South Australian racing has welcomed 250 new owners into the industry over the past two years as the Dare To Dream competition draws to a close.
Dare To Dream offered new syndicates the chance to win a 10 per cent share in two horses over the two-year term, producing 14 wins and more than $450,000 in prizemoney under the guidance of six leading South Australian trainers in races from Port Lincoln to Sandown and everywhere in between.
The standout success story was the Tony and Calvin McEvoy-trained Blow Torch who earned connections just shy of $150,000 in prizemoney winning three races, while the Richard and Chantelle Jolly-trained Kalamon wasn’t far behind winning five races for his new owners.
Others success stories include Diplomatic Measure, She’s Krupt for the Ryan Balfour stable, while the leading co-trainer’s Leon Macdonald and Andrew Gluyas’ Daily Spirit was successful at Morphettville and Oakbank in 12 starts for her new owners.
“It was a good initiative to bring people into racing, give them an ownership experience they otherwise might not have had,’’ Gluyas said.
“Ownership is sometimes successful, sometimes not. So it is good to experience that, and we look forward to those people (involved) to go a little bit further with their ownership, but also (provided) an opportunity to look at South Australian racing closely.
“Dare To Dream has given everyone a chance to whet their appetite with racing. There are always ownership opportunities,’’ he said.
Balfour said the Dare To Dream experience was great at bringing new owners to the stable despite the fact COVID-19 had denied owners a true race day experience.
“We’ve tried to bring that (race day experience) to owners with videos updates as much as we have access to bring the visual experience,’’ Balfour said.
“Getting into the mounting yard, the real experience, smelling the horses, the excitement in the air is a real part of it, hopefully in time they can come back on board and experience the journey.
“(And) some of the Dare To Dream people have come on board,’’ he said.
The Dare to Dream competition officially comes to an end on December 31st 2021.
