In terms of out the box thinking, Coral have smashed it out of the park with this one.
The Coral Racing Club had passed me by until recently, so i’m late to the game since it launched in November of 2022, but I have to say, this is a genuinely brilliant promotion.
Not just for punters – and over 50,000 of them signed up in the first 3 months – but for British racing too.
You see, Coral have essentially created their own race horse ownership syndicate, although it is free to join, which gives members a flavour of what it is like to own a racehorse.
On top of this, they have also doubled their investment in racing sponsorship which should send more traffic their way and therefore widen the footprint of the Racing Club.
This all drives attention and, more importantly, money back into British racing, which will help to boost prize purses and give the sport a bit of a lift with any luck.
As you can tell, i’m a big fan of this idea they have come up with, so let me tell you about it properly.
Is it Worth Joining the Coral Racing Club?
Absolutely.
It’s 100% free for a start, so there is nothing to lose by opting in (which is all you have to do to get access), and you can opt out again if you want or just ignore it if it isn’t for you.
For horse racing fans though, it will probably appeal, because despite being free, members are treated as part owners of Coral’s stable of horses.
There is a separate website which links through to the sportsbook, detailing the horses that are currently part of the club, with individual horse profiles and regular updates on their training and any news about races they will be entered into.
This information is shared both in writing and via short videos with the trainer, stable owner, or perhaps a jockey, as well as clips of the horse in action, so it’s much much more than a token gesture from Coral, they have really invested in this.
On top of regular updates, members of Coral’s Racing Club can enter draws for some brilliant experiences:
- Stable tours
- Raceday hospitality
- Lottery style owner privileges
- Tickets to races
These are all great benefits for something that is absolutely free, but the lottery style owner privileges are my favourite part.
When a horse owned by the Coral Racing Club is entered into a race, you can ‘vote’ to be one of 10 owners for that day.
If the horse goes on to win prize money, you get a share, and a proper share too, it’s split between the 10 owners, so depending on the prize money, it could be thousands each.
The Racing Club launched with 4 horses in their stable, but 9 months later and that number has risen to 9 horses, and they are being trained by the likes of Joe Tizzard, Jonjo O’Neill, and John Quinn among other big names.
Terms and Conditions
No obviously, since it is Coral stumping up all the cash for this, and since there are tens of thousands of Racing Club members, you don’t get any say in how the horse is trained or raced.
Even if you win a ticket to the stables and meet the trainer, it’s not an opportunity to tell them what you think they should do with the horse.
No member has any real ownership rights over any of the horses, all these things are being gifted to us from Coral.
As such, there are a few terms and conditions to be aware of. These are not dense, it’s a 2 minute read at most, but I recommend you look through them.
The most significant terms are outlined below:
- Membership of the club does not gives you any rights to ownership of the horses, or rights arising out of ownership of the horses.
- You will not be held liable for any fees or costs arising from ownership of the horses.
- Membership can be terminated at any time (if your account is limited this will probably happen).
- Coral can buy, sell, retire horses as they please, and are not obligated to keep a minimum number of horses in the club.
- Membership of the club does not entitle you to win any of the prize draws, but you may enter them. They all come with their own terms.
- The club may close at any time.
So basically, you don’t actually own the horses and have no rights over them, you won’t be asked to help pay for their upkeep, and any prize draws offered by Coral are held at their own discretion.
All seems pretty fair to me.
Investment in British Racing
I mentioned that Coral had doubled their sponsorship in British racing as part of this promotion.
They signed deals to be the exclusive betting partner at Glorious Goodwood and the St Leger Festival, as well as adding the Coral Gold Cup at Cheltenham as well as the Coral Trophy and Coral Lanzarote at Kempton to their list of established race sponsorship deals like the Eclipse and the Welsh and Scottish Grand Nationals.
It’s not all about race sponsorship though.
They have also sponsored Manor House Stables, the training yard owned by ex-England international, Premier League and Ballon d’Or winner, Michael Owen.
Some of the horses owned by the club are in training there, under veteran trainer Hugo Palmer. Both of these men feature in the videos that form part of Coral Racing Club’s premium content.
This all pours money into the sport at a time when it really could use the help, and their ongoing purchases of race horses helps too.
These horses will be entered into races and you would imagine they will attract a fair amount of wagers since tens of thousands of people are going to feel invested in them in some small way.
This now makes Coral the number one bookie for horse racing in the UK in my eyes – they certainly can’t be accused of showing a lack of commitment.