Matt Damon, one of Hollywood’s biggest movie stars, will be tuning in to watch a lowly midweek two-year-old race at Randwick’s Kensington meeting on Wednesday.
Racing tragic Damon is a part-owner of first-starter Dale, a two-year-old trained at Scone by Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich.
Messara met Damon through a mutual friend, Paul O’Brien, who shares in the ownership of Dale with the actor.
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O’Brien operates a private air charter service that is used by VIPs like Damon when they are in Australia.
“Matt is the loveliest bloke you would ever meet,’’ Messara said.
“We spent the day together at Flemington on Derby Day last year, he loves racing, and asked me to get him into a horse.
“I guarantee Matt will be watching Dale’s race on Wednesday.’’
Damon is an Oscar-winning actor who has played starring roles in blockbusters like Oppenheimer, The Martian, Saving Private Ryan, Good Will Hunting, the Jason Bourne and Ocean’s trilogies, The Talented Mr Ripley, The Departed and Ford v Ferrari.
His movies have earned nearly $4 billion at the North American box office making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time.
But when Damon asked Messara to buy him a racehorse, there was one stipulation – it had to be called “Dale”.
The story goes that Damon and his 17-year-old daughter have a favourite movie they often watch together called Step Brothers, a comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, who plays a character called “Dale”.
“We had a Castelvecchio colt at the time that had been passed in at Magic Millions,’’ Messara said.
“The horse was coming along nicely so I thought maybe this could be Dale. Then I had to make sure the name was available, which it was.’’
Under Australian rules of racing, an owner must be 18 years of age so Damon’s daughter can’t join Dale’s ownership group for another five months.
“She will come into the ownership as soon as she turns 18,’’ Messara said.
“We are all on a What’sApp chat group communicating constantly about ‘Dale’ and how the horse is doing. Matt is very excited about Dale’s debut.’’
Messara is also hoping to get 11th hour approval for Dale to race in a new set of colours inspired by the movie character.
Dale is rated a $8.50 chance in latest TAB Fixed Odds betting behind boom first-starter Railway Man, $2.40 favourite.
So, how is the trainer feeling knowing he has one of the world’s biggest stars as an owner?
“The trainer is under immense pressure,’’ Messara admitted. “But all we can do is have Dale fit and ready to go for this race.
“We couldn’t be happier with how Dale has handled his preparation.’’
There are only eight entries for the Kensington race but Messara conceded Dale is up against some fierce opposition.
“This does look like being a strong race, there’s some quality two-year-olds in the field,’’ Messara said. “I think the winner of this race will be competing at stakes level during the autumn carnival.
“Railway Man is an expensive two-year-old (the colt cost $2.5 million as a yearling) and he has trialled up well so he looks hard to beat.
“I do believe Dale is more of a miler type. He’s a big horse and is going to be much better as a three-year-old.
“But I am surprised he is up and going as well as he is at the moment. He has a great constitution, he’s standing up to all the work and there is no reason not to run him.’’
Messara said he expects Damon will one day want to make the trip down under to watch Dale race in person.
“Hopefully, Dale can run in a decent race and I’m sure Matt will come out for it,’’ he said.