Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Prominent owner Brae Sokolski is used to celebrating big moments on the biggest stage.
He has toasted victories in the Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate, Caulfield Cup and The Everest – alongside friend and fellow mega-racing investor Ozzie Kheir.
But come Saturday afternoon at Caulfield, Sokolski will be feeling emotions of a deeper and more personal kind.
His new racing silks – which courted controversy earlier this year because their original design resembled the Israeli flag – will be carried for the first time in a group 1 race when born-again mare Changing Colours lines up for emerging trainer Lucy Yeomans in the $1 million Toorak Handicap (1600m).
“Irrespective of what happens, just having her in the race and competing in those colours is an amazing privilege,” Sokolski told this masthead.
Sokolski’s decision to quietly introduce his new silks in February was driven by his desire to show solidarity with the Jewish community after the October 7 terrorist attack and last year’s Bondi Massacre.
But they were sensationally banned across Australia by racing authorities weeks later because of a nervousness around the war in the Middle East.
After a “long, complicated process” a compromise was reached.
“A part of me wanted to hold my ground and fight the fight, but I didn’t want the silks mired in controversy and negatively distract from what was inherently a positive, apolitical statement of Jewish strength and solidarity,” Sokolski said.
Sokolski gave credit to former NSW racing supremo Peter V’Landys and Racing Victoria CEO Aaron Morrison, as well as the Racing Victoria board, for meeting him halfway.
They settled on a design that featured the Star of David, which he described as the “most ubiquitous and universally recognised symbol of Judaism”.
Sokolski describes the October 7 attacks as a “real paradigm shift for me personally” that drove a realisation he needed to be more overt about his heritage.
“I was always proud to be Jewish, but it was never something that I felt the need to project,” he said.
“But October 7 changed everything. The Jewish people suffered their single largest loss of life since the Holocaust, and rather than evoking an outpouring of sympathy, it precipitated a wave of hatred and anti-semitism.
“Jewish people have been part of this country’s story since the First Fleet and this great nation gave so many of our families refuge following World War II.
“In response, the Jewish community has embraced the Australian way of life and despite numbering only 100,000 people, made an immense, outsized contribution to this country.
“Whilst the thought of changing colours crossed my mind, it wasn’t until after the Bondi massacre that I resolved to do it and imbue my colours (which were previously a checked pattern of green, grey and black) with a much more visceral and meaningful design.
“I genuinely believe every Jewish person (and for that matter non-Jewish people alike) who has prominence in any particular domain has a duty to use that voice to its full capacity.
“And obviously, racing was one of those domains for me.”
Sokolski said he was left heartbroken that his community started hiding symbols of Jewishness, such as Star of David jewellery, because they faced so much venom and feared for their personal security.
“So part of my decision was about saying, ‘we don’t have anything to hide’,” he said.
The symbolic link to his aptly named Toorak Handicap runner, Changing Colours, happened in July – soon after Sokolski moved the mare to Yeomans’ boutique operation in Cranbourne because she was not suited to the big-stable environment of his main trainer, Chris Waller.
He said he phoned co-owner Kheir and asked to use his new silks – a change from Kheir’s design of blue and pale-yellow dots – because he expected the reinvigorated mare to win the rising stars final at Flemington on the same day as his 50th birthday celebrations.
“I had all my mates there (at my birthday), and a lot of them are Jewish, and I wanted nothing more than a horse to win on that day in my colours, the new colours,” Sokolski said.
“Ozzie said, ‘Yeah, of course’. So that’s the context in which we changed the colours on that day, and she’s been undefeated since. She’s then reeled off four victories in a row, including the group 2 (Stocks Stakes at Caulfield last month).
“Now, obviously, I’m just hopeful that she could be the first group 1 winner to carry those colours, and it’s actually a lot of firsts because it would be the first group 1 winner for the trainer, Lucy Yeomans, and it’d be the first group 1 winner for the jockey, Luke Cartwright.”
Sokolski has one last point to make about his silks.
“These colours aren’t just about me,” he explained. “These colours represent my family and I hope will be carried over generations to come. Most immediately by my nephew Ollie, who’s obsessed with horse racing and later down the track by my beautiful son Wolfe, who’s only eight months old but will hopefully be racing horses long after I’m gone and carrying on the legacy of the Star of David silks.”
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