BRUCE K. HUFF / Union-Tribune Jockey Rafael Bejarano got some instruction yesterday from horse trainer Doug O'Neill of Great Friends Stables as Aaron Comerchero (far right) and other owners looked on at the Del Mar Racetrack.

When Enchanting Moment crossed the finish line recently, the winning horse and her jockey headed for the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club winner's circle for the traditional flowers, champagne and posed pictures with the horse's owner.

But in this case, it was owners. Plural. A whole lot of plural. As in they kept coming, streaming out of reserved boxes and the cheap seats, dressed in everything from Bermuda shorts to suit and tie, with families and friends in tow.

By the time the photo of the 22 Great Friends Stables owners was snapped, scores of laughing, hugging, high-fiving people had congregated in a spot usually reserved for a dignified handful.

“If you are a horse racing fan, this is how you get the most excitement out of the sport,” said Scott Kaplan, general manager of a syndicate of friends and business associates who banded together this year to buy and race horses at Del Mar. “When you put money on a race, your blood gets boiling. But when you have ownership, multiply the emotion by 100 – your body vibrates when you know it's your horse.”

Graphic: Great Friends Stables

While anything but a sure bet, the Great Friends Stables, an eclectic group that includes radio personality Kaplan, a few restaurateurs, a former NFL coach and a 70-year-old limousine driver, is the kind of underdog outfit that delights horse racing fans and adds color to the annual 43-day met.

Dubbed the sport of kings for a reason, the horse racing game is dominated by wealthy individuals who are more or less indulging a hobby. Syndicates with multiple partners account for fewer than 5 percent of horse race owners, and something the size of Great Friends Stables is “very rare,” said Craig Dado, vice president of marketing for the racetrack.

Great Friends formed this spring after each member kicked in $15,000 to create a pool of cash to buy established race horses and have them stabled and trained. At the end of the season, the limited liability company will sell off any remaining horses and disband, with each partner sharing in the profit or loss.

So far, Great Friends is experiencing a classic case of beginner's luck. With only six starts so far at Del Mar, its horses have won a share of the purse five times, including the first place win by Enchanting Moment on Aug. 1.

Add another horse's first place win at Hollywood Park this year and the fledgling outfit has been in the money 86 percent of the time.

“To have two wins, two second places and two third place out of seven races is really, really good,” Dado said. “They have two horses running Sunday, (Band of Thunder and Mr. Chairman) and we think both of them are going to be favorites, so we are really excited about that.”

Not as excited as Aaron Comerchero, a limo driver for Carlsbad's La Costa Limousine who is also a partner in the Great Friends Stables.

The way Comerchero sees it, this investment isn't much different from the gamble he took in buying a house, or investing in the stock market. Except in these grim economic times, it's a lot more fun.

“Right now my house is losing value and, since January, my IRA has taken a big hit in the stock market,” Comerchero said. “Buying stock is like gambling, like playing the horses. Except I have no control over the stock market, and even if I buy the right stock, I can't control the economy.

“So even if I lose money with Great Friends, it bought me a whole summer of excitement,” said Comerchero, with a laugh. “I get to go down to the paddock, talk to the trainer and jockey, which is something I've never done before. And I never thought I'd own some horses.”

Like most horse tales about beating the odds, Great Friends' story did not have an auspicious beginning. Five years ago, most of what Kaplan, co-host of a sports talk show on XX 1090 AM Sports Radio, knew about horses could be gleaned from Clydesdale-laden beer commercials

And radio partner and Great Friends Stables co-general manager Billy Ray Smith said he wasn't – and isn't – much better.

“I know so much about it that I still say 'the Mom and Dad horse,'” said Smith, a former Chargers linebacker. “Is it mare and stud? Sire and mare? What is the dude horse called?”

Then someone introduced Kaplan and Dado.

“Scott knew nothing about horse racing, and I took him under my wing and taught him to handicap and bet,” Dado said. “He was hooked right away, and started talking about racing on the radio show, which was great for the track.”

Last year, Kaplan decided to take it to the next level – to buy and race horses. Dado offered some simple advice.

“The easiest way to do it for a guy who doesn't have hundreds of thousands of dollars is to put together a syndicate,” Dado said. “Find a bunch of friends and everyone puts in a little money.”

So Kaplan and Smith solicited friends and business acquaintances, some of them sponsors of the radio show, and signed up 27 racing enthusiasts. Each put in $11,111 (“we thought the number was funny,” Kaplan said) to buy horses and hire a trainer. By the end of the first season, and only a few races, each partner had lost about $3,300 of their initial investment, and the syndicate was disbanded.

This year, a new syndicate with 22 members was formed, and Great Friends hired veteran trainer Doug O'Neill, best known as the guy who in 2004 picked up Lava Man for $50,000 in a Del Mar claiming race.

Lava Man went on to become a legend, earning more than $5.2 million in major races.

O'Neill has purchased or acquired six horses, which ranged in price from $12,500 to $62,500, for the Great Friends Stables, including purse winners Enchanting Moment and Mr. Chairman. The group acquired a seventh horse from another trainer.

“Hiring Doug is the move that turned what we did last year into what we've done this year,” Kaplan said.

Which doesn't mean that, given stable and veterinarian bills, fees to jockeys and trainers and other expenses, that Great Friends will make a great financial killing, or even a profit, come the Sept. 3 end of the Del Mar racing season. But so far, Kaplan said, the group is in the black.

But that really isn't the point.

“We have people in this group who are worth hundreds of millions of dollars and we have people at the opposite end of the spectrum, but the commonality is they all love the horses and the action,” Kaplan said. “The investors got in knowing they may get back zero. The goal is to have a lot of fun.”

Penni Crabtree: (619) 293-1237; penni.crabtree@uniontrib.com

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