Aussie billionaire digs deep for US-NZ plan

New Zealand harness racing, and two trainers in particular, are the first beneficiaries of a major new player in Australia which is investing millions of dollars in the industry.
Backed by one of the richest men in Australia, Queensland's Cold Mountain Stud has plans to lift the profile of the entire racing and breeding landscape in what promises to be a record injection of new blood.

The first sign of the stud's commitment came in Auckland yesterday with the release from quarantine of eight well-credentialled American pacers.
Four of the group are now bedding down in the Waiuku stable of Michelle Wallis, among them the 1:50.8 performer Fox Valley Appeal, while the others, including 1:48.8 pacer Spirit Of A Shark, are bound for the leading Canterbury stable of David and Catherine Butt.
The team, some of which will be prepared for the Melbourne Interdominions in February-March, cost $US600,000, but is just the tip of a swiftly growing juggernaut.
In the last few months Cold Mountain Stud has raided 60 horses, mostly from the east coast of the United States. One of its recent buys, Temptation, paced a record 1:49.1 mile at Colonial Downs last month, his ninth win for the season.
So far it has splurged $US1.5 million to stock the two properties it is developing in south-eastern Queensland.

Stables and fences are being built at the 80ha Lowood and 566ha Moore farms, worth $4 million, to house stallions and broodmares, which financial director Derek Payne hopes will "turn on a few lights" in the industry. Previously involved only at the hobby level, the directors of Cold Mountain Stud were now building a sizeable breeding and racing stable.
"We're looking at buying more horses," Payne said.
"It's a personal interest of the directors who want to bring a bit more life and excitement into harness racing and raise the standard of the industry for the benefit of everyone."
Payne said Cold Mountain Stud was a sideline for the directors of Mineralogy Pty Ltd., a small, but asset rich, privately owned company "with a great deal of mineral resources behind it."
Check out Mineralogy Pty Ltd and you'll discover he's not kidding.

The company is headed by Queenslander Clive Palmer, Australia's latest inductee to the exclusive billionaires' list.
In the annual BRW Rich 200, he is listed as being worth $A1 billion, a figure Palmer disputes should be more like $3 billion and rising.
Palmer, 52, a one-time property developer turned mining entrepreneur, is riding the crest of a boom in the price of iron ore, driven by China's modernisation.
Mineralogy holds the mining rights to more than 1000 sq km of land in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and in the last year has signed multi-billion dollar deals with Chinese steelmakers to mine just 10 sq km.

The company, explains Payne, operates in a different way from other big players.
It employs little more than a dozen people and does not get involved in any mining operations. Mineralogy does the primary exploration and makes the deposits available for others to "do the pick and shovel work."

Mineralogy has earned more than $A400 million upfront in the last year and will get nearly $A200 million a year in royalties from two mines which are flagged to produce magnetite for another 30 years.
It is estimated Mineralogy's entire area contains 50 billion tonnes of ore.
Palmer, who recently bought two Boeing MD-80 jets and a DC-9, was aware that racing was a business that took time, Payne said.
But Mineralogy's directors were an optimistic and confident crowd who have already booked corporate boxes for the semifinals and final of the Interdoms when they would hopefully be watching their own horses compete.

The eight pacers had been sent to New Zealand because their own properties were not yet set up for training and to sidestep any hassles with EI.
"We appreciate time is short. It's taken three months to get the horses here, with vaccinations against EI and quarantine in both countries. It will be difficult to get them to a high level of fitness in time but we're hoping."
Payne said Wallis and Butt were approached out of the blue to train the horses, both impressing the directors with their previous good records.
"We weren't specifically looking for beach trainers. But we're not likely to find that advantage here."

Payne said while Spirit Of A Shark and Fox Valley Appeal came with the fastest records, it was hard to know which horses would acclimatise best and adapt to a new style of training.
Payne said a decision had yet to be made which Kiwi trainer would be entrusted with their newly acquired eight win trotter, Racy Remarque (1:58.4) who flies into Auckland next week.