Walter Luthi will never forget the first horse that ran in his colours. Not only for the fact that it won on debut in his colours, but because he has a permanent reminder inked on his right arm.
When Richard Fourie brought Countdown through with a strong late run to win over 1100m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in February 2022 Luthi was left speechless. Not often do the planets align like that to make racing seem easy.

And as they say, a picture – or in this case a tattoo – tells a thousand words and now Countdown is a daily reminder of that mid-summer’s day in February 2022.
A former footballer with Johannesburg club Robertsham, Luthi has been passionate about racing, and Liverpool, for decades. “My friend started supporting Man United in 1975 and I chose Liverpool. I’ve had a love for horseracing and betting from the age of 12. I used to work at Turffontein selling biltong and worked for years on weekends for different bookmakers around the Johannesburg/Pretoria area.
“I bought my first horse in 2020, and Countdown, trained by Glen Kotzen, was the second. Philip Bamford and Warren Frost both had shares and I had the majority. Glen told me to organise colours as Countdown would be running in my colours. I asked my son, Travis, a graphic designer and tattoo artist, to design me something to do with Liverpool. So he came up with the design. It’s a red and white spiral shape that stands out.”
It also occupies prime real estate on his upper right arm. The good news too is that there’s plenty of space left to ink in more winners underneath Countdown’s name!