Kwok excited about Caulfield Cup opportunity

Positivity’s tenacious victory in the Gr. 3 Foundation Cup at Caulfield on Saturday has her owner Ben Kwok daring to dream about one of the biggest prizes in Australasian racing.
The daughter of Almanzor stood tall in a desperate four-way finish to the 2000-metre feature, winning by a short head for transtasman trainer Andrew Forsman.
It was Positivity’s third Group Three victory in a career that spans less than a year and only 10 starts. She won the Sunline Vase at Ellerslie in March and the SA Fillies’ Classic at Morphettville in May, and in between times she was runner-up in the Gr. 1 New Zealand Oaks.
An even more significant result of Saturday’s win is that it carried a ballot exemption for the A$5 million Gr. 1 Caulfield Cup on October 19.
“I’m still on cloud nine,” Kwok told RaceForm on Monday. “For a horse that didn’t have her first race until December of last year, she has done a wonderful job in a short time. I’m very lucky.
“She has a great trainer in Andrew Forsman, and his whole team have worked beautifully together to get the horse up to this level so quickly.
“Now it’s very exciting to think that we might have a runner in a race as big as the Caulfield Cup. That would be amazing. If I’m on cloud nine now, I don’t know where I’d be if she won that!”
Singapore-based Kwok has had a successful business career manufacturing electric motors, and he has rapidly increased his development in the New Zealand thoroughbred industry in recent seasons.
While he breeds his own horses from a broodmare band that numbers in the dozens, Kwok also purchases racehorses online and from the Karaka sale ring. Positivity, bred by Sir Patrick and Lady Hogan and Peter Walker from their Listed winner and Group One placed Pussy O’Reilly, fits into the latter category, bought for $160,000 from Woburn Farm’s draft at Karaka 2022.
“Her pedigree was a big part of what caught my eye about her,” Kwok recalled. “I like the Pussy O’Reilly family, and it’s always been very nice to buy horses from the great Sir Patrick Hogan. It’s not easy to buy into those great families he built up.
“I definitely love Almanzor as well. I’ve bred to him a number of times in recent years, and his foals are beautiful types. I also own another of his progeny in Australia, Virtuous Circle, who placed in the Australian Derby last year.
“Almanzor is a stallion I rate highly, and I liked Positivity’s pedigree and the way she looked as well, so it was a no-brainer to buy her.”
Kwok’s involvement with the New Zealand industry traces back more than two decades to a trail-blazing trainer in Hong Kong.
“I met Paul O’Sullivan when he first opened his stable in Hong Kong more than 20 years ago,” he explained. “That was when I first started to race horses in Hong Kong, and I began to get an understanding of the types of horses that come out of New Zealand.
“I got busy with my work after that and put racing aside for around 10 years. More recently I’ve started to have a bit more free time, so I picked up racehorse ownership and breeding again. I’ve been very lucky with all the good people that I’ve met in New Zealand. They’ve all helped me so much.
“Windsor Park Stud and all their people have been wonderful to me, and agents like Andrew Williams and Bevan Smith have been a big help as well. I’ve also met great trainers like Andrew Forsman and newer ones such as Sam Mynott. With such good people and some good luck with results on the racetrack, I’ve been happy to continue to increase my involvement in New Zealand and also Australia.”
As well as Positivity, other notable performers in Kwok’s emerald green, pink and white colours include the Gr. 3 Gold Trail Stakes and Listed O’Learys Fillies’ Stakes winner Bellacontte and Gr. 3 Rotorua Stakes winner Wessex, while he is also a part-owner of the now Chris Waller-trained New Zealand 1000 Guineas winner Molly Bloom.
Kwok has welcomed the significant stake increases and innovations that have come with Entain’s arrival on the New Zealand landscape.
“I think it’s been very, very positive,” he said. “I’ve been racing horses in New Zealand over a number of years, including shares in some very successful horses with Te Akau like Noverre, Sword Of State and Amarelinha, and I’m continuing to race horses with them like Sans Doute and I Choose You.
“The prize-money was so much lower when I first started racing those horses a few years ago, and it wasn’t easy – you needed to have a lot of luck with really top horses to get a good return on your investment.
“But it’s gone up quite significantly over the last year. It can only be a good thing for breeders and also all the various participants. I hope that it will bring more and more owners and syndicators, as well as a younger generation of owners as well. I think it’s very promising for the future of the New Zealand industry.”