Picture: The Mike de Kock-trained Humdinger wins yesterday’s Listed Off To Stud brought to you by RH Construction and Concrete Floors (Candiese Lenferna).
“We are over the moon, well done to part-owners Mike de Kock and Laura de Haast, and also João da Mata’s IRC Syndicate inclusive of Krish Nagendran and Ian Lewis,” said an IRC spokesman.
Humdinger’s dam Himalayan Hill won the Off To Stud stakes in 2012.
CLICK TO WATCH REPLAY OF THE OFF TO STUD STAKES
SA-born UK-based businessman Joao de Mato created the International Racing Club in 2014 and got the ball rolling with Michael De Haast.
He said in an interview a couple of years ago with the Sporting Post, “Our goal was to bring new people into racing via syndication without running the business as a profit machine. In other words if we purchased a horse for R10 000 we syndicated it for R10 000. Obviously if it had run and won we would adjust the cost.”
He adds that their strength is that they tell all their clients up front that they only guarantee them a few things with their purchases:
- it will sometimes run last
- whether it runs last or first, they will ensure your experience is special
He went on to say he had introduced a number of new owners to SA racing and added, “Our trips out to the beautiful country are legendary and overall our owners have fallen in love with South Africa and its people.”
At present IRC owns close to 30 horses.
The ten in full training in South Africa include a number of promising horses.
Humdinger will be aimed at suitable summer features in Gauteng and possibly be sent to Cape Town for their big Summer Season.
Cleaver Greene (Rafeef) is a good Mike de Kock-trained sprinter who has won two and finished runner up twice in four starts, including second to subsequent Grade 1 Computaform Sprint winner Master Archie in the Grade 3 Man O’ War Sprint, albeit when receiving 8kg.
Climate Control (Ideal World) is promising and will be aimed at the WSB Dingaans.
Money Heist (Gimmethegreenlight) is a promising colt trained by Gareth van Zyl, who finished a close third on debut over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
The club has high hopes for the Peter Muscutt-trained Captain Bombshell (Captain Of All), who is still a maiden but he finished fourth in the Grade 1 Gold Medallion.
The Alec Laird-trained Billy Bowlegs (The United States) also has promise and beat two subsequently impressive winners, Total Protection and Eyjaffyallajokull when winning his maiden over 1600m.
The club has a further five unraced youngsters in training in SA and six new horses recently bought at the sales.
They have five horses in the UK and Ireland, including two jumpers.
They had their first runner in Ireland on Saturday, Skip Mahler (Great Palm), who finished a promising third in a National Hunt Bumper.
They have one horse who has shown promise in Australia and is with Matthew de Kock and Robbie Griffiths.
They also have one horse in Zimbabwe, Evocative (Vercingetorix), who is with trainer Thomas Mason.
The club also has six broodmares.
They have a spelling farm in Summerveld called Fiddler’s Green, which is run by Sigi Sauter.
A lot of the club’s retired horses also reside at Fiddler’s Green.
