As you all know, the Club is ginormous – which is a very good thing, I think! We try and keep the Club’s focus on the educational aspect of racing, giving everyone the ability to “pull back the curtain” on horse racing and, hopefully, having some fun doing it.

One thing I think we’ve all noticed is that there are folks who would like to step up to the next level: the ability to carry horses over from season to season; maybe buy a better horse and run at higher levels; having a profit motive, among other things. The problem, I think, is that the next step is a smaller racing partnership that offers folks entry at $2000 or $2500 – quite a leap from the $250 buy in now for the Club.

I’m thinking of offering a special partnership group ONLY for folks that have been in the Club. This would be an “intermediate” group, if you will. The buy in will be less than a ‘regular’ partnership (though higher than the base Club), there will still be free admission for the members and, if I can arrange it, discount winners’ circle photos (should we be lucky enough to win) and a meeting location to watch the races (when available). There will also be an attempt to make money for the members so there will be tax consequences from year to year as well as a downside risk – the track will not be the safety net for this group. If the group looks at a deficit, members will be billed for the cost.

The basic parameters will be (roughly, we’re still working on the specifics):

$1,000 buy in
50 member limit (25 member minimum)
Clay Brinson will train
Admission for the season
Carry over of horses
Members CAN make money (though NOT guaranteed)
Members responsible for proportional amount of any shortfalls
Group will have it’s own name and LLC
Canterbury will not have an affiliation with this group

Group communication will be handled through a private Yahoo! group that will be specifically for the group only as opposed to the open blog for the Club. While we will be running the Club via GRS, ownership will not be under Grevelis Racing but under the group name as a separate ownership entity. We will be looking to either claim or privately purchase a horse with Clay and, if the group is filled up, we would look at possibly two horses around the $15,000 price point or a single horse that might be closer to $25,000 that we can hopefully compete at a higher level.

The Canterbury Racing Club and it’s parameters and primary mission will still exist and, hopefully, continue to be popular with fans. This is designed for folks that may be ready to move on but not quite ready to jump in THAT deeply.

I’d like those folks that are interested to email me at ted@grevelisracing.com and let me know. Obviously if the interest isn’t there we won’t go forward with this but it seems to be the right time to offer a group like this. This way I can get a head count and we can determine if we will move forward with the group.