Big Man Hopes For A Bigger Dividend

Sydney Morning Herald

Wednesday October 22, 2008

Stephen Howell.

WNathan Tinkler might not have much to say but his investment in thoroughbred breeding speaks volumes, writes Stephen Howell.

hen you are as big as Nathan Tinkler in racing - and only Dubai's Sheikh Mohammed, through his Darley empire, has invested more in the Australian thoroughbred this century - it is hard to go unnoticed when you walk on to a track. And it is hard to dodge the media.

At Moonee Valley yesterday, Tinkler politely said no when asked for an interview at Breakfast with the Best, a key lead-in event to Saturday's Cox Plate.

Several minutes later a second try fared better and the 32-year-old talked very generally of his spend, founded on money made from coalmining investment and reported to be hurtling towards $150 million, perhaps even $200m.

And then, within the hour, he was left with no choice but to open up even more, caught on stage - and on radio - as Sport 927's Steve Moran took advantage of Tinkler's presence in front of a full house at the Cox Plate barrier draw.

The inevitable joke - "How do you end up with a small fortune in racing? Start with a large one" - had an airing. The response? "I've had one or two people say that to me," Tinkler said. "I'm passionate about it, and I can."

BRW magazine recently named Tinkler, worth about $440 million, as the richest businessman in Australia under 40. He said yesterday mining was his core business, with racing and breeding his passion, and that he did not have to worry about "winning the eighth race in Sydney" to pay everyone.

The set-up costs have been enormous, and ongoing bills are also huge, with more than 200 yearlings - now two-year-olds - and scores of older racehorses, a large pack of broodmares (including some bought overseas) and three stallions - Casino Prince, Beautiful Crown and Wonderful World - on properties he has bought and renamed Patinack Farm in the Hunter Valley.

Anthony Cummings, son of legend Bart Cummings and a successful trainer in his own right, has the bulk of the Patinack horses. Asked this year how many he had, he famously replied, "How long is a piece of string?" Others are with several trainers, including Victorians Mick Price, Tony Noonan and Mark Kavanagh.

Tinkler, born in Port Macquarie but raised in Brisbane, has been a rare visitor to Victorian tracks but is often seen - although rarely heard - on NSW courses. He approached Cummings last year and their partnership has grown exponentially.

"It's pretty huge," the trainer said yesterday. "He's absolutely a one-off - I don't think that takes much working out - but it's just a sensational opportunity for me. We are obviously pretty keen to get the team together and build a successful racing business.

"Essentially these things take about five years to put together ... and right now the majority of horses are babies. They're going to take their time to get through and get to the track.

"In three years' time we'll have our own on the ground, the sons and daughters of Casino Prince, Wonderful World, Beautiful Crown, Teranaba ... as well as the stallions that we'll make. There's the basis of a pretty strong racing empire there."

Asked if he might become, almost exclusively, Patinack's trainer, Cummings said: "I'm just going to train the fastest group of horses I can find [but] plainly it's headed that way. I've said to him [Tinkler] a couple of times, while this is a sensational opportunity for us it's also got the potential to bury us. It's something we both need to be mindful of."

Tinkler said he did not wake up one day and find he had "300 broodmares and 300 yearlings - it was more ramping up".

"What we're doing is pretty much based on the Woodlands model," he said of the racing-breeding empire set up by Jack and Bob Ingham and bought this year by the sheikh for more than $500m. "We had to go around originally and buy a lot of horses. We basically had to stock our ranks, buy into a lot of the better bloodlines and that sort of thing.

"We've had to get horses broken in - 260 yearlings is a big job, and getting them placed and not actually having our own place to control all that has been a bit of an immediate task ...

"We haven't sort of tipped our toe in the water ... we bought to the numbers that we wanted, what we thought we could cater for."

Asked if he was media shy, Tinkler, carrying The Australian Financial Review, said: "Oh no, I'm just a busy man, mate. First and foremost I'm a businessman. I do all this to enjoy the business, reporting on it is not really my scene."

First prize in the Cox Plate is $1.8m. If Tinkler's roughie Raheeb ($41) wins it will be worth much more than that to Patinack.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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