Jockey Chris Taylor has seen Turf Talk and raised us by five in the search for the proper record for Grade 1 winners in a season.
Turf Talk questioned whether the seven Grade 1 wins of Richard Fourie this season had equaled a record and in its first cursory attempt to find one better discovered Michael Roberts and Felix Coetzee appeared to have had at least one season each of riding seven in a season (see yesterday’s newsletter).
However, Taylor was astonished nobody had remembered the incredible 1998/1999 season of Weichong Marwing, who rode nine Grade 1s for Mike de Kock alone that term and three others.
It was a memorable season for more reasons than one.
The great De Kock-trained Horse Chestnut (Fort Wood) stamped himself that term as one of the greatest thoroughbreds in the history of the South African turf, and in the opinion of most he is the greatest.
Four of Marwing’s Grade 1s that season were on Horse Chestnut, the Cape Guineas by 7,15 lengths, the Met by 8 lengths, the SA Classic by 3,80 lengths and the SA Derby by 9,45 lengths.
Marwing also won the Germiston November Handicap and the First National Bank 1600 on the De Kock-trained Smart Money (Hobnob), the Paddock Stakes and the Cape Derby on the De Kock-trained Dog Wood (Fort Wood), the Champion Stakes at Turffontein on the De Kock-trained Fort Defiance (Fort Wood), the SA Nursery and the Allan Robertson on the Tony Millard-trained Private Reserve (Model Man) and the Grade 1 Sharp Electronics Cup on the James Goodman-trained Gold Tax (Goldkeeper).
It should always be borne in mind when publicizing such records that the pattern only started in South Africa in 1982 and we only joined the IFHA (International Federation of Horseracing Authorities) in 1985, so it would be difficult to ascertain which races counted as Grade 1s in the older eras.
