Billionaire’s wild declaration
HE’S “wild”, according to his teenage daughter, but the owner of one Melbourne Cup runner is determined to stop the show at Flemington today. Marwan Koukash has not backed down from his declaration that should Magic Circle win the $7 million race today, he will accept the trophy wearing only a G-string, his tie and his shoes. “This is the lace that’s gonna stop the nation,” he said yesterday as he held a hot pink lingerie item aloft.
He told reporters: “Why do you keep saying ‘If’? It’s not ‘If’, it’s ‘ When’. When we win that Cup, shortly after three o’clock, Flemington will see something it has never seen before — and is unlikely to ever see again.
“They’re going to have a crazy owner wearing nothing but this, a tie, and socks. That crazy owner is me.”
Dr Koukash modelled the intimate underwear over his jeans in front of hundreds of racing fans at Federation Square yesterday, before he doubled down after some baiting from English trainer Char- lie Fellowes, who said if A Prince Of Arran won, he would “strip naked”.
If anyone could be forgiven for being embarrassed by the antics of Dr Koukash, it is his 19-year-old daughter, Layla. But the Liverpool teen couldn’t be more proud of her dad, and warns he will keep his promise.
“I think it’s absolutely brilliant,” she said. “My dad’s crazy but there’s nothing wrong with it. He’s not doing any harm.
“[He’s like this] all the time … maybe it’s a little bit more because it’s the Melbourne Cup. He’s always like this at home, as well. He’s wild.”
Layla has an important job today — keeping safe custody of her dad’s Cup-win G-strings in her handbag. “I’ve got two in my bag right now,” she said. “One pinky-purple, one blue.”
Dr Koukash, a refugee from Palestine, says he did not have a pair of shoes until the age of 12, having been forced off the family farm by war at age eight, travelling through mountains to a refugee camp in Kuwait where he lived for three years. Eventually making it to Britain, he got a PhD at university in Liverpool and is now a businessman who owns a rugby league team and horses.