Melbourne Cup: owner within a Finche of racing dream

Melbourne businessman Brae Sokolski is on the verge of an unprecedented horse racing double worth a possible $10.45m in prize money.

Horse owner Brae Sokolski with Melbourne Cup contender Finche, which has a serious chance in Tuesday’s race. Picture: Aaron Francis

Call it the $10.45m dream that could come true on Tuesday.

Melbourne businessman Brae Sokolski and a small group of friends and work contacts are on the verge of an unprecedented horse racing double.

A little over two weeks ago, they basked in glorious spring sun at Sydney’s Royal Randwick when their three-year-old colt Yes Yes Yes won its owners $6.05m in The Everest, the richest turf race in the world.

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Sokolski and his group will head to Flemington on Tuesday to cheer on their runner Finche, the six-year-old gelding that should start second or third favourite and is considered a serious chance of being first past the post — which would net its owners a cool $4.4m.

“It would be beyond anyone’s wildest dreams in the same year to win an Everest and a Melbourne Cup,” Sokolski told The Australian. “They are so antithetical in their nature. One is the typical Sydney, glitz, glamour, new, bold and brazen. A disruptor. Then you’ve got the Melbourne Cup, the age-old traditional race steeped in history. They are both incredible events and races in their own right.”

Sean Mooney takes Melbourne Cup contender Finche into the water at Altona Beach last week. Picture: AAP

Tuesday is the biggest day on Australia’s racing calendar, but will come in a year when Victoria’s racing authorities have struggled to deal with vigorous competition from their NSW counterparts.

Television ratings for the new $7.5m Golden Eagle race meeting at Rosehill on Saturday were higher than those for a soggy Victoria Derby day at Flemington, while the $14m Everest overshadowed the Caulfield Cup two weekends earlier.

Chris Waller’s Melbourne Cup hopes Finche (left) and Youngstar during trackwork at Flemington. Picture: Getty Images

Finche has drawn a good position in barrier four, and represents trainer Chris Waller’s best chance of a maiden Melbourne Cup winner. Japanese sensation Mer De Glace, which won the Caulfield Cup in such impressive fashion, has firmed to favouritism at odds of about 7-1, just ahead of David Hayes’s Constantinople.

Sokolski and his cohort of owners may have the best pedigree in the race. Finche was originally owned by Saudi Arabian prince Khalid bin Abdullah Al Saud, best known as the owner of superstar British horse Frankel.

Sokolski now owns Finche along with the likes of Black Caviar part-owner Neil Wherett and Peter Tighe, part of Winx’s ownership group. “It is a privilege to train for a group of owners like this,” Waller says.

Sokolski runs property finance group MaxCap with business partner Wayne Lasky, which has about $4bn under management and is one of the country’s bigger commercial property funders. Its success has allowed him to spend more money on horses, and successfully badger plenty of clients to join him in the game.

“I’ve coerced a group into coming into a group of horses on the basis I’ve seen their A&L (assets and liabilities) and I wouldn’t take no for an answer,” he says with a laugh. “And of course it helps with your business, it fosters better ­relations. You spend time together, name it together, and go to events at the races together.”

Brae Sokolski, Chief Investment Officer at MaxCap, hopes to add the Melbourne Cup trophy to his collection tomorrow. Picture: Stuart McEvoy

That strategy has netted two fellow owners in both Finche and Yes Yes Yes from the property industry, Shane Quinn of Quint­essential Equity and Resimax Group founder Ozzie Kheir.

A win on Tuesday coupled with the success of Yes Yes Yes — valued at at least $40m after The ­Everest, given its results and post-career breeding value — would also be proof that Sokolski’s mixture of old-fashioned horse scouting and research overlaid with modern business nous could be a winning combination.

Yes Yes Yes was bought for $200,000 at last year's Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and Sokolski remembers carrying around a copy of the sale’s large catalogue in the lead-up.

“I was the subject of a lot of mockery from my friends,” he said. “We were on holidays and everywhere I go I’m carrying this catalogue. I was carrying it to the beach, the bar, dinner. There’s so much information in there, qualitative and quantitative. I’d work on it, refine it and bring my list down (of horses to buy).” That research led to him putting a $200,000 price tag on Yes Yes Yes. Sokolski didn’t budge and that is exactly what he got the horse for, overlaying it with then trainer Darren Weir’s more ­traditional approach.

Jockey Glen Boss rides Yes Yes Yes to victory in the Everest at Randwick last month. Picture: AAP

“A lot of people who are in the industry tend to be horse people, and quite instinctive. I tend to be quite cerebral about the way I analyse and work through my selection of horses. Applying the analytical skills has given me, to a certain ­extent, a competitive advantage.”

Finche has been a different story, Waller bringing it from ­Europe with a $2m price tag and onselling shares to various owners, including Sokolski.

He has had a big spring ­already, adding the Group II Hill Stakes at Randwick and the Group I Turnbull Stakes at Flemington last month to The Everest. It has also had its moments of controversy, with Sokolski last week accused of sexism after changing the rider of Derby hope Thought Of That from Linda Meech to Mark Zahra. Then there is his former relationship with Weir, who now faces animal cruelty charges, having been thrown out of racing for four years after being found with electric-shock devices known as “jiggers”. Sokolski says he was “shocked and disappointed” by the revelations. “He was a close personal friend … so it was difficult for me emotionally.”

He had to disperse about 40 horses to various trainers from Weir’s stables, many of which are now in the care of Waller.

Sokolski will be in the mounting yard pre-race on Tuesday when his horses compete and Waller saddles up Finche. “The Melbourne Cup is such a massive occasion. The amazing thing about racing is what other sport allows you to be part of it, not just sitting in the grandstand spectating?”