Our winner for September was Ian Brown and his wife Kate Dansie for their recent winners – Ian gave us these details of their successes: I have been involved in racing for over 30years and with my wife Kate own horses which are in training with John MacMillan at Clayton Bay. During the Month of September we were lucky to have four winners which included two metro wins with Creance (4yr old by Reset – Clean) who we recently purchased from Darley. Creance’s wins were on September 14th and September 27th both at Morphettville over 1200m and 1300m respectively. Boristar (5yr Old by Commands – Qillionaire) who recently came back from a broken pelvis gave us a wonderful win in the 1500m Gawler Cup on September 28th. Boristar won again after being freshened at Morphettville on October 28th over 1400m. He has now won 8 out of 20 races and is one to keep an eye out on Emirates Day in Melbourne. Casper's Ghost (Conatus – Stacked) is a 3 year old which a close friend Ross Webb and I bred. We were very excited when Casper won first up in a Metro Maiden at Morphettville on September 20th. We are also involved in On Strike (Charge Forward – Sapphire Girl who is running next Saturday (November 8th) he will be going for four in a row and we also have three 2yr old Unraced horses bred by Ross and I. We wish Ian and Kate well with their horses in the following weeks. By the time this goes to print we will know better how Boristar and On Strike performed as they faced their big challenges. Ian has of course recently joined the SAROA committee and in fact was able to boast a winner on the day of our AGM, so that was a promising start for his involvement with SAROA.

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.

Our winner for July is Kevin Pascoe for Raise a Dream which he part owns, Kevin told us this about Raise a Dream   Raise a Dream has been very honest over past 2 months winning on four occasions in six starts spread over Strathalbyn, Murray Bridge & Morphettville. Having won over 900m, 1000m,1100m, 1200m & now 1400m at Murray Bridge the mare has improved with age. The four year old mare is raced by Kevin & June Pascoe, Ivan Brook & his wife and their daughters Julieanne Grillet & Tina Glastonbury. Ivan raced the grand dam Brookside lady who won one race then retired from racing after trying to jump a fence at Cheltenham in a trial. Ivan has bred a number of horses from this mare with only one winner, Raise a Vain who won four races. I leased Brookside Lady from Ivan & bred Halayr Jet (a 3 time winner with 10 seconds).  When Raise A Vain appeared at auction in Victoria, Ivan suggested we buy her to breed from. A partnership of friends was formed to buy this Kenvain mare; this was the start of a racing group of new owners. The first foal was Raise A Heart by Show a Heart (2 wins 4 places from 8 starts) the second foal Raise a Dream by Falvelon is now winner of eight races.  Ivan is well known around country SA as ex Elders employee having worked on the West Coast, and at Broken Hill, Crystal Brook, Strathalbyn, and in the Mid North. Kevin & June at that time were events caterers, looking after Gawler Jockey Club, Balaclava Racing Club, Magic Million Sales & various other show events & corporate catering including Trotting clubs, Three day eventing etc. The history of this group of owners also has another connection with trainer Grant Young. Grant as a jumps jockey was injured in the trial at Cheltenham on Brookside Lady. Grant renewed the friendship by breaking in all of our foals and now is the trainer of all but Raise A Heart (who was trained by David Jolly). Nearly 20 years of friendship has produced a good winner for this group. Currently we have another two foals, a Jet spur Filly and a Rothesay Colt getting ready to race. Ivan just celebrated his 80th birthday on 25th July and  my wife June also celebrated her birthday on the same day so as has happened for past 20 years, both families celebrated together. Foot Note : Raise a Dream ran third at next start at Morphettville giving her a first metro placing. We wish the combined families well with Raise a Dream and her half siblings.

This month we received a nomination from Jo-Anne Cooper for her father Des – better known as Snow Cooper and his horse Our Exchange, it is a great story and here is what Jo-Anne had to say I would like to nominate my father Des "Snow" Cooper for owner of the month for June 2014.  Since 1997 my father has had considerable success racing horses trained by Peter, David and Richard Jolly. On 21 June 2014 my father celebrated his 85th birthday and he, my sister Janet and I attended at Morphettville to watch his filly, Our Exchange run in a 1,300m fillies and mares handicap. But let me tell you a bit of a story … which occurred on the very same date 11 years ago in 2003 when a gutsy little mare, Our Fame owned by a syndicate of ladies and trained by Peter Jolly, ran through the mud at Victoria Park to score a wonderful win on Snow's birthday!  Helen Jolly, my mother Vivienne and my sister Janet were amongst the winning owners and it was a very happy day for our family to celebrate the win of one of our favourite horses. A few years later, Snow took a share in a lovely mare called Summery trained by Richard Jolly and they enjoyed quite a bit of success with her although injury cut short her racing career.  On her retirement, Summery was offered for sale but unfortunately the market was poor at the time so Kambula Stud (who happened to have Our Fame as one of its broodmares) offered the syndicate a little brown filly by Econsul out of Our Fame as a swap.  She was named Our Exchange! So skip forward to June 2014 and Our Exchange was nominated for a race on the Parks track on the 21st, Snow's birthday.  Could she follow in her dam's hoofbeats?  I could only hope so and waited for Wednesday's acceptances holding my breath!  I was the only one who remembered the great story that could potentially unfold … but alas, Our Exchange was second emergency! I hoped for rain (because she's great in the mud!) and on Friday our prayers were answered.  By Saturday morning Our Exchange was in the field! So … she jumped well, went straight to the front and skipped away from them in the straight, winning with her ears pricked, just like her Mum, 11 years ago to the day! Sometimes in racing things are just meant to be. Thank you to Richard Jolly and his dedicated staff, and to Our Exchange, what a clever girl!   

This month our committee reviewed several top quality performances by horses owned by SAROA members – we eventually decided that the award for May should go to John Naffine for Kushadasi. John gave as this background on Kushadasi Kushadasi was purchased at the Melbourne Premier Inglis sale by Richard Jolly for $100,000. He then went to 4 of Richard’s long time owners, namely Neville Morgan , Roger & Cathy Ackland & myself.   Neville is the Senior partner & significant owner of horses in the Eastern States , but unfortunately was in South Africa on business on Derby Day & missed his 4th Group One Win.This was Roger & Cathy’s first, & my 3rd having previously won the Vic & SA derbies with Rebel Raider. Kushadasi was Bred by Robert Hill Smith's  Vintage Bloodstock . The Dam Shanghai Moon was purchased by Robert at the Inglis Easter sales for $125,000 , and was by the Arc de Triomphe  winner Carnegie & out of Martine Michelle. The staying blood comes from their parents whose respective sires were Sadlers Wells by Northern Dancer ,& Grosvenor By Sir Tristam. Shanghai Moon is a half Sister to the Group 1 winner Pernod, but not as successful winning only 2 races at Morphetville to 1600 mtres. She was trained by tony McEvoy.However she is now a success at stud with 3 winners from her first 4 to race. Kushadasi was her 5th foal , and the 6th is by Reaan , which Richard Jolly purchased for the same owners as Kushadasi at the recent Adelaide sale for $70,000……prior to her Derby win or we would have had to pay a lot more. Kushadasi has now won 5 of his 10 starts, and 3 seconds for over $500,000 in Prizemoney. In his last 3 starts he met Gamblin Guru each time with a 2nd to GG in the Port Adelaide Guineas ,a 4th to Gamblin Guru in the Chairmans Stakes & then a win in the Derby to Gamblin Guru's unlucky 4th. It will be interesting to see how these two close competitors fare together in the Spring Racing. Despite Kushadasi's success over 2500 in the Derby we believe he will be better in the future up to 2000 meters.   We wish John and the other connections the best of luck in the Spring. 

This month our committee reviewed several top quality performances by horses owned by SAROA members – we eventually decided that the award for March should go to Sam Scaffidi-Muta for Gamblin Guru. Gamblin Guru was bred by Harry Perks and is by glamour one time shuttle stallion New Approach from a Fusaichi Pegasus mare Glory Guru who was unraced. Gamblin Guru’s grand dam Proud Halo had left 2 stakes winners Gallant Guru and Gold Guru who together won 10 black type races. Gold Guru needs little introduction having won an Australian Derby and an Australian Guineas and the Ranvet stakes (all Group 1s) and stakes of more than $2.4 million. Gallant Guru’s best win was the Sandown Classic (Group2) in addition he has sired two stakes winners in New Zealand. Proud Halo also left Gazza Guru a multiple country cups winner. Gamblin Guru started his career with a 2 year old win at Morphettville over 1100 m but as an early three year old he failed to show the same turn of foot however he  started to show promise over longer distances with a placing in the listed Hill Smith stakes over 1800 m before winning the traditional Victoria Derby lead up race, the listed Geelong Classic. After the Classic win, he had a short spell before returning for a promising second over 1200 m at Morphettville. Gamblin Guru had previously demonstrated some unruly habits and these came to the fore at his next start when he jumped awkwardly and then pulled very hard giving Clare Lindop a really difficult ride before clipping heels and falling. He seemed to overcome this unruliness at his next start running a close running second over 1600 metres and then winning the Listed Port Adelaide Guineas over 1800 m and then the Group 3 Chairman’s handicap over 2000 metres. Gamblin Guru finished his Adelaide carnival campaign with a close fourth in the SA Derby. With stakes winnings of over $300,000, it would seem that Gamblin Guru should deliver more results for his owners in the future.

From amongst this month’s nominations we selected a nomination from Glenda Smyth for her horse Riziz, Glenda told us I would like to nominate Riziz for horse of the month for March 2014. He had his 1st run this prep on 1st March at Morphettville in the $50,000 Adel. Galvinising Hcp. over 1200m. He was ridden by apprentice Harry Coffey. He won by a length and a half and we were extremely proud of him. He went on to win his next start on 10th March at Morphetville in the listed Matrice Stakes over 1200 m. on Adelaide. Cup Day very well ridden by Damien Oliver. 5 year old Riziz is by Zariz out of Priya (a Covetous mare) and  was bred by his trainer Ken Sweeney. He has now won 9 races 2 seconds & 4 thirds from 22 starts for $502,500. We are all very proud to call him our champ with 5 listed race wins now to his credit. Amongst his very proud owners are myself, Carol Adams & Tess McGrath who are all members of SAROA. We wish the owners continued success with Riziz who has proved to be an excellent racing proposition and as a five year old gelding, should still deliver more positive results for them.

We recently received a nomination from Bryan and June Terry for their horse Racheck’s Legacy. While she won back in December unfortunately the nomination was previously overlooked due to an administrative error, which we are now happy to correct. Our committee decided to view the nomination alongside those we received for February and subsequently adjudged their nomination to be the most worthy. So we offer our belated congratulations to Bryan and June as winners of Owner of the Month. Bryan told us that Racheck’s Legacy is a three year old filly who won a 1400 metre maiden at Murray Bridge on debut on the first of December. Brian goes on to say “Racheck’s Legacy was an orphan foal out of Racheck our 21 year old mare who unfortunately died the day after foaling. There was no foster mother available so she was hand reared at Flower Hill and we gratefully thank Juliet and Peter for their efforts. Thankfully all went well and a healthy foal resulted. She was given plenty of time to mature in both body and mind (the latter is still a work in progress). But finally after a lot of patience she was ready for the race track. After two trials she had her first start over 1400 metres  – the result was a win coming from near last and the result was made all the sweeter in that she was the outsider of the field paying $30.” Bryan and June have since had some more good luck with their Equiano colt selling well over expectations at the Yearling Sales. Hope the good luck continues for you.

This month we received a nomination from our former president Dean Mann who wrote: I am nominating Dean & Linda Alcorn as owners of the month for January following the win of 4yo mare Rhinestone Ruby at Strathalbyn on 12th January.   Our Black Ruby, the dam of Rhinestone Ruby, was purchased by me in September 2008 at an Adelaide Magic Millions Sale and when I returned home I had an email from Dean Alcorn congratulating me on the purchase and saying that he was the under-bidder and if he had known earlier we could have formed a partnership.    I replied by saying that my intention was to race her progeny and we could have one if he wanted to. We formed a partnership and sent her to be served by Blevic, but after several months she did not get pregnant and we were told by Kambula Stud that there was no obvious reason for this, so we sent her to be served by Akhadan late in the season. The resultant foal was Rhinestone Ruby, born on 27th December, so we obviously did not mate the mare in the following season.   In mid-2010, we jointly decided to quit Our Black Ruby and entered her for an Adelaide MM sale and she injured herself on the Friday prior to it. I paid Dean & Linda a small amount to quit their share in her and I subsequently sold Our Black Ruby and her next Akhadan filly in May 2012. We both retained an interest in Rhinestone Ruby until December 2012 when, as part of my continuing dispersal of horses, Dean & Linda paid the transfer of ownership cost to have outright ownership.   Dean & Linda race Rhinestone Ruby on their own and she obviously has ability and a wonderful temperament, but she has had physical issues which have added extra costs in getting her to the races and I certainly hope this is only the first of many wins to reward their persistence and patience. I believe they would be worthy winners of the SAROA owner of the month award for January.   SAROA extends our best wishes to Dean and Linda and trusts they received continued enjoyment from racing Rhinestone Ruby.