This will warm the cockles of your heart.
On Saturday, at Ascot in the west and Rosehill in the east, two horses will be striving for their biggest pay days ever.
No, they aren’t in any Black Type races. In fact MR GENOA who is in the $100,000 Country Championships Final at Ascot and PAUPER who saddles up in the $75,000 Highway at the ‘Hill are bushies in town for their respective major assignments.
Both will be top weights. But here’s the part of the story I love, and it’s why I’m going to be cheering loudly for both to win.
Pauper (Exceed And Excel-Caline) was bought this year as a 4YO at a Magic Millions Tried Stock Sale. He was born and raised by the Godolphin system and his full-brother, Auxin, won quite brilliantly at Wyong during the week.
But when poor old Pauper was residing there among the superstars, he was pretty average on the track.
He couldn’t really keep up with anything, and he had 4 starts not managing to run a place in any. His best was a well-beaten 4th at Goulburn in a small maiden field.
So Godolphin put him up for sale and Luke Jarvis bought him.
Luke and his horse training wife Natalie own a syndication business known as Thorotek and under that banner they buy, mostly from tried stock and online sales, horses that they believe can turn an ROI in the bush.
And, well, Pauper has.
He’s gone from being his namesake to a bit of a flying machine around the Moruya area.
Nat Jarvis trains out of Moruya, and since being bought for $28,000 at the sale, she has made him into a money machine winning $37,000 from 5 starts which have resulted in a pair of wins and three placings!
Thorotek, prides themselves on giving the full racing experience to their syndicate members, ie planning golf days, utilizing webcams 24/7 on their horses, providing daily updates on work outs and much more. And they will be onsite on Saturday to cheer Pauper on in the 1200m TAB Highway.
Tommy Berry rides him and this is the richest race the horse has ever contested.
Over in WA, a similar story is unfolding with Mr Genoa (Blackfriars-Jean).
He was with Darren Weir until he wasn’t allowed to train anymore, so then was transferred to Ciaron Maher and David Eustace. He won a race for that duo, but lost form and was put up for grabs earlier this year on the Inglis Online Platform.
He attracted some interest and went for $19,000.
On the undercard of the $1million Gr 1 Winterbottom Stakes, he fronts up having won his past three runs for his new trainer and part-owner Luke Fernie.
William Pike rides him in the $100,000 race and after lumping 60.5kg to win the Kalgoorlie heat of the Championships, he looms large.
Both horses are thriving in their new environments and Mr Genoa’s $52,000 prizemoney he has won since finding a new home, looks the tip of the ice berg for his new connections.
I love seeing stories like this come to life and will be cheering both Luke’s and their horses on this weekend.
