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Go Racing is one of the most prominent figures in syndications in New Zealand and Australia with horses on both sides of the Tasman competing with the best. With the success, they’ve created and a great story to be told, Behind the Stable Doors caught up with Albert Bosma to learn a bit more about him and the operation.
Growing up in Trentham, Albert attended races frequently. From age five, he and his family took the train out to the course with a picnic basket, and there grew the love of horses. He was allowed to pick one horse he liked and his mother would place a bet for him. Naturally, that horse won and there grew the interest and the desire to keep going back.
2001, Albert was driving to the beach and saw the signs for the Karaka sales. He decided to go to look with his partner. He made up his mind that he wanted to buy a horse, he called Patrick Vinaccia who was a friend, and later a business partner to tell him about his idea. Pat said, well you sell as many shares as you can and I will take the rest. Whilst on his stag do he got on the bar and said “I’m going to buy a racehorse who wants a share?” people put their hand up including two people who he had never met before. They put money into a bank account and there formed the first syndicate. They went to the south island sale, which at the time was in August, and Pat said: “I know this up-and-coming trainer in Foxton and I quite like him we can give him the horse, his name is Chris Waller”. Chris couldn’t afford the airfare to get to the sale. The horse they bought was called ‘Silky Red Boxer’ who won over $500,000 in stakes and multiple group Ones. More people started to get interested and wanted to be involved. Skip to 2004 Albert and Patrick decided this is too big to be a hobby, lets turn it into a business, Go Racing.
From 2004-2012, the business was getting by. Horses were racing and going to sales, but they were not thriving. They’d go to the sale, find a horse and then miss out. They weren’t getting what they needed to be as successful as they are now. What changed? 2012 they stopped restricting the budget. As Steve Davis says “Buy the one you want, not the one that’s left”. They went to the sale with no fear
and no budget and came home with a horse called “Ruud Awakening”. She won her first start, then the Wellesley Stakes, Karaka Millions 2yo, G1 Diamond Stakes, multiple groups, and listed place and earned over $760,000 in stakes. One might say, it went well in their new approach to purchasing horses. The second part, the way you treat people is hugely important. The more you help and treat people well the business will grow and people will continue to be involved. They then looked at Australian racing and saw an opportunity. They saw a strategy and opportunity to target the cups races which they can bring European horses and target those cup races to make money for their owner.
A recent addition, they purchased a spelling farm in Karapiro which Celia Corcoran is running. This enables the team (from the trainer, Go Racing, and Celia) to tailor programs to the horse. They’ve got treadmills, walkers, and great paddocks for the horses to use. Albert is confident the results have improved since they’ve purchased the property.
Racing attracts people from all walks of life. In terms of owners and ownership racing attracts all sorts of people and is certainly appealing. Having a share in a horse and seeing it race or run is certainly appealing. The approach with Go Racing is to cater to everyone and make everyone feel like they own 100%. This enables to keep people interested and remove the idea that they ‘only own this much’ instead of targeting the joys and making people feel included in the horse regardless of who they are. Owners (alongside the horses themselves) are the most important part of the industry, without owners, there is no racing.
So far this season, Go Racing has had over 30 winners and earned over $1.5 million in stakes. For Albert, this is reassurance that the strategies they’ve put in place are working. The Australian racing scene is important, especially for the European stayers they’ve purchased from the Tattersalls sale over the last few years. A sale they’ve had great success at. From their purchases at Tattersalls, every horse has gone to Australia to race and they’ve all won at least one race there. The procedures in place are extremely strict for this sale because there is more work involved and they’ve also got to get the horse to Australia. The vetting process is much tougher and the bloodlines and genetics play a large role in their decision-making as they have bloodlines that we don’t have access to in New Zealand or Australia. The European horses are great for trying to win prize money, they can
start racing as soon as they get to Australia in Saturday metro meetings and cups for $130,000. From there, if they are good enough, they can go up into top-tier cups races. They’ve found ways and places to target horses as well. The fillies are raced in New Zealand the top ones then on to Australia, their target is to get that valuable black type. A great example is Miss Sentimental who won the Group One New Zealand Oaks before going to Australia to race under trainer Chris Waller. Later, she was sold at the Gold Coast Broodmare sale for $470,000 in
2021. Colts are looking for those group one wins to turn
them into stallion prospects and the geldings racing either in new Zealand or Australia for the wins on the board and prize money. The increase in success is most important because of the quality of horses they are buying and naturally the strategies used with those horses. To target the classic races Albert and Go Racing New Zealand classic races with. Looking for your Derby and Oaks horses the new Zealand bred is just as good if not better. In the last season in Australia, Kiwi bred Explosive Jack won the Australian Derby, South Australian Derby, and the Tasmanian Derby. Mo’unga won the Rosehill Guineas, Lions Roar won the Randwick Guineas and Kukeracha won the Queensland Derby. These are just a few examples of the talented kiwi bred who perform and highlight the talent for the kiwi horses in 1600-2400 meters as Albert emphasized when I spoke to him.
If Albert could change a few things about the New Zealand industry it would be prizemoney firstly. We don’t have to match and compete with Australia but an increase means that people would be happy to keep their good horses in New Zealand and go and watch it race if they could race every week or a few weeks for $100k for example. We don’t need to match the multi-million dollar race days that Australia holds every week, because we probably won’t ever be able to, but providing enough prizemoney that people can see a reason to keep their horse here means that the trainers, staff, and owners see the money retained here and the owners may perhaps keep reinvesting more here. Another thing Albert would like to see change is better facilities. When he takes owners to racecourses and on track, there are probably not a whole heap of tracks that have the money to spend on facilities and the owners aren’t over the moon ad probably won’t come back. If facilities are of a higher standard it means owners will be more comfortable on the course and may stay for another drink or race. With a bit of luck, typically owners bring friends or family along with them to be ‘an owner for the day and enjoy the race day or get them involved in shares. The more people we can get involved the better it is for the industry.
The race Albert would most like to win was four.
Melbourne Cup – iconic
Cox Plate – also iconic
Thorndon Mile – Hometown race
Arc De Triomphe – best race in Europe
The greatest success has been the resilience of the business. The ability to have such good owners that you survive all of the things because of the backing of owners. Finally, tough-minded and being mentally strong. To say it’s been a shit day/week/month but to keep chipping away and looking forward.
The greatest joy is simple, winning with owners. It’s absolute euphoria to share that experience with owners to maidens on a Wednesday to the group ones. They all are so excited to see their horse win, it's the absolute thrill of it.
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