Online Racing Club Inspired by Purses at PA Tracks
By Judith Lee
Harrisburg, Pa. – Bitten by “the bug” as a young boy who watched harness racing with his grandmother at Timonium Fairgrounds, Brian Eichhorn was always interested in horse racing.Three years ago, he combined his passion with internet technology to successfully pool resources with other small-time Thoroughbred owners.Now Eichhorn’s group, Online Racing Club (ORC), is poised to cash in on the rising purses at Pennsylvania race tracks. United via their website, www.onlineracingclub.com, about 20 individuals currently own 3 horses, with their primary home base at Penn National.Hopes are high for a Pennsylvania-bred gelding, Coastal Turmoil, which ORC claimed in late June. The three-year-old gelding is a son of Coastal Storm (by Storm Cat), standing at William J. Solomon’s Pin Oak Lane Farm in New Freedom, PA.“We saw Coastal Turmoil at the PA-bred sale at Mountain Springs Stable in May, but the bidding went over our budget for the horse. He finished second in a Maiden $5,000 Claimer. This fit our budget at the time, and we were able to claim him,” Eichhorn said.At press time, Coastal Turmoil was entered in a $10,000 Maiden Claimer on the turf at Penn National.For some of the owners in ORC, it’s their first experience with racehorse ownership, but Eichhorn came to the group with experience.“When I was in college, I invested in Standardbreds through a limited partnership. We raced horses at Yonkers, Freehold, and the Meadowlands,” he said. It was a great way to limit the investment and the risk for ordinary folks who are not wealthy.When Eichhorn started his own food distribution business in Somerset, N.J., he no longer had the time or the disposable income to invest. After a number of years, an automobile accident forced him to sell the business. While in rehab, Eichhorn founded ORC.“We started at Charlestown, W.V. because the purses were so good [WV already had slots]. We claimed Glorious Jenna for $3,500. We had six partners, some were family and friends, and I got a few through the internet and advertising in the Racing Form,” Eichhorn remembered. Their trainer was Marion Cuttino. They went through several horses, and at one point, moved a horse, Laugh A Little, to Penn National. That’s when they met their current trainer, Michelle Francis.“Michelle is our base. We have three horses with her now, and we are focusing on those,” Eichhorn said. ORC maintains relationships with trainers at Charles Town and Philadelphia Park, and may be claiming horses there.The group’s One Time Fee Claiming Partnerships require each owner to pay a one-time fee, based on the percentage that he or she wishes to own. The club looks for owners to buy a 10% share ($1,700 in the latest offering), but owners may buy as little as 2% ($385 in the latest offering). Once 100% is reached, the money is pooled into an account to claim a horse, usually in the $6,000 to $10,000 range. All the money left in the account goes for training and vet fees, which typically run $1,200 a month. Any winnings go back into the account. If the horse is claimed by someone else, the balance of the account is distributed, and if the account runs out of money, the horse is sold and any leftover funds distributed.ORC retains at least 10% ownership of each horse, and is compensated according to that percentage whenever a horse wins. When a partnership is dissolved and the partners have made a profit, ORC receives 10% of net profits.“The biggest advantage to a partnership of this kind is that you only have to make one payment and are not required to make monthly payments. Many current members have suggested that they like this type of partnership best, so they can have fun without having to make additional payments,” Eichhorn said.Indeed, members like the “controlled risk.” Kent Karwoski of Chicago, IL said he has invested in two partnerships with ORC, and has spent less than $1,000.“From my first contact with him, I liked what Brian had to say and the way he did things,” said Karwoski, who joined ORC last fall.Bill Fix of Middletown, N.J. has been involved with ORC since 2005, and has spent no more than $2,000: “I was involved in another partnership before [ORC], but it was higher-end. This appealed to me because it was more affordable.”Fix says that Eichhorn works hard to educate new owners, and keep all the club members informed.“Brian is very accessible, he takes the time to explain what’s going on. He realizes you aren’t an expert, lets you know what’s going on, and he’s not just in it to take your money,” Fix said.Karwoski praises Eichhorn’s practice of donating horses that need to be retired from racing to Bright Futures equine rescue, which puts them up for adoption.“I really like Brian’s view on retiring horses. My stepdaughters were with me at Arlington Park when a horse had to be put down. It was traumatic for them. Brian is relentless, he will do everything he can to save a horse,” Karwoski said.Michelle Francis, ORC’s trainer at Penn National, also gives the group positive feedback.“I pretty much just deal with Brian. When we have to make a decision about a horse, I lay out the options for him, and then he takes it to the owners,” she explained.Eichhorn says he is careful not to influence the owners, just conveying the information from Francis, and posting it to the password-protected members’ page for each partnership. The group votes, with each owner getting a percentage of the vote based on his percentage of ownership. “We own a horse named Petrovic. He won for us in March, but he has not been doing as well recently. I presented the options to the owners, and they decided to keep him. It was their decision,” he said. Eichhorn posts his “win” and “in the money” rates on the website. The 2006 “win” rate was just under 11%, which Eichhorn says is the national average. The first half of 2007 has produced a higher “win” rate of 15%. For 2006 and 2007, the “in the money” rate was 26% and 31%, respectively.“It’s learning a process, and it’s not an easy game. We are small owners, compared to what others can invest. My whole goal for every partner is to teach them about the game, have fun with ownership, and not throw away their money. We are learning as we go, doing more research and prep, and making smarter decisions,” Eichhorn noted.He says not every owner fully understands “the game” when first joining ORC, and he is the first to disabuse them of the notion that they will get rich on horseracing.“Many of these are new horse owners. I tell them, this has to be disposable income. We play at a level where it’s a hobby; we are not going to get rich. Some people think we are getting involved with Smarty Jones. They see things on TV, they don’t realize how the business works,” he noted.All the more reason to consider a racing partnership, according to Karwoski: “You gotta do this because you love it. With ORC, you can get in the game for just a few hundred dollars, see if you like it.”
