Listening to Everyone Takes Listenupshance to Sprint

It's no secret that there are some very famous names behind Listenupshance and Run Fast Racing, the racing ownership founded by music manager Adam Kluger alongside rappers Lil Wayne, Lil Yachty, and Rauw Alejandro. However, when the 4-year-old Shancelot gelding steps into the starting gate of the $2 million Breeders' Cup Sprint (G1) Oct. 31 at Keeneland, it is the unknown names who can take the credit. Kluger's career has been focused on making people famous, and now his attention has turned to promoting a sport he's always loved. When he began Run Fast Racing alongside the rappers, the goal was to put racing in front of a new audience, teach them about the sport, and retain their interest. Unlike microshare groups or syndicates, Run Fast Racing allows users to subscribe to racing ownership for a monthly fee starting at $100. The group hosts parties and events at the races, primarily in Southern California, and offers opportunities to experience the winner's circle, paddock, and barn areas, not to mention payouts for racing results. Likely the most important thing that Run Fast offers, and maybe one of the most unique, is giving its subscribers a voice in the decision-making process with the horses. Unlike other groups where most buy in and come along for the ride, Kluger wanted each subscriber—many of whom are brand new to racing—to have a say in what the horses do. "This is how you keep them engaged, by letting them make decisions," Kluger said. "I would rather everyone make a decision than just me. When we get options from our incredible racing team, I'm going to take these options and put them in front of the entire Run Fast Racing universe and let the universe decide." The source of those decisions is in the app's "Board Room," where weekly questions will be placed for subscribers to vote on. One of those votes in the spring changed Listenupshance's career. The gelding, who is co-owned by Great Friends Racing, was purchased privately following his maiden win in July 2025 at Del Mar in the $20,000 claiming ranks. He then immediately put Run Fast Racing in the winner's circle in his first start with trainer Doug O'Neill. He continued to develop through the end of the year and the team tested him in stakes company to start his 4-year-old season, earning a grade 3 and listed placing. Kluger and O'Neill still had confidence that there was more for the horse to give after a third in a May 2 allowance optional claiming race at Santa Anita Park, and there was a decision to be made of where to start next. Should they do the logical thing and keep him home in California and continue his steady climb up the ranks? Or should they dive in and take a shot by sending him alongside Belmont Stakes (G1)-bound stablemate Vitruvian Man to compete on the undercard in the True North Stakes (G3) at Saratoga Race Course? Shipping across the country to New York with a stablemate for a grade 3 with a horse who placed at that level in March may not sound like that much of a stretch, except the True North was no ordinary grade 3 this year—hosting the highly anticipated matchup of Eclipse champion sprinter Book'em Danno and reigning Breeders' Cup Sprint winner Bentornato, undoubtedly considered the nation's two best dirt sprinters at the time. With O'Neill's blessing, Kluger turned the choice over to the subscribers and posted a poll in the Board Room. At the time, the app had around 600 subscribers, and around 400 voted to take the shot in the True North. "When we have a group consensus to send a horse somewhere to do something, we're going to do it," Kluger said. "If it's a crazy, crazy decision, we're not even going to put it as an option. But everyone had great aspirations and it paid off." That decision changed the trajectory of the gelding's career as, after breaking poorly and starting in last, he rushed up on the rail and hooked up with Bentornato on the lead. The two blazed through intensely quick fractions of :21.76 and :43.44, and when they turned for home, Listenupshance was matching Bentornato for every stride. The two continued to duel through the final sixteenth, and it took until the final 100 yards or so for Book'em Danno to catch them both. Listenupshance lost the head bob for second, but despite being third and racing at odds of 21-1, he not only showed he could take his game on the road, but also compete with the best sprinters in the game while giving them all they could handle. When Listenupshance returned home to California, he did so as a key player in the division and gave the connections confidence to move forward. He earned his first top-level victory in his next start, the Bing Crosby Stakes (G1) at Del Mar, and tacked on a win in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G2)—sending him to the Breeders' Cup as the top West Coast contender. "I've never experienced something like this with a horse I owned before, even pre-dating Run Fast Racing," Kluger said. "I've never had a horse that just improves like this every race. The feedback I'm getting from Doug and (assistant) Leandro (Mora) is pretty wild for a horse that we bought for $30,000. He's getting comparisons in that barn to some of Doug's greats, which is pretty incredible." This was also not the path Kluger ever imagined, given his model with Run Fast Racing is based on the claiming game, expecting horses could be claimed away quickly but still have them long enough to provide an instant thrill of victory and return on investment. "It's a lot easier to claim a horse when the goal is to win once and possibly lose the horse," Kluger said. "For me, I see a horse we could claim, recalibrate, run back, win, and we might lose them—that's okay. If we lose a horse to a claim that's just a typical claiming horse in that style of race, we get to do another claim and everyone gets an alert saying they have a new racehorse on the app. "It's a little bit of an easier game for us because our goal is not really to claim and try to grow up to stakes company. With Listenupshance, that was something that is a complete anomaly. But I think we also place horses in positions where they can win." Placing horses where they could win was an admittedly early struggle for Kluger. With the big names involved in Run Fast Racing, the early plan was to focus the company on the party aspect. He told O'Neill that he only wanted the horses entered on Saturdays so they could host a big party at the track every weekend. That made them often have to enter horses in races where they were overmatched and long odds. They were not winning, and the parties were not having the desired effect. "The people coming to the parties were coming for the parties, not for racing," Kluger said. "I, like everybody else, was trying to put a band-aid on a bullet wound." Kluger accepted his mistake and changed his philosophy, allowing O'Neill to place them in spots where they could be competitive on any day of the week. Suddenly, results started changing and the horses started winning. This summer, Listenupshance's Bing Crosby win was the highlight of an incredibly successful Del Mar meet where Run Fast Racing, including partnerships, won 10 of 13 starts. As it turns out, winning is its own, better party; and they tend to get a turn out now no matter what day of the week it is. "A party for losers is not good; I'd rather sit on my couch a winner," Kluger said. "The best experience in the world is winning those races and getting that champagne." And, just like Listenupshance being sent to the True North, some of that success revolved around the users making decisions. On Aug. 8, Run Fast Racing held its first "Claim Day" where the Board Room allowed subscribers to vote on which horse they wanted to claim out of the fourth race at Del Mar. The winner was Regal Patriot, and the company claimed him for $25,000 off a fifth-place finish. He returned a winner at the end of the meet and finished second in a starter allowance at Santa Anita Park. The California-bred Jersey Town colt is giving Kluger hope that he could be another Listenupshance. To help with Claim Day, Kluger wrote up notes on every horse in the race and sent it out via email to the subscribers. He said that the subscribers were taking the time to study and watch replays before making their vote, which is exactly what he wants to encourage them to do. "These people are new racing fans," Kluger said. "They were doing their own research. That is what makes people horse racing fans. You can't shove non-digestible content down people's throats and say, 'Learn.' You have to put them in a position to teach themselves where there's some type of reason why they want to. "Before they can make decisions, put them in a position to learn. Horse racing, the reason why we love it is because there's never too much information; there's always something to learn. We're always constantly learning, but we're doing it on our own accord." Not only are the subscribers learning, but they're engaged. Kluger said more than 100 of them are flying to Kentucky from California for the Breeders' Cup to see Listenupshance run in the Sprint, not to mention some of its East Coast subscribers as well. Lil Wayne will be in attendance, and Kluger believes the marketing that will come from the big names being involved, mixed with the educational side for the unknown names, a Breeders' Cup win would be game-changing for the sport. "If we win the Breeders' Cup, it's a win for horse racing, not for Run Fast Racing," Kluger said. "If we win this race, we're going to be places publicly in mainstream that horse racing has never been because of the celebrity element. If we win, everyone wins." The competition will be tough with top 3-year-old Englishman and Japanese invader T O Elvis in the field, but Kluger is confident that the team's recent luck will work in their favor. "I'm expecting to win the race," Kluger said.