For once, broker is happy to see his shares dropping

By Patrick Bartley | Original article from The Age

At 44, Perth stockbroker Eddie Rigg is determined to make his horse-racing ventures fun. The owner of almost 100 horses, he wants his family, close friends and his favourite charities to share in the joy of racing horses.

Today Rigg flies into Melbourne hoping to watch his three-year-old Bliss Street win the $500,000 Thousand Guineas at Caulfield, a group 1 classic for fillies.

But from the time Rigg clinched the deal to buy Bliss Street his holdings in the daughter of Flying Spur seem to have decreased by the day.

After Bliss Street was passed in at the Magic Million Sale on the Gold Coast two years ago a deal was struck with her breeder, Yarraman Park Stud, that Rigg buy the yearling for $100,000 subject to the stud retaining a 20 per cent holding.

Once the filly arrived in Perth, Rigg did what he does every year and auctioned off 10 per cent of her, which he donates to his former school.

"I'm a fourth-generation Aquinas College boy here in Perth and they were in need of a bit of funding pretty quickly and with a boy in year 11 at the school I thought help was needed.

"So I put 10 per cent up and two couples paid a total of $30,000 for the share.

"At the time I thought privately, 'gee they have paid out at bit for her', but after her few starts it became a very cheap share," Rigg said.

Last year Rigg did the same and donated a 10 per cent share in a Fastnet Rock filly to another charity, Passages Resource Centre, which deals specifically with the plight of street kids in Perth. Another businessman, Keith Biggs, paid $22,000 for the share.

While Rigg was confident about his investment in Bliss Street he was uneasy, thinking that something - or someone - was missing. His long-time friend and co-owner in many of his horses, Ron Sayers, had knocked back the offer of a share in the filly.

The two men were at Ascot on April 2 and Bliss Street was running in the WA Sires Produce.

"We were having a pretty funny shot at each other over why he didn't want to be a part of the action. It went back and forth and both of us were teasing each other," Rigg recalls. "This backchat went on and on and I looked up at the TV screen and it said that [Bliss Street's] race was due to start in three minutes.

"I knew time was running out so I said, 'Let's do it this way. You can have 35 per cent of her at my price if she wins and you can have 35 per cent at your price if she gets beaten," Rigg said. Bliss Street raced away to win by two lengths and before correct weight had been signalled Rigg's one-time 80 per cent holding had dropped to 35 per cent.

"What happened that day is a couple of loyal friends having a bit of banter and then we struck a deal that suited all of us and as a bonus we got a laugh out of it as well," he said.

Rigg said that Bliss Street, who is striving to achieve group 1 status at Caulfield today, is the true racehorse who leaves all her quirky ways behind her when she arrives on the racetrack.

"Not a problem at the races but she can really hit the roof when she gets on the float," he said.

"In fact, the local transport company here told me that she was the worst traveller they had had in the past five years."

Bliss Street, on the strength of a Caulfield win and Flemington second at her past two starts, is a $21 chance for the Thousand Guineas - which is being dominated by the Mark Kavanagh-trained Atlantic Jewell at $1.50.

Bliss Street's trainer Dan Morton is no stranger to major races, being the man behind world-class sprinter Scenic Blast, who just returned from the US to make a comeback here.

Today, Rigg won't care what percentage he has if his filly manages to win because, after all, it's a bit of fun.