by Bob Carson

Editor’s Note: The USTA website is pleased to present freelance writer Bob Carson and his popular “Outside the Box” features. This monthly series is a menu of outlandish proposals presented with a wink — but the purpose behind them is serious. The views contained in this column are that of the author alone, and do not necessarily represent the opinions or views of the United States Trotting Association.

Bob Carson

In the Standardbred yearling game, the pool of owners is shallow. New capitalists venturing into our stock market are rare. Despite my relatively short romp in the yearling ownership game, the faces in the sales auction arenas have become familiar.

Obviously, harness racing needs new investors. Equally obvious, finding new investors is challenging. Fiscally, over the long term we cannot compete with more popular investments like stocks, bonds, and real estate.

The world has a category of people who place their assets in unorthodox markets such as artwork, fossils, and rare books. They fall into a category of alternative investors. These investors do not wildly throw money away, they study and research at each step of their investments. Occasionally, if they are smart enough or lucky enough, they can make a living in these unusual marketplaces.

Another term for alternative investments is passion investment. A short list of these will find jewelry, collectibles, vineyards, luxury automobiles, yachts, and sports clubs. Then there are scientific investors in research labs and technology. In addition, some alternative investments skew towards social welfare, philanthropy, health, history, nature, travel, music, performing arts, and spirituality.

Unique and unusual investors are all over the map. This is where we can find new yearling investors for harness racing.

A set of three volumes of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoeby Daniel Defoe, 1st edition (1719), including the rare third book in the series, is for sale. The current list price is $16,555.55. Perhaps the purchaser of The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe just loves a great rare book, or they may be starting a collection. They may believe the price is low and they can resell the set next week for a tidy profit, or they may hold onto the set for five years.

Investments such as rare books are often rooted in interest more than money.

If you squint, harness racing yearlings could fit into this category. They are an investment that offers enjoyment with the possibility of a return. Investing more than $16,000 in a rare copy of Robinson Crusoe is a risk. Investing in a stallion syndicate or a yearling are also risks. Fiscally, both the book and the yearling investment are stretches.

We all are fully aware that investing in a horse is an extremely volatile investment, literally one step from disaster. This volatility can be lessened by using insurance policies, multiple investors, and research, but there is still a risk as in every investment. Yachts can sink, Independent League baseball franchises go bankrupt, and the wine bottle can break.

Even the best harness horse yearlings have a small window in which to make a profit. In some ways, the times we live in and the devices we use seem to shorten the time. The pace of the modern world is very fast. This rapid pace and short attention span can work to our advantage. For millennials, short-term investments might be ideal. In addition, technology like Skype offers the chance for yearling owners to watch and follow their investment more easily than ever.

So where is the key selling point for yearlings as an alternative investment?

In the long list of alternative and passion investments, there is another division — investments range from passive to active.

When you conclude a deal to purchase a U.S. Inverted Airmail, 24-cent postage stamp from the year 1918 in excellent condition, the investment will be $42,000. Next year you may market this stamp for a profit, but the stamp will not do much in the 12 month interval. Your stamp investment is passive.

If you invest your $42,000 in a professional baseball team like the fledgling Utica Unicorns who play at Jimmy Johns Field in the new United Shore Professional Baseball League, your summer will be busy.

If you invest your $42,000 in Take A Ride, a trotting yearling, under optimal conditions you can be involved from the first glance at a sales catalogue page, to the purchase, to the ultimate sale. A yearling can be very dynamic and can touch all the senses.

The key word is can.

If a person is asked to ‘Write me a monthly check” and then one day gets a text message, “The horse is not going to race,” the new investor may as well invest in rare stamps.

However, if during your early days in harness racing, people take you to a breeding farm to see newborn yearlings, take you to the auctions, slowly and patiently explain pedigrees, take you to watch the yearlings hooked for the first time, and keep you informed of weekly progress, there is a good chance you will reinvest. The uniqueness, the magic of horses, the smells, and the dreams make failure relative.

We need people with passion and curiosity. If investing in this sport is all about the money, we will continue to have problems finding investors. We need people who participate in our sport because of the total package.

For some of us, horse dream investments cost money, but they pay off in enjoyment. Part of the package for any new customer in this very competitive world should be an unceasing effort by every person involved in the sport to make ownership at least as much about fun as about money.

Alternative investors use disposable resources as a means that may possibly earn a return. They take the ride because they find a unique, intriguing adventure. More than most alternative investments, young horses offer a leg up, actually four legs up. Which of these look like a more enjoyable investment — a musty book in a glass case, a restored Rolls Royce in the garage, a case of 2001 wine from Domaine de la Romanee sitting in the cellar, or a Muscle Hill yearling colt?

Let us make a case for the yearling. We must make investments worthwhile emotionally. There is no alternative.