Racehorse ownership app on track for major growth

Sumner Park

June 24, 2020 at 9:06 PM·3 min read

With horseracing season underway, investors can now bet on top thoroughbred racehorses without the hassle of actually owning the horse or paying the high prices to manage the animals.

MyRacehorse, an online platform that offers equity-based shares of the top Thoroughbred racehorses, is racing to keep up with demand of its user base.

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“When we first put horses up on the website after we launched last year, it would take months for all shares to be sold,” MyRacehorse co-founder Michael Behrens told FOX Business. “Now, we are seeing our horses sell out so quickly that it’s common a horse will not even make it live. The last four of the five horses sold out in less than 24 hours.”

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Behrens, also the former chief marketing officer of Casper Mattress Company, said the uptick in demand has propelled MyRacehorse to add a new horse every 10 days.

The average horse to keep and train costs $50,000, while an average price point for a horse is $100,000, many going for over a million dollars. The marketplace aims to democratize racehorse ownership, turning horse ownership from an aspiration to an accessible passion and entertainment.

To date, MyRacehorse has sold 50,000 shares in 47 horses.

After MyRacehorse generated the highest growth to date in May, with every metric up triple digits in terms of new customers, registrations and content usage, June is already on track to smash that record as horse racing has been one of the only sports to still be airing live during the coronavirus pandemic. Further, the company’s digital approach to incorporating watch parties and Zoom meetings with horse trainers, jockeys and exercise trainers has provided a holistic experience to owning a racehorse.

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“Embracing and enhancing this digital accessibility to the experience has been the game-changing moment for us,” Behren added.

The company gives individuals the opportunity to legally buy shares in top racehorses. MyRacehorse caters to the 9 million people who say that horse racing is a sport that they really enjoy while bridging the socioeconomic gap that often deters participation, Behrens.

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Although a secondary market has yet to be established, Behrens says that building partnerships to enable one is becoming the fastest-growing priority of its business based on user demand and daily transactions via social media. The company expects that within a year there will be a very vibrant secondary market that will bring liquidity to an industry that has been historically very illiquid.

Projected return on investment for the majority of the horses is too early to be determined given that most of the value comes from breeding, which occurs once a horse’s racing career comes to an end.

The horseracing season’s most high-profile races are still to come, including the Kentucky Derby in September and the Preakness Stakes in October.

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