The world is ever-changing and if the harness racing industry is to survive it must adapt as well. That is basically the driving force behind a multi-million-dollar venture from entrepreneur and standardbred owner/trainer Michael Calderone. Expected to launch during the second week of April, freeracehorse.com is an immersive potentially game-changing experience designed to expose new people to the sport by creating an emotional connection to the horses while also providing entertainment value and education about harness racing. The idea is to bypass the industry’s normal method of attracting customers – as a gambling option – in order to create a wider funnel at the top so the sport can charm a general audience. “We want to sell the story of the horse and reposition harness racing,” said Calderone, who has a team of videographers, editors and programmers working to make the user experience special. The idea for freeracehorse.com came to Calderone when all great concepts hit the mind, during a sleepless night. “For months I was banging my head trying to figure out how to put this all together. Every path I started I ran into obstacles. I was sitting at my computer at my house down in Florida; it must’ve been three in the morning. I was just searching domain names and randomly put in freeracehorse and I never expected it to be available. You would think the word free is so powerful that the domain would be gone. That is when I knew this was meant to be,” said Calderone. So what exactly is freeracehorse.com? Broken down to the lowest common denominator, it is a website that offers the opportunity for any person 18 or older to own a small piece of a race horse for no cost. You visit the site, enter your name and email (or phone number) and then pick the horse you want to own from a selection of up to six options. Each horse will have 10,000 shares available, so you aren’t going to get rich by participating, but to be fair, you didn’t invest anything. Besides, this is meant to be a door-opening experience to harness racing by taking the fractional ownership idea to a new level. Once you sign up and get a horse of your own the experience truly widens. You can watch your horse play and relax via a multi-camera stall setup. You can even chat with other owners while watching your horse roll in the hay or listen to custom music about your horse. At Calderone’s home base in Delaware he has 75 cameras positioned throughout the barn and the surrounding areas to catch all the action and produce 5K quality video. There is also a studio with a massive green screen where they shoot more informative content like “Vet Connect” to increase the education of site visitors. ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter At the heart of freeracehorse.com is the story telling. Each horse will have at least two weekly videos from three to five minutes in length covering their journey. These professional videos could cover anything from a horse learning to behave behind the starting gate to special behavioral quirks they have to training sessions. I was able to preview a half-dozen while at the Calderone’s headquarters and all were broadcast quality features. Some storylines appealed to me more than others but that is why there isn’t just one tale to tell. For the first time in harness racing history people will truly be exposed to the backstory of horses before they hit the track and the story will be ongoing, like WWE does with wrestling or a soap opera or even reality TV. What kind of week is the horse having? How did they train? Did they sleep well? Are they eating their hay and oats? Everyone who takes Calderone up on a free horse will be part of the experience and participate in decision making. People will be able to follow along and see how the actual lives of these horses unfold. In some ways it is like what the reality show Big Brother does as it follows the story of 16 people living in a house and how they react to different variables they face daily.     “To most people horse racing means nothing because they know nothing about it and they won’t give it any bandwidth. In our case free horse ownership gives them a reason to stop and take a look, and the engaging emotional content can drive the desire to want more and get more involved,” said Calderone, who sees huge potential in getting the “average Joe” engaged in the sport. “People aren’t rational, they’re emotional. We have created a most amazing experience where they will feel like the horse is in their backyard or part of the family.” While the first horse comes with an all-access pass to the content surrounding its journey as a way to showcase the platform to a wide audience, Calderone’s model calls for a $2.50 monthly charge per additional horse if you want to have access to the entertainment background content that comes with it. When you think about it, you are paying $2.50 for 30 to 40 minutes of entertainment. That’s certainly a better value than the cost of a game of bowling or a movie ticket. The small fee is just one side of the monetary equation since horse owners will also earn points as they participate in the activities on the site. For instance, every penny earned is a point and community interaction can earn points. These can then be redeemed for digital assets, fan wear and other items. “Keep in mind that most games don’t return anything tangible,” said Calderone. “We have a gaming experience in a full-blown entertainment platform. And we give people ownership. That is something that has never been done before.” During a tour of his facility it was clear that Calderone has spared no expense in terms of horse care. From water treadmills to electromagnetic therapy to cushioned stall mats, everything a horse could need to stay happy, healthy and sound is part of the operation. In a somewhat unprecedented move, his entire 14-horse stable has been on vacation for six months so they return in the proper condition for launch. They will all be qualifying in the coming weeks. Under Calderone’s watchful eye along with second trainer and driver Denny Bucceri, each horse is expected to have a lighter-than-typical yearly workload of maybe 20 starts to make sure they are in the best physical shape year-round. Members will be able to watch the replays of these races and Calderone is hopeful of working with the local tracks on the East Coast to provide never-before-seen coverage using up to six cameras at the track and a drone. “We’ve figured out how to merge GoPro content from multiple cameras and combine it into a first-rate product like nothing people have seen before. We just need a track to allow us to use our equipment on the grounds,” said Calderone. “This is a great opportunity for a track to get in on the ground floor with me.” ► Sign up for our FREE DRF Harness Digest Newsletter I floated the idea of his team perhaps creating promotional videos for a participating track to help them support their upcoming stakes or even live racing, and Calderone seemed willing. Imagine having the favorites from the Hambletonian eliminations featured and then this footage would be available for The Meadowlands to promote the final. We have seen the hype videos Sweden does to promote the Elitlopp and this could be that type of content in the U.S. to truly get people excited for the race. Time will tell whether Calderone’s investment will prove fruitful. He is convinced that this type of rebirth and repositioning of the sport using an entertainment gateway rather than gambling is the only way to truly bring in a new audience to harness racing. Once they are engaged the opportunities will be there for people to dip their toes into betting, or live track visits, and maybe even real horse ownership where they have a bigger stake in the industry. Calderone is already heavily invested with plans to spend more and has two feature articles spotlighting the venture planned for a national audience via USA Today and MSN. When is the last time Harness Racing got that type of national spotlight? The possibilities are there for Calderone’s venture to move the needle and there really is little downside to the industry embracing his concept. With some cooperation, if his vision comes to reality, perhaps the floodgates to the general public will finally open and provide Harness Racing the larger fan base it has so greatly yearned to see for decades.