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Golf superstars Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell planning shock visit to Kempton to see star horse Givemefive
How Koepka came to own the horse is all down to a very lucky bet
LIV golfers Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell are set to light up Kempton by jetting over to see their star horse.
Promising hurdler Givemefive - named after the number of Majors Koepka has won - is being aimed at the Grade 2 Adonis Hurdle.
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The four-year-old gelding now runs under the Smash Racing banner - the name of the golfers' LIV team - and is two from two since doing so.
Trainer Harry Derham revealed the plan now is for the multi-millionaire golfers to bring some celeb glamour to Kempton on February 23 to see the horse in the flesh.
He said: "They are going to come to the Adonis at Kempton - that's their plan at the moment but it's very subject to change.
"And then, all being well, it will be Cheltenham after that - hopefully. I don't think there's any LIV golf then."
Koepka, who finished tied-fifth in LIV's first tournament of the year last weekend, and McDowell, the 2010 Ryder Cup hero, have time in their schedule to make the flying visit work.
They don't have another LIV tournament until Saudi Arabia on March 1.
A journey to Kempton from their Florida bases could form part of the longer trip over to the Kingdom for the LIV Golf Jeddah event.
This is Derham’s first full season as a trainer, but there’s no doubt the celebrity golfers are in safe hands with the up-and-coming trainer operating at a brilliant 33 per cent strike rate.
The 29-year-old has some serious credentials having spent 11 years working for his uncle, the legendary 14-time Champion trainer Paul Nicholls.
Six of those years were as assistant trainer, so it’s hardly surprising he’s already attracting some big owners.
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But he’s also been blessed with a stroke of luck, especially when it comes to the story of how Givemefive came into his yard at Boxford.
It was all down to a very lucky bet on the golf course.
He said: “Graeme invited me to a Pro-Am in the summer. We got to the sixth hole and he said, right, we’ll do a nearest the pin competition.
“I said, Grame, you’re a major winner, I’m not, so there had better be something in it for me and we agreed if I got nearer the pin to him he’d buy me a new horse.
“And, just by sheer luck, I hit the best nine-iron of my life.”
With his cousin, ex-Flat jockey and ITV Racing Presenter Megan Nicholls’ guidance, they bought a horse good enough for an entry in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.
Success breeds success, and Derham now seems like the go-to trainer when it comes to handling the horses of sports stars.
England cricketers Jamie Overton, Craig Overton and Liam Livingstone are all involved in the a horse called Brentford Hope.
Clearly, they’re hoping to follow in the footsteps of their fellow sporting owners having called themselves ‘The Optimists Syndicate’.
It would be easy to feel pressure working for top class athletes, but Derham has his head firmly screwed on when it comes to his brushes with fame.
He said: “They’re obviously well known faces and stuff, but they’re really nice people, not aliens.
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“They are racing fans who want their horses to do well.
“I feel pressure from all my owners to do well for all their horses, but I don’t feel any more pressure because they’re good at sport.”
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