It used to be that someone with limited financial resources had no chance of owning a quality race horse or even a fraction of one. That changed with the advent of MyRacehorse, which offers microshares in horses that can be bought for $100 or less. Now, there is a new player in the market, Morning Line. It, too, allows fans to buy into horses for only a few dollars. The difference is that a Morning Line customer is buying not just a horse, but a commodity that can be bought and sold.Here's how it works: an owner decides to sell a percentage of his horse through the Morning Line platform. The value of the horse must be determined and the owner has to decide what percentage of the horse he or she wants to put up for grabs. Once that is done, shares in the horse are sold online. Universe (Global Campaign), who will start in Saturday's Louisiana Derby, is among the horses available. A share in Universe is currently trading at $36.10. Should he win the race, his price will obviously go up. If he runs “up the track,” his price will go down.“I look at a horse like a company, and companies go up and down in their stock price based on a number of factors,” said Joel Funk, the CEO and co-founder of Morning Line. “With stocks, you've got your performance, obviously, and your earnings reports, and then you have a bunch of analysts on CNBC and Fox News talking about, 'Oh, I think the stock is going to perform X, Y, Z.' And then ultimately you have your public perception, which dictates what people are buying or what they're investing in. I believe that a horse can be looked at similarly. They share a similar economic structure, where they're both assets that generate value over time based on performance management and market perception.”Morning Line operates as an SEC-compliant marketplace, where shares of horses trade as securities registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Morning Line issues 500 shares for each one percent of a horse offered on its platform. As an example, if Morning Line owns 10 percent of a horse, 5,000 shares would be made available. Each share represents 1/50,000 of the value of a horse.Funk and partner Tom Taaffe began with a similar concept in the fall of 2024, something they called Morning Line Club. But it was not for everybody. To be able to invest, you had to be what is called an “accredited investor,” which means someone the government, specifically the SEC, considers a person financially sophisticated enough to handle the risks of private investments without the usual protections. Participants also had to pay an “entry fee” which started at $1,000.Those barriers to entry have been eliminated under the new format. Anyone can get involved, and they can buy a share in a horse for a few dollars. Shares in an unraced horse named Barracks (Beau Liam) are currently trading at $2.90. The star among Morning Line's portfolio is Blackout Time (Not This Time). Slated to start in the GI Arkansas Derby, his shares are trading at $82.95. Funk said that Morning Line currently has about 24 horses available to its customers.“You don't need to be wealthy, well-connected, or even a longtime racing fan,” Funk said. “If you have a few dollars and a curiosity about the sport, you're in. A fan in the grandstand with $10 and a smartphone now has the same shot at owning a piece of a racehorse as someone sitting in a Keeneland box seat. Our goal is simple: turn spectators into stakeholders and bring new fans into the ownership experience in a different way than what is being offered today.“What's really powerful is that what we've done is bridge fandom and participation. Instead of watching from the outside, people now can follow along with a deeper connection as a horse develops over time by making an investment.”Both Universe and Blackout Time are trained by Ken McPeek, who has always shown an interest in entrepreneurial ventures. He's on board.“I think what we're doing here could theoretically change the game. We need to revolutionize the sport quite a bit, and I think this could very well do it,” McPeek said.The one question that Funk is always asked is, “How is this different from Myracehorse?”“Morning Line is different in the way that we're building a marketplace around that ownership,” he said. “Platforms like MyRacehorse have done a great job opening the door to fractional ownership. We're building a marketplace around that ownership, one that introduces transparency, price discovery, and the ability for participation to evolve over time rather than being fixed at that one point of purchase. Look, they opened the door for actual ownership and we're building the marketplace around it.”Anyone buying a share in a horse will also share in its earnings in the form of dividends. Should the horse go on to become a stallion, shareholders will be allowed to stay in and collect a portion of the millions in profits that are usually part of stud deals with top horses.Part of Funk's job is to recruit owners. If he doesn't have an adequate supply of horses that can be bought into, his concept won't work. His message to owners is that participating in Morning Line can turn out to be a great deal for them.“We would love to attract more and more owners to our platform, and we will if they truly see the value that can come from this,” he said. I'll give you an example. Taken by the Wind is a good horse. Don't get me wrong, but she was trading at a $3 million valuation on our platform because her stock price went up to about 60 bucks a share. And if you do $60 times 50,000, you get to $3 million. I'm not Tom (Taaffe) and I'm not the horse expert, but I think Tom would tell you if he was sitting right here that that horse was not worth $3 million. Yet, in the real world, the owners were able to take value off the table at a $3 million valuation. The element of fandom here drives the price up because people just want to be a part of something and they're getting involved for little money.”To be successful, the investor will have to be knowledgeable, willing to take risks, able to predict the future trajectory of a horse and, of course, be lucky. That's the case with anyone investing in race horses, especially those willing to invest millions at the sales.“What we're doing is allowing real people to get into the industry just like the big boys do,” Funk said.The post A Newly-Launched Morning Line Is Horse Racing’s Version Of The Stock Market appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.