KEY POINTS:
Sam Kelt is a freak.
Say what you like about the help others have given the Kelt Capital concept - and it would be considerable - there would be no $2 million race at Hastings today without the Hawkes Bay financial whizz.
Not that you'll hear Kelt himself
say that directly.
For someone who has achieved the impossible in horse racing, Kelt, surprisingly, does not work from ego.
Instead it's pride and plenty of it. And it's justified.
Kelt is remarkable. He won't tell you how he managed to lift the Kelt Capital from $1m last year to $2m without using one dollar of racing industry funds other than to say that you grow your product first then grow the business around that product and the business keeps contributing to the product, not the other way around.
The big trick is to have a commercial product so successful that it generates its own business.
Or something like that.
You're forgiven for not keeping up with Sam Kelt. Few can.
Just how much Kelt has achieved can be gauged by the fact that in 1994 when Solvit won the Cox Plate and the Kelt Capital the Cox was worth A$1.8 million and the Kelt $100,000. This year the Cox Plate, one of the world's great races, will be run for A$3 million and the Kelt $2 million.
And he says this is only the beginning - he has something else brewing in the background that almost has Kelt himself excited.
"I've come up with a proposition which, if we get regional and Government support, and I'm not talking about monetary support, we in the Hawkes Bay will redefine, and I mean seriously redefine, horse racing."
Within that package, and Kelt insists the proposition is a package deal - not simply an exercise to grow the Kelt Capital - the Kelt will become a $4 million to $5 million race.
"We'll cosy up alongside our mates with the Cox Plate and grow this enormous concept."
Kelt's reluctance to declare himself before everything is signed off comes from an incident 17 years ago that he says changed his life.
"Tell you a funny story," he says, beginning to get animated. "When we signed off on the first Kelt Capital we were sitting around my dad's little board table with the chairman and half a dozen committeemen.
"Everyone was congratulating each other and I said: 'Gentleman, it's marvellous that we've got a $75,000 group three race, but the trick is to in five years have a half million dollar group one race'.
"The chairman leapt up and said: 'Get a hold of yourself son, Trustbank has more money than Keltbank and they've got a richer race than us down the road at Wanganui - what you're proposing will never happen.'
"I've never heard such shocking negativity," he says. "In life you can only go so far without having everything in place before people start knocking the tall poppy.
"Only announce your objectives when you already have things in place, otherwise people will start firing bazookas at your head.
"I learned a hard lesson way back then and, personally, I believe it's a lesson that shouldn't be so hard."
Kelt's vision has been so remarkable that Hawkes Bay Racing doesn't have to hit and hope today.
It appears that, financially, future growth plans are now a given.
There must be something Kelt is personally sweating on?
"Yes, I want to see 14,000 people on course enjoying themselves , absolutely revelling in the occasion."
No, that's another given.
