The TAB Racing Club has been set up to give its members the experience of owning a racehorse without any expense and once launched any TAB account holder can sign-up for horses they want to be involved in.
The new TAB bosses, Entain, run a similar club under the Ladbrokes banner in Australia and it already has 30,000 members and Entain boss Dean Shannon expects around those numbers to take advantage in New Zealand.
“We want people to experience the thrill of owning a horse, and not just on raceday,” he told the Herald.
“Once we launch the Racing Club in May, as part of a re-brand of several things we do, people can sign up and they will start getting video updates on their horses, just like paying owners do, but it will all be free.
“So we will take them right through the experience of horses being broken in, training, trialling and hopefully going to the races.
“When we get to that stage we will have raceday events for Racing Club members and have draws where some of the members get to be a designated owner for the day and get shares of any stake money won.”
Shannon is himself a very successful owner of horses, including newly-crowned NZ Three-Year-OId Pacer of the Year in Merlin, who makes his Australian debut (named Its Merlin) at Menangle on Saturday night.
“Yes, we want people to be able to enjoy this but we also hope by engaging them they might want to get into owning a horse or dog of their own.
“We aren’t just here to grow betting, we are here to grow racing and how Kiwis engage with it.”
The $340,000 colt will be trained by Barry Purdon and Scott Phelan but the TAB Racing Club will spread its horses of both codes across trainers around the country.
On a more emotional note the record-breaking colt was sold by one of the gentlemen of the harness racing industry in Studholme Breeding boss Brian West on his last day of selling commercially.
“This is my last sale running the business, my grandson Vinnie is taking over running it fulltime so what a way to go out after 50 years,” said West.
The colt was the zenith of a day the standardbred sales bounced back after moderate mid-market results at Karaka on Sunday and on the first day of selling in Christhchurch.
There was far more action in the middle market while the top was very strong although with a clearly-defined bias to two stallions, the great Bettors Delight and the heir to his throne, Captaintreacherous.
Auckland-based Stonewall Stud was the most prolific buyer in Christhchurch, purchasing 14 lots to add to their six at Karaka while the Australians spend in Christchurch was up $1.2million.
But the drop in the average price for both sales will leave harness racing bosses in no doubt of the level of work needed to retain market share and interest in the code as thoroughbred racing builds enormous momentum which is still yet to translate to harness racing.
** Newly-crowned Trotter of the Year Oscar Bonavena is confirmed for the $575,000 TAB Trot at Cambridge on April 12,.
He will, as expected, fill the slot owned by his connections, a luxury likely for both Muscle Mountain and Bolt For Brilliance as their connections also own slots in the new trotting race.
TAB RACING CLUB
** Free to all New Zealand TAB account holders.
** Will race at least 8 thoroughbreds and 4 harness horses.
** Members will enjoy the ownership experience including updates on their horses and raceday events.
** Launches as part of a TAB rebrand scheduled for May.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
