A brave, sound horse is often better to own than a star who is plagued with problems. Mathew de Kock’s Onamission Syndicate was fortunate to obtain as its first runner Puget Sound, who won his third race from 12 starts at Turffontein last Saturday and has earned his connections over a quarter-million in stakes.

Three-year-old Puget Sound often gets visits in the yard from the Onamission Syndicate members, some of the over 100 in total as Mike de Kock’s grooms also own small shares. He’s a popular horse because he has a big heart, he tries his best and he is versatile, having won from 1000m to 1450m to 2000m, showing that he doesn’t lack class either.

Puget Sound battled gamely to win.

In each of his wins Puget Sound looked beaten and came back again to win well. On Saturday he made most of the running over the tough Turffontein 2000, was headed about 250m out and came back again to clinch victory under a good ride from Ryan Munger.

Puget Sound was a R120,000 purchase from the CTS Ready To Run Sale in Johannesburg in 2016 and his owners have only paid their small individual shares of the purchase price and customised training packages so far – nothing else since the first month, and he’s brought them lots of pleasure.

“The handicappers have raised Puget Sound’s rating back to 92, we are running out of races this season so we’ll consider giving him a short break, he may even improve as a four-year-old,” said Mathew.

The syndicate’s two-year-old Saint Etienne makes his debut over 1400m at Turffontein on Saturday.