She’s bought a few tail hairs from a few horses, so can speak to it pretty well 
Yep. Go into it for entertainment and expecting nothing more. Patience is also required. I bought a share in Seismic Beauty a few years ago, and we’ve had physical setbacks and surgery, but she is finally healthy and now a graded stakes winner. Patience doesn’t always pay off. My first microshare horse was American Heiress. She bled badly in her first start, went through hypobaric treatment and rehab, trained back up, and refused to extend in further racing. Apparently, she scared herself that first time. She did sell for $180,000, but again, I only had a microshare.
I have enjoyed MRH. I have two at the moment that I really think are stakes quality, Caldera and Seismic Beauty. But I’ve also had a few who didn’t even race once. Thus is microshare life. MRH is good on updates and swift on payment. The last time I took a withdrawal from my stable wallet, it was in my bank account in a week.
Just echoing, it’s supposed to be fun and entertaining. I’ve done it for one MRH horse, and only because a group of people I knew would be fun were all buying a share of the same horse.
I personally left the MRH FB group because it was full of a bunch of grumps who wanted to play internet trainer, complained the horse wasn’t making money, wasn’t winning the Derby, wasn’t being run back fast enough, and on and on. I just wanted to scream into the ether…It Is Not Really Your Horse!!! They didn’t seem to get that their $50 really didn’t entitle them to anything.
I know some people have entered the lottery to go to in-person events, either on the farm or on actual race days. While I do usually go to Saratoga at least once every summer, I can’t imagine trying to jockey for (pun intended) an in-person event slot.
Some in the group I bought with have continued buying, but I don’t know that I will again. It’s fun to have a symbolic connection to a horse that is playing at the stakes level, but I feel more affinity for some of the racehorses I’ve loved from afar over the years than the one that I technically “own” a part of.
If I had to boil it down: Don’t take it too seriously, just have fun and don’t spend any money you wouldn’t light on fire in your backyard because this isn’t about making money.
Posting my personal experiences separately from my initial post.
As others have said, go into this as it having entertainment value & not a ROI.
Don’t spend money you can’t afford to flush down the toilet LOL.
I currently have 43 individual horse & 3 bundles that I have shares in.
I have 17 past horses.
Some of which were sold, claimed, or otherwise retired, and 2 ended up being euthanized due to medical reasons.
While MRH sends out regular updates, You’ll find that some trainers are more generous with their updates & passing on information than others. So if that’s something that would bother you, maybe don’t go with horses heading to those trainers.
MRH has horses racing all across the US, so some people only buy into horses that will be more local to them & that they’ll be able to watch race in person.
I don’t live anywhere near any tracks, so that isn’t a concern of mine.
I’ve been pretty lucky in that other than my initial investments, I’ve had enough horses making money that I’ve been able to continue to purchase shares in horses using my “MRH money” without having to dip into my “own” money.
I don’t ever withdraw my MRH earnings. I just always put it till it over into new offerings.
So far SNC & STG have had the biggest returns.
Maybe one day, after all the kickers & bonuses have been paid for, Authentic will pay out as well 
I was the kid that hung out at the local fairgrounds all summer, watching the local circuit races (we had both harness & flat racing) & pestering the owners to help with chores, brushing horses, etc.
It was something I looked forward to every year, until they finally did away with the races. I learned so dang much that wasn’t in any of the hundreds of horsemanship books I read growing up.
When I first heard about micro shares, I jumped on the bandwagon immediately. It allowed me to connect back to the world I spent some of my best moments in… if on a bit of a different level.
It’s been a blast for me.
Some of the people in the FB groups can be asshats & Debbie downers. Most of them are pretty decent overall.
The FB MRH people are pretty nutty… I’m about ready to leave the groups.
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