How Old Gold Racing Compares to Other Syndicates

Racing syndicates – the most popular way to own a racehorse in the UK - come in all shapes and sizes. Learn what to look out for in the terms and conditions, here.

Racing syndicates – the most popular way to own a racehorse in the UK - come in all shapes and sizes. However, a lot of the differences between them can be a) subtle and b) buried in the terms and conditions, making it difficult for consumers to make an informed decision.

Furthermore, a subtle difference in the wording of a company’s terms and conditions can have a large impact on the quality of the customer experience.

Here, we take a look at some of the major differences between Old Gold Racing and other racing syndicates that you might’ve missed.

Syndicate Net Return

When you purchase shares in a racing syndicate, you don’t just pay for a portion of the racehorse, you also pay a portion of the training fees, veterinary fees, racing fees and a management fee to the company who is running the syndicate.

There is no way for the company to know the exact cost of these items before the syndicate term (which is usually around a year) begins, so they have to estimate the costs. This estimate is then built into the price of the shares.

Resultantly, if costs aren’t as high as projected, there may be money left over in the syndicate bank account at the end of the term; money that was initially earmarked for looking after, training and racing the racehorse. We call these leftover funds the ‘syndicate net’ or ‘residual’ or ‘surplus’.

In our view, these funds are owned by the members of the syndicate, not by Old Gold Racing.

Old Gold Racing therefore issues a ‘syndicate net return’ towards the end of every syndicate term whereby owners are credited a pro-rated portion of the syndicate net, which they can either use to buy shares in other Old Gold Racing syndicates or withdraw to their personal bank account.

If the horse has had a small injury which has kept it out of training for several months, the syndicate net can be as much as 15% of the initial share price.

Other syndicates do not do syndicate net returns, meaning that you are not entitled to receive any of your unspent funds should there be money left over at the end of the term. These funds presumably become income for those other syndicates, creating an incentive to overestimate prices.

Breeding Rights

Breeding rights refer to the legal and contractual permissions granted to a racehorse’s owner to breed from a racehorse. This includes ownership of any resulting foals or income from stud fees.

Old Gold Racing’s position is that if you have purchased a share in a racehorse, then you should own a portion of the racehorse and of any rights associated with said ownership. This means that should a horse be retired from racing and the decision made to breed from the racehorse, owners can take one of two options:

1. Sell their share, meaning the owner will receive a pro-rated portion of the racehorse’s value
2. Keep their share and retain breeding rights and any associated income

For facilitating and managing breeding processes, Old Gold Racing charges a management fee of 20% of the uplift in value of progeny. What we don’t do is close a syndicate and retain ownership of any income we make from breeding from the racehorse. This is not something that other syndicates do, allowing them to profit from breeding from syndicate horses without sharing those profits with people that paid for the horse.

Clear Breakdown

Owners want to know how their money is being spent, rather than watch it disappear into a ‘black box’. For that reason, we provide a detailed share price breakdown for every Old Gold Racing horse. This allows prospective owners to ‘do the maths’ and be confident that the syndicate is structured in a way that honestly reflects the likely costs going forwards.

Here is an example of a share price breakdown from our website:

Providing a clear share price breakdown is a BHA requirement but, still, some syndicates do not provide one.

Prize Money Payouts

If your horse wins or places, you are due a share of the prize money. Note that the jockey and the trainer each take 10% of any winnings. The remaining 80% is split between the horse’s owners on a pro-rated basis (if a 4,000 share syndicate horse wins a £10k race then £2k goes to the trainer and jockey, while £8k goes to owners, who get £2 for every share they own).

It can take some time for the BHA to process winnings and send them to the syndicate manager but, once they do, Old Gold Racing credits owners’ accounts immediately, irrespective of the size of their winnings. Every little helps. With some syndicates, owners have to wait until they have accrued a certain amount or until the syndicate term ends or they relinquish their ownership.

Insurance

Racehorses are unpredictable creatures. Old Gold Racing takes out mortality insurance on all of its racehorses, meaning that if a racehorse that you own shares in dies or suffers an injury resulting in it being put down, you will receive a pro-rated insurance payout.

This can be up to 30% of the value of the share that you purchased. In combination with Old Gold Racing’s policy of returning the syndicate net, this means that owners can recoup a significant portion of the value of their shares should the worst happen.

Some syndicates do not insure their racehorses, meaning that if your horse dies then not only will you receive nothing in insurance payouts.

TrustPilot Rating

OK, this is not strictly related to the terms and conditions, but we thought it was worth mentioning!

TrustPilot – although not perfect – is widely regarded as the most reliable review site. Companies aren’t able to offer incentives to get reviews and there is a process in place to ensure that they can’t simply delete reviews either.

Old Gold Racing has been in business since 2019 and has over 500 reviews, with TrustPilot score of 4.9*; considerably higher than most other syndicates.

Summary

The differences between the terms and conditions of racing syndicates can be subtle, and to the untrained eye these subtle differences can look unimportant.

This article has focused in the main on explaining how subtle differences between Old Gold Racing and other syndicates’ terms and conditions actually have a considerable and material impact on how you are treated as a racehorse owner.

We hope it has been helpful, and if you have any questions about the contents of this article or how Old Gold Racing works, please don’t hesitate to get in touch on [email protected] or by calling us on 01242 650 630.

For our full Terms & Conditions, please refer to the Old Gold Racing Owner's Handbook, here.

Or, if you would like to take a stroll through our stables, you can view available horses by clicking the button below.

Written by:

James Day

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