The new South African Board of Owners & Trainers is gaining momentum with plenty of interest shown since we published an interview with initiator Joao Da Mata earlier this week.
Joao is at pains to point out that he is just ‘doing the leg work and putting this all together.’
“I’d like it to be clear to every single owner and trainer that I am not going to be running this business. What I am merely doing is asking you to submit your name so that I can build a database and then present it back to the trainers. By then they will have all their owners signed up. I’m not creating this organization – we as a group will create it together once we have the support we need.”
Read more about the initiative here
Joao is well qualified to understand the need of the industry right now.
“I have been in the game for a long time and involved as a punter / agent and owner. I’ve lived in the UK for 22 years but always invested in SA racing. I believe in supporting multiple trainers in multiple centres and have always had the game at heart and wanted it to thrive,” he says enthusiastically.
Joao created the International Racing Club in 2014 and got the ball rolling with Michael De Haast.
“Our goal was to bring new people into racing via syndication without running the business as a profit machine. In other words if we purchased a horse for R10 000 we syndicated it for R10 000. Obviously if it had run and won we would adjust the cost.”
He adds that their strength is that they tell all their clients up front that they only guarantee them a few things with their purchases:
- it will sometimes run last
- whether it runs last or first, they will ensure your experience is special
“I reckon we have introduced about 23 new owners to SA racing. Our trips out to the beautiful country are legendary and overall our owners have fallen in love with South Africa and its people.”
