Shared ownership: debut nerves and new friends

Whilst thinking of subject matter for this month’s article, I realised that I was due  to take a large group of my syndicate  members to Ludlow for the debut of our latest horse the next day, and that ticked all the required boxes, writes Phil Boyle.

Don’t Call Me Sue is trained in Bath by Neil Mulholland and has been leased  by BG Racing from her breeder, Paddy McCarthy. She had been working well at home, and the excitement was  building  amongst her band of shareholders in the days approaching her first race.

We had a false start originally – a week earlier she had been declared at Wetherby but ended up a non-runner, but now it seemed we were all systems go!

Ahead of the race, I had 12 shareholders who said that they would like to come racing, with me making our group size 13. I contacted Ludlow to ask whether they could accommodate us all and they were great to deal with, allocating us a room that we could use as a base during the afternoon to allow our group to socialise. 

It was an early start for me, as I was driving three of our group up to Ludlow from Surrey, Nigel arriving at my house at 7.30am before we headed off, picking Cathy and then John up on the way. Dave, Lawrence, Chris, Gerald, and Jody made their way to Ludlow from various locations across the country and two couples, Andy and Julie and Phil and Steph, headed to the course from the south and north respectively.

A group of 13 people of various ages and backgrounds, travelling from far and wide, each having one important thing in common, the excitement and anticipation of seeing ‘their’ horse run. I cannot think of too many things that would bring such a group together for one afternoon!

Our levels of racehorse ownership experience varied widely, ranging from several old hands to a pair of first timers, and it was great to hear stories being shared of previous days at the races. 
Ludlow provided us with tea, coffee and biscuits in our allocated room, and there was plenty of opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones.

The afternoon rushed by and it was soon time to head off to meet ‘Susie’, who had travelled well and had settled in at the course nicely. 

It was great that Ludlow allowed all of us into the paddock and there was plenty of time for photos and videos, many of which were posted in the WhatsApp group, allowing those who could  not be at the course to share the experience.

Once the race was off, Don’t Call Me Sue settled just in behind the leaders and seemed very relaxed. It was a hot bumper on paper, with four point-topoint winners and several expensive purchases in the field, and Susie was conceding a lot of experience to most of her rivals. She came under pressure turning for home and it became clear that there would be no fairytale debut. Despite this, she plugged on gamely and whilst she finished tenth, she was only ten lengths behind the winner. 

On arriving at unsaddling, it was clear that both our trainer Neil Mulholland and jockey Conor O’Farrell were absolutely delighted with the way she had run. Conor noted that she had been the last to pull up and that she would certainly have benefitted massively from the experience. 

Whilst we recorded Conor’s feedback for those not at the course, he was happy to report back to our whole group and answer their questions.

As he headed back to the weighing room, it was time for goodbyes, as friends old and new headed off in different directions having enjoyed their afternoon together, all looking forward to what the future might have in store as their ownership journey unfolds.