Cup owners sheikh a leg
Melbourne glory beckons with one Single Gaze
RICHARD Keeley and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum both have starters in today’s Melbourne Cup — and that’s where the similarities end.
One is the ruler of Dubai. The other is a Gold Coast real estate agent.
One owns Goldophin, the world’s largest horse racing team. The other can’t believe he’s even got a horse in the Cup.
One can afford to pay people to go to the toilet for him. The other?
“I even helped muck out her box this morning,” Keeley said of shovelling horse poo during a Cup-eve visit to Caulfield to run a loving eye over Single Gaze, the gorgeous beast that has handed him a golden ticket to horse racing’s utopia.
“Someone has to do it and I’m happy to jump in, pick up the manure from the night before, rake the box over and freshen up the water. That’s my job.”
In an age when the international dominance of the Melbourne Cup has never been stronger, it’s the Keeleys of the world that ensure the romance of the great race lives on.
He’s the bloke who assembled six mates to buy a chestnut filly for $70,000 at the 2014 Magic Millions. He’s the fella who watched that chestnut filly grow up to win a couple of million dollars in prizemoney.
Today he also happens to be the happiest father in the world.
“My son is actually a partowner,” Keeley said of 26year-old Nick, who lives in Melbourne.
“It’s such a thrill for him because he’s so young. He’s a PE teacher so all the kids are all over him every day because he’s got a horse in the Cup.
“It’s surreal. We’re trying to keep a lid on it but never in our wildest dreams did we think we’d have a horse in the Melbourne Cup.”
Not so fellow Gold Coaster Shaun Frost. Today will be the financial planner’s fourth shot at Melbourne Cup glory, 12 months after Heartbreak City came within a whisker of stealing the prize.
Any thoughts of ‘been there, done that’ evaporate, however, whenever he looks at the mate by his side.
“Just to see the thrill he’s got this week is fantastic,” Frost said of long-time friend Malcolm Lynch, who teamed with him to buy a 5 per cent share in highly rated French horse and Cup contender Tiberian.
“We go to the Gold Coast track a bit and I put it out there to a few guys to see if they wanted to get on-board and Mal came along for the ride.” And what a ride it’s been. “Words can’t describe it,” said Lynch, who is lapping up his first visit to a Melbourne Cup since 2000.
“I actually had the thrill of backing the winner that year (Brew). I was with a mate and we partied like we owned the horse.
“To now be at a stage where I might win one as an owner raises the heart rate even more … and to have a close mate like Shaun to share it with is extra special.
“It’s something we’ll talk about for years to come.”