Champions Graeme McDowell and Brooks Koepka enjoy racing success with their horse Givemefive’s victory at Warwick
Givemefive is one of the biggest horses in racing right now, and he looks set to take his famous golf-playing owners, Brooks Koepka and Graeme McDowell, to the Cheltenham Festival. After maintaining his unbeaten record over obstacles at Warwick, the future is extremely bright.
The young horse is under Smash Racing, a syndicate that includes those two golfers. Both of them have been Major champions and are currently on LIV Golf, members of the team Smash GC on the circuit, hence the name of the racing syndicate.
Harry Derham, the horse's trainer, said via RTE:
"I’ve known Graeme for a long time and the conversation about owning a racehorse came about at a Pro-Am event. He said if I got closer to the pin than him then he would buy a horse and I somehow managed to get it within a few feet of it and beat him. Graeme then got the other guys involved and they are both very engaged in all the conversations about the horse on WhatsApp."
He added later that he appreciated the involvement of the golfers:
"Graeme, Brooks and Daniel are great guys and they were all watching the race in Florida. My WhatsApp has been going mad with messages after that."
As for the horse's future, Derham is hoping he will run in the Fred Winter and perhaps the Adonis at Kempton prior. He continued:
"I need to think about it. To run in the Fred Winter, he needs to have another run. If he didn’t need to have another run, then I would almost certainly run him in the Fred Winter. I’m not going to commit to anything now, but it is a nice problem to have."
The horse connected to the two LIV Golf stars could be poised for an extremely bright future. They're heavily involved and very invested in seeing Givemefive take on the sport and continue winning.
Brooks Koepka approves of Jon Rahm's LIV Golf move
Not everyone was the biggest fan of Jon Rahm leaving the PGA Tour, unlike Brooks Koepka. The two had some epic battles as members of the Tour, but haven't competed against one another for a while after Koepka left for LIV. That meant they could only really face off in major tournaments.
They did have an intense bout for The Masters in 2023. Koepka ended up T2 with Phil Mickelson, another LIV star, behind Rahm. Koepka went on to win the PGA Championship, and he's looking forward to more battles with Rahm.
The decision to move away from the PGA Tour was a big one for the Spaniard. His choice sent shockwaves throughout the sport and it forced many stars, like Rory McIlroy, to reconsider their tune on the rebel tour.
Some were stunned, others disappointed, but Brooks Koepka was thrilled that he would get to compete against Rahm on a more consistent basis now that they're back on the same tour.