Racehorse ownership attracts a wide spectrum of people in society.
From the extremely wealthy purchasing horses for millions of pounds to the working man or woman buying a small share in a syndicate for just a few hundred pounds.
Syndicate ownership has becoming increasingly popular in recent years and last Saturday at Cheltenham Racecourse there was, once again, a perfect example of why that is the case.
The horse is question is called Tobefair. He’s trained in Carmarthenshire by Paul and Debra Hamer.
The nine-year-old gelding is owned by a syndicate of 17 people called the Down The Quay Club recruited by retired farmer Michael Cole at the Cresselly Arms in Cresswell Quay in Pembrokeshire.
From June 2015 to February 2017, the horse won seven races in succession, an incredible feat for a racehorse. Most horses are lucky to win one race.
After this amazing run of victories, Tobefair’s form deteriorated from March 2017 to early 2019 when he came third in a race at Chepstow. This revival indicated that the gelding still retained the ability he’d shown to win those magnificent seven races.
But even those closest to him would have been surprised to see Tobefair finish second at odds of 40-1 in a big race at the Cheltenham Festival, the Pertemps Network Final, just a few weeks after that Chepstow race. The horse was definitely back in form!
A month after that festival race, Tobefair again ran at Cheltenham and this time he won. For his syndicate of owners, it must have been virtually unbelievable to see their pride and joy back in the winners’ enclosure.
Roll onto last Saturday and Tobefair made his seasonal re-appearance – again at Cheltenham.
He was carrying top weight in a race run in very testing conditions following the heavy rain of recent weeks. The bookmakers didn’t fancy him and made him an 8-1 chance in an eight runner race.
But, of course, the horse doesn’t know the odds and he duly won again under his new regular jockey Tom Bellamy. That was victory number nine in what has now become an exceptional career.
Now I’m not suggesting for one moment that similar success awaits but if you like the idea of owning a share in a horse, Chepstow and Ffos Las Racecourses are launching a Racing Club.
The five-year-old gelding, Baboin, will be under the care of Vale of Glamorgan trainer Tim Vaughan.
The horse, formerly trained in Ireland by leading trainer Joseph O’Brien, has run nine times winning once and being placed on four other occasions. The club is aimed at anyone who would like to experience the thrill of racehorse ownership at a competitive introductory price.
Shares for six months running from November 2019 to April 2020 are £495.
Baboin will be leased to the club by Tim Vaughan for the period of the membership and will run in the Racing Club’s colours. The fee includes all expenses incurred by the trainer and running of the horse for the period, there are no other costs involved.
For more information and further details, please contact Martin Higgs on 07831 752056 or e-mail, martinhiggsracing@gmail.com
