When people first buy a share in a racehorse, they almost always imagine the same scenario: driving down the road to their local track on a sunny Saturday afternoon, grabbing a drink, and watching their horse run. It’s a great weekend vision, one I’m grateful to have experienced. Even if my drink was a simple iced tea.
There’s only one problem: treating a racehorse like a local sports team is one of the fastest ways to burn through partner capital. When we started Claim To Fame Racing Club earlier this year, the mission was to naturally prefer “home games” for our claiming horses.
Have Horse, Will Travel
However, if a race is a great fit, and that means travelling (horse and trainer, perhaps some owners) for a race elsewhere, we do not hesitate. Because while we’re all in it for the excitement, we still took on the mission of being as responsible with partners’ capital as we possibly can be.
There are times when we judge that the net “return on investment” could be a race being run outside of our home base of Gulfstream Park makes financial sense. In those cases, after weighing the pros and cons, if the situation fits, we’re on it.
In modern Thoroughbred racing, managing a stable isn’t about geographic convenience. It is about condition books. Every track publishes a schedule of races tailored to specific distances, surfaces, age brackets, and claiming tiers.
A horse might be completely outmatched in a local $50k allowance race at Gulfstream, but could be the absolute favorite in a $54k Ratings Option Claiming event at Laurel Park or a “Ship and Win” bonus race at Del Mar or Belmont Park (different seasons).
If you force a horse to race locally just so you can watch them in person, you’re asking them to run against the wrong competition. And, you might be shortchanging yourself by settling for a much lower purse. This is not lost on the tracks themselves.
I Shipped My Racehorse!
That’s why Ship and Win features were created. To make sure they can fill fields during their meets, with quality horses that will attract wagering interest. So the “geographic arbitrage,” if I may borrow a term from my legacy career as an investor, is not just a Ship and Win. It’s a Win-Win-Win for the different parties that make the sport go. Horsemen/owners, tracks, and bettors.
And hey, if anyone from UPS, noted for their “I shipped my…” commercials, is reading this, here’s my message: produce an ad for the racing industry, promoting the fact that trainers and owners fly horses when needed. And of course, who hasn’t passed a horse trailer on the highway?
Good stable management means hunting for conditions where you believe your horse holds an advantage, regardless of where that trailer has to drive. As an alternative, at least.
As I related here recently in my Hall of Claim post on our own big gelding, Lure Him In (”Big Lu”), we claiming him at Parx. Later in the year, our horsemen, Sam Wilensky and Victor Collazo, didn’t just tuck him away in a local stall. They shipped him out to California to capitalize on Del Mar’s lucrative “Ship and Win” purse bonuses.
And when that boutique meet was concluded on Labor Day, instead of forcing him into a tough local Gulfstream entry, they identified an ideal spot at Laurel Park in Maryland. Where Big Lu put in a monstrous effort to finish second and bring home a nice net check for our club.
Your home track is where you hang out and enjoy being around the game. I know I do, every time I step foot onto Gulfstream Park, my “happy place.” But the condition book dictates where you run. And often, where you win.
About Claim To Fame Racing Club
Trainer Sam Wilensky, Victor Collazo CPA and Wall Street veteran Rob Isbitts started Claim To Fame Racing Club (CTFRC) in early 2026, with 13 other partners joining us for a minimum investment of $10,000 each. We raised 50% more than we had initially targeted in that initial “friends and family” offering.
We raised all the money up front, and aim to build a full stable of 6 or more claiming horses, operating akin to a “private fund of racehorses” concept. We’ll compete wherever our horseman (Sam and Victor) can identify solid opportunities to claim and race.
In an industry with a mixed reputation, we created CTFRC to be clearly different. We lean on our current and past experience as fiduciaries, and our horsemens’ detailed understanding of the sport from many angles. We provide a professionally-managed, welcoming, transparent, no BS, exciting entertainment experience to our partners. And with some racing luck, a profitable venture, too.
Our mission: bring the camaraderie, access, participation and financial advantages of race horse ownership to a wider audience, at a price point more reachable than many existing racing syndicates. So far, so great!