Go Racing keen to expand further into Australia

[Wandering Eyes]

Racehorse syndicator Go Racing has achieved plenty of success in Australia recently and Racing Manager Albert Bosma is planning to further increase their presence across the Tasman in the future.

“Our Australian arm makes up about 35 percent of our horses, but that is increasing all the time,” Bosma said.

“We have had fabulous success, including last Wednesday when Logan Street Lion won at Sandown. He is a very good and progressive horse.

“It is not often that we go through a weekend without having a winner in the city or running close to winning.”

While mid-week and Saturday success is nothing new to Go Racing, the syndicator has also enjoyed stakes-level success with the likes of Atishu and Mightybeel.

“Atishu won a Group Three (Bill Ritchie Handicap, 1400m) and a couple of races in the spring,” Bosma said.

“She was very close-up in the Epsom (Gr.1, 1600m) but was ridden a bit too positively which cost her.

“Mightybeel is lightly raced and was a stakes winner (Listed Christmas Cup) over a mile and a half with 59 kilos, so he is very talented.”

Both horses are set to fly the Go Racing silks high in Sydney this autumn.

“Atishu went out for a spell and will be trialling again in early February and we will be targeting the carnival with her,” Bosma said.

“Speaking with Chris (Waller, trainer), he feels that she has gone to another level this time in. It would be nice to be targeting races like the Doncaster (Gr.1, 1600m), Queen Elizabeth (Gr.1, 2000m), and possibly some fillies and mares races with her.

“Mightybeel will be aimed at the Sydney Cup (Gr.1, 3200m) this preparation. His final lead-in will be the Chairman’s (Gr.2, 2600m).”

While Bosma said Go Racing is looking to expand in Australia, that will not diminish their presence in New Zealand.

“In the next two to three years I think it will end up being fifty-fifty of our horses in Australia and New Zealand,” he said.

“That’s not moving away from New Zealand because we have got some great trainers here and we support them very strongly. It’s being open to recognise the opportunities (in Australia).”

Go Racing regularly have a strong presence at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale and Bosma said this year will be no different.

“We will be strong and will be buying for both New Zealand and Australia,” he said.

“I am really excited about the change to March. It has changed the landscape a little bit and a lot of the studs would appreciate it because normally everyone is going 100 miles an hour from January 1, so it has given everyone a bit of a breather.

“I think with the New Zealand-bred horses, they tend to be your middle-distance horses, so I think the change to March gives them the chance to develop a bit more.”

Bosma said they usually buy their Australia-bound horses from the yearling sales and send them directly across the Tasman rather than do their early racing in New Zealand.

“They are purchased specifically for a trainer. In Australia we have Chris Waller, John O’Shea, Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, and Annabel Neasham,” Bosma said.

“When they are bought as yearlings they are bought specifically to go there (Australia)

“I think one thing a lot of Kiwis get wrong is they try to prove their horses here first. They will buy them and once they win three or four races and look promising they will send them over.

“When you do that you send them over with a rating of 82. You are coming up against some very good horses and most horses win their money on their way through the grades.

“If you are racing in Sydney this weekend and you have got a rating of 64 or 92 you are running for the same money. We like to get the horses over there unraced and work their way through the grades.

“We are sensible about it. We buy horses with the right pedigrees to be successful there. There is no point in buying a sprinting horse in New Zealand and sending it to Australia to race because they have so many good sprinters.

“We are very much looking for mile-plus horses and we had enormous success winning races that are a mile-plus.”

View the full article