SAROA Owner of the Month for June was James Cleveland with Great Maximus. James told us this My Grandmother was a regular race goer and I went with her most Saturdays (she was a member of the three clubs). It was the colour on the racecourse I couldn’t get over, and the shine and athleticism of the horse. Remember these were the days of Black and White TV. A long-time friend of mine Mark Gibson and I had some success with the last two horses we took shares in, Wild Imagination and Celtic Vader, and before this I had a good run with Shilldora, and I really thought my luck was due to expire. But Mark’s son in law (Joe) who up until then had no interest in racing, had the impression that horse ownership is a sensible financial investment. Mark suggested we give Joe a hand to select his wise investment. Richard and Chantelle’s catalogue had just arrived and we chose a Magnus colt. The dam was the attraction for us, she had thrown seven individual winners with most of having a good number of starts. We were looking for soundness, and being a future gelding we hopefully would have some fun for a number of years. After the research Mark and I talked ourselves into taking a share. Great Maximus (Max) is potentially the best horse I have had an involvement with, and last Saturday at Flemington was a great thrill, at the 200 I didn’t go the “early crow” but I did think “could it be”, alas it wasn’t but we were and are proud of his effort. I have had shares in horses since 1999 with the vast majority trained by the Jolly Family (Peter, David, Richard & Chantelle.) Great Maximus’s record at the time of writing is seven starts for three wins and two thirds with the third coming at Flemington. His earnings have reached almost $130,000 with over $10,000 in Racing Rewards bonuses. He is by Magnus out of the Viscount mare Impeach. Impeach was unraced but has been a star of the breeding barn with nine named progeny and eight to race, the best being Let’s Get Animal (by Animal Kingdom) who won eight races and $150,000 as well as Incrimination (by Exceed and Excel) who won three races as did Miss Arizona (by Starspangledbanner) The grand dam Peach (by Vain) left three stakes winners including Denman (by Lonhro) who won six black type races including the Group 1 STC Golden Rose and is a successful sire, Preserve (by Canny Lad) who won four group races including the Group 1 VRC sires produce and has left two stakes winners Archives (by Helmet) and Safeguard (by Exceed and Excel) and finally Preserves full sister Rio Osa who picked up two group races and has left five time winner Kateru (by Sepoy). We congratulate James for his success with Great Maximus and wish him all the best going forwards.