By: Jo Johnson - Racing Queensland Ownership Partner
Dusty Tycoon and her huge ownership group are off to the Magic Millions!
Beautiful 2yo filly Dusty Tycoon has had two wins from two starts and her ecstatic owners seem to be taking over the world, well the racetracks anyway! When Racing Queensland partnered with miRunners to help grow racehorse ownership in the Sunshine State, we could not have imagined that it would all get quite this big. I am thrilled to be enjoying this ride with this huge group of new owners, many of whom never thought they would have the opportunity to own a racehorse, let alone one as good as this filly.
The support shown by connections on racedays for Dusty Tycoon is amazing. Following the big turn out at Sunshine Coast a couple of weeks ago, Dusty's owners flooded into Doomben on Saturday, out and proud wearing their Dusty Tycoon and I ❤️ MY RACEHORSE caps and pins. 40 owners were lucky enough to win the ballot that miRunners conduct whenever one of their horses runs, and attended the races with an ‘owners’ ticket. 20 of these had full owner privileges, including Members, Connections House, mounting yard and winners room. The other 20 had owner guest privileges which included Members and Connections House. Another 120 owners were given General Admission tickets (courtesy of Racing Queensland) and enjoyed a special area set up for them by the Brisbane Racing Club (BRC). A big thank you to the BRC for setting up this area for us! In addition to these people, there were the paying guests that attended with them and those owners who had members tickets and/or are BRC members. It's difficult to calculate exactly how many Dusty fans were on course but it must have been somewhere around the 250 mark at least. Dusty Tycoon fever well and truly took over Doomben on Saturday! WATCH RACE REPLAY BELOW.
Everyone supporting Dusty took turns to go to the stalls to see her before the race, so as not to overwhelm the other owners and their horses. When it was time for the two year olds to parade, even though the mounting yard was several people deep, they were all very quiet and conscious of not upsetting the young horses. During and immediately after the race, however, noise levels grew to grand final proportions as Dusty's many connections cheered for their girl. After the race, the 20 owners who were lucky enough to get access to the enclosure and winners room loved being part of everything that comes with owning a winning racehorse. As for Rob Heathcote, what a fantastic job he is doing, not only with Dusty but also in regards to communicating with this huge group of owners. When Rob addressed the majority of the owners after the race it was as though Elvis had entered the room!
As for Dusty Tycoon herself, this filly has an amazing temperament and takes it all in her huge stride. She is already a star – on and off the track. The fact that she has all the makings of a great racehorse is just one of the reasons her many owners love her. If you went to the Heathcote stables on a stable visit day, you would see Dusty calmly picking grass while a large group of owners and fans of all ages congregate around, just to be close to her. People are allowed to pat her one at a time while she is out and she cannot get enough of the pats. When the visit is over she looks out of her box wanting more pats. She loves her people as much as they love her. Dusty really is the people's pony. We just hope she doesn't get lonely on her well earned mini break!
Of course the other reason for such epic excitement on Saturday, was that the win meant Dusty has qualified for the 2020 Magic Millions. We can only imagine what the scenes at Gold Coast Turf Club Aquis Park are going to be like on 11 January! Stay tuned!
If you’d love to be part of the Racing Queensland miRunners ownership journey there are still units available in another stunning two-year-old filly, Northern Thunder (Snitzel x Typing), which is with Munce Racing. There is also the yet to be named two-year-old filly (Exceed And Excel x Fate Rules) with Toby Edmonds. For more information and to buy a unit in either of these exciting fillies CLICK HERE
