By Garrett Dvorkin | Baltimore Business Journal
The company behind the horse that won this year’s Preakness Stakes was on millions of televisions last month, and its CEO said he wants to harness that attention and expand into other sports.
MyRacehorse offers investors a chance to buy a share of top racehorses, and it plans to expand into NASCAR, Formula One and even team sports like soccer. The move comes after Seize the Grey beat out Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan to take the Woodlawn Vase in May, giving more than 2,500 people the chance to experience the thrill of winning a major horse race.
Michael Behrens, CEO of MyRacehorse and its parent company Experiential Sports, said the Kentucky-based company is also looking to allow users to trade their shares and create a horse stock market. Behrens feels that now is the time to expand after the Preakness win proved that the model of buying shares of sports assets can work and be profitable for fans.
“What this might do is validate the fact that this is real. This might not only help scale horse racing but help the company move beyond into other sports assets moving forward,” Behrens said.
Owning racehorses — and sports teams — has typically been the realm of the ultra-wealthy, but Behrens said his company strives to make it possible for average people. Shares of Seize the Grey were just $127. The owners also received $156 a share in race winnings, although Behrens said the real money will come from breeding the horse later on.
Behrens said the company is currently developing technology that would allow Seize the Grey’s owners to capitalize on the horse’s increase in value by selling shares. Seize The Grey’s value per share is now much higher than $127, and some owners might want to cash in now and buy shares of another horse, he said.
The big win has meant record traffic and downloads to MyRacehorse’s app and website. Behrens said the company’s profile has grown in a big way and that the company has had “the biggest couple of days we have ever had.” The company did own part of 2020 Kentucky Derby winner Authentic, but Behrens said MyRacehorse, which launched in 2019, was too young to really capitalize on that success.
Now the company is in a much better position and has already had “really progressive conversations” around expanding into NASCAR, Behrens said. Race cars make sense as the next move because horse racing and NASCAR “have a lot of similarities,” he said.
The company has been building out its capability to expand past horse racing since closing a $7 million fundraising round last year. One of the main investors was 1/ST, the owners of the Preakness, although details around the investment were not disclosed.
“We are in a really good situation. If the right opportunity came along I think it’s months, maybe not days, but also not years away,” Behrens said. “We are much further along where [Experiential Sports] could really launch into another sport.”
Photo Credit: Garrett Dvorkin/BBJ