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.
