Well, my friends, the time has come. Raise the roof and have some fun. Go away...whoops! No, that's Lionel Ritchie from the mid 80's. But in a sense, a fitting intro to this blog entry. The next few weeks should be the birth of the first partnership in which I will be the managing partner. While this was something that I wanted to do eventually, I didn't think it would be this soon. But hopefully it will be an occasion for a bunch of folks to have some fun.
The genesis really took place over the summer. As we would head down to Canterbury to visit Sam and Wish and attend Wish's races, a lot of folks in the office got involved in following along. Many of them came down and attended some of Wish's races and it was pretty exciting for all of us. As I talked a bit more about it, I think folks became aware that partial ownership isn't tremendously expensive and could be a whole lot of fun.
As I head into this, I am trying to do things the right way. I have touched base with a lawyer to discuss the partnership agreement and how my current LLC (Grevelis Racing Stable) will operate with this new group. I'll be interviewing trainers, trying to get the best fit for my group. I'm working on a plan on how to acquire and then campaign the horse(s) and leaning on the experiences of friends like David to bounce idea off of and help guide me a bit through the process. The basic structure is going to be as follows:
10 shares at $2500 per share. We're going to try and claim a nice, sound horse between $12,500 and $16,000 out of a winter meet, probably Tampa, and ship back here to Canterbury to be ready for the spring. Depending upon when we claim, we may give the horse a run or two at Tampa to keep sharp before the move. This should leave enough money in the account for monthly bills - ideally, of course, supplemented with purse money - to let us run all summer long without an additional investment from the group. This level of horse should be able to run well in allowance company up here for the summer and give us a nice opportunity to make some money and get our picture taken.
The group is going to be made up of mostly folks from work, but there are a few outside folks that have asked about joining as well. Of course everyone is interested until you have to write a check - then you find out who's REALLY interested! I think that we have four firm now, with four more maybes that are leaning closer to yes. However, there is the possibility of others joining in and if we are lucky enough to oversubscribe - I'll open up a second group. If any of you out there are interested, let me know! There are no guarantees, but I believe we have a sound plan in place and will make a run at making some money and having some fun next summer. Who knows where it could lead beyond that?!
I am going to channel everything that I've learned over the past few years to make this an enjoyable and profitable experience for all involved. From Star of the North and VIP I have learned some great lessons on what I would like to do as a managing partner. From the partnership-who-must-not-be-named, I have learned how NOT to do quite a few things. These experiences should serve me well. While I'm a bit nervous, I am also very excited about the opportunity and look forward to keeping you all informed as I move along! Let the music play on, play on...play on...play on...
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