Prominent owner Brae Sokolski is used to celebrating big moments on the biggest stage.
He has toasted victories in the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and The Everest โ alongside friend and fellow mega-racing investor Ozzie Kheir.
But come Saturday afternoon at Caulfield, Sokolski will be feeling emotions of a deeper and more personal kind.
His new racing silks โ which courted controversy earlier this year because their original design resembled the Israeli flag โ will be carried for the first time in a group 1 race when born-again mare Changing Colours lines up for emerging trainer Lucy Yeomans in the $1 million Toorak Handicap (1600m).
โIrrespective of what happens, just having her in the race and competing in those colours is an amazing privilege,โ Sokolski told this masthead.
Sokolskiโs decision to quietly introduce his new silks in February was driven by his desire to show solidarity with the Jewish community after the October 7 terrorist attack and last yearโs Bondi Massacre.
But they were sensationally banned across Australia by racing authorities weeks later because of a nervousness around the war in the Middle East.
After a โlong, complicated processโ a compromise was reached.
โA part of me wanted to hold my ground and fight the fight, but I didnโt want the silks mired in controversy and negatively distract from what was inherently a positive, apolitical statement of Jewish strength and solidarity,โ Sokolski said.
Sokolski gave credit to former NSW racing supremo Peter VโLandys and Racing Victoria CEO Aaron Morrison, as well as the Racing Victoria board, for meeting him halfway.
They settled on a design that featured the Star of David, which he described as the โmost ubiquitous and universally recognised symbol of Judaismโ.
Sokolski describes the October 7 attacks as a โreal paradigm shift for me personallyโ that drove a realisation he needed to be more overt about his heritage.
โI was always proud to be Jewish, but it was never something that I felt the need to project,โ he said.
โBut October 7 changed everything. The Jewish people suffered their single largest loss of life since the Holocaust, and rather than evoking an outpouring of sympathy, it precipitated a wave of hatred and anti-semitism.
โJewish people have been part of this countryโs story since the First Fleet and this great nation gave so many of our families refuge following World War II.
โIn response, the Jewish community has embraced the Australian way of life and despite numbering only 100,000 people, made an immense, outsized contribution to this country.
โWhilst the thought of changing colours crossed my mind, it wasnโt until after the Bondi massacre that I resolved to do it and imbue my colours (which were previously a checked pattern of green, grey and black) with a much more visceral and meaningful design.
โI genuinely believe every Jewish person (and for that matter non-Jewish people alike) who has prominence in any particular domain has a duty to use that voice to its full capacity.
โAnd obviously, racing was one of those domains for me.โ
Sokolski said he was left heartbroken that his community started hiding symbols of Jewishness, such as Star of David jewellery, because they faced so much venom and feared for their personal security.
โSo part of my decision was about saying, โwe donโt have anything to hideโ,โ he said.
The symbolic link to his aptly named Toorak Handicap runner, Changing Colours, happened in July โ soon after Sokolski moved the mare to Yeomansโ boutique operation in Cranbourne because she was not suited to the big-stable environment of his main trainer, Chris Waller.
He said he phoned co-owner Kheir and asked to use his new silks โ a change from Kheirโs design of blue and pale-yellow dots โ because he expected the reinvigorated mare to win the rising stars final at Flemington on the same day as his 50th birthday celebrations.
โI had all my mates there (at my birthday), and a lot of them are Jewish, and I wanted nothing more than a horse to win on that day in my colours, the new colours,โ Sokolski said.
โOzzie said, โYeah, of courseโ. So thatโs the context in which we changed the colours on that day, and sheโs been undefeated since. Sheโs then reeled off four victories in a row, including the group 2 (Stocks Stakes at Caulfield last month).
โNow, obviously, Iโm just hopeful that she could be the first group 1 winner to carry those colours, and itโs actually a lot of firsts because it would be the first group 1 winner for the trainer, Lucy Yeomans, and itโd be the first group 1 winner for the jockey, Luke Cartwright.โ
Sokolski has one last point to make about his silks.
โThese colours arenโt just about me,โ he explained. โThese colours represent my family and I hope will be carried over generations to come. Most immediately by my nephew Ollie, whoโs obsessed with horse racing and later down the track by my beautiful son Wolfe, whoโs only eight months old but will hopefully be racing horses long after Iโm gone and carrying on the legacy of the Star of David silks.โ
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