Brendan Gaillard, Chad Britz and Keith Amas’ breakthrough from dreaming about ownership to taking the leap of faith happened by chance.
Chad was on a game drive at Ndaka Safari Lodge with his wife when the ranger asked all the occupants whether they would like to try eating Zebra.
One couple immediately replied no because it would remind them too much of their horses.
Chad’s ears pricked at the mention of horses and got talking to the couple.
He discovered they were Rathmor Stud farm owners Mike and Tanya McHardy.
The McHardy’s later invited Chad to their farm and he took Brendan with him.
This resulted in them brokering a deal with breeder Rupert Plersch to purchase a hitherto unnamed colt by Willow Magic for R25,000.
Chad decided to name the colt Ndaka after the place where he had met the McHardys.
Other friends who had become part of the circle and were also big racing fans, Jarred Eady and Kyle Storkey, also came into the partnership.
They sent the colt to Met-winning trainer Yogas Govender and this proved to be a good decision.
Yogas is not competing with the big guns at present but has eye-catching stats.
He has 28 horses, has run 19 of them and had 12 individual winners.
Ndaka could be the next.
He has been knocking hard for a long time and the friends are anticipating victory in the first race on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly on Monday.
To date Ndaka has had 12 starts for four seconds, one third, three fourths and two fifths so is paying his way.
However, the friends believe every cent spent on ownership, even when it is loss-making, is well worth it due to the amount of fun they derive from it.
They love going to track in the morning and travel from their homes on the Bluff in Durban to Ashburton on Tuesdays and go to Summerveld at least twice a week.
The ownership bug did not take long to bite and Brendan was able to use his passion for thoroughbred breeding and pedigrees to look for more horses.
He has also gained much knowledge in horseracing through his job as a racing analyst with Computaform.
One of Yogas’s loyal owners Colin Naidoo, who has raced and bred with such horses as twice Grade 3-winning sprinter Purple Lake (Lake Consiton), was taken by the youngsters’ refreshing enthusiasm. He consequently kindly gave them a share in Captain Of All colt, Rainbow Spirit, who is in fact out of Purple Lake.
In the meantime they took a Shane Humby gelding in-training, Radames, and he won his very next start. That first winner is one of the best racing experiences for any owner and happened on June 12, 2021.
Humby had also bought an Ideal World filly out of a Silvano mare called Natasia and they took a share in her.
This filly has the friends excited because she is bred for middle distances but won second time out over 1200m on March 13 this year.
Earlier, Rainbow Spirit had provided them with their second win on September 8 last year.
Brendan and Chad selected Ndaka themselves and the excitement of choosing a horse on their own at the sales happened when they bought a Global View colt at last year’s Nationals called Global Outlook, who is now with Yogas.
Brendan said, “The chances of us getting a Galileo are zero but Global View is by Galileo and Global Outlook is the first foal of the Silvano mare Northern Ballet (who won five races, four of them in the strong centre of Cape Town).”
Two of the group of freinds, Keith Amas and Wouter Malan, have now formed their own racing partnership to take a share in Global Outlook.
The friends also own a share in an unraced Humby-trained Rafeef filly called Hummingbird.
Brendan’s passion for racing began through his father Basil, who enjoyed punting.
Chad’s father owned a decent filly called Irish Melody (Saratoga), who won four times and was Grade 3-placed. In fact Michael Roberts rode her to fifth place in the Grade 1 Natal Fillies Sprint and Chad was glad to discover at Summerveld one morning that “Muis” remembered her.
Keith’s Uncle Lesley was an owner with Dennis Bosch.
Brendan, Chad and Keith met some 25 years ago at Ramblers football club in Montclair.
Another school friend of theirs was Dean Kannemeyer’s step-son Lee Newton and their interest in the game grew through the good July tips he was able to provide, including Kannemeyer-trained winners Dynasty and Eyeofthetiger.
Brendan recalled, “We used to go to Clairwood and watch on the outside. Later we would go in with R50 and take R6 bets. If the early ones did not come in we were not able to have our pie, chips and gravy!”
Brendan’s best early racing memory was of going to Scottsville with his father as a kid and putting on an R8 PA that returned R64.
“I thought I knew it all then,” he chortled.
The friends’ passion for racing is growing exponentially and they are very keen for other young people to join them in this fun hobby.
They have at present been poring through the BSA National Yearling Sale but fear it will be too expensive so they are eagerly anticipating the BSA KZN Yearling Sales on June 30 to July 1.
Picture: Left to Right, Chad Britz, Keith Amas and Brendan Gaillard (Summerveld this morning).
