30 January 2024 , 12:15
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One of Hollywood biggest movie stars will be one of the less likely members of the audience for a horse race in Sydney on Wednesday.
Matt Damon, who recently starred in Oppenheimer, is the co-owner of a two-year-old called Dale due to make its debut at the midweek fixture at Kensington. He took a share in Dale with Paul O’Brien after becoming friends with the businessman who runs a private air charter service used by VIPs in Australia.
The horse is in training with Paul Messara and Leah Gavranich. Messara trained Ortensia to win the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in 2012. He told : "Matt is the loveliest bloke you would ever meet.
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 has appeared in numerous Hollywood blockbusters and is one of the highest grossing actors of all-time with his films earning more than £3 billion from roles in the Bourne trilogy of movies. He collected an academy award in 1998 for Good Will Hunting.
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According to Messara, Dale was named by Damon and his 17-year-old daughter after a character in their favourite film Step Brothers.
"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.''
He added: "We are all on a WhatsApp chat group communicating constantly about Dale and how the horse is doing. Matt is very excited about Dale's debut.
"The trainer is under immense pressure. 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.''