by Kelly Spencer, for The Stable.ca

Guelph, ON — More than 200 people packed Saturday’s (Dec. 10) inaugural Open House & Horse Sale hosted by The Stable.ca at Tomiko Training Centre.

The Stable.ca photo

The staff of the The Stable.ca enjoys a packed house for their first Open House & Horse Sale on Saturday.

Thousands more tuned into a three-hour broadcast of the event via Facebook Live, complete with commentators and interviews. Forty-three of The Stable’s yearlings were showcased in seven sets, driven by some of North America’s top harness racing reinsmen.

Those in attendance — including several novice Standardbred racehorse owners — were able to meet the horses, chat with industry professionals, and purchase shares.
The Stable.ca is a racehorse ownership venture launched in 2015 by Anthony and Amy MacDonald.

The Guelph couple own and train several Standardbred racehorses near Mohawk Racetrack. Anthony is also a prominent racehorse driver and a well-known harness racing industry advocate. The MacDonalds built this ‘fractional ownership’ stable as a bridge — a way to welcome non-horse-people to racehorse ownership with a very modest investment (as low as $100), low-risk, and completely accessible and transparent operations.

There are currently 61 horses and 171 active racehorse owners in The Stable.ca.

“The turnout for today’s Open House was incredible,” said MacDonald. “Amy and I had the opportunity to speak with most of our guests, and the energy and enthusiasm of the crowd throughout the day was a real confirmation of the value of this fractional ownership model. This is a really effective way to engage people in harness racing and promote ownership of Standardbred racehorses. That was abundantly clear, based on the people we had the privilege to meet with today.”

“Among our guests were three 20-something guys from the GTA — exactly the demographic harness racing is hungry for. They heard my interview this week on The Fan 590, emailed me, came to look at the horses this afternoon, and bought a share of a horse. None of them have ever owned a horse before, and have only been to the races a handful of times. But when they heard the interview, they instantly understood the fun to be had if they all owned a share of a racehorse together. That’s a perfect illustration of the power of this model.”

A catalogue of today’s horses is available on The Stable.ca website which details all horses for which shares are available for purchase.

Video of today’s live broadcast will be available tomorrow on The Stable’s Facebook page.

Images from today’s event are available here.

Guests at today’s free event were asked to bring a non-perishable food item, resulting in more than 200 pounds of food for the Guelph Food Bank.