They say you can tell a lot about a man by the company with which he keeps horses. Actually, we have no record of anyone ever having uttered that sentence before, but it fits the narrative for this item – so work with us.
As the fallout continues from the sex scandals that have sensationally gripped their two organisations in the past week, Seven CEO Tim Worner and AFL chief Gil McLachlan can at least take some comfort in the fact that if it all goes belly-up, they can continue to indulge their mutual love of owning racehorses … mutually.
The long-time friends and business associates are part owners of the three-year-old bay filly, My Girl Chilly (wonder who came up with that name?) – a GG trained by Jarrod McLean down in Warrnambool and whose track record to date boasts a lacklustre one win from eleven starts. A bit like the year its owners have been having. But we digress.
It's a nice addition to the Worner stable of fillies. As reported this year, Perth-born Worner's Indian Pacific Bloodstock syndicate – black, white stripe, black bow tie and button – has boasted the four-legged likes of Centrefold Spread, Soapy Star, Legs Akimbo, Hot Business, Chiq Flick and She Likes to Party. Is it just us, or is there a theme developing here?
A quick scan of Who Owns That Horse Dot Com* (*may not be a real website) reveals that fellow members of the My Girl Chilly syndicate include Gil's brother (and Seven sports presenter) Hamish McLachlan, businessman and racehorse enthusiast, Tony Khoury (whose brother John is the business partner of colourful Melbourne identity Mick Gatto) and a certain B Buckley and AJ Dillon - whom, if we were betting types, we'd wager are none other than Ben Buckley, chairman of North Melbourne and former AFL 2IC, and Andrew Dillon, the league's chief legal counsel (recently promoted to acting GM after two of his colleagues, Simon Lethlean and Richard Simkiss recently fell on their swords ... no pun intended).
The presence of a P.J Pettingill on the owner's manifest especially piqued our interest. Our hopes that it was a member of the infamous Melbourne crime family were sadly dashed when we tracked down Phil Pettingill, a plumber from Portland.
"Yeah, that's me," he told us. "No relation to those other Pettingills. But it's a good name to have to get people to pay their bills on time."
We don't doubt it. Phil told us the syndicate had forked out "about $92,000" for the horse, adding they got her for cheap because – and we quote – "she walks like a crock".
Had he ever caught up at the track – or even socially – with his co-owners, we wondered? "Nah. I wish," Phil replied. "But that Worner bloke would probably take my missus." We're not sure what that means. Must be Portland humour.
Nor was Phil able to enlighten us as to whether of the other listed owners, M Read was the bookmaker Mark Read.
As Bart Cummings once told his grandson: keep yourself in the best company and your horses in the worst company. Indeed.
bryce.corbett@fairfaxmedia.com.au
