So, we casually made history last week with our racehorse, MetaRace (yup, no biggie!) and since then, you — our great community — have been asking questions. How does someone buy a racehorse? What happens before they race? We’re here this week to answer these and let you in on what happened before the Royal Windsor Races.
For those catching up, MetaRace is our beautiful two-year-old colt and he ran his first race last Monday (13th June) at the Royal Windsor Races. While this is great news, the best, history-making, era-defining news is that he is the first horse to be fractionalized into NFTs and to race competitively. While MetaRace is under our wing for now, he will soon become community-owned by some of you lucky lot, giving you the opportunity to own a real-life racehorse.
Before all this though, we had plenty to do to find and buy him. One of our brand partners, Oliver Cole, is a champion race horse trainer who along with his dad, Paul Cole (also a champion trainer with six decades under his belt), own and run the prestigious Whatcombe Stables in the Oxfordshire countryside. Oliver knows horses — how to spot the strong ones, how to weedle out the wheat from the chaff — and went through a lengthy shortlisting process to focus on when it came to auction time.
MetaRace was bought at the Newmarket Tattersalls ‘Breeze Up’ Sales, the largest racehorse auction in Europe, ultimately known as the ‘mecca’ of them all. The sales are different to others as bidders have a chance to watch the horses ‘breeze’, i.e. gallop for 600 meters, and assess their movement, physical health and breathing in a racing scenario first, so that picks can be made with all the facts.
Our ambassador and Executive Music Producer, globally-renowned DJ, Ashley Wallbridge met Oliver at the auction to learn all about the process and to represent us during the nail-biting bidding process. You can watch him soaking up Newmarket’s exciting atmosphere and Oliver’s expertise here.
We were incredibly happy to find MetaRace and bought the young steed for £70,000, which included all his racing fees for this season. Having had his first race, Oliver is now training him at Whatcombe with an even deeper understanding of his temperament, strengths and weaknesses in a racing environment. We can’t wait to see his next race, and hope you’ll be cheering him on along with us!
To be in with a chance of being gifted a percentage share in MetaRace, get your hands on MetaRace in-game NFTs and/or tokens. Learn more about all of it at our Discord.
With MetaRace (the horse and the game), we are truly bringing together the traditional with virtual innovation and the paths crossing in both ways now.
Fun fact: Because of a friendly wave, Ashley nearly made a £250,000 bid on an additional horse at the auction! Be careful out there, and keep your hands in your pockets to be extra safe!
