This above is the current standardbred (harness) race horse ‘ownership’ syndicate being promoted in New Zealand by a man named Andrew ‘The Canary’ Fitzgerald through his company Off N Racing Ltd, also known as Off N Racing Syndications.
As you can clearly see, the Canary is offering prospective customers is advertising the opportunity to share in the ownership of the four yearling pacers that together form the offer.
The problem is that neither he nor his company own the pacers, and therefore can syndicate or sell them.
Who does own the yearlings?
Queen Of Swords, a filly by Bettors Delight out of Queen Camille, is one of the yearlings in the package.
The registered owner of this filly – the only person with legal authority to sell her – is an entity named Jordash Breeding Trust, who bred her as a foal through Woodlands Stud.
Jordash Breeding Trust is controlled by the controversial Australian businessman and harness racing identity Harvey Kaplan, who in November 2016 was fined $20 000 and banned from owning harness racing horses for 12 months by the NSW racing authorities after he plead guilty to a charge of improper conduct relating to activities the Stewards suspected were linked to race fixing.
Kaplan solved that problem by simply transferring the various companies connected to the Jordash Breeding Trust into the name of his wife Shelley Kaplan.
The NSW failed to act upon this obvious deception.
The upshot of it all is that the Canary cannot sell or syndicate shares in Queen Of Swords, only Mrs Kaplan can.
Major Miss is another of the fillies in the package that the Canary is purporting to sell ownership shares in.
This filly is owned by its breeder, Studholme Bloodstock, the stud famous for breeding the champion pacer Lazarus.
Studholme is owned and operated by Brian West, a long time harness racing enthusiast and participant who himself dabbled in syndication back in the late stages of the 20th century when there considerable tax advantages in doing so.
Since the early 2000’s Studholme Bloodstock owns and maintains most of the stock itself, with a small number of breeding arrangements with friends on a 50/50 basis, as well as racing some fillies.
The Canary cannot sell or syndicate shares in Major Miss either.
Only Studholme Bloodstock can.
Sting – by Art Major out of A Chance To Dream – is owned by its breeders the Barlow’s.
Only they can sell or syndicate him, if they could find a buyer.
She’s A Major Act – by Art Major out of A Christian Act – is also owned by her breeders, the A Few Good Men Syndicate.
See above.
Why are the yearlings being leased?
You may have already noticed, but all of these yearlings are actually owned by their breeders, who include some of the biggest names in the harness racing game.
The reason that they all retain ownership is because these yearling were either passed in (3) at the recent NZ Standardbred sales, or were not considered of a suitable quality to offer for sale.
Major Miss was the filly that was unsuitable for sale, which is not really any surprise, given that her mother Crafty is a 17-year-old registered hack who has 22 starts on the track for just 1 win, who had missed being inseminated in the previous 2 breeding seasons and was being serviced by Art Major on a free return.
Her conservative valuation is by my professional reckoning $10 000 at the very most, if that is she is actually properly conformed, free of illness or deformity, and sound.
Queen of Swords was passed in at the Auckland sale after failing to reach her reserve of $50 000. That was no surprise either, for she had defects in conformation that were detected during pre-sale veterinary examinations.
Sting did too.
He was passed in at a reserve of $35 000.
She’s A Major Act was offered for sale at the Christchurch auction, and our people didn’t look at her, but I am reliably told by those who did that they were not impressed.
The filly was passed in for $35 000.
None of the three passed in lots has attracted a post-sale purchase offer.
This is why they are being offered for syndication by Fitzgerald: because no-one else wants to buy them.
So what are these yearlings really worth?
For mine, zero.
Art Majors, Bettors Delights and Lazarus progeny that are of even passable quality usually sell for the sorts of prices the three offered were passed in at, and the Crafty filly you couldn’t give up.
For the sake of the argument though lets run with the reserves as the the offered lots value, and my valuation of the one that didn’t go to market.
That makes the total inflated hypothetical value of the four yearlings $50 000 + $35 000 + $37 500 + $10 000 = $137 500.
Off N Racing is offering syndicate entrants a 50% ‘ownership’ share of the first three, and a 25% share of the other.
That makes the valuation of the syndicate’s share as $25 000 + $17 500 + $18 750 + $2 500 = $63 750.
The Canary is selling 0.2% shares in the package of yearlings for $640 each.
Assuming that he was able to ‘sell’ the whole 50%, his new ‘owners’ would have paid a total of $160 000 for four horses that are worth at the maximum almost $100 000 less, but in reality probably up to $150 000.
Now that is a bargain isn’t it?
What about the 3 fillies residual value as broodmares?
They don’t have any.
The real owner/breeder retains the breeding rights, and full ownership reverts to them at the end of the 3-year-lease.
Do the real owners of the yearlings know or understand that what the Canary is doing is illegal?
I am unable to answer that question directly, other than to say this.
These people have all been around harness racing a long time, and some have held positions in the sport’s administration or on representative harness racing bodies.
They should know.
So what happens now?
Andrew ‘the Canary’ Fitzgerald and his company are under investigation by various authorities, including as we understand it the Racing Integrity Board, the NZ Tax Office, the NZ Company’s office and New Zealand Police.
We have no information as to the content or conduct of the investigations that we are able to share with you, and cannot pre-empt the outcome of the investigations or predict the nature of any charges that may flow.
The purpose of our stories has been to alert prospective buyers to the truth behind the lies being told by the Canary through his company, and to warn prospective victims that they risk being defrauded if they hand over money to Off N Racing Syndications or any of its related entities.
And we haven’t even got started on the add-on extra rorts yet.
To be continued …..
