Meal ticket to success
North Afrika’s owner is riding his luck
A FEW long lunches with an old mate has quickly turned into a powerful stable of horses for Holloways Beach businessman Winton Veall.
Veall had horses in the 1980s when living in Melbourne but none since.
His career took him all around Australia, working on the stockmarket, as a property developer, and even to Bali for a short while.
He has been visiting FNQ since 1993 but made the permanent move in September 2018. He is now based on the waterfront at Holloways.
He had not been in horses for decades, until a long lunch with bookmaker, horse owner and close mate Brian Jorgensen twisted his arm.
Veall was also a bookmaker in his younger days in Victoria.
He was front-page news in the old Sporting Globe newspaper, branded the up-andcoming bookmaker in town.
Jorgensen owns the City Sheridan, Cairns Rainbow Resort and the Cairns Southside International, and has been a long-time participant, bookmaker and follower of racing.
Brian’s son Chris has a share of many of the horses, including North Afrika.
Just a few months later, Veall owns half of an undefeated gelding getting international interest, the winner of a Listed race in Brisbane, and now one of the favourites in Friday’s Cairns Cup.
North Afrika, trained at Rockhampton by Jared Wehlow, looms as a big chance in
Friday’s race worth $85,000.
And, as Veall explains, it all came about over lunch with Jorgensen.
“I only got involved with these horses because I knew Brian and we got on well, he floated the idea of buying horses, so I got on board,” Veall said.
“I would not go so far as to say I was inebriated, but we were just chucking around ideas. Brian owns three motels in town and is a wellknown bookmaker.”
The idea quickly into eight horses.
North Afrika, Derulo and Inquiry have been three of the better-performed north Queensland horses in 2020.
Group 1-winning hoop Ryan Wiggins has been on chestnut North Afrika in his past five trips to the races, turned including last Thursday’s domination at Cairns, and thinks by Friday evening, Veall and the Jorgensen family are a big chance to be drinking out a shiny new cup.
“He is a super horse, I am glad he got a look at the track last Thursday,” Wiggins said.
“When the cup comes around, he knows what he has to do and what it is like out there.
“He drops 6kg; it is going to take a very good horse to run me down.”
North Afrika was previously with trainers Pat Carey and Jason Warren in Victoria and Veall thinks the hotter climate has helped.
History is on the side of local owners in the Cairns Cup. The past two winners We Just Love It and The Harrovian had FNQ connections.
ESSENDON remains in with a fighting chance.
While the battle to retain prized spearhead Joe Daniher has been far from won, there are two significantly encouraging signs the full forward may yet stay.
Firstly, Daniher, 26, will make his return on Thursday night confident his rebuilt groin is strong enough to compete at the top level.
And secondly, the club and
Daniher’s manager, Nigel Carmody, have been having some informal talks recently about a new deal.
Plenty of water is yet to flow under that important bridge, but if Daniher’s mind was already made up, those crucial conversations wouldn’t be taking place.
While only Daniher himself knows the specifics, clearly the odds have shortened since November last year that the star goal-kicker will remain in red and black.
There is a pulse on a contract extension.
For 12 months, Essendon list manager Adrian Dodoro has been adamant the club wants to keep Daniher, and if he had to find a replacement in this exchange period North Melbourne’s Ben Brown and Gold Coast’s Peter Wright looked the most available key forward options.
But what matters most for Daniher is what takes place out on the field over the next five matches, starting on
Thursday night against Hawthorn.
If he breaks down again, which would be the third time in three years, it will be curtains for Essendon and its father-son spearhead.
Not only would he weigh up moves to either Sydney, Brisbane or Geelong, you’d question whether he wanted to play at all.
It is why it has been such a high-stakes rehabilitation.
The club has been incredibly cautious this time
READY TO GO: Essendon’s Joe Daniher at training yesterday. Picture: MICHAEL KLEIN
around, resisting the temptation to play him over the past two months, even as he inched towards full fitness.
The club kept its nerve when he suffered the recent calf setback.
No toys were thrown from either cot.
“We’re really excited that Joe has done the work to be available,” coach John Worsfold said.
“He’s very comfortable and excited about getting back out there.”