The NFT market has seen impressive growth in the last 18 months, fueled by popular collections like Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks. At the same time, new uses for NFTs are constantly emerging, with horse racing being the latest field to embrace this digital trend.
With that in mind, this guide will discuss the best NFT horse racing projects this year, reviewing their features, benefits, and value potential going forward.
The Best NFT Horse Racing Projects in 2024
Exciting new NFT projects are springing up consistently, thanks to exceptional demand from both casual and experienced investors. Virtual horse racing NFTs are one area of the market that has showcased tremendous growth, with this trend looking set to continue going forward.
Presented below are five of the best NFT horse racing projects this year – all of which will be reviewed in the following section:
A Closer Look at the Top NFT Horse Racing Projects
Now that you have an overview of the best NFTs to buy within this flourishing area of the market, let’s dive in and examine each of these projects one by one:
1. Silks – Overall Best NFT Horse Racing Project
Our pick for the best NFT horse racing project is Silks. Silks is a first-of-its-kind ‘derivative gaming’ metaverse, featuring an exciting link to the real world of thoroughbred horse racing. Within Silks’ metaverse, players can purchase avatars and own 3D virtual horses known as ‘Silks horses’, which are represented as NFTs.
These Silks horses form the foundation of the Silks metaverse’s unique play-to-earn (P2E) gameplay features. Instead of being fictional, each Silks horse is directly linked to a real thoroughbred racehorse. This link is achieved by using decentralized datasets containing information on a horse’s bloodline, development history, and racing results.
According to the Silks whitepaper, players can generate rewards when their digital horse’s counterpart wins a race in real life. To increase their income, players can buy Silks Avatars and speculate the price of the NFTs.
To ensure a steady supply of Silks horses, each crop of yearlings (one-year-old thoroughbred racehorses) will be minted to the blockchain once they are eligible.
The first Genesis Yearling Mint for the Silks Horses NFTs is scheduled for September 29th. You will need a Racing Avatar to join the mint. (The public sale of the second batch of Silks Avatars ended on September 19th.) You can still purchase the Avatars from secondary market. All Avatar holders will be able to mint a Silks Horse at a special price of $500 for the first four days of the Genesis Yearling Mint, between September 29th and October 2nd.
Players can even purchase plots of land within the Silks metaverse, which are vital to housing and maintaining Silks horses. Since each plot of land is structured as an NFT, landowners benefit from value increases by selling in the secondary market. Users who purchase Silks Avatar and hold it for 45 days will receive a claim to an acre of ‘Sky Falls’ land.
Silks comes from an excellent team with years of impressive track record in horse racing. Co-founder Troy Levy serves as the CEO of Tropical Racing and owns the reputed Circle 8 Farms. Tropical Racing is a multifaceted thoroughbred horse breeding and racing company. The strategic partnerships bring more value and credibility to the project.
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2. Zed Run – Popular NFT Horse Racing Platform with Huge User Base
Zed Run is another of the best NFT games to consider within the horse racing niche. Zed Run is a digital horse racing NFT game that allows players to buy, sell, and speculate on virtual horses. Since these horses are structured as NFTs, this provides a clear pathway to monetization and incentivizes skilled gameplay.
Each horse racing NFT on the Zed Run platform comes from one of four bloodlines – Nakamoto, Szabo, Finney, or Buterin. Specific bloodlines are considered rarer than others, although all contain unique traits and characteristics. Since the Zed Run platform is hosted on the Ethereum blockchain, users can buy these horses through OpenSea.
Once you own a Zed Run horse, you can enter it into virtual races, with various classes on offer depending on the horse’s skill level. At the end of each race, the top three horses will receive rewards, with higher rewards available in the best classes. Finally, Zed Run even has a built-in breeding mechanism that allows players to breed two horses together to produce offspring – which can then be raced or sold on the marketplace.
3. DeRace – Exciting P2E NFT Horse Racing Game
DeRace is a virtual horse racing NFT game similar to Zed Run in the sense that users can purchase virtual horses and enter them into races against others. Each horse within the DeRace platform is categorized by gender, breed, and tier – with the latter characteristic determining the horse’s value and ability. Tiers range from Omega to Olympian, with many Olympian horses valued at over $2,000.
Like Zed Run, DeRace horses can be entered in 3D virtual races, although users must pay an entry fee in $DERC – DeRace’s native token. Race winners are decided using a ‘Controlled RNG’ system, which means that all horses have a chance of winning, although those with a higher speed have a greater chance of taking the top spot.
Notably, players can purchase a stake in the hippodromes within DeRace’s platform, which are comprised of 10,000 NFTs. If a player owns more than 50% of a hippodrome, they are deemed to be ‘bookmakers’ and can facilitate races. The profits of these races are then shared amongst the hippodrome’s owners – providing a way for DeRace players to generate a passive income stream.
4. Pegaxy – Futuristic NFT Racehorse Project Featuring Compelling Roadmap
Pegaxy is another horse racing platform that has become increasingly popular on the best NFT marketplaces. This horse racing NFT project features futuristic virtual horses rather than lifelike ones, which will appeal to players interested in the lore underpinning the platform. Players can purchase these horses and compete against 11 other racers to earn rewards.
Notably, each Pegaxy race has randomized elemental variables (e.g. fire, water, wind) that add an element of unpredictability to proceedings. Horses that finish in the top three positions in each race will earn $VIS, Pegaxy’s native token. Players can improve their horse’s chances of winning by buying new gear and food items, which helps boost specific attributes.
Since each Pegaxy horse is structured as an NFT, players can buy, sell, and rent these horses through the secondary market. Like other virtual horse racing NFT games, Pegaxy also has a built-in breeding mechanism, which can produce rare offspring that can be sold. Finally, Pegaxy’s creators are in the process of developing stadiums that users can invest in, which will enable them to earn a share of racing profits.
5. DeFiHorse – NFT Horse Racing Metaverse with 500,000 Members
Rounding off our list of the best NFT horse racing projects is DeFiHorse. DeFiHorse is a metaverse-based horse racing game hosted on the Binance Smart Chain (BSC) that veers away from ‘realistic’ experiences by offering a cyberpunk-themed user experience. Users can purchase these horses using DeFiHorse’s native token ($DFH) and race/breed them to earn rewards.
Each horse has a different appearance and is categorized by gender, bloodline, breed type, coat colour, and cooldown period. In addition, the horses within the DeFiHorse platform all have various speed and stamina levels, which contribute to their likelihood of winning races. Finally, all horses will have a certain rarity level, with Popular being the lowest rank and Ascended being the highest rank.
One of the most exciting elements of the DeFiHorse platform is that players can interact with their horse whilst it is running to improve its chances of winning. This process allows players to change the speed at which their horse is running, which can help it perform better against high-value bloodlines. Finally, DeFiHorse even allows live streams of the platform’s virtual races to be presented to a live audience, offering scope for e-sports tournaments to take place.
NFT Horse Racing Explained
Owning a virtual horse racing NFT can offer many of the same benefits that you’d get when you invest in crypto. These benefits include value appreciation and the potential to generate a recurring revenue stream – although there is still an element of risk when investing in these digital assets.
To help mitigate this risk, it’s virtual to understand what horse racing NFTs are and how they work. With that in mind, let’s dive in and discuss the most critical aspects of these platforms:
NFT Horse Racing & the Metaverse
Firstly, many of the best horse racing NFT projects occur in a metaverse setting. A prime example of this is the upcoming project from Silks, which offers players a rich virtual world in which they can create in-game avatars and own digital horses. By implementing gameplay into a metaverse setting like this, Silks can provide the basis for a community of like-minded people to form.
However, specific horse racing NFT projects don’t take this approach, opting to create a web-based platform that is more functional than experiential. Since most of the gameplay in these projects is based on virtual horse racing, these platforms tend to have areas where players can watch races, purchase horses, or view the NFTs that they own.
Virtual Horse NFTs
Virtual horse NFTs form the basis of most NFT horse racing games. The exact structure of the horses themselves will depend on the platform, with some platforms (such as Pegaxy and Zed Run) choosing to implement a fantasy approach to their horses. On the other hand, platforms like Silks and DeRace offer players a more ‘lifelike’ experience.
Either way, since virtual horses are structured as NFTs, they can be freely traded on the secondary marketplace. This approach enables players to speculate and benefit from value increases, much like any other investment. Furthermore, since these horses will be minted to the blockchain, they are immutable and cannot be altered – ensuring a fairer gaming process for all users.
Horse Racing NFT Breeding
Breeding is an integral part of virtual horse racing NFT platforms, as it provides a way for players to monetize their in-game exploits. The breeding process will vary from platform to platform, although it usually requires a male and a female horse and a small breeding fee.
By owning some of the most expensive NFTs within the horse racing platform, players can produce high-value offspring, which they can use in races or sell on the secondary marketplace.
How do Virtual NFT Horse Races Work?
The foundation of most NFT horse racing platforms is virtual racing. As the name implies, virtual races involve users pitting their racehorse NFTs against one another in a bid to earn rewards. Many platforms provide prizes for first, second, and third place, ensuring there is a chance of winning for each entrant.
The racing process will differ from platform to platform, although broadly speaking, players will have to pay an ‘entry fee’ to participate in these races. All of the entry fees from participants are pooled together to create the final prize amount, which is distributed to the three winners. Some platforms (like DeRace) even distribute a portion of the jackpot to stadium/hippodrome owners.
But how are these races decided? Again, this will vary, although many platforms employ a Random Number Generator (RNG) to determine the winner. As the name suggests, this essentially picks a winner at random, meaning that all entrants could receive the jackpot. However, certain platforms also consider each virtual horse’s attributes – meaning that horses with better speed or stamina have a greater chance of winning.
Rewards are often denominated in the best metaverse crypto coins; for example, DeRace race winners will receive $DERC. These digital currencies can then be used to purchase horses/items from the game’s marketplace or transferred to an external crypto wallet, where users can exchange them for another token or FIAT currency.
Silks is one exciting horse racing NFT platform that veers away from this structure. Instead of facilitating virtual races held on-platform, Silks provides a link to the real world of thoroughbred horse racing. Since rewards are given to the owner of the virtual horse that links to the winning horse of a real-world race, this compensates players for industry knowledge and skilled gameplay.
Why Invest in Horse Racing NFTs?
Investing in the best horse racing NFT project can be an intelligent move, especially if you already have in-depth knowledge of the industry. Presented below are four of the main benefits of investing in these platforms, which form the foundation of their popularity:
Potential for Value Increases
Like when you buy cryptocurrency, investing in horse racing NFTs can produce notable returns. Since these NFTs can be traded on the secondary market, there’s always the chance that another user may want the exact horse that you own. In addition, high-value horses or horses with an impressive racing record tend to increase in value as a platform grows in size – providing an incentive to hold these NFTs long term.
Exciting P2E Features
A glance at our NFT calendar will highlight that one of the main trends within the NFT space right now is play-to-earn (P2E) gaming. As the name suggests, this process allows players to earn rewards through skilled gameplay. These rewards are often denominated in the platform’s native currency – for example, prizes in the Silks metaverse are distributed in $STT.
Investing in horse racing NFTs provides a pathway to generating these rewards, which is usually achievable through winning virtual horse races. However, certain platforms (like Silks) also have innovative breeding and staking mechanisms, meaning there are multiple ways to generate an income stream.
Leverage Industry Knowledge
People with a keen interest in the horse racing industry will naturally gravitate to horse racing NFT platforms since they will have an advantage when picking high-value horses. This will be most evident in platforms like Silks, which has a solid connection to the real world.
Due to this connection, horse racing enthusiasts can monetize their knowledge in a more ‘hands on’ way than gambling. Furthermore, since the transactional tokens in many of these platforms are traded on the best crypto exchanges, players benefit from potential increases in the token’s price when they earn rewards.
Join a Community of Like-Minded People
Finally, investing in horse racing NFTs allows people to interact with other like-minded people and create lasting bonds. This is more likely through metaverse-based platforms, where players can create avatars, although it is still possible on web-based platforms. Given that human interaction is becoming increasingly digitized, taking part in these virtual horse racing NFT platforms will likely become a more popular way for people to meet and create friendships.
Best Alternative to NFT Horse Racing Projects
For investors looking to diversify their investments in the NFT sector, we recommend an exciting new cryptocurrency project to invest in – Lucky Block. This is a decentralized ecosystem where community members 
can take part in weekly main draws and NFT draws every Friday.
Lucky Block creates its own NFTs, which must be purchased to take part in draws that can reward up to $50,000. Lucky Block settles transactions and rewards investors in LBLOCK – the platform’s utility token and native cryptocurrency. The LBLOCK token has recently been listed on PancakeSwap – after which it rewarded investors with a 3,000% return.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product.
Best NFT Horse Racing Projects – Conclusion
In conclusion, this guide has discussed five of the best NFT horse racing projects to be aware of, highlighting why they are generating so much buzz and how their value could fluctuate in the weeks and months ahead.
Silks appears to be a clear frontrunner when it comes to these projects, due in large part to the platform’s unique P2E features and exciting ‘derivative gaming’ approach. With Silks’ avatars set to go on sale soon, this NFT project is certainly worth keeping an eye on. The first Genesis Yearling Mint for the Silks Horses NFTs will begin on September 29th.
Cryptoassets are a highly volatile unregulated investment product. Your capital is at risk.