The MyRaceHorse app makes it possible to buy a minority stake in race horses
Mitch Poole owns a stake in Street Band, a 3-year-old filly that’s racing in the Kentucky Oaks on Friday — and he bought it on a mobile app.
MyRaceHorse — a new app that lets fans purchase minority stakes in horses as easily as they can buy a beer and hot dog at their local track — is angling to “democratize” the snooty business of horse ownership, says co-founder Michael Behrens.
“It’s equity-based. It’s not a club,” said Behrens, a tech entrepreneur who used to be a top executive at the Casper mattress startup. “ It’s not just to say you can watch the horse. If you get lucky and she wins the race, you are entitled to your percentage.”
MyRacehorse scooped up a 5% minority stake of Street Band in late March when the long shot clinched a spot in the Kentucky Oaks after winning the Fair Grounds Oaks. The app divvied the stake into 50 shares priced at $1,230 a pop.
Poole bought seven of those shares in a deal that gave him a 0.7% stake in the $900,000 horse — which will be competing for a $1.25 million purse on Friday.
Behrens notes that stock in Street Band, a filly trained and owned by three-time Oaks winner Larry Jones, values the horse at a total of $1.2 million — a figure that also includes training and care.
After entering their credit card and personal details, users can plunk down for a piece of any promising thoroughbred that’s featured on the app. Payouts are at the discretion of MyRaceHorse, depending on how flush the horse’s funds are.
On the upside, investors are also entitled to a piece of the action if the horse is sold to breed.
“It’s very easy. You can keep track of what you spent, what you want to spend and how your horses have finished,” said Poole, who has already used the app to invest in five horses besides Street Band.
Those include Sauce on the Side, which won a race at Del Mar in March. Between his investments and winnings, Poole says he’s on the cusp of breaking even.
After a pilot for MyRaceHorse that has extended for nearly a year in California and sold stakes in 24 horses, the app is angling to sell stakes in 100 horses this year after going live nationwide this month.
Poole — a visiting clubhouse manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers who flew into Kentucky from California for Friday’s race — says he got to watch Street Band’s workouts on the backstretch from the owner’s tent, and chatted with the filly’s 31-year-old jockey, Sophie Doyle.
“You get to rub elbows with a lot of people you never thought you’d be able to — I have met Bob Baffert a few times but it was at Dodger Stadium,” Poole said, referring to the legendary trainer of the Triple Crown Winners American Pharoah and Justify. “But now I have seen him at workouts in the morning.”
Crowdfunding racehorses isn’t brand new. Churchill Downs Racing Club allows fans to buy into a horse for as little as $500. Last year, The People’s Horse crowdfunded a foal of 2014 Kentucky Derby winner California Chrome. But such groups only offer the experience of owning a racehorse — not any equity or returns if the horse wins.
MyRaceHorse has teamed up with ownership groups including Rockingham Ranch and Jerry Hollendorfer to secure top horses, many of which were sold at public auction.
The sale of Street Band’s shares was brokered through Medallion Racing.
If Street Band finishes first, Poole, for one, has a plan.
“I’m going to reinvest the money into more horses.”