Method

How we compare

Version 2.10 · 25 October 2026

In short

For each offer we show what it costs and what's included, so you can compare them on the same terms. Each listing page, and the compare page, also shows how much of the offer is published.

• What it costs. The price as the operator states it, and what a year comes to.
• What's included. What the fee covers, and what members get, in the operator's own words.
• How much is published. "Offer details published: N of 22", one count of the details a buyer needs, each counting once.
• Like with like. A syndicate share, a lease and a club membership are different products. Each is compared only with its own kind.
• Rules, not opinions. AI helps us read operators' pages. Fixed, published rules decide what counts, and the same facts always give the same result.
• We never guess. Where we haven't found something, we say so. We never fill the gap with a guess or a typical figure.

If you think we've got something wrong, tell us. We check every correction against the operator's own pages and apply it promptly.

Offer details published

Each listing page shows "Offer details published: N of 22", with the list beneath it; the compare page shows the same count. The 22 are the details a buyer needs before signing: 21 from the operator's written terms, plus whether they describe hospitality for members. Each counts once, with no weighting. If the horse was bought privately, there's no sale record to cite, so that detail doesn't apply and the count is out of 21.

• Full written terms
• What a further term costs
• What happens when the term ends
• Aftercare when racing ends
• How prize money is shared
• Whether you can sell your share
• Where the horse was bought (sale and lot)
• What the horse cost
• Complaints process
• What happens if costs run over
• Insurance
• BHA registration
• Racehorse Syndicates Association membership
• Year the operator started
• How many horses they run
• Prices, without having to ask
• Winners to date
• Owners' badges
• Yard visits
• How often members hear
• The most members per horse
• Hospitality for members

A detail counts when it is on the operator's own website, or in a document they give every member before they sign, or an official record such as their BHA registration, and they send us a copy. RSA membership also counts when we find it on the RSA's own published register, which we check ourselves rather than asking the operator. Anything they only tell us by email is shown on their listing as confirmed by them, but doesn't count. Each listing's "What's published" section ticks the details we've found. The rest are listed under "Worth asking", as questions to put to the operator. We haven't found them yet, which doesn't mean they aren't there.

The count describes what is published. It is not a verdict on the offer, the operator or the horse, and we never order offers by it.

What a year costs

Every way of pricing a share is turned into what a year comes to, per 1% of the horse owned or leased, so that a £54 share and a £5,000 share can be set side by side. An upfront price that buys a share for several years is spread over an assumed three-year racing life. Where an operator quotes a price plus VAT, we add VAT at 20%. Other prices are as the operator states them. We don't add VAT where the operator says it is reclaimed for every member. Each listing shows the figure, with how it was worked out, under "What it costs".

We don't label a price as high or low. Price reflects what an offer is: the trainer, the hospitality, the company you keep. So we give the typical range once, here, for each kind of share, and never on a listing:

Of the 41 syndicate shares we can work out a full year’s cost for, half cost between £430 and £570 a year per 1% owned (as at 1 November 2026).

We don't give a range for leases: we list 10, and a range needs at least eight whose yearly cost can be compared.

We don't give a range for racing club memberships: we list five, and a range needs at least eight whose yearly cost can be compared.

We don't give a range for partnerships: we list one, and a range needs at least eight whose yearly cost can be compared.

These ranges use each operator's published prices. Where an operator publishes only monthly payments, the range counts those alone.

The range is the middle half of those offers: a quarter cost less and a quarter cost more. It is worked out again every time the site is updated. There is no yearly figure where a year's cost can't be compared fairly: fees charged at cost, a payment that also buys the share with no later price stated, a fee that is still to change, or a racing club. The price is still shown as the operator states it.

We compare like with like

Before we compare anything, we label the kind of ownership on offer. These are genuinely different products, and the difference is easy to miss.

• Syndicate: you own a share of the horse, and a share of anything it is sold for.
• Partnership: you own a share of the horse alongside a small number of others, usually up to 20 people.
• Lease: you pay to race the horse for a set period. You own no part of it and have no claim on any sale. The monthly cost can match a purchase share's, which is exactly why the type is shown on every listing.
• Racing club: you own no part of the horse and have no claim on any sale. Some clubs share prize money with members; others keep it to cover costs.

A £250 club membership, a £250 lease and a £250 syndicate share are not the same thing. Setting them against each other on price would mislead you. So we compare offers only with others of the same type.

We go by the legal structure, not the name on the door. Some businesses trading as clubs sell syndicate shares that give real ownership. Others use ownership words for a club membership. Neither is wrong, and neither is hidden: the answer is in the terms, not the title. So we take the ownership type from the operator's own terms and their BHA registration.

How the order works

For fairness, the order moves on every day, so every operator takes its turn at the top.

How the homepage picks its examples

The homepage is a taster, not the whole market. It shows two sections, jumps and flat. An offer appears only where we know its code from the operator's own words, the horse's racing or our own review. Jumps come first from October to April, and flat for the rest of the year. Each section shows three offers, at most one from any operator, using the same daily order. Each operator appears with its first offer that shows a price, by horse name, or its first offer by horse name if none shows a price. They are grouped by ownership type and never set against each other.

We never order offers by the published count, by price or by anything an operator does or doesn't do with us. Nothing an operator pays for, or says to us, affects whether, where or when it appears.

Year one is not the whole story

Most operators publish one number: what it costs to buy in. But where that price covers buying the horse as well as its keep, a second term usually costs much less, because the horse is already paid for. Other arrangements work the other way, with a low entry price and fees that keep coming. Either way, you often only find out after you've fallen for a horse.

So one of the offer details we look for is whether the operator tells you, before you buy, what a further term costs. It counts only where a renewal price or fee is stated: "cheaper", "at a lower fee" or "at prevailing rates" without a figure doesn't count. Where they publish it, the listing shows what they say. Where they don't, it says so plainly.

What we won't do is work out a three- or five-year total. Horses leave training through injury, retirement or sale. Renewal usually depends on the trainer's report at the end of the term, and many terms are only a year or two long. A confident-looking figure for several years would be a guess dressed up as a fact. We would rather show you what the operator has actually committed to.

What we read

We read every operator's own pages to the same depth. That means the home page, About, FAQ, How it works, Become an owner and joining pages, terms and conditions, and fees pages. It also means the operator's own terms document in any format, such as a PDF, brochure or flipbook, when their own site links to it.

We never take terms from blog posts, news, event posts or the shop. A horse's own page counts for that horse's listings only, never for the operator's other horses. Where that page is more specific than the operator's main pages, it applies to that horse. An example is how often that syndicate's members get updates.

We count what a buyer can reasonably find where an operator puts its terms. Reading everyone the same way means a listing never reflects how hard we looked.

Each page is read twice, independently. We record a fact only when both readings agree, or when Staibles has reviewed it. A listing's own offer, its price, share and availability, comes from the horse's own page.

Where a lot number is given, we check the identity of that lot against a published sale document where we can reach one. That means it is the horse described, by sire, dam and sex. We do not check the price. A sale catalogue lists what was entered, not what it made, and we hold no source that has both.

We use race results to check facts, such as an operator's winners to date. A horse's race record is shown on its listing as facts. We use no veterinary information of any kind. We make no inference about a horse's soundness or health, and we don't predict winners.

How we check a listing's key facts

A listing's key facts are its ownership type, share size, price, fees and term. We treat them as checked when each one was read from the operator's own pages and agreed by two independent readings. Staibles reviewing it, or the operator confirming it, also counts.

A listing can also come from one dated reading of the horse's own page, where it says shares are available. Whether the facts are checked yet says nothing about the operator. It plays no part in the order listings appear.

We read every listing's page again every week. If it no longer says shares are available, we take the listing down. If we can't confirm an offer for more than seven days, we hold the listing back until we can. A few websites can't be read automatically. We read those by hand at least once a month, and their listings show the date.

Anyone managing a syndicate or racing club needs a licence from the British Horseracing Authority. The BHA sets this out on its shared ownership regulation page. There is no public register of licence holders. So we show the position where an operator has shown it to us, and say plainly that it isn't established where they haven't. We never state or imply that an operator is unlicensed. A new operator with no winners yet is not marked as missing anything for saying so.

Corrections, disputes and changes

• Listings are built from operators' own material: their website, their published terms, and documents they give every member. We use nothing from a source whose terms forbid it. We don't infer: where we haven't found a fact, the listing lists it as worth asking the operator.
• We tell operators before their listing goes live, and show it to them on request. They can correct it at any time, before or after it goes live. We check every correction against their own site and apply it ourselves. Nobody can edit their own listing, which is what keeps a comparison worth reading.
• Every factual correction is applied, whatever it shows.
• An operator can correct their listing, but can't choose which of its facts appear.
• Disagreeing with the method doesn't change a listing. But we would rather hear it than not, and this page changes when the argument is good.
• The method changes when the evidence says it should. Every change is recorded below with its reasoning. This page changes at the same time, so it always describes the rules in use.

For operators

Your listing shows what your offer costs, what's included and how much of it is published. Publishing more fills the bar. A detail counts when it's on your website, or in a document you give every member, or an official record such as your BHA registration, and you send us a copy. Anything you only tell us by email is shown on your listing as confirmed by you, but doesn't count. Contact with Staibles changes nothing on its own: replying to us, or not, moves nothing. To correct anything, use the update form.

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