Trekking on the trip of their lives
IT ALL ADDS UP NOW DESPITE AN EARLY SCRATCHING
DARREN Halpin is the Edmonds stable’s financial man and his ownership of Houtzen is one of the best investments he has made.
But it almost didn’t happen. Early last year Halpin had shares in 27 horses, including an interest of about 30 per cent in Houtzen.
But he decided he had one too many horses and told trainer Toby Edmonds to offload his share in Houtzen – bought for $105,000 – because she was the cheapest of the lot.
It was a decision that nearly cost Halpin enormous raceregrets
THE ACCOUNTANT
track success and money but the lack of willing buyers late in the filly’s syndication process opened the door for him to salvage the situation.
“I said to Toby just take her back and sell it to someone else,” Halpin said. “I did give her up for a few months.
“Toby rang back and said he hadn’t got rid of this horse and I should keep the interest. He kept half of it, about 15 per cent, and I kept the other half.”
Halpin, 42, said he had no about losing half of his original share.
“The beauty is that Toby’s family got to share in it which is perfect,” Halpin said.
“Toby found the horse so they should benefit from it. I don’t regret anything.
“That’s life. If he hadn’t have rung me I would have had nothing.”
The Cairns accountant said watching Houtzen win the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast in January, compete in the $3.5 million Golden Slipper in Sydney and get a run in the $10 million The Everest today was a dream come true.
“Winning the Magic Millions was awesome,’’ he said.
“I’ve been trying to do it for the last 15 years and rarely get a horse in the race and this year I had a favourite and it won.
“Toby has a lot of good horses at the moment and I’m in most of them.”
Halpin was the man who drew the outside barrier for Houtzen at the Magic Millions in January and joked he had been banned from taking on the role again.