Thoroughbred Ownership Experiences

Feel free to discuss any great racing syndicates or other ownership experiences you guys have!
I just invested $500 into Little Red Feather's LRF Thoroughbred Fund. They plan on purchasing several horses with the money they raise through this crowdsourced fund. They seem like a very classy, reputable organization and I'm proud to call myself one of their own now. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on the horses they buy!
If you guys are interested in it, check out this link: https://www.startengine.com/startup/lrf-thoroughbred-fund-llc
I just invested $500 into Little Red Feather's LRF Thoroughbred Fund. They plan on purchasing several horses with the money they raise through this crowdsourced fund. They seem like a very classy, reputable organization and I'm proud to call myself one of their own now. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on the horses they buy!
If you guys are interested in it, check out this link: https://www.startengine.com/startup/lrf-thoroughbred-fund-llc
Comments
I might get into Racing Factions. Shares are $500. They collect as much money as they can and use it to buy a horse at auction. They only buy one horse at a time. One nice thing is that they have a democratic process for major decisions--one vote per share. Right now they have two horses and are forming a new partnership. They are based in Kentucky, which makes them better for me than Little Red Feather.
Some day I'd like to get into a regular partnership. I like the way Pocket Aces operates. They've had decent luck with some inexpensive purchases, and they are KY based and run their horses in my general area. Right now I can't afford a quarterly fee, though (that's what happens when one's car dies and needs to be replaced).
I hope you have good luck with whichever partnership you choose!
Thanks for contacting us. No additional expenses. Having said that if additional are needed we will need it from somewhere. Likely I will have to pay and then everyone reduces on a pro rata basis.
Make sense?
Call me any time to discuss.
Gary
I was really excited to finally get this whole thing started this weekend and have LRF start looking for horses, but this means that more money will be raised and we'll get to own shares in better horses. I'm willing to take that trade-off.
I'm really hoping this means that Little Red Feather could raise up to $250,000-300,000 and buy a few nice horses outright instead of just 20% shares or something.
I'm pretty excited though because LRF just sent out another email about it and said "LRF will use the proceeds to privately purchase a select number of stakes-quality thoroughbreds, and also keep a suitable reserve for expense. WHO KNOWS, WE MAY JUST BUY A MINORITY INTEREST IN A KENTUCKY DERBY PROSPECT?!"
Wouldn't that be amazing? =O At least they're seriously looking for their horses to race beyond the claiming level, which is more than I can say for some other syndicates.
Essentially, they've been around for about 15 years and have won a Breeders' Cup race (the Mile with Singletary in 2004) and dozens of other stakes races. This year alone they have over $2mm in earnings, have won 24% of the time, and have been in the money 49% of the time. From what I've heard, they also give near-daily updates on their horses as well, which is a huge benefit to me.
One of the downsides of LRF though is that unless you live out in California, or are willing to at least travel out there, you probably won't get to see your horses run in person.
I've been exploring (read: internet surfing) other opportunities. I've restructured my finances so that I might be able to afford a monthly or quarterly maintenance fee, plus the cost of shares in a horse. Or I might go with Thoroughbred Factions. I like Pocket Aces a lot.
There's also Horseplayers Racing Club. I contacted them some years ago about one of their fillies. I went a different direction, but I remember that they were responsive and polite. They do traditional partnerships in which one pays a share of the horse's expenses. As partnerships go, they're inexpensive. Most of their horses are not in my area, but occasionally they have one or two. They partner with other syndicates, including Pocket Aces If someone is in the Pacific Northwest, Southwest, or Louisiana area, this group is worth looking at.
https://horseplayersracingclub.com/
I love hearing about other ownership opportunities though! I think I'd consider going with It's All About the Girls LLC, Bourbon Lane, or maybe Hibiscus Stables if I was going to do something a little more local. For now I'm going to just see how LRF goes
I keep looking for opportunities around here. You'd thin that there would be a lot of them, Lexington being the "Horse Capital of the World" and all, but there aren't. Most of the public partnerships that I know of and could ever afford are in the New York-mid Atlantic area.
Pocket Aces just yesterday added a new Ohio-bred to their stable. I'm trying to restrain myself.
EDIT: If you were asking about the minimum investments for some of the other partnerships, I think they're all at least $1500 for an initial investment with ongoing monthly (or quarterly) costs. Hence why I haven't done any of them yet.
The Pocket Aces Ohio-bred is $900-something for a quarter share, which is about 2%. That's why I am slapping my own hand.
Besides the established, well-known partnerships such as Little Red Feather, Hibiscus, West Point, etc., a lot of owner/trainers are willing, even happy to sell a portion of a horse. It helps to have a partner to offset even a small portion of the horse's expenses. Back in the 2007-2008 recession, I even saw a free partnership. The owner/trainer just wanted help with the horse's expenses and was willing to give away 5% of the horse in exchange for support.
This was from the National Owners Conference at Santa Anita Park earlier today, which continues this week.