How Much Does MyRacehorse Charge in Fees? What the SEC Filings Actually Disclose

How much does MyRacehorse charge in fees? On a typical Regulation A+ offering, the manager can deduct up to 15% for management and due diligence, up to 12.5% for organizational and experiential costs, up to 5% bloodstock fee, and 1% brokerage — all from offering proceeds — plus roughly twelve months of operating reserve in the share price, with a 10% stakes bonus and 5–20% on sale proceeds on the backend. The first number most people see is cleaner: shares “starting at $100.” The honest stack isn’t on the FAQ page; it’s in the SEC offering circulars, and it runs to six separate fees that the marketing folds into one tidy sentence.

I read filings before landing pages, because the filing is what a company is legally accountable for and the landing page is what’s written to sell. With MyRacehorse the gap between the two is the whole story. What follows is a plain-English translation of the fees the SEC filings disclose — every one, what it’s charged on, and where the FAQ rounds it off.

The short answer

MyRacehorse charges a stack of fees, most of them taken out of the money you put in rather than billed to you later. On a typical Regulation A+ offering the manager can deduct a management and due-diligence fee of up to 15%, an organizational and experiential fee of up to 12.5%, a bloodstock fee of up to 5%, and a 1% brokerage fee — all from the offering proceeds — plus roughly twelve months of operating reserve baked into the share price. Then there is a backend: a 10% bonus on gross earnings from stakes races, and a fee on the sale of the horse of 5% of gross proceeds (or 20% of the gain if the horse sold for more than the series paid). You will not see a monthly bill, which is what “no out-of-pocket costs after purchase” really means. The fees are front-loaded and taken from proceeds, not waived.

The honest bottom line: “No monthly bills” is true. “No fees” is not. MyRacehorse’s fees are real, layered, and disclosed — just in the SEC filing, not the FAQ. Read the filing for the offering you’re actually buying, because the percentages are ceilings that vary from one horse to the next.

The full fee stack, translated from the SEC filing

MyRacehorse raises money for each horse through a separate series under a Regulation A+ offering circular filed with the SEC. Those circulars spell out each fee the manager may take, what it is charged against, and the maximum percentage. Below is our own reconciliation of that disclosure into a single reader-facing table — one line per fee, the ceiling percentage, what it’s charged on, and where it comes from. We built it because the filing discloses the fees in scattered legal language and no independent publication translates it into something a buyer can read in ten seconds.

MyRacehorse’s fee stack: every line item

Fee	Up to	Charged on	When you pay it
Management & due-diligence fee	15%	Offering proceeds	At purchase (deducted from the raise)
Organizational & experiential fee	12.5%	Offering proceeds	At purchase (deducted from the raise)
Bloodstock fee	5%	Horse acquisition cost	At purchase
Brokerage fee (Dalmore)	1%	Offering proceeds	At purchase
Operating reserve	~12 months	Baked into share price	At purchase (pre-funds care)
Performance bonus	10%	Gross earnings from stakes races only	Backend (if the horse wins black-type money)
Sale fee	5% / 20%	Gross sale proceeds / gain on sale	Backend (when the horse is sold)

Two things stand out once it’s laid out this way. First, most of the money the operator makes is taken at the front, out of the capital you contribute, before a dollar goes toward the horse. Second, the percentages stack against different bases — some on the raise, one on the horse’s price, others on winnings and sale — so there is no single “MyRacehorse takes X%” number, and anyone who quotes you one is guessing.

What you actually pay at purchase

The four front-load fees — management and due-diligence, organizational and experiential, bloodstock, and brokerage — all come out of the offering proceeds. That’s the pool of money everyone’s share purchases add up to. When MyRacehorse says there are “never any mark-ups on the horse, you pay exactly what we pay,” that is accurate and worth crediting: the operator doesn’t inflate the purchase price the way a traditional syndicate’s acquisition markup does. The margin is captured a different way, through those percentage-of-proceeds fees instead of a hidden markup.

Where it matters is the math on a small share. Up to 15% for management and due-diligence plus up to 12.5% organizational and experiential means a meaningful slice of every dollar contributed can go to the manager and the offering rather than to the animal and its care. The price on the checkout screen is one number; underneath it are four fees and a reserve.

The reserve, and why “no monthly bills” is true but incomplete

MyRacehorse’s most repeated promise is that “after your initial purchase, there are no out-of-pocket costs for training, care, or management.” That’s genuinely true, and it’s the model’s real selling point. Traditional partnerships bill you by capital call — a surprise invoice when the training bill comes due. MyRacehorse pre-funds roughly twelve months of care into the share price through an operating reserve, so you’re not exposed to mid-year calls. For a first-time owner who wants a fixed, known cost, that’s a legitimate advantage.

The incomplete part is what “no fees” gets read to mean. You did pay for management, diligence, and organization — at purchase, inside that same share price. Consider a buyer comparing a $150 MyRacehorse share against a stable that advertises “no management fee.” Both can be telling the truth and both can still be taking a margin; the difference is only where in the transaction it sits. We wrote a separate audit of exactly that pattern in how “no management fee” syndicates actually make their money, because the phrase almost never means “no cost to the owner.” A twelve-month reserve is also a reminder that the clock is running: when it’s exhausted, the model depends on the horse earning or being sold, which is where the backend fees come in.

Backend fees: a cut of winnings and of the sale

The front-load isn’t the end of it. For offerings after May 6, 2022, MyRacehorse’s manager earns 10% of gross earnings from stakes races only — not from ordinary allowance or claiming purses, which is a narrower and more owner-friendly cut than a blanket share of all winnings. If your horse never runs in a stakes race, this fee never triggers.

The sale is the other backend event. If the horse is sold and hasn’t appreciated above what the series paid, the manager’s take is 5% of the gross proceeds. If it sells for more than the series paid, the manager instead earns a 20% bonus on the net gain. In plain terms: the operator makes more when you make more, and a modest floor when you don’t. That’s a defensible structure — it aligns the manager with the outcome — but it is another layer of cost that the “no out-of-pocket” headline doesn’t mention, because technically it isn’t out of your pocket. It comes out of the proceeds before they’re distributed.

FAQ language vs. what the filing discloses

None of this is hidden. MyRacehorse files complete circulars and answers fee questions on its site. But the FAQ is written to reassure, and the filing is written to disclose, and the two use different words for the same money. Here is the translation, claim by claim.

FAQ claim vs. filing definition

What the FAQ says	What the SEC filing discloses
“No out-of-pocket costs after your purchase.”	True — no monthly bills or capital calls. But management/diligence (up to 15%), organizational/experiential (up to 12.5%), bloodstock (up to 5%) and 1% brokerage were already deducted from your contribution.
“No mark-ups on the horse — you pay what we pay.”	Accurate on the horse’s price. The operator’s margin is taken through percentage-of-proceeds fees and the backend, not a purchase markup.
“The manager earns 10% of gross earnings from stakes races.”	Matches the filing’s performance bonus — with the detail that it’s stakes-race earnings only, and only for offerings after May 6, 2022.
“No additional management fees unless a bonus or sales commission is earned.”	Ongoing management is pre-funded from the reserve in your share price. The “additional” fees are the 10% stakes bonus and the 5% / 20% sale fee.

The honest edges: fees change with every offering

Two cautions on the numbers above. First, every percentage is a maximum. The circular authorizes fees “up to” those ceilings; a given series may charge less, and terms can differ from one horse to the next. Second, MyRacehorse files a new offering for each horse, and older documents — including some owner-pack PDFs floating around online — can be superseded by a newer filing. The only fully reliable source for the fees on the share you’re about to buy is the circular for that specific series, which is linked from the offering page and filed on MyRacehorse’s SEC EDGAR page. Read that one, not a summary of a different one.

It’s also worth being clear-eyed about what these micro-shares are. A $100 stake in a racehorse is an illiquid, high-risk holding with no secondary market to speak of — you can’t easily sell it, most horses don’t earn back their costs, and the experience and the story are a real part of what you’re buying. The fees are only one input into whether that’s worth it. But you can’t weigh them if you can’t see them, and seeing them is the point of this piece.

How MyRacehorse’s fees compare

MyRacehorse and Commonwealth are the two fractional operators that disclose a full fee stack through SEC filings, which makes them the only pair you can compare apples-to-apples on the numbers rather than on marketing. Their models rhyme — both front-load fees as a percentage of the raise and pre-fund care through a reserve — but the specific percentages and the backend splits differ. We put them side by side, both figures filing-sourced, in our MyRacehorse vs. Commonwealth fee comparison. Against the traditional syndicate world — where the cost usually arrives as an acquisition markup plus pass-through training bills — the crowdfunding model isn’t obviously cheaper or pricier. It’s a structurally different way of charging, and the right comparison is model to model, not headline to headline.

Frequently asked questions

What percentage does MyRacehorse take?

There’s no single percentage, because the fees stack against different bases. At purchase, the filing authorizes up to 15% management and due-diligence, up to 12.5% organizational and experiential, up to 5% bloodstock, and 1% brokerage — all from the offering proceeds. On the backend, 10% of stakes-race earnings and a 5% or 20% fee on sale. Any “MyRacehorse takes X%” claim is a simplification.

Does MyRacehorse charge monthly fees?

No. After your purchase there are no monthly bills or capital calls — care is pre-funded through roughly twelve months of operating reserve built into the share price. That’s the model’s genuine advantage. It’s not the same as paying no fees; the fees are taken at purchase and on the backend instead.

How much does MyRacehorse take from winnings?

For offerings after May 6, 2022, the manager earns 10% of gross earnings from stakes races only. Ordinary purses from allowance, claiming, or maiden races aren’t subject to the bonus. If the horse never runs in a stakes race, the fee never applies.

What happens to fees when a MyRacehorse horse is sold?

If the horse hasn’t appreciated above what the series paid, the manager takes 5% of gross sale proceeds. If it sells for more, the manager earns a 20% bonus on the gain instead. Either way it’s deducted from proceeds before distribution, not billed to you.

Are MyRacehorse’s fees disclosed in SEC filings?

Yes. Each horse is offered as a separate series under a Regulation A+ offering circular filed with the SEC, and every fee and its ceiling is disclosed there. The FAQ summarizes; the circular is the accountable document. Always read the circular for the specific series you’re buying.