Andrew “Cosi” Costello is a familiar voice to racegoers in Broken Hill. He has emceed the St Patrick’s Race Day for the past ten years and he’s back again in 2022.
He is also the guy from South Aussie with Cosi, a long-running TV show in South Australia and one of the three voices of SAFMs Adelaide morning radio show.
Talking with Cosi, he sounds like a real larrikin and a fair dinkum Aussie from the Yorke Peninsula where he grew up.
The young lad that left the sticks to attend Roseworthy Campus to “drink a lot of beer” and become a farm manager seems to have lost his way and landed where he was always meant to be, in the media.
Being a contestant on the Biggest Loser and The Amazing Race catapulted him into the media spotlight, and he hasn’t looked back.
Along with his radio and TV work, Cosi also took time out to sleep on the streets for a week with the homeless.
“I was young and decided to live on the streets and interview people and I won an award for it,” he said.
The award was Best Radio Feature for Australian Commercial Radio.
Cosi has a big heart and works tirelessly for various causes including his own charity, Cows for Cambodia. He has around 1000 cows in cow bank, and when they are pregnant, they are leant to poor Cambodian families who get to keep the calf when it is born. The new calf then becomes breeding stock for the poor family and help them break the poverty cycle. Cosi’s enterprise prides itself on owning the most modern cow home in all of Cambodia, and he looks forward to finally going back to see it in July.
He describes his connection with the Far West as starting over a decade ago when he met the folks from Rowena Station, who introduced him to Broken Hill and the local races. Since then, he’s loved coming to the St Pats Races every year.
“The committee are just lovely people, and you can’t help but want to support them,” he said.
“The races are great. Where else can you go and get the same experience, the emus in the middle of the racecourse, the dirt track, the shops all get into the spirit, I do it for love,” he said.
Cosi not only emcees the day, but also has horses running in the races.
“I work closely with a colleague called Rebecca Morse, so I called my new horse Rebecca Horse, and I’ve entered her in the Maiden race.”
“I also have Tia, which I’ve entered into the Outback Sprint.”
“In the past I won the Outback Sprint back-to-back but only came second the third time I entered that horse.”
“I love to win. I spend $25,000 training a horse to win $5000,” he laughs as he says this.
Lots of people come from Adelaide to attend the races he confirmed.
“I have 40 people coming with me to attend the races, we are already booked in and I can’t wait to crack the first beer.”
