Our winner for August was Luke Koumi for his recent winners – Luke was nominated by Alistair McFarlane who wrote:

I would like to nominate Luke Koumi as owner of the month following Deiheros' win on 14 August at Morphettville and 3rd place on the 30th.

This result followed Thiamandi winning 3 races straight first at Morphettville  then 2 wins at Caulfield the last one the Bletchingly Stakes (G3).

Stakes winners are of course nothing new to Luke, homebred Rialya has won the Adelaide Cup (G2) and Birthday Stakes (L) while earning $600,000.

But perhaps his finest hours in racing were experienced in 5 golden months of racing some 25 years ago when Better Loosen Up won 7 races straight 4 @ Group 1 and 3 @ Group 2 including international recognized classics the Cox Plate and the Japan Cup.

To complement his racing career Luke was a founding member of SAROA, signing up again for the last few years and a breeder of many of his best horses. Also a canny buyer with an astute eye who truly loves a bargain, Deiheros cost him $9,000 while he splurged $10,000 for Thiamandi.

I think Luke's recent success and history of class runners mandate him for owner of the month and an owner we would all like to emulate.

As those who know Luke would be aware, he is a staunch supporter of the rights of race horse owners and is single minded in his pursuit of a better deal for owners in general and in South Australia in particular.