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Exactly Ricky. There are two main points I think. <br>1. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. <br>2. It’s FUN to own a racehorse! I’d get such a buzz out of it, and if it does well…..that’s a bonus.
:clap: Good Luck Daylight and syndicate, I hope she does you proud. I don’t think you need to explain yourself to anyone DL, its a very reasonable sum, if I didn’t have the little’un to pay for and wasn’t so out of the way i’d jump in, you never know we might get the euromillions up this week!!!
If she runs half as fast as she looks you’ll be well away, she’s a real bonny little thing, I just love her daddy -Lujain
If you’re keen on racing, owning (or leasing) a little bit of a racehorse is a good crack. <br>I’ve not looked at what the charges are elsewhere but I doubt that you can get involved properly for less than £80 per month elsewhere.<br>I wondered initially about the leasing aspect but came to the conclusion that it doesn’t lock you in & enables you to switch to a different horse at the end of the lease (yes, if the horse wins loads of races you’re unlikely to be able to extend the lease).
Personally I’ld recommend it to anyone who can afford it:<br>- you can visit the yard, talk to the staff & watch the early morning gallops;<br>- you can talk to the trainer at the races (it’s my opinion that the lesser known trainers will be happier to spend time talking to syndicate members than their more well known peers – I may be wrong but who knows?);<br>- you can go into the parade ring;<br>- & hear the jockey’s instructions;<br>- the trainer might give you some worthwhile tips at the racecourse (memories of John Cullinan!);<br>- you might even get into the winner’s enclosure;<br>- it gives a longer term interest in an otherwise seemingly run of the mill race;<br>- hear the jockey’s & trainer’s post-race view;<br>- meet (and in my case learn from) other syndicate members;<br>- something to look forward to;<br>- and it p*sses you off if your horse gets balloted out of the race;<br>- it’s educational;<br>- you can dream.
It’s an experience that’s worth trying – if you can afford the £80 a month.
I’ve been involved in just about all of Craig’s syndicates to date & I’ve thoroughly enjoyed them: haven’t been to as many stable visits & races as I’ld like too (don’t you hate work sometimes?) but those that I have attended with the inevitable post race conversations have all been well worth attending.
It gives you a different dimension & if you can, experience it.
PS. I don’t like sand donkeys.
Just be thankful it’s not set up like the Elite Racing Club…..
20 horses in training at an average cost of £17,500.
20 x £17,500 = £350,000
20,000 (and rising) members at £169 a throw…..
20,000 x £169 = £3,380,000
Even if every member were a continuing member paying a reduced fee (based on previous season’s winnings – usually around £40)…..
20,000 x £129 = £2,580,000
Factor in vets bills etc. over a year amounting to around £350,000 (rough estimate)…..
£2,580,000 – £350,000 – £350,000 = £1,880,000.
Not a bad sum to clear given they rarely buy horses, or at least not very expensive ones. And it rises should they acquire any new members (as per the figure £3,380,000).
At least this venture with Network Racing is far more personal, allows you to meet up with (all) fellow owners and have a good day out at the races. Granted, the returns might be minimal and you won’t own a horse at the end of it, but it could be a beneficial experience nonetheless.
(Edited by LetsGetRacing at 10:56 am on Jan. 27, 2006)
Kirsty certainly knows her onions, and while I wasn’t initially impressed by her results, the revelation about the nitrates problem certainly accounts for that and her form last back-end underlines that point. It should also be pointed out that many decent horses went through the ring for pennies simply because very few people are prepared to spend time finding out why well bred horses don’t show the sparkle they expect. Very often a smaller stable and the associated care and attention will see these "ugly ducklings" turn into the swans they’re bred to be.
The syndicates associated with TRF in the past have been excellent value, but people will always crab the efforts of others. In this case that criticism couldn’t be further wide of the mark. Here’s wishing all the best for the latest venture.
Your first post on this topic says "Without wishing to sound snide or anything like that" but to me your last post was 100% snide.
I’ve answered all your comments and although you may disagree with trainers charges or us charging those prices, the trainers fees are fair within the industry and location no matter whatever the horse that is in training.<br>
Snide? That just about sums it up Daylight.
It makes me frustrated when I read posts like that from" David Johnson", which scarcely conceal their negativity and cynicism.
It’s easy for people to take cheap shots without being involved in a syndicate and without having full knowledge of what goes on.
It would be a shame if the odd negative post put people off from what can be a tremendous experience.
I was a member of the Celertias syndicate last season and it was the best few hundred quid I have ever spent.
Before joining up I looked at literally dozens of other syndicates.
In term of price, the average monthly charge for a 5% share in these other syndicates was around the £100-120 per month mark.
Very very few were cheaper than that and there were numerous syndicates that were a good deal more expensive.
One particular syndicate I looked at wanted in excess of £600 per month for a 1/12th share!! Virtually all of them were asking for a fixed term contract of at least 12 months.
In a lot of cases there was a fixed term of 24 months. Half of the time you’re making monthly payments when the horse wasn’t even in full training.
It currently costs on average just over £16,000 to keep a horse in training for a year.
The large proportion of that sum is incurred during the season itself when racing expenses take their toll. This isn’t a figure just plucked out of the air it’s an accepted industry fact.
Network Racing charge £80 per month per 5% share. Over an 8 month period this equates to just £12,800. Network Racing don’t get the benefit of any fees when it would be most lucrative for them like most other syndicates, i.e when there are no racing expenses to be paid, just the trainers fees.
As a result of course, the syndicate members don’t have to shell out for a lengthy period of time when they have no prospect of seeing the horse at the races. They only pay during the season itself.
It doesn’t need a mathematician to work out that nobody is getting rich quick here. No one, in fact, is making any money whatsoever.
If Network Racing fully syndicate the horse then I suspect they can just about expect to cover their expenses. If they don’t fully syndicate the horse then I would imagine they can expect to make a handsome loss.
There are people in this industry who are honest, happy just to be involved just for the love and thrill of the sport, and who are not geared up to making sack fulls of cash as some people seem keen to imply.
Implication & snide insinuation are usually cheaply come by and are often damaging. It’s a shame some people don’t pause to think and obtain some facts before they post.
Turning to the horse itself, like the last horse Celertias, Tajjree was cheap at the sales but I can say without fear of contradiction that whether you pay 800 guineas or 800 grand for a horse I have yet to see one that comes with more than 4 legs.
The type of syndicate that Network Racing run, which caters for people who don’t have that much spare cash to be investing in racehorses, can never expect to be able to go out and spend tens of thousands of pounds on a horse. To think otherwise is just totally unrealistic.
It’s easy to point at the negatives in a horses breeding and sales record as "David Johnson" has done in his post.
Tajjree’s dam didn’t show anything in her three runs and Tajjree herself was sent to the sales by Darley before she saw a race track.
No doubt that had a bearing on her price along with the fact that she was a small 2 year old, and small filly’s, irrespective of how well bred they are, tend to fetch next to nothing at the sales.
That’s the negative side of things. It’s not exactly rocket science to be able to come up with that.
A quick search on google will tell you all that in about 5 minutes.
A bit more in-depth research though would have told DJ that two of the dams runs were as a two year old and one was right at the beginning of her three year old career.
Given the profile of her dams line it was hardly surprising she showed next to nothing.
The useful horses most closely related to this filly down the dams side (Wathbat Mtoto & Wathbat Mujtahid) were either unraced as a 2 year old or, in the case of Wathbat Mujtahid, failed to win a race.
Both of these animals came into their own later in their career, from 3 year old and onwards and developed into multiple winners (and in the case of Wathbat Mtoto, not only a multiple winner but a black type performer).
What DJ also omitted to mention was that the Maktoums must have thought a bit about the filly’s dam because they retained her as a broodmare and sent her to a promising young stallion to see if she could produce a winner.
For anybody who might be tempted with the idea of joining a syndicate like this one, but was put off by what DJ’s post said, bear the the following in mind:
Last April, the syndicate went down to Newmarket for the 5f maiden on the Thursday of the Craven meeting.
Of an 8 runner field, the yearling price between those runners varied from between just over 2,000 guineas up to 130,000 guineas (the Arab owned Cover Drive)
The cheapest two horses in that race (by some way), Celertias & Puskas, finished first & second and beat the rest of the field comfortably. The most expensive, Cover Drive, finished well & truly out with the washing.
After having a few drinks before the race in the owners bar and a bite to eat we went into the parade ring with the trainer to meet the jockey, Frankie Dettori, who had already ridden the horse in the Brocklesby a couple of weeks prior.
After watching the race from the reserved viewing area in the owners bar we all trooped off to the winners enclosure to welcome home Celeritas who had finished second on the day, well clear of Hunter Street in 3rd & Red Clubs in 6th, both of whom went on to be Group class.
After that, we all went back to owners bar to hatch plans about a Coventry Stakes entry at the Royal Meeting and dreamed happily of top hat and tails for weeks.
If I had the money I’d quite happily have a string of racehorses and enjoy days like that on a regular basis. Sadly I don’t, all I can afford is a 5% share with Network Racing.
Is it worth £80 a month for days like that? No it’s not, because you cant put a value on days like that, they’re priceless.
Realism? I’m glad i dont live in DJ’s world, it must be a dark depressing place.<br> <br>Sorry, rant Over!!
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Good luck to your syndicate Daylight and I do hope you get the 20 people to fund her, at that price you deserve to.
May I say that as an owner I do know what it costs to keep a racehorse. I budget £18, 000 a year for the all in costs of training and running a horse and that does not include mine and my wife’s overhead costs. So the price per share looks very reasonable to me.
As for romanticism vs realism, well, if the only reason people owned horses was to make a profit, then there would be no horseracing at all in the UK. Very, very few horses recover their purchase and traniing cost during their racing careers.
Yes there is a risk in buying a horse, whether unraced or raced for all the obvious reasons. But Darley do not send horses they think are no hopers to the sales. Think on it, do they want horses bred by them to be continually walking round last at a banded meeting at Southwell?
So don’t be put of by curmudgeonly comments, if u fancy owning a piece of a horse, go for it. Even if she doesn’t live up to expectations, u’ll have a greast deal of fun and believe me, learn an awful lot more about horses and racing than ever could be achieved just by studying form.
richard
 <br>  <br> :old:  So tired I couldn’t even<br> curl my feet in bed last night but,<br> just enough energy for a brainwave
<br>  Sniffer Johnson is crying out to<br>  be the club mascot<br>  the fox has a long association<br>  with the red saddled horse<br>  and it’s so motorhead
<br>flatcapgamble…the ace of blades :cheesy:
Good luck with the filly, and the charges appear pretty reasonable to me. It’s hard to tell from the angle the photo’s taken from, but she doesn’t look too unathletic!
And as she appears to be a sprint type, at least you’ll know your fate by mid-season – you shouldn’t get all that expensive "she needs more time" stuff.
Some of the famous names outfits are little better than rip-offs.
Quote: from LetsGetRacing on 10:53 am on Jan. 27, 2006[br]Just be thankful it’s not set up like the Elite Racing Club…..
20 horses in training at an average cost of £17,500.
20 x £17,500 = £350,000
20,000 (and rising) members at £169 a throw…..
20,000 x £169 = £3,380,000
Even if every member were a continuing member paying a reduced fee (based on previous season’s winnings – usually around £40)…..
20,000 x £129 = £2,580,000
Factor in vets bills etc. over a year amounting to around £350,000 (rough estimate)…..
£2,580,000 – £350,000 – £350,000 = £1,880,000.
Not a bad sum to clear given they rarely buy horses, or at least not very expensive ones. And it rises should they acquire any new members (as per the figure £3,380,000).
At least this venture with Network Racing is far more personal, allows you to meet up with (all) fellow owners and have a good day out at the races. Granted, the returns might be minimal and you won’t own a horse at the end of it, but it could be a beneficial experience nonetheless.
(Edited by LetsGetRacing at 10:56 am on Jan. 27, 2006)<br>
As a member of ERC for many years, I’d just like to point out the following facts in response to LetsGetRacings rather snyde comments.
As far as I’m aware, ERC totals around 18000 members.
With my prize money refund, and members loyalty bonus this year, I have paid around £70 for my subscription this year.
LGR seems to be implying that ERC makes a lot of money out of it’s members.  Quite frankly, if they do, I don’t care.  The standard of the club gets better and better.
What LGR doesnt  seem to acknowledge is the excellent breeding programme run by the club.  Currently, we have 6 broodmares, and are adding one to the band this year (a half sister to Soviet Song who is visiting Marju).
As for our other engagments this year Ffestiniog (dam of group winning sprinter Eisteddfod, all her foals have been winners) is visiting Pivotal (2006 fee £65K) and is in foal to Selkirk (2005 fee £40K).
However, our most exciting mating plan this year is Kalinka (dam of Soviet Song and Penzance) is to visit Sadler’s Wells (2006 Fee Private but in excess of six figures (euros).  She is currently in foal to Marju (a full sibling to Soviet Song) and has a yearling filly by Red Ransom (Fee around £25K).
Kalinka also has a FULL SISTER to Soviet Song called SISTER ACT who is a 2 yo in training with James Fanshawe.
We also have yearlings by ALFLORA, MARJU (3 parts brother to Soviet Song), POLISH PRECEDENT, ROYAL APPLAUSE AND HERNANDO to enter training next year.
Year on year, the managment of the club have made prudent financial and racing decisions which has seen the club go from strength to strength.  There are few racing clubs who can boast 3 flat horse rated in excess of 110, homebred group one winners over hurdles and on the flat, including a 5 times group one winning mare who has won an all aged, all sex group one (and finished runner up in 2 others).
So there!
Best of luck with the syndicate everyone.  Hope it gives you as much pleasure as I have had from ERC over the last few years.
I think it’s all about at what level you want be involved.
ERC, offers an interest but you’ll be unlikely to attend when a horse runs but have a chance to go to stable visits (not sure if you get info or they have to pay for it?).
Our type of syndicate offers the ownership package but to average class horses, doubtful we’ll have a group winner!
And the +£5000 ones offer a chance to be involved with a top class horse and trainers.
It’s all about peoples budgets at the end of the day and what you expect to get for your money.
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