Bob Lapointe’s business skills and marketing experience are legendary, having introduced KFC, Pizza Hut, Sizzler and Lone Star Steakhouse and Saloon to Australia. He has always applied the same expertise, energy and creativity to his racing interests.
He has also been active in breeding and stallion syndication and in development of businesses allied to racing such as Doncaster Bloodstock Services with Les Young, Porta-Stall and the Australian Feed Company as well as developing Muskoka Farms, one of the finest Thoroughbred Spelling and Pre-Training facilities in Australia.
Bob Lapointe purchased and developed Muskoka Farm, a 280 acre family property at Gunderman on the Hawkesbury River, as a property for spelling and training racehorses. Muskoka’s success in producing countless winners and its magnificent facilities including a 2000m grass track, all weather sand and crusher dust tracks and 2Km of hill trails, has earned Australia-wide recognition.
Prominent NSW Trainers Gai Waterhouse, Ron Quinton, John O’Shea, David Payne, Tim Martin, Gary Portelli, Chris Waller and Guy Walter as well as Internationally based trainers such as Gary and John Moore and Ricky Yiu are among the many clients of Muskoka.
Bob has raced horses with over 30 trainers throughout Australia including the late T.J Smith, the late C.S.Hayes, Bart Cummings, Neville Begg and in more recent times in NSW with Gai Waterhouse, John O’Shea, Ron Quinton and David Payne. During the time of the Lone Star Racing Syndicate this number increased significantly with leading Trainers from 5 states racing Lone Star horses.
Bob and his partners have won more than 770 races including 78 Stakes winners, most notably Emancipation, Handy Proverb, Hit it Benny, November Rain, Diamond Shower and Iron Horse. He has also bred horses on a small scale to race since the early 80’s, among them feature winners Southbend and Full Page. With Ross Cribbs he bred and sold the great Luskin Star filly Bold Promise. With Bob Logan he raced and later sold Easy Date in foal to Lunchtime a mating that produced the outstanding sprinter and leading sire Snippets. Bob and his partners also sold Morning Patrol to Hong Kong, a horse that became that a leading sprinter, winning more than $5Million.
- Nebo Lodge – In partnership with Robert Sangster he bought and developed the late Stan Fox’s Nebo Lodge racing stable in 1984. Nebo Lodge with Trainer Brian Mayfield-Smith and Jim Cassidy as the stable jockey became the leading stable in Sydney for 3 successive seasons in 1986,’87 and ’88 ending the 33 year reign of TJ Smith,
- The Australian Feed Company (Mitavite) – was founded by Bob Lapointe and the late Sam Rutherford in the late 80s to produce specialised horse feeds for the racing industry. This company was later sold to Ingham Enterprises and has now achieved major international success.
- Doncaster Bloodstock – was founded by Bob and renowned racing and breeding authority Les Young
- The first Porta-Stall – demountable horse stables in Australia were imported from the USA and marketed by Bob in the late ‘70s.
- The Lone Star Racing Syndicate – was created by Bob in 1992 and is unique not only as a national racing syndicate but also as the first Cause Related Marketing concept in Australian Racing. The Lapointe group bred or leased horses to the syndicate at no cost, the expenses of the horses were funded by 1% of sales from the national (6 State) chain of 40 Lone Star Steakhouses and Coca-Cola Amatil. 50% of the net prize money was donated to the Variety Clubs of Australia and totalled over $1Million. This concept has pioneered a more charitable face of racing.
Bob Lapointe served as a member of the NSW Thoroughbred Racing Board / Racing NSW as the representative of Owners and Breeders for 8 years and currently serves as the AJC Nominee on the Board of TVN. For the last 3 years Bob has been a Director of Kennards Storage, the largest storage company in Australia. Bob is also the Chairman of a national carwash company IMO Australasia, a licensee of the largest carwash company in the world.
Bob is married to Wendy Lapointe, an Equine Veterinarian and Provincial Trainer. Wendy trains most of the Lapointe owned horses as well as overseeing the Veterinary treatments at Muskoka and managing any out of hours issues that may arise. She also oversees the farming and grass track management at the farm.