The Racing Museum

The Computaform Sprint generated lots of excitement among racing fans whose mouths were watering for top-class racing after the occurrences of the previous four months. Favourite for the Transvaal’s joint-richest sprint was Algernon Percy from the Vaal stables of ex-Zimbabwean Roy Magner, currently second on the Transvaal trainers’ log. Algernon Percy, rested since December but […]

Fillies and mares took pride of place at Gosforth Park five days later when the R150 000 Gr1 Lancome Handicap was run over 1600m. Allure would have been odds-on favourite had punters been certain of her reproducing the performance that saw her put Jungle Class in her place, but she had finished a disappointing third […]

The 1987 J&B Metropolitan Stakes was the most unusual in the ten years it has been sponsored by Justerini and Brooks, and also the most successful.  It went with a sing from the moment it was announced that the race had been put forward to April because of the equine flu. Prophets of doom feared […]

Trainer Nick van Tonder scooped two major prizes in a week. The first was the R100 000 SA Nursery Futurity Plate (Gr1) over 1200m at Turffontein on April 18. Natal raider Raise a Raucus, easy winner of all three starts including the Durban Nursery, was said to be unbeatable and started 17/10 but was made […]

So often in racing, as in life, it’s the big ones that succeed. We’ve become accustomed to the big owners with their big priced horses from the yards of the big trainers pulling off the sport’s biggest prizes. Perhaps it’s only right, for after all they’re the ones with the biggest stake in the game. […]

Tony Factor’s Imperial March (Can) colt Imperial Silver blotted his copybook when beaten into fifth spot in Gosforth Park’s 1600m TAB (Tvl) Juvenile Stakes in early May, but he raced back to the top of his class with a pillar-to-post victory in Scottsville’s Gr1 Smirnoff Plate over 400m less than three weeks later. There were […]

The R100 000 Gr1 South African Fillies Guineas at Scottsville promised to be a humdinger of a race, and that it certainly was. Jungle Class, beaten only once in eight previous starts and fresh from her SA Fillies Sprint Gr2I victory, was an 18/10 favourite to continue in winning vein but the likes of Alpine […]

  As it turned out, Pedometer never really posed a threat to the brilliant son of Jungle Cove (USA). Pedometer went to the front early as expected but was soon overtaken by Forense (Arg) – one of four Millard runners in the field of 12 – who brought them into the straight with Cowdray Park, […]

  The Schweppes R250 000 Challenge The copy writers might have had Model Man in mind when mention was made of one sparkling performance after another.  Always rated a classy colt, the four-year-old must surely now lay claims to being the best horse in South Africa, no matter what the outcome of the Rothmans July Handicap, […]

A host of mighty good juvenile distaffers feature among the list of winners of the Gr1 Allan Robertson Fillies Futurity and this year’s winner was not out of place among such distinguished two-year-old fillies. Unfortunately, Prairie Oyster had not been nominated under the futurity programme and so missed out on a share of the R50 000 […]

  Call it luck, call it intuition, call it what you will, but victory in South Africa’s oldest sponsored race, the Gilbey’s Stakes at Scottsville, might never have been for Jungle Cove (USA) mare Bold West were it not for perseverance. A few seasons back breeder-owner Robin Scott decided to send the then juvenile daughter of […]

Alpine Silk (SNL) who was signed for at R110 000 from the Price Brothers’ select sales crop at the 1985 National Yearling Sales, is becoming an increasingly valuable breeding prospect through an impressive track record. With two wins and a third in four juvenile starts, she came out first time at three to run second […]

This Grade 1 event, with a base stake of R75 000 and R100 000 added under the SA Futurity programme, virtually puts a cap on seasonal honours and, as such, attracts the top two-year-olds of the term. The Imperial March (Can) colt Imperial Silver went into the race with only one blemish in a five […]

Twenty-five years of the Rothman’s July Handicap and what a silver jubilee it was – the best attendance in many years, tote figures on the day and the race itself setting new marks, a classy field and to crown it all, victory to a three-year-old for the first time since Yataghan way back in 1973.  […]

The stage was set for a real humdinger when, within a week of the Rothmans July, the connections of both Bush Telegraph and Model Man elected to allow their charges to stand their ground at the final acceptance for the Gr1 Mainstay 1800.  This alone assured a record crowd at the picturesque suburban track. That […]

  It’s always easy after the event, but for those who needed something more than form to go on to find the winner of the 1987 Game Gold Cup, the offer was there for all to see.  The sponsors’ familiar pink and black colours also happened to be the livery carried by the eventual record-breaking winner Aquanaut. […]

With the devastating outbreak of the equi II virus paralysing racing in most centres in the early part of 1987, the national awards organisers took the, possibly premature, step of announcing that no awards would be handed out for the 1986/87 season. Fortunately, not everyone thought that the year should be written off and with exceptionally consistent performances turned in by many horses, owners, trainers and jockeys, both the South African Racehorse and Winner’s Circle published their own honours roll for the season.

    Considerable importance   Extremely confident race

The Barbican raced to his customary position at the head of affairs and was still in front 200 out at which stage a number of runners closed with him in a desperate scramble for top honours.  Lord Randolph shot into the lead and then had to withstand a strong late drive from King Kaul to […]

The result of major races is usually in the balance at the 400m mark, but in the Sun International only Pedometer’s winning margin was in question at that point. Memories of the equine flu that swept through the Transvaal and Cape last December sprang to life on a hot spring Saturday afternoon at Turffontein last […]

Gosforth Park’s second biggest meeting of the year – the Southern Sun Classic – has pride of place on the East Rand courses calendar and was held on November 7 when the R200 000 Germiston November Handicap over 1600m had top billing supported by a R30 000 sprint feature. Unfortunately for punters the rumours were unfounded and […]

The Triple Crown for fillies, a series of three races introduced a couple of years ago, opened with the R100 000 Ultimate Computer Fillies’ Guineas over 1600m at Gosforth Park on November 21. Other races in the series are the R100 000 BAR Valley Classic at Milnerton and the R100 000 SA Fillies Guineas at […]

  Turffontein officials must believe that a jinx hangs over the meeting at the Johannesburg course on the last Saturday of each November.  Principal race is a 1600m weight-for-age event, inaugurated as the South African Invitation Stakes in 1964 when sponsored by the late Charles Engelhard.  The race was renamed the Hawaii Stakes in honour […]

  Whether Mark Anthony has it in him to become a household name remains to be seen.  he has the good looks and appealing head and eye that make people take a horse to their hearts, but his achievements may be limited by the foot trouble he has had since a foal.  As Terrance Millard […]