Itโs taken 10 years and about 30 horses for Anya and Paul Podbury to find Shockletz, the Australasian-bred mare who will realise the Woodend coupleโs lifelong ambition of owning a Melbourne Cup runner.
The first step in former Richmond footballer Justin Pickeringโs path to Juja Kibo started during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he and a few mates landed juicy quaddies in Melbourne and Sydney on the same day.
Then thereโs vet Rob McInnes, who got extremely lucky โ then felt the wrath of the racing gods. He liked the horse he was inspecting so much, he bought a share. That horse was Defiantly, one of the favourites in this yearโs great race โ until his withdrawal on Saturday morning.
Of all the cherished items in Australian sport โ think the premiership trophies of the AFL and NRL or cricketโs baggy green โ the Melbourne Cup is the one that is attainable to the average punter. Theoretically.
Deep pockets help, of course, but through racehorse syndication everyday mums and dads with the unfashionably bred horse can knock off the bluebloods of the rich and famous.
As has become the norm over the past 15 years or so, this yearโs field has predominantly come from Europe, arriving on these shores after being bought by bloodstock agents for leading syndicators and owners.
Jamie Lovett, a director for one of the countryโs biggest syndication companies Australian Bloodstock, spends hours watching replays from races in Europe, studying form and cross-referencing times and measurements.
He also has a global team of about eight or nine, mainly on the ground in Europe, including jockeys and trackwork riders, who feed him intel.
โThereโs a lot of tentacles to the business to try and land on the right horses,โ Lovett said.
Based in Australia, he does not see many of the horses he buys in the flesh. That, he said, is the job of his vets. Once a horse is identified, Lovett approaches its owners or buys it at sales. He bought a few just last week from the Tattersalls sales in the UK.
Australian Bloodstock, which generally has about 100 to 150 thoroughbreds at a time on its books, has had two Cup winners in its silks โ Protectionist (2014) and Gold Trip (2022), both from Europe.
The European imports do not come cheap, their price tags swelled by the demand from Australian interests desperate to find a cups horse, and the market in the Middle East searching for talent to run at Dubaiโs lucrative World Cup meeting.
Gold Trip, who had come fourth in Franceโs famous LโArc de Triomphe in 2020, cost about $2 million, which, at the time, was the most expensive horse Lovett had bought.
Australian Bloodstock have three runners in this yearโs race โ Royal Supremacy, Vauban and Wine Dark Sea. A fourth, the aforementioned Defiantly, failed a vet test.
Royal Supremacy, bought as a three-year-old after a third in the Italian Derby โ one of Europeโs lesser derbies โ โwouldnโt have been top of the topโ, Lovett said.
โYouโre not buying for $200,000 to $300,000, put it that way,โ Lovett said.
In a cruel irony for those involved with Defiantly, a half-brother to last yearโs Cox Plate runner-up Buckaroo and Melbourne Cup placegetter Middle Earth, the gelding had impressed McInnes so much during an inspection for Australian Bloodstock the vet shelled out $18,500 for a 2.5 per cent share.
โHe was sound, beautifully natured, and everything was clean with his X-rays,โ McInnes said before Defiantlyโs withdrawal. โHis demeanour was good.โ
Presciently, he had also likened owning a horse to having a โTattslotto ticket on four legsโ.
Pickering, then, has found the winning ticket three times. Thatโs how many of the dozen or so horses he has part-owned who have run in the Cup. The former Richmond wingman played his 59 V/AFL games in the 1980s and โ90s, long before the money could set you up for life.
McInnesโ in was through his vet work. Pickeringโs came through a friend of a friend.
He is part of several syndicates, many run by his mate Gerard Mulcahy, who lives next door to Mick Johnston and his wife Alise. Mulcahy often gets tipped into horses from the Johnstons, and relays the information to Pickering and his friends.
Their foray into racehorse ownership started during the many COVID-19 lockdowns when he and his friends started punting together to stay connected. After one particularly successful day, they decided to plunge their winnings into a horse.
It landed them in an imported stayer called Delphi, who won the Herbert Power in 2021 on his way to seventh in that yearโs Melbourne Cup. They kept rolling their slice of the prizemoney into more horses.
โWe occasionally take a dividend just to prove to our wives that it is profitable with racehorses,โ Pickering joked.
Their next star was another European stayer, Circle Of Fire, who won the 2024 Sydney Cup, worth $1.3 million to the winner. He ran sixth later that year in the big one.
Their latest horse is Juja Kibo. There are 15 in the Happy Hippo syndicate who splashed out about $30,000 โ or about $2000 each โ for a 10 per cent share in the Ciaron Maher-trained gelding. They have even produced their own merchandise โ stubby holders and ties adorned with Juja Kiboโs distinctive racing colours.
Many of them were at Flemington on Cox Plate Day when the six-year-old booked his ticket into Tuesdayโs race with victory in the $750,000 Moonee Valley Cup.
โIt was so good โ you turn around and hug one of your best mates,โ Pickering said. โItโs not going to be good for my health if he happens to win. Iโm willing to take that risk.โ
They were back at headquarters on Saturday night for the barrier draw, cheering loudly when their stayer drew gate 14 of 24. Itโs been a nervous few days for Pickering, his wife Sally, and the Happy Hippo syndicate.
โFor some reason, this oneโs keeping me up at night just thinking about it,โ Pickering said. โIโve loved the way heโs gone about it and genuinely think heโs a fair chance.โ
The Podburys have gone down a different route to finding their Cup runner. Folk like them are racingโs lifeblood โ passionate owners who love sharing the thrill of raceday with friends and family.
They have part-owned about 30 horses โ just a few per cent each time. Several have been with prominent owner Laurence Eales, who won the 2009 Melbourne Cup with Shocking and owned the cult hero Whobegotyou. The Podburysโ best is sprinting mare Benedetta, who won Adelaideโs group 1 Goodwood in 2024 and banked nearly $2.4 million in her career.
They bought into Benedetta with the prizemoney won by another of Ealesโ horses Horrifying, a son of Shocking who banked about $300,000 in a month in 2022.
As the Podburysโ relationship with Eales grew, they were invited to lunch at South Melbourneโs OโConnellโs Hotel to discuss a 10 per cent share for $7500 in Horrifyingโs unraced sister, which he had bred in New Zealand. That filly was Shockletz.
There are seven in the Podburysโ Plodalong โ Zelt syndicate, each paying just over $1000 for a share in a mare that is one of the leading chances in the race.
The beauty of buying an untried horse, such as Shockletz, is the lower cost, though the risk is higher as there is no exposed form to assess.
Like the major syndicators purchasing stock from Europe, Paul, an accountant, studies form and watches trials as part of his due diligence before buying. On this occasion, he bought on trust from their positive experience racing with Eales.
โYouโre not guaranteeing a collect, but youโre buying a known commodity to a certain extent, you know thereโs some ability there, rather than buying a two-year-old stayer,โ Paul said. โWe were pretty lucky.โ
As the saying goes, the best way to make a small fortune in racing is to start with a large one. Asked if they are ahead financially, Anya says: โyes โ with gritted teethโ.
โIf you did it for money, it would be unwise. You have to be prepared to invest knowing you may not get money back,โ Anya said.
For the Podburys, itโs the romance of the turf. Anya has loved the Cup since she was a kid watching the race at primary school in Port Fairy.
โThis is 10-year-old Anya talking now,โ she said. โI dreamed of playing for Hawthorn, which in the โ80s and โ90s was not possible, and the other dream was having a runner in the Melbourne Cup.
โThe people who own Shockletz, weโre normal, average people who work every day, have families and kids. We live a conservative lifestyle, we donโt go overseas; our treat is racing. It absolutely can happen to the average person. Thatโs the magic of it.โ
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