CONGRATULATIONS DATO

They are now arguably the most famous silks in racing: black and white checks, yellow sleeves, black and white checked cap.
They were the colours carried to Caulfield Guineas-G1 success by God’s Own (below) in 2005, Wonderful World in the Guineas a year later, by Horse of the Year Saintly (1996), Catalan Opening (Doncaster Handicap) and, of course, last year’s Melbourne Cup winner Viewed.
But this spring, the owner of those silks – Dato Tan Chin Nam – has had a run of phenomenal success with Viewed winning the Caulfield Cup, So You Think taking out the Cox Plate and, today, Faint Perfume snaring the Crown Oaks.
And it would have been interesting to see how much Viewed would have improved on his Melbourne Cup seventh given a trouble free run.
While we’re still on the subject of Viewed, his dam Lover’s Knot has produced a lovely God’s Own filly (17 September) for breeder Ian Johnson and you can be fairly certain that if this baby goes to a yearling sale, the first one knocking on the stable door will be Bart Cummings!
Dato Tan Chin Nam has raced some 200 horses with Bart over the past 30 years and, while it sounds like a lot of neddies, the strike rate at the highest level would warrant such numbers.
Dato Tan Chin Nam has been a huge property developer and one of the richest man in Malaysia and, it seems, has a passion for chess, setting up the Big Dragon Project in China.
He certainly seems to have all the right moves in racing!

(Dato Tan Chin Nam, along with Bart Cummings, Yallambee Stud and Eliza Park, is a major shareholder in God’s Own who has stood at Eliza Park since 2006).