THE MIDWEEK INTERVIEW - WITH KOBIE O'BRIEN

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, August 9, 2023

When a crowd of young racing enthusiasts erupted in the grandstand at Eagle Farm as Nikau Spur stormed to victory on the final Saturday of last season, the scenes of joy epitomized the pleasure of racing in an ownership group with like-minded mates. The fact that Nikau Spur carried the now highly distinctive colours of KO Racing to the KO brand its fiftieth success gave the win extra meaning, but, in truth, while achieving a landmark victory was very satisfying for the KO team, it, more importantly, gave them another opportunity to demonstrate that if you bring the right attitude to the game … as KO Racing does … it can give you so much in return. HRO’s Graham Potter asked Kobie O’Brien, the principal of KO Racing, about the back-story of KO Racing and how his syndication business has evolved.

GP: “Let’s start at the very beginning. KO Racing … what was your background in racing before taking on the syndication challenge and how did you go about it once you decided to back yourself?”

O’BRIEN: “I grew up in Barcaldene and Longreach … went to boarding school in Rockhampton and stayed there afterwards which was where I got my introduction into racing. In Rockhampton I had mates who had horses with Tom Button. I ended up doing a bit of work for Tommy. I guess you could say I worked as his racing manager for a little bit, and he taught me the ins and outs of finding clients and selling horses … especially tried horses … and how best to communicate with potential owners. He’s a good businessman Tommy. I learnt a lot from him.”

GP: “So you had a good grounding. What happened next? Did you get itchy feet?”

O’BRIEN: “I sold a couple of yearlings here and there and got a few owners in. I really got a taste for it and started thinking I could be doing the same thing for myself.”

GP: “Always a great idea to work for yourself, but it is not always the easiest of transitions to get there. Is that how you found it?”

O’BRIEN: “Yeah, the difference between what others were doing and what I wanted to do for myself was that I didn’t have a budget, but I went ahead and bought my first horse for $500.”

GP: “How were the nerves when you made that first purchase?”

O’BRIEN: “Oh there were nerves … big time. Even though it was only $50 for a ten percent share, I still had to find nine other blokes to come into the horse. You’ve got to start somewhere, don’t you! The horse’s name was Froze. Bevan Johnson trained it out west and he’s won eleven races and earned $105 335."

GP: “Not a bad opening shot. Now you were on your way.”

O’BRIEN: “Yeah. I grew that stable from one to maybe four or five out west … Longreach, Barceldene, Charters Towers, Tarroom … those sort of places, and, after a while, naturally you want to expand the profile a bit, you know … small steps, like win a race on tv or something like that.

GP: “KO Racing is now firmly entrenched with the Corey and Kylie Geran stable and you guys have shared in considerable success … taking the brand all the way to metropolitan victories. How did that relationship come about.”

O’BRIEN: “I can talk all day about this. My best mate Corey … when I first got in contact with him he only had three or four horses in work down here at the Sunny Coast. Two of them were twenty-start maidens that he bought for about $800 … and he won six races in one prep with one horse.

“I just sent him a message saying looks like things are going well there … you are finding twenty lengths with these Northen Rivers maidens, and they are winning races all around the show … and so we decided to team up.”

GP: “And you’ve come a long way from there, obviously. Was there any particular moment when things took off for you guys?”

O’BRIEN: “Our big break came with a horse named Vinasta, a former Tony Gollan trained horse. Corey and I bought the mare and she has won eight races for us including the Amateurs Cup at Dalby, the Gympie Muster Cup. There are seventeen people in the ownership group of Vinasta, and they love it. There is so much fun to be had on the country circuit.

“We don’t mind where we have to go to win races. With the business model we have usually go where the party is … you know, the Birdsville Cup’s, the Roma Cups, Goondiwindi … and, as I say, Vinasta, she won three or four races in our country cups model last year … and we will try to emulate that with a couple of horses every year. That combination of a good time and success is what draws the owners in.”

GP: “You’ve got a fair number of people you signed up … but the trick to your business, I would think, is to keep playing it forward. Again, in a sport in which there are no guarantees, that must be easier said than done?”

O’BRIEN: “I think one thing we do well is that we are good at marketing. No one misses the winners and, thankfully, we’ve been getting plenty of them. The only way to replicate the feeling of winning races is to win more races … and to do that consistently you have to buy more horses.

“We spend hours and hours on tried horses auction sites. We put a lot of work on there trying to identify horses with an upside and then, as far as we can, trying to buy the right horses, picking low rated horses with a long term goal … like we’ll be looking for and picking out a Roma Cup horse now although the Roma Cup is only in November."

GP: “So, what is the total number of horses you have in training at the moment?”

O’BRIEN: “I think I have twenty-seven horses racing in my colours at the moment with Corey and Kylie. Of all the horses we have raced together only two of them haven’t won a race … so, we have a fair runners-to-winners strike-rate.”

GP: “So, what’s next?”

O’BRIEN: “I suppose, from this point forward, once again expansion is on the cards. I’d like to take KO Racing to the highest level it can go to. That doesn’t happen overnight does it … but I think we are well on track … we have plenty of support … we bought the right horses for our model to succeed so far … Corey, in partnership with Kylie, is obviously a very, good upcoming trainer … and there really isn’t any limit to what you can do if you do it right.”

GP: “The learning curve never stops though, does it.”

O’BRIEN: “Exactly right. You see some of the biggest syndicators in Australia expanding up to Queensland now and I take note of what each and every one of them are doing and see what they are doing well … and, without getting ahead of myself … I then have a look to see how I can do that better.

“My first runner in the KO Racing colours was in 2019. We’ve hit fifty winners and counting now. I read the other day that Dynamic Syndications just surpassed 800 winners, but they did have a big start on us.” (A thirty-three-year start, no less, with Dynamic Syndications having launched in 1986).

“So far we have worked the market on a different level to them in the market … they service the higher end where they are every well established. We know the level we are at and it is one that suits us at this stage as we have a very positive demographic that we market to with great support … and we are very grateful to have that.

“With Corey and myself, and a couple of other people who are in in with me, we are committed and we have got age on our side. We are young, very driven and determined. Coupled with the success we have already had, I think we have a few things going for us, not least having key people in key positions like Gary Geran, a champion jockey who, apart from his riding skills, is invaluable to the team just for the advice he can offer.”

GP: “Keeping customers satisfied? With all of the different characters you can get in a syndicate, is it hard to line up, meet and sustain an overall satisfaction level amongst all of them?”

O’BRIEN: “Of course, different people come into the syndicate with different expectations, particularly new owners and that can play out in different ways. For example, we’ve been the victim of our own success at times because if you win three or four races very quickly, that becomes the benchmark for their expectations, which will be hard to satisfy at times.

“We try to think it through to give us a spread of decent winning options. We try to win two or three races a prep, particularly with the tried horses. Corey is a master at placing them.

“We had horses compete in the Rockhampton feature races this year and, at the end of the Winter Carnival, when the horses from the south went back home, we wanted to have a few horses that were competitive in metro races and then there are the country cups at the end of the year … that will be a series we will target."

GP: "Any parting shot?"

O'BRIEN: "Just to say I'm happy where I am and I'm happy where KO Racing is heading. If we can consistently move along with our model and then expand on it again at the right time, we are going to be well on track to where we want to get to.”

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