LESS than 24 hours after the Aquis silks were carried to their first Group 1 victory by Domesday colt Extra Brut in the 2018 AAMI Victoria Derby, owner of Aquis Farm, Mr Tony Fung returned to his Hunter Valley breeding operation to celebrate with horses and staff.
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Hosting some of his closest friends and business associates, Mr Fung appeared to be floating with the amazing success of the previous day at Flemington.
Not only did Extra Brut score Aquis stallion Domesday his fifth Group 1 winner but Sunlight also beat the colts in the Group One Coolmore Stud Stakes.
Mr Fung’s wife Loretta has a share in the ownership of Sunlight.
During yesterday’s visit to Aquis Farm in Murrurundi Chief Executive Officer Shane McGrath took the time to propose a toast, saying “I know it’s our tagline, but our future really is bright”, followed by Mr Fung’s emotional response, crediting all of the success to his team around him.
“Last night I woke up at 3am and that is the moment it all sunk in, that without my team we wouldn’t have seen yesterday’s result and I am so excited for the future,” he said.
The achievements of AAMI Derby Day 2018 are truly a credit to the devotion of Mr Fung to his company, his team, the industry and the community.
Mr Fung has been a positive figure within Australia for more than a decade and ensures a share of his successes is filtered to the community via sponsorship and donation.
It’s no secret the struggles of the Northern New South Wales region with one of the worst droughts seen in years.
In a small community such as Murrurundi, this affects the livelihood businesses, families and the children of our future.
Earlier this year Aquis Farm led by Mr Fung, invested in a bright future for students in the area by sponsoring the Pre-Kinder Program at Murrurundi Public School, which provides a qualified teacher one day a week to work one-on-one with the pre-kinder students.
The program will operate as a normal school day from 9am to 3pm allowing the children to ease into the routine and education of normal school life.
Aquis Farm’s inception however was in Queensland, the state Mr Fung first fell in love with in Australia. During the recent strike from within the Queensland racing industry, Mr Fung felt it necessary to provide the state with a silver lining.
Mr Fung through Aquis Farm designed an initiative to assist Queensland trainers after it was confirmed that the Queensland racing industry had unanimously decided to strike on Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup day in protest of the government’s allocation of the point of consumption tax.
In conjunction with Racing NSW, Aquis Farm committed a minimum payment of $1000 to all Queensland trained starters that finish outside the top 10 at Australian Turf Club’s, Canterbury Park night meeting on Friday October 19 2018 (the opening fixture of Sydney’s night racing season) and Randwick on Saturday October 20 2019.
Mr Fung’s Australian business affairs are not limited to the Thoroughbred Industry itself, he has also had interest in several properties across our vast country including two homes in the Noosa hinterland, a cattle farm at Mt Garnet west of Cairns, wagyu beef-breeding business at Innisfail and sugar cane plantation on the Atherton Tableland.
Family, however is his most valuable asset, and through his avid love of agriculture, horse racing and Australia itself, our community is blessed to be embraced as part of the Fung family.
