For MyRacehorse, fractional racehorse ownership is the name of the game. Originally launched as a pilot project in June 2018, MyRacehorse made waves two years later with over 5,000 micro-owners winning the 2020 Kentucky Derby with Authentic. Now, MyRacehorse has its sights set north of the border. With that in mind, the organization’s CEO, Michael Behrens shed some light on My Racehorse’s launch in Canada. Why is MyRacehorse coming to Canada? MyRacehorse has been in the U.S., Australia, New Zealand and a little bit in Europe for the last several years. We’ve had a lot of success, and the model is pretty unique. And, we now have over 100,000 people. I think it’s fair to say that the number one request we get from customers is from Canada. I think the racing in Ontario, specifically with Woodbine is really strong. Our U.S. stable has already had success there, so it just felt very natural. But it took a lot of work – technology and regulation wise to make sure we could come in, which is why it’s taken a little bit longer than we had hoped. Can you explain the basic ownership structure of MyRacehorse? We provide what’s called hyper-fractional ownership. So, racing all across the globe is predicated on partnerships. I think stats (wise) 60% of all horses are bought in partnerships – where a couple of guys or a dozen of people come together and they buy a racehorse and go on the experience. They have all the fun perks of owning a horse and receiving all the benefits of racehorse ownership from race day, time with the horse in the stall, the paddock and the farms. We have just taken that model and multiplied it by 100. So, instead of having maybe 10 or 12 people come together on a racehorse, our platform allows hundreds if not thousands to come together to own the racehorse. And then we provide them with that full experience through accommodation of our digital Owners app called MyRacehorse and all the physical different experiences and events that we throw at the racetrack and at the farms. How many horses do you intend to stable and run at Woodbine? Right now, our projection is to build up a pretty good stable. I think internally trying to get up to a dozen horses relatively quickly. Relatively quickly is going to come with our success and how well it is received. We can be a little bit flexible. We are definitely buying this year at the yearling sales and buying next year at the two-year-old sales, and we will be looking for horses that are already racing in Canada that we could potentially add to our stable. So, there is definitely fluidity. It’s not intended to be 1 or 2 tests to see how it goes we are very confident that Canada is a place we want to be for a significant amount of time. We are coming in with more significance than what you might refer to as a pilot. This is more significant than that. You mentioned in a recent interview you will be investing in Ontario-bred horses. Did you have any eyes or ears on the ground for the recent CTHS yearling sale? Just because it was pre-launch it was just a little bit early for us. That’s a very prestigious sale. It was just a little bit early for us. I think that’s probably a sale that you would see the MyRacehorse Bloodstock and Racing team at next year. In 2022, MyRacehorse won the Prince of Wales stakes, (the second jewel in the CTC series) with Duke of Love. Duke of Love was trained by Hall of Fame conditioner Josie Carroll. Do you intend to work with Carroll again? A hundred percent. That was such an incredible journey. We had so much fun. He was such a modestly priced horse, and he is pretty quirky, and she did such an amazing job with him. If you go back and watch his race replays, he was just a horse that definitely needed a trainer of her significance, skills, and success. So, after that experience that we had and she was great with the partners and she was great with the horse, when we came back it was like the first call we made – it was to her to see if she would continue to train for us. What are your goals for the remainder of this racing season at WO? We definitely want to race this year. The goal is to make sure that the horses that we add here at least give us a shot. Obviously, racing is unpredictable, and you have to be patient and let the horse tell you when it is ready to run. But we have every intention of running this year. And what are some of your goals for next year at WO? What we like in the MyRacehorse stable is to take shots, buy big pedigrees and horses that are well fancied and a little bit higher in the auction price. They are at the higher end level or the aspirational bloodstock. We dream big. We go into every season, and we look to race in the biggest races, and we always want to run in stakes races. Across the globe we call it Saturday racing which is a lot of the big cards on Saturday and we are always trying to make sure that our stable has the type of horses that can run on Saturdays and there’s no difference going into Canada. We are looking to buy that same type of quality and hope to run on the biggest stakes. Is the goal to capture the Canadian Triple Crown? I don’t think anybody who buys in Canada doesn’t have dreams of capturing that. Especially considering the luck that we’ve had, like one of the first horses we had ended up winning the second leg. So that didn’t do anything to damper our ambition and enthusiasm for accomplishing something so significant. We’ve done pretty welly. In our first full year in the U.S., we won the Kentucky Derby. We understand its ambitious, we understand it’s not probably but we kind of like those odds too. Are you going to be on the grounds at Woodbine or later in the season? We have a team that is focused on this launch. I would definitely love to attend. You can count me on debut for our first race. In terms of the launch and what days I will be there I haven’t planned that out yet. I think you can expect for that first race that me and several members of our team will be there – and hopefully a lot of people in Canada who find our product interesting. -30- Hayley Morrison, for Woodbine Share This:Share
