A good number of members from Mathew de Kock’s new Onamission Syndicate arrived in jolly spirits at Turffontein on Saturday to see the debut of their two-year-old, Puget Sound, who had to win first time out to secure his place in the R1-million Kuda Sprint on Met Day, and did just that to their great delight!

Mathew, with the help of the Listed Purple Group’s CEO Charles Savage and Brand Executive Carel Nolte, devised a concept loosely based on Purple’s Easy Equities, the award-winning stock market platform, where people of all income groups have an opportunity of investing in shares, or proportions of shares – the central idea being to get to the broadest investor base possible and to draw new blood into the shares arena.

At Easy Equities clients can buy into, for example, the R2,000-plus Naspers share for as little as R5 – Puget Sound was syndicated in blocks of 1% at a cost of just over R3,000, including training fees and related costs for a full year.

The Puget Sound syndication offer drew 17 shareholders from four different countries who took up about 50% of the shares between them, the other fifty went to the 125 grooms and staff in the stable.

As luck, or fate, or Mike de Kock’s skill in picking good horses, would have it, Puget Sound, a R120,000 purchase at the CTS Ready To Run Sale last November, showed progress to the extent that he could be prepared for a shot at the new Kuda Sprint, as a qualifying sales graduate.

Puget Sound is by Sail From Seattle from a mare by Trempolino and bred for a mile, so the fact that he could win in the gutsy fashion he did over 1000m bodes well for the future.  “He showed a lot of courage, well done to the Mdk team,” tweeted jockey Gavin Lerena on Sunday after he got the green Puget Sound to respond again late to surge ahead in the final few strides.

Syndicate members on the Puget Sound WhatsApp group went bananas after he’d crossed the line, with congratulations ringing around the world.

“So fairytales do happen,” messaged Mike de Kock from Dubai. “”Matt you’ve made me extremely proud with this initiative, you are an example to many youngsters in this industry. It takes courage and a real love for the game to follow through on ideas like these. Secondly, many thanks to all involved for your support of the stable, to Gavin for a great ride and to Charles for his for his friendship and inspiration of Matt. You will all have a lot of fun with this horse!”

Mathew was emotional on Saturday and said on Sunday: “This was an unbelievable start for the syndicate. Puget Sound pulled up sound and well after his run.”