WHEN all your business days and most of your weekends revolve around horseracing – for more than two decades, chances are you’ve given a chunk of that time to the sometimes heartwarming, often heartbreaking pastime of owning thoroughbreds. You have no choice, really.  Racehorse ownership pumps relentlessly through the veins and becomes addictive.

Chris Haynes and Gary Grant of the Equine Group have had their fair share of ups and downs but are no strangers to the winner’s enclosure. While looking after the racing interests of several high-profile owners, they’ve jointly owned shares of five South African Gr1 winners themselves including the former Mike de Kock-trained Fair Maiden, Thundering Star and Zirconeum, Brett Crawford’s 2014 KZN Fillies Guineas winner Maybe Yes and Mike’s Viscount Nelson, a Gr2 winner in Dubai in 2012.

Will I Do: Black type potential.

There have been a number of disappointments and they’ve thrown more money at the wonderful hobby than they care to remember, but Chris and Gary have kept coming back for more, soldiering on and taking ownership shares in runners whenever they’ve become available.

In recent months the “Beverage Stewards”, a nickname coined by Mike many years ago, have enjoyed an exciting run of winners.  The developing careers of their mentioned Maybe Yes, Kindle, World Domination and the hard-galloping grey three-year-old Will I Do, a fluent winner at Turffontein on Saturday, hold any amount of promise.

Will I Do, in particular, is a filly that is close to the heart of the Equine Group’s proprietors and Gary spoke affectionately about this “very special” filly on Saturday evening.

He told: “Five years ago Chris and I bought Midlands Equine Enterprises (Pty) Ltd from Malcolm Phillips.  The jewel in the crown was the mare Palace Bride who had a Silvano colt at foot and was again in foal to Silvano at the time.  Within eight months we sold on all the mares barring Palace Bride.

“The colt at foot was Crown Of Gold (who ended up winning six races including two PE Gold Cups and the Glenair Trophy) and we were quite disappointed to only get just over R 200 000 for him.  The following year we sold Ze Kaizer (3 wins, Graded placed) for R 700 000.  The mare went back to Western Winter in search of a full brother or sister to Silver Mist, who had run second in the Queens Plate and won the Al Rashidiya in the mist in Dubai for Mike. Named Evening Storm, by my daughter, Paige, he was knocked down for R1,25 million to be the most expensive yearling we have ever bred.

“Palace Bride went to Tiger Ridge and relocated from Craig Carey at Arc en Ciel to Wilgerbosdrift.  Not long after foaling down with Will I Do, the mare succumbed to colic and the foal was orphaned.  Being a filly and the last out the mare we decided to keep her and she was never offered at a sale.

“I don’t think Chris and I own a horse where Mike is not a partner with us.  Will I Do had been in training for quite some time before we managed to twist Mike’s arm (ok to be fair you don’t have to twist Mike’s arm as he is one of the most generous and genuine men on the planet) into taking a leg.  Our partnership would not be complete without Chris’ brothers Andrew and Doug so we roped them in late too.  The only partner missing was the matriarch Helen Haynes and to pay homage to a magnificent lady that played such a huge role in all our lives, Will I Do races in the late Helen’s colors.

“For the record Will I Do is by Tiger Ridge, was raised at Wilgerbosdrift and is a half sister to Group 2 winner Shades Of Indigo, who was Group 1 placed, to Group 3 winner Silver Mist, Listed winner Crown Of Gold and stakes placed winner Ze Kaizer.  On the strength of her win today, she too may have some black type in her.”

(More in Mike’s review of this week’s winners).