Cyberhorse - Raceownership for just $1 Per Day

Prue Hawkins Spoke To Bill Saunders About the New:
Cyberhorse Racing Club

Most punters will have given thought at some stage to owning the magnificent creatures that they bet on. However, being acutely aware of their tendency to be unreliable conveyances, combined with the very real expense of ownership, few punters actually take the plunge.

Bill Saunders of the popular web site Cyberhorse has come up with an innovative way for punters to participate in racing a whole stable of horses for only a few dollars a week. Not only do members of his Cyberhorse Racing Club get as much information about their stable as normal owners, but they also get the benefit of Cyberhorse's racing experts to gain an insight into what is going on with their horse behind the scenes.

"The problem with traditional racehorse ownership is that all the owners hopes and dreams revolve around the success of just one horse", said Saunders.

"If that horse fails for any reason, the whole expensive process of selecting the horse, finding owners for it and putting it into work has been a waste of time."

"While experienced racing people might be able to cope with the disappointment, for those new to the game, it is very demoralising and its not surprising that when their first horse doesn't work out, they are in no hurry to try again", he went on.

The Cyberhorse Racing Club is more like a football club in concept.
Instead of putting just one player on the ground Cyberhorse have recruited a whole team of horses to race. That way, if any one horse fails, they can replace it and the impact on club members is reduced.

The 18 horses in which the Cyberhorse Racing Club currently has an interest, range in age from yearlings to 5 year olds and include some who have already won races. Trainers such as David Hayes, Gai Waterhouse and Peter Moody are currently training for the Club.

With a football club, the club has contracts with its players and takes responsibility for putting a winning team on the field. Club members don't actually need to "own" the players in a legal sense to be team supporters.

Similarly, the Cyberhorse Racing Club owns the horses and takes responsibility for paying their running costs. Cyberhorse Racing Club members get the enjoyment benefit of following their horses but pay only a fixed annual membership fee, rather than the cost of buying the horse and paying for it to be trained.

"What about prizemoney?", we asked.

Above: 'Pheonix' who is showing a fair bit of staying promise and is a three quarter sister to dual Group 2 winner 'Umaline'.

Saunders response was that on average, racehorses return only 50% of their racing costs in prizemoney. If the purchase cost of the horses is included, he made the point that most owners are well out of pocket.

"The Cyberhorse Racing Club budgets to recover some of our running expenses from prizemoney, but we are under no illusion that this will pay our way", he said.

Instead, Saunders believes that the Club will balance its books with a combination of membership subscriptions, sponsorship and merchandising, as well as prizemoney.

He expects that for their low outlay, Club members are not looking for a cash dividend, any more than a football club member expects to see a cheque in the mail after winning the premiership.

"Our main objective is to give our members a taste of ownership without the heartache and expense of direct ownership", Saunders observed.
Saunders also sees the social aspect of racing being an important benefit of being a Cyberhorse Racing Club member.

"We are planning a program which will see our members be able to go to the races to see our horses race, as well as being able to participate in other racing related events", he said.

Cyberhorse offers Gold, Silver and Bronze Racing Club membership packages at annual rates between $99 and $399.

Full information on all aspects of the Cyberhorse Racing Club is available at their web site at:
racingclub.cyberhorse.com.au