Albert Bosma (left) inspects yearlings with one of his trainers, Stephen Marsh, at Karaka. Photo / Trish Dunell
Albert Bosma (left) inspects yearlings with one of his trainers, Stephen Marsh, at Karaka. Photo / Trish Dunell
The best indication of how far Auckland racehorse syndicator Albert Bosma has come is that he wasn’t entirely sure how many horses his Go Racing business would have competing at Royal Ascot this week.
That is Royal Ascot, the pinnacle of world racing, just outside London, which starts in theearly hours of Wednesday morning (NZT).
Five straight days of legendary racing, international clashes, the royal family, sheikhs, billionaires and sporting greats.
And in the middle of it all, 55-year-old Bosma with around 40 of his mainly New Zealand mates.
Those mates are actually clients too; clients of Go Racing, which has grown so big it now manages 80 horses for more than 1000 owners, the majority Kiwis, with eight fulltime staff.
But you can use the term mates because at Go Racing, everybody becomes mates – as the social experience is as important as the racetrack success.
Not that there hasn’t been enormous racetrack success, from Maison Louis in the Queensland Derby nine days ago and of course Velocious in the Karaka Millions on her way to being our champion juvenile last season.
And spanning all that is Atishu, the little Kiwi mare who could and who became a star in Australia, racing in the now famous Go Racing blue-and-white colours.
Saturday winners at those big Australian meetings are now the norm but what might surprise many, even the bigwigs across the Tasman, is the scale of Go Racing’s investment in UK racing.
Albert Bosma at the Karaka Sales. Photo / Trish Dunell
Go Racing has 10 horses in training with Joseph O’Brien, the extremely likeable son of the world’s best trainer, Aidan O’Brien.
“I call him Baby Jesus, not just because he is Aidan’s son and Aidan is a training god, but because Joseph can perform miracles,” laughs Bosma.
One of those miracles is making the dreams of nearly 40 Kiwi owners come true this week when three of their horses, Masoun (Thursday), Mojave River (Friday) and Omni Man (Saturday) race for them on world racing’s most famous piece of real estate.
The rich and powerful of racing can go a decade – some a lifetime – without having a Royal Ascot runner and now Go Racing will have three horses racing at the race meeting like no other, bettering its efforts of the last two seasons.
“It is not an easy thing to pull off, for a variety of reasons,” explains Bosma.
“For so many owners, this is a dream but going to England is not something many people book at the last moment as it is their biggest trip of the year.
“So we ask Joseph what he thinks of a horse’s chances of getting to Ascot six months in advance, tell the owners and give them the option.
“But we also say, look, something could go wrong so make the trip the first priority and watching your horse a bonus if it happens.
“Joseph has been pretty spot-on but the horses still have to be in form and healthy.
“Right up until a few days ago, we weren’t sure how many we would have starting but Masoun won last Thursday in Ireland so now he gets a start this week too.
“To have three starters this week is quite incredible.
“We have so many Kiwis here, people from Malaysia, a couple from the United States.
“And they have all entered right into the spirit of it. Everybody has paid the extra to get into the Royal Enclosure and the expense of top hats, tails and new dresses for the ladies and we have seats in a restaurant that don’t come cheap.
“But if you are going to come all this way and have horses racing here, you might as well make the most of it. Have the whole Ascot experience.”
While Go Racing started as kind of fun and has grown into a huge and dynamic business, for Bosma, weeks like this one are a natural progression, albeit one that still causes the odd reality check.
“We have a big business now and take advice from great people and put the horses with great trainers, which all increases your chances of success.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still love going to Te Rapa and getting a winner but the way world racing is going, the carnivals are where everybody wants to be.
“Ellerslie are hosting great race meetings now, obviously the biggest days in Australia, Cup week in Melbourne or the Everest in Sydney are enormous and that is where we want to be and where we want our clients to be.
“But we want to have fun along the way. It has to be fun because you aren’t going to win all the time.”
As exhilarating as racing’s elite carnivals have become, for Bosma and so many others, there is only one Royal Ascot.
“There is everything else and then there is this,” he says.
