Elite Racing

M

montyracing2

At the Start
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Messages
763
Location
Blackpool
My father has always been attracted to owning shares in horses and always as part of large syndicates. He has never seen a return on any ‘investment’ but got a lot of fun out of it. Especially from some of the ‘gambling’ syndicates in the seventies and eighties e.g. with the one eyed ‘Gala Lad’.
After a long break, he has taken advantage of the half price offer at ‘Elite Racing’ and he avidly reads the regular member magazine. He is quite aware that as one of 11,000 members he is unlikely to get much of a return but was wondering if any past members of TH had received any share of prize-money and how much.
Thanks in anticipation - MR2
 
I was a member for a while. Can't remember the rules and regulations but I never saw a penny back from them. Mind you, the horses were crap in those days. I ahve to say, I thought the management was even crapper. Maybe it's improved but I felt shelling out £100k for Mysilv was a shocking betrayal of people's trust.
 
It was a bad buy. Grossly overpriced. Almost as bad a buy as Arthur Budge paying £100k for Joint Venture.

I gave up on Elite when they got the 12yo son of the manager of the club to write serious items for the newsletter when paying punters were shelling out decent money for what they thought was an inside track on a racing operation. Shocking stuff.
 
I can recommend the Timeform Betfair Racingclub though. Far better service and by far not as big - well, the one might (still) be the reason for the other, but we are happy to be in it and did have a couple of winners as well. no share in prizemoney though, just the fun, free tickets for the races and the stable visits etc.
 
My enjoyment with Elite is the breeding programme. It depends what you enjoy most but reading the weekly newsletter and being able to visit the mares and foals is the best part. They have some lovely broodmares and it is so interesting to see how their progeny develop and feeling full of hope when they make it to the racecourse. Of course, with so many members, you only get a small amount off your annual subscription for winning prize money thanks to Soviet Song, Border Patrol, New Seeker and Penzance.
 
I was a memner for a couple of years. Penzance, Soviet Song, Eisteddfod and the wonderful New Seeker were winning at this time. I did not expect prize money dividends to be large, the most I ever got was thirty odd quid thanks largely to Soviet Song. What was disapointing though was the infromation on club runners before a race which was very poor.
 
My advice is not to bother with Elite. Members no more own the horses or have privy to any more information than the regular punter watching the animal in the bookies. Elite is pretty much a clever way of Tony Hill getting hundreds of people to finance his racing and breeding operation for him whilst thinking they somehow own a few hairs in tails of the horses - they don't.

DO, how exactly was Mysilv such a bad buy?? She didn't do too badly for Elite, was second in a Stayers' two days after coming 6th in the Champion, was second in two good races (with very good prize money) in Auteuil as well as winning G1 races such as the Haydock Park Champion Hurdle trial and the Tote Gold Trophy. She earned plenty of prize money and would have more than paid for herself had she not tragically died so prematurely; she would have been a cracking chaser. Most people would happily pay three times as much as that nowadays for a mare that would produce the same.
 
Yeah, with that mares wins and the successes of Soviet Song and New Seeker it doesn't matter about the prize money, the average Elite member who likes a punt would have had plenty of winners out of it.
 
Thanks for those insights.

I myself have been a member of a few smaller (but more expensive) syndicates and am pretty much aligned with the notion that 'Elite -type' syndicates are not worth the money.

I'll tell my Dad not to expect much of a return, although he is excited about the promised appearance of their current 'star to be' - AFFINITY.

MR2
 
Shadow Leader said:
My advice is not to bother with Elite. Members no more own the horses or have privy to any more information than the regular punter watching the animal in the bookies. Elite is pretty much a clever way of Tony Hill getting hundreds of people to finance his racing and breeding operation for him whilst thinking they somehow own a few hairs in tails of the horses - they don't.
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I certainly felt I wasn't being told the whole story about the horses and the newsletters struck me as vague, written in such a way as to cover themselves if the horses lost while allowing themselves to brag about tipping up a nice winner if they were successful. I found it all quite misleading.

Shadow Leader said:
DO, how exactly was Mysilv such a bad buy?? She didn't do too badly for Elite, was second in a Stayers' two days after coming 6th in the Champion, was second in two good races (with very good prize money) in Auteuil as well as winning G1 races such as the Haydock Park Champion Hurdle trial and the Tote Gold Trophy. She earned plenty of prize money and would have more than paid for herself had she not tragically died so prematurely; she would have been a cracking chaser. Most people would happily pay three times as much as that nowadays for a mare that would produce the same.
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I think in those days the money was an awful lot. I don't think it was a great deal less - if at all - than what was then the going rate for a quality Flat broodmare. I stand open to correction but that was how I felt at the time and, given that it was 'other people's money' being used to buy her, I felt it was reckless. She had won a lot less than £100k in prizemoney and never won another Grade 1 after her juvenile season. I think I was dismayed because the purchase struck me as being in the managers' interests rather than the members', since turnover in membership struck me as quite high and Mysilv had to be seen as a very long-term investment, which might ultimately have paid off if she'd lived longer and produced some decent offspring, but only a very small minority of 'members' would have stuck around long enough to have got any return out of it and given how little people got out of Soviet Song, it might not have been much at all.
 
My mistake thinking the Haydock Champiin Hurdle Trial was a G1 but she did win that as well as one of the richest handicap hurdles on offer as well as coming second in many valuable races, including a Championship race. She must nearly have won her purchase price back in prize money as well in the short time they had her (she won nearly £175k in her lifetime) and nobody could have foreseen that she would be lost so early. She was viewed very much as a useful chase prospect.

I doubt also that you'd find many members of the time who would have moaned about Elite buying her - they loved that mare and she elevated them to the public eye which was after all, pretty much what they bought her for.
 
Shadow Leader said:
My advice is not to bother with Elite. Members no more own the horses or have privy to any more information than the regular punter watching the animal in the bookies. Elite is pretty much a clever way of Tony Hill getting hundreds of people to finance his racing and breeding operation for him whilst thinking they somehow own a few hairs in tails of the horses - they don't.
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Agree, I don't see the attraction at all. tell your Dad to get a few friends together, put out some feelers looking to take over the training fees on something that can run a bit where the owner can't afford to pay the bills any more. Plenty of those types around at the moment, have control don't be a tool for someone else. It will give him a far greater appreciation of what it's all about.
 
You all make good points but, and isn’t there always a but, my Dad was more seriously involved in syndication ownership between 1978 and 1981 and eventually owned a twelth-share in Gala Lad (£500 and £25 a month). There were several syndicates in the arrangement each making available and receiving information from the others.

One of the other syndicates owned a certain ‘Castle Pride’.

Following several successful, large and increasing punts on GL, my Dad received ‘the nod’ for Castle Pride at Lanark from the overall syndicates’ manager.

The upshot being that, following the race, my Dad was required to take part in a very serious conversation with racecourse security. There were no threats or sanctions involved but plenty of advice on the care needed when owning and punting horses. He has since only ever had minor interests in racing. Now in his seventies, I think the attraction of ‘Elite Racing’ is a case of him reliving exciting times more than expecting monetary gain.

So there you have the background - MR2
 
Following several successful, large and increasing punts on GL, my Dad received ‘the nod’ for Castle Pride at Lanark from the overall syndicates’ manager.

The upshot being that, following the race, my Dad was required to take part in a very serious conversation with racecourse security. There were no threats or sanctions involved but plenty of advice on the care needed when owning and punting horses. He has since only ever had minor interests in racing. Now in his seventies, I think the attraction of ‘Elite Racing’ is a case of him reliving exciting times more than expecting monetary gain
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It's all about being in control of the situation which he obviously wasn't nor will he be with elite.
 
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