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Feedback If You Could Please

Maruco

Senior Jockey
Staff member
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
4,784
Location
The Shire
I've decided to start some commercial jump racing syndicates, and I've bought a very nice new horse to kick-off with.

The horse I bought is The King Of Ryhope, which was previously owned by Jared Sullivan and Chris Giles, who have had a parting of the ways with joint ownership. Unable to agree a sale to each other, I was the beneficiary. He's lightly raced and has been looked after because he's expected to take a significant step forward for fences, and will make up into a very nice graded novice chaser this season. Essentially he's the type of embryonic chaser that Dan Skelton, just like his old boss Paul Nicholls, has properly looked after prior to going chasing.

He's a fantastically well bred, tall rangy horse, that's really built for the job. A Midnight Legend out of a Malinas mare. His dam is Eleven Fifty Nine, who had loads of ability herself. She was a dual Bumper winner including winning the Grade 1 Aintree Mares Champion Bumper at the Grand National Meeting, and also a very smart hurdler. She never got the chance to jump a fence, and was sent to the breeding sheds instead.

He won his maiden point on the same card, and over the same trip that Grangeclare West’s made his debut in another maiden. And did it in a time 2 seconds quicker than Grangeclare West. Grangeclare West was later sold to Chevely Park for 430k, which I think is the second largest price ever at the fall of the hammer for an Irish Pointer. You can see how scopey he is when you watch his point. www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVA4bb7ikqk. He wasn't overfaced over hurdles but is a winner, and ran very well in a graded hurdle. His mark over hurdles has plenty of scope in it, but his future lies over fences. So needless to say I'm pretty excited about him, and I think he's a really good horse to try to build a future reputation from.

If you've owned horses in syndicates before it would be particularly helpful if you're able to tell me what you think, and how things compare to what you've been involved in? How different is the way it's run, and is that better or worse for you? And if you haven't been involved before, what are your thoughts in terms of accessibility to ownership and the way it's been set up? Is it something that you would be attracted to?

Please consider though, that this first syndicate is very much a learning exercise and is being run at cost, whereas future horses will be run commercially. That combined with already owning a horse at the yard (Jefferys Cross), and having a very good relationship with Dan, has meant I was able to buy him very well at a price under his real value. So with both those things considered, the syndication costs you'll see are much below the expectation for a horse of his kind with proven ability. I'll send over the details of the horse, the business, and the agreement to anyone who is happy to have a look and tell me what they think, but please consider future horses will also not have me carrying all the risk for things like vets bills and all additional expenditure. That said, if that's a particularly attractive element then I could consider how I factor it in, so feedback on that area might be particularly helpful. All the feedback I can get on this and all other parts of it before I start on a commercial basis would be really helpful.

In addition to any feedback on the specifics of this, I'd be really interested in your views on shared ownership generally. What that would have to look like for you to make it practical. What kind of horse you would expect to own for what kind of budgets. What kind of payment arrangements might work, and pretty much anything and everthing you think can and should be considered. Especially things around communication and access to the horse and the yard. I know this may be a lot to ask, so even it it's feedback on one element, or even an overview, I'd still appreciate you taking the time out if you feel you want to.

If anyone is happy to do so in any way please could you send me a quick email to spectreracingsyndicate@gmail.com and I'll send everything out for you to review and feedback on. I really need to do as much of my learning now as I can now, and clearly the easiest and quickest way to do that is by listening to people I know and respect the opinion of.

And even if you don't feedback, hopefully you'll help shout The King home when he races this season. He's certainly a Saturday horse, so he should be easy to follow, and we do have very high hopes that he can go and win a nice graded race somewhere.

Thanks All.
 
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I've been in several syndicates through the years, Maruco, and each has been an enjoyable an worthwhile experience, each on a differing level of the formality spectrum.

My advice would be

1. Encourage your participants to write off their expendiure, both capital and cash flow, as a leisure expense from day one.
2. Create the understanding that whatever level of patience they bring to their daily lives, treble it with horses.
3. Communicate thoughtfully, relevant, uselful and precise information only.
4. Don't create undeliverable expectations.
5. Use modern technology for messaging, but do not saturate for the sake of it. Only if the story has moved along.
6. Stable visits as often and as deep as possible.
7. If you provide some 'privately interesting' information on the horse/stable, consider it published on a billboard in Leiscester Square.
8. Be ultra transparent and uncomplicated with financial information - quarterly P&L and SSAF.
9. Good luck.

One of our (now sometime) members Cantoris (Oran) runs an extremely professional syndicate group in Ireland called 'Winning Ways.' Study his work.
 
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Thanks Colm. I really appreciate the feedback and sound advice. I think the one piece of consistent advice has been around communication. Easy with a group of ten people, but increasing harder with smaller syndicates with bigger numbers, and also when adding more horses, so I really need to consider this now. Also regular direct access to the stable and making the time worthwhile.

I've known Oran for 20 years, but unfortunately lost touch when I moved to Australia. I'll make a point of looking him up and making contact again.

Thanks

Paul
 
Hi Paul


Echo all that Colm has shared

I'd suggest to if at all possible, be selective on who else is in the syndicate.

points 3 and 5 are pertinent - agree a way of regular updates, make people feel part of it.

I had 2 shares in horses that never made a racetrack so expectancy going in should be at a minimum for people and any ROI is just expected

Best of luck most of all
 
One method of communication which is very effective now is setting up a WhatsApp group. We have a village one, one for the local show I run and also various for Pointing groups. It means information is shared very quickly and I find it invaluable.
 
One method of communication which is very effective now is setting up a WhatsApp group. We have a village one, one for the local show I run and also various for Pointing groups. It means information is shared very quickly and I find it invaluable.

I think whatsapp is essential these day for communication Jinny. I'd imagine all trainers use it. Dan certainly does for updates on both Jefferys Cross and The King Of Ryhope, although we do speak on a regular basis too.

That's the dilemma really. The balance between the less personal communication like whatsapp, text, and email, and talking to owners regularly. With one horse in ten shares that's not the easiest, but with multiple horses it's impossible outside stable visits and racedays.
 
That's the dilemma really. The balance between the less personal communication like whatsapp, text, and email, and talking to owners regularly. With one horse in ten shares that's not the easiest, but with multiple horses it's impossible outside stable visits and racedays.

The key is: find syndicate members who understand this dilemna and are acceptant of it.
 
Maybe a (part) answer is to put up an update podcast periodically. That may go some way to meeting the personal updates that (some) syndicate members might prefer. Plenty of places to host one, though I don't know if you could password protect access to restrict it to only those that know the login details.

Definitely you can password protect an individual page on a website, and it should be possible to embed a podcast there (bandwidth may be a problem, but likely not with just 10 or 20 potential listeners).

Or, a combination...

Something like a Telegram group/WhatsApp to update members with a short message that there's a new podcast update.
Podcast hosted on one or more of the main hosting sites (and password protected).
Website that explains the way the syndicate works, individual syndicate/horse pages, news and updates, etc (with pre-race updates meant only for members eyes going on a protected page).

If the syndicate business takes off, it's likely you'll want some form of showcase website anyway (unless you choose to just stick with Facebook and/or Twitter pages, personally I'd suggest that wouldn't be the optimal approach). Then you can get into the realms of syndicate newsletters, capturing emails from potential members that have subscribed to the newsletters, etc
 
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The podcast idea is a good one Chaumi. I already do a podcast through the jumps season so it would make sense to at least do short video updates for this too. So far I've done updates by email and they've been well received, but shorter updates lend themselves to whatsapp for both messages and short video updates.

I've just set up social media, which can be found here. So it would be great if those of you guys that use social media connected and retweet, etc. Anything anyone feels able to do to get this out to a wider racing audience would be really helpful.

https://twitter.com/Spectre_Racing


https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550783101739


https://www.instagram.com/invites/contact/?i=10hy9zzosbbyg&utm_content=sd5z55k


The good news is the shares in The King Of Ryhope sold in just a few days, so hopefully what I've done has been okay so far. I'm planning on buying another horse shortly, and based on feedback received I'm going to take a slightly different approach with this one, by selling in 1% shares, with different levels of benefit depending on how many shares are owned. It'll allow pretty much anyone to get involved starting at a relatively modest amount, but doing so with a high quality horse and a much better than average chance of running in and hopefully winning the better races.
 
Jut followed you on Twatter, Maruco.

Suggestion: Personalise the account somehow, add your name, photo maybe in the bio. Make it obvious that it is you behind it. In my opinion this will garner more trust and engagement.
 
Suggestion: Personalise the account somehow, add your name, photo maybe in the bio. Make it obvious that it is you behind it. In my opinion this will garner more trust and engagement.

A great idea on its own. But might have additional strong potential benefits if you ever go down the website route, and try to organically rank the site/pages (ie to garner prominent search result positions without paying for them).

The reason? Is known in search optimization circles as EAT, or expertise-authority-trust (recently an extra 'e' has been added at the front to stand for 'experience')

One of the tricks in search optimization is to build a website and webpages that display those factors. And you can do that to some extent with the design, structure, media, and words.

By doing that, you're giving a search engine the best 'excuse' for delivering your site/page to searchers as the one most likely to meet their needs (ie answer their query).

But authorship associations are another way (or more to the point, a supplementary way). By associating your name with the topic of 'horse racing syndicates/syndication', and in as many well-known places online as possible, you help the search engine to understand that your name is intrinsically linked with the subject, hence increasing the chances of it attributing higher EEAT levels to any related site you're involved with (so you'd have your name on the 'about' page as an example, and then use something called 'schema' to cement/reinforce that association, which then ties in with Twatter, FB, etc profiles - you are building an online presence that says "I'm an expert in horse racing syndication, and you can trust me").

There are additional ways to enhance EEAT signals, but off-topic for this thread.
 
A great idea on its own. But might have additional strong potential benefits if you ever go down the website route, and try to organically rank the site/pages (ie to garner prominent search result positions without paying for them).

The reason? Is known in search optimization circles as EAT, or expertise-authority-trust (recently an extra 'e' has been added at the front to stand for 'experience')

One of the tricks in search optimization is to build a website and webpages that display those factors. And you can do that to some extent with the design, structure, media, and words.

By doing that, you're giving a search engine the best 'excuse' for delivering your site/page to searchers as the one most likely to meet their needs (ie answer their query).

But authorship associations are another way (or more to the point, a supplementary way). By associating your name with the topic of 'horse racing syndicates/syndication', and in as many well-known places online as possible, you help the search engine to understand that your name is intrinsically linked with the subject, hence increasing the chances of it attributing higher EEAT levels to any related site you're involved with (so you'd have your name on the 'about' page as an example, and then use something called 'schema' to cement/reinforce that association, which then ties in with Twatter, FB, etc profiles - you are building an online presence that says "I'm an expert in horse racing syndication, and you can trust me").

There are additional ways to enhance EEAT signals, but off-topic for this thread.

I will add a website in time chaumi, and when it comes to optimisation, do you mind if I pick your brains. This is well beyond my capability.
 
And even if you don't feedback, hopefully you'll help shout The King home when he races this season. He's certainly a Saturday horse, so he should be easy to follow, and we do have very high hopes that he can go and win a nice graded race somewhere.

Thanks All.

Owning/Syndicates aren't my thing but good luck with the project. Midnight Legend was an old favourite of mine (after time alert). I backed him in this race as he was top weight, and I always like top weights at Goodwood. You just don't get races like this anymore, a listed handicap chock full of quality 100+ horses.

https://www.racingpost.com/results/21/goodwood/1995-07-28/126351
 
Of course, Maruco. Fire away whenever you are ready.

In the meantime, (and in a spare couple of hours you probably don't have :-) )consider setting up a profile for Spectre Racing here....


https://influence.co/go/businesses


and here (I think probably better if you can list under your own name, but using Spectre Racing will be OK)....


https://www.provenexpert.com/en-gb/


+ create a Google Business listing - https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/

Later you can also consider getting a slot for the business at places like Trustpilot.

***

All of these serve to increase the air of legitimacy and trust around the business (as well as other optimization benefits).
 
Owning/Syndicates aren't my thing but good luck with the project. Midnight Legend was an old favourite of mine (after time alert). I backed him in this race as he was top weight, and I always like top weights at Goodwood. You just don't get races like this anymore, a listed handicap chock full of quality 100+ horses.

https://www.racingpost.com/results/21/goodwood/1995-07-28/126351

Yes mine too Euro. His last son Midnights Legacy stands at Alne Park Stud, Dan's breeding operation.
 
In the meantime, (and in a spare couple of hours you probably don't have :-) )consider setting up a profile for Spectre Racing here....


https://influence.co/go/businesses


and here (I think probably better if you can list under your own name, but using Spectre Racing will be OK)....


https://www.provenexpert.com/en-gb/


+ create a Google Business listing - https://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/business/

Later you can also consider getting a slot for the business at places like Trustpilot.

***

All of these serve to increase the air of legitimacy and trust around the business (as well as other optimization benefits).

I can't thank you enough for this chaumi.
 
Paul, I want to evade the twitterati. Is there a way of getting these on a different platform where evaders like me don't have to sign up? You Tube?

Best of luck with your endeavours by the way.

I am still hoping one yearly share of a syndicated horse might be put up for grabs as prize in the next ten to follow comp or jumps anti post competition.

Clearly, I live in hope rather than expectation!
 
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The videos are actually posted on Tiktok and copied into Twitter Martin. You should be able to watch on there. I don't think you need an active account to watch the videos on twitter though, and should be able to watch from the links I think? Did you try and it wanted you to log into an account?

As for the latter idea, all I can say is I'll stick to just putting up the cash prize up each year :lol: Hopefully Kirsty and Faye are up for running it again this year?
 
The videos are actually posted on Tiktok and copied into Twitter Martin. You should be able to watch on there. I don't think you need an active account to watch the videos on twitter though, and should be able to watch from the links I think? Did you try and it wanted you to log into an account?

As for the latter idea, all I can say is I'll stick to just putting up the cash prize up each year :lol: Hopefully Kirsty and Faye are up for running it again this year?

Very helpful, thanks Paul. Yes, I falsely assumed I had to log into Twitter. Yes I can get straight to them on Tiktok now. Cheers.
 
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Paul, I want to evade the twitterati. Is there a way of getting these on a different platform where evaders like me don't have to sign up? You Tube?

Best of luck with your endeavours by the way.
...

Clearly, I live in hope rather than expectation!

Same here.
 
Orchidette keeps nagging me to do a Youtube video ahead of the days for which I do my stuff. She says I might eventually make a little bit of money from it.

I might give it a go ahead of the NH season but it might be at the expense of the regular emails.

So many things swimming around inside my head these days.
 

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