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. Leading Transvaal trainer Jean Heming appeared to hold the keys to the outcome with a dual entry of Young Lady and Allure, who had beaten Natal hotshot Jungle Class over the […]

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 […]

  While boasting an enviable seven-for-seven record, Bush Telegraph had yet to prove himself over a bit of ground. This opportunity came in the Daily News 2000 Gr1 and with SA Derby winner Pedometer in the field, it was expected that he would be truly tested. So much so, that it was the Derby winner […]

  The Schweppes R250 000 Challenge “One sparkling performance after another from Schh? you know who”, so says the ad for that popular mixer.  It could now well be read “Hmmm? Marcus and mighty Model Man” following the pair’s magnificent performance in the R250 000 Gr1 Schweppes Challenge over 1600m at Clairwood Park mid-June. The copy writers […]

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 […]

Bloodstock agent Tony Riley has made a few shrewd purchases for patrons, securing along the way the likes of the brilliant speedster Sunera (GB), voted the champion sprinter in South Africa a season back. Among more recent acquisitions through this agency is the Northfields (USA) filly Alpine Silk, sired north of the line before the […]

Twelve months earlier Bush Telegraph had won the Gr1 Administrator’s Champion Futurity Stakes to seal seasonal juvenile honours and while there are no national awards this year as a result of the equine flu disrupted season, Imperial Silver did enough in winning this top two-year-old event of the season – a second feature on “July” day […]

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.  […]

Clairwood Park on Mainstay 1800 day was the ideal setting for the race of the year – the renewed clash between the country’s top racehorse Model Man and heir-apparent, Bush Telegraph.  The stage was set for either the former to emerge as the nation’s first equine millionaire or for the latter to maintain his brilliant […]

  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.

  While frequently attracting a small field, run as it is towards the latter part of the busy Natal winter season, the Grade 1 Champion Stakes over 2000m at Greyville has always been a race of considerable significance. In recent years it has served to confirm a horse’s status, as it did with Prince Florimund, […]

Cape gelding Lord Randolph, the first horse to beat the flying Sunera (GB) in South Africa, had run three seconds in important sprints during the Natal season – twice to The Barbican in the Corcord Stakes (Gr3) and Stewards Cup (Gr3) and once to Bold West in the Grade 1 Gilbey’s Stakes.  He enjoyed a […]

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. The November Handicap was dogged by controversy from […]

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 […]

  The withdrawal of the meeting’s drawcard, Model Man, seemed a minor problem to Turffontein officials and stewards when a trade-union reaction from the trainers over a dispute with theSaturday clubs and then heavy rain the night before the race nearly forced cancellation or at least postponement of the meeting. Turffontein officials must believe that […]

  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 […]