About Us
Platinum Racing born from the EI disaster
Platinum Racing Pty Ltd rose out of the ashes of the Equine Influenza (EI) outbreak that crippled the racing industry in NSW and Qld – a dark period in the thoroughbred industry in this country that saw many people turn their back on the game and others faced with many years of hard work to recover from.
Sydney businessman John Schrank had just purchased a large number of horses in Queensland when the EI outbreak occurred, that were bought by his company, Platinum Lodge Pty Ltd. I was operating on a much smaller scale, via my company Joorilans Racing Pty Ltd.
EI threatened to be the end of both outfits. The financial burden the outbreak placed on many participants in the industry was devastating and smaller operations, like Joorilans, were going to find it very difficult to ride out the storm.
A chance meeting between John and I (organised by my long-time friend Peter Richards) saw us look at ways of not only forming a new company and bringing in the two racing portfolios but at ways that we could find new investors in a very bleak period where people had just simply (in the main) stopped investing in racing in SE Qld and most of NSW because of the uncertainty that EI thrust on the industry.
But we needed help to pull it all together and I relied on my Asian staff Lu Guo Hao and translator Lingjian Jia to help and Han Qinyung and Li Jiabao joined the team and Platinum Racing Pty Ltd was born.
Joorilans had a variety of smaller shareholders, mainly friends of mine from both Australia and Asia and Platinum Lodge was solely owned by John Schrank.
Platinum has great vision for the future with clients from both here and Asia and our extensive racing operation and our breeding program being based at Eagle Park Stud at Orange.
We also intend to expand our metropolitan base and the number of horses we have in work in metropolitan Australia. The company will continue to expand with horses expected to carry the company's colours in both Singapore and Malaysia in the next 12 months and we will also be looking at expanding our export capability into Macau.
At the time of writing, Platinum Racing has over 51 horses on its books.
As with all major racing operations, horses will come and go and we will continually keep you updated on the website. Furthermore Platinum does not intend to be a passive participant in the industry. We will be putting forward ideas, particularly as they relate to country racing, to the new board of Racing NSW.
Currently we are in the process of putting together a blueprint for consideration which will make it easier for trainers and racing outfits in Australia to acquirre overseas personnel, particularly in the riding ranks as trackwork riders are indeed a scarcity for city and country stables alike and jockeys in rural and regional Australia are also very thin on the ground.
I hope you enjoy the ride with Platinum Racing and I look forward to hearing from you.
Regards,
Gary Knight