They came from the owners’ suites, the second floor of the stands, the railing. From California and Michigan and beyond. You would not miss this moment. Her horse had just won the Kentucky Derby and the winner’s circle was waving.
Among those wearing white Mage hats were Brian Doxtator and Chase Chamberlin, whose Commonwealth app allows fans to buy shares in racehorses like Mage for as little as $50. Shares in young golfers will soon be offered. It takes about 60 seconds to invest in an athlete the first time, and about 30 seconds thereafter. Think part fantasy football, part investing, part pure fun.
“Yes, we’re a tech platform and we’re selling stock and you could potentially make money, but what we’re really doing is building a community of really passionate sports fans,” Doxtator said. “We call them the Big Day Out crowd — people who call five of their friends when they want to do something.”
Commonwealth and its users own 25 percent of Mage; Coach Gustavo Delgado Sr., Bloodstock agent Ramiro Restrepo and real estate investor Sam Herzberg own the rest. For the $3 million derby, a $50 share fetched $95 after taxes. While that doesn’t seem like much, especially given that a $50 bet on Mage winning 15-1 would have netted him $810.50, investors have seen every race he’s competed in earned and will receive a percentage of what will likely be a multi-million dollar breeding deal. You’ll also have a behind-the-scenes look at the horse and its training schedule, and have the opportunity to participate in training sessions and races.
Doxtator and Chamberlin grew up in Kalamazoo, Michigan and attended Western Michigan University. Doxtator, who now lives in Los Angeles, attended a car auction and noticed a company selling shares in cars. He was intrigued by the idea and started thinking about how to improve this concept. Then he went to the Santa Anita racetrack. Days later he wrote a note to his old friend Chamberlin, a lifelong horseman who had moved to Lexington, Kentucky and was beginning to try his hand at horse racing, pitching the idea to him.
“We looked at the horse racing audience as a kind of bull’s eye,” said the 40-year-old Doxtator. “You have the core audience in the middle. Then you’re a ring out and it’s the casual fan that might go a little bit to the races and pay attention, and then you go out another ring and there’s people who are basically just watching the derby and never really been to the track . If you put those two outer rings together, and if you can convert even 5 to 10 percent of them, that’s a game changer for horse racing.”
Doxtator and Chamberlin launched the app in early 2021, and by the summer they had partnered with WinStar Farm, offering stakes in Country Grammer, which won the $12 million Dubai World Cup in 2022. They have also worked with top blood breeding agents, so they joined Restrepo and got a stake in Mage.
About 80 of the 382 people who invested in Mage through Commonwealth were at the Derby. And so, on the first Saturday in May, this melting pot of a group of Mage rode straight into the winners’ circle, leading to perhaps the biggest winners’ party in Derby history – even Mage seemed small in the middle.
“It’s one of those weird things that you don’t want to talk about too much because you don’t want to jinx yourself or whatever, but we’ve told people if we win we’ll just go,” said the 32-year-old Chamberlin. “You’re wearing your Commonwealth pin. Nobody will stop you.”
One of the Commonwealth investors was Norma Barnes-Euresti of Battle Creek, Michigan. When her wheelchair got stuck on the track, Gerardo Corrales and Jose Ortiz, who had just raced in the derby, carried her the rest of the way.
“I don’t have any legs today but I had the ride of my life,” she said on NBC, speaking of the jockeys’ kindness and of course their Triple Crown contender Mage.
The experience of the winning circle was the lasting memory of the day for Doxtator and Chamberlin. Around 100 investors will attend Preakness.
“I’ll never forget standing there and watching Mage start working his way through and everyone was like, ‘Hey, you have to be here for the photo,’ and out of the corner of my eye I see this crowd of people all wearing mage hats,” said Doxtator. “That was a surprise for me. And I was like, ‘Oh great, the crew is coming over here.’ It was such a moment for us. I will cherish this photo forever.”
Chamberlin said: “Honestly when I look back I see a $50 shareholder who kind of got her hands on the trophy and another woman walking with roses and it’s like that’s quite a saint Floor.”
On Saturday, Mage’s oldest investor – Chamberlin’s 89-year-old grandfather Gordon Chamberlin – will be in attendance. He watched the Michigan derby with Chamberlin’s father, Mike, another investor, and the two sobbed as Mage won. At that moment, the older Chamberlins knew they had to be at Preakness.
And this time, one thing will be different: the unlikely owners will all be seated together on the infield grass terrace, with a clear path to the winners’ circle.