Mike de Kock announced on his website on Monday that he and son Mathew will be setting up a satellite yard at the Cranbourne Racing Centre outside of Melbourne, Victoria.
Mike de Kock
De Kock said that his South African racing operation will remain the stable’s main base for the time being, to be employed as a platform to feed the Australian stable with horses from South Africa.
He explained: “We are doing this as a pre-emptive move for our exports protocols opening up, we are confident this will be happening soon. We have been doing things the other way around, focusing on importing horses from Australia. Soon we’ll be exporting from South Africa at an exchange rate of roughly 10 rand to the Australian dollar, which is a great opportunity and makes good business sense. We will also be supporting the Australian market as we have been doing.”
De Kock said that Australian Racing and officials at Cranbourne have bent over backwards to accommodate the venture. He commented: “They have been unbelievably helpful. They are building us new stables with a number of other benefits included. The training facilities are excellent with everything from treadmills to good tracks.
“We’ve been going to Australia for a number of years and Mathew will soon be leaving to gain work experience in their industry, to pave the way. Australian racing is run in a very professional manner, they have great organisational acumen and integrity.”
He concluded: “Setting up the new operation won’t happen overnight. There are many official and administrative arrangements to put into place, this could take from six months to a year.”
De Kock has won the South African National Trainers’ Title eight times. He has saddled near 3,200 career winners, including 122 Gr1 successes.
