Turf Talk Newsletter – 16 November, 2023

Gavin Lerena had a great partnership with “the people’s horse” Kommetdieding recently … will Sandringham Summit become SA’s next equine hero? (Picture: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Ascot Racecourse)

Turf Talk

David Nieuwenhuizen said Gavin Lerena was very excited to be back aboard Sandringham Summit, whom he rode on debut.

The crack colt has been priced up as 6/10 favourite by Betway for the Gr 2 level weights Jonsson Workwear Dingaans.

He said, “Gavin was originally supposed to ride the horse after the first start, but he got sick and had to stand down and the replacement was S’Manga and then eventually Calvin (Habib). Calvin was willing to take on all of the rides for my clients in Durban last Champions Season and that was the condition.”

Calvin is now the first choice rider to Tony Peter, so it made sense to put a new jockey on Sandringham Summit.

Calvin will in fact be riding the Tony Peter-trained House Of Romanov in the Dingaans.

David said about the Gimmethegreenlight colt Sandringham Summit, “Gavin’s very happy with the work. He is excited to be back on him again. The horse is well in himself. We are on for a big run in the Dingaans. He is the horse to beat. As the other horses progress and develop they will also come into the picture. I will never look at it as if there is no opposition, there is plenty of opposition. Like Purple Pitcher, he has developed into a really nice stayer type of a horse. And then Mike de Kock’s horse Gimmeanotherchance can never be ruled out, because I think he is a serious racehorse and is still improving and the mile will probably suit him as well. And then there is Guy Gibson as well. So there is certainly opposition.”

David said about the draw of 9 out of 12, “We’re probably going to have to look at just sitting on him a little bit in the race and give him a chance. Just let him find himself and track the horses in front. So the tactics will be slightly different than in his last race.”

David was conscious of giving the tactics away, but added that everybody knew Sandringham Summit “seems to run when given a bit of a chance.”

David runs the fast filly No Filter in the Gr 3 Joburg Tourism Carry On Alice Stakes. David believes she has a “hard task” in the Carry On Alice, but was looking foward to seeing how she went in today’s (Friday) twilight meeting at Turffontein over the same trip. The fast Standside 1000m suits the Canford Cliffs filly and a line can be drawn through her last start because she stumbled coming out of the stalls.

David’s Silvano mare Flying First Class runs in the ROA Stakes over 3200m on Betway Summer Cup day and she should run her usual honest race, although she has a hard task being 6kg under sufferance with the best weighted Nebraas on official merit ratings.

Picture: Querari filly Heritage Ridge was ridden for the first time on Monday

Turf Talk

The Turf Talk syndicate’s first two horses, Querari filly Heritage Ridge and Duke Of Marmalade filly Garden Of Eden, have both been ridden for the first time this week during their backing and pre-training with Monique Schabort at Paarl Diamant Estate.

Lisa Hattingh does the backing on the farm and said, “Our process is we start by lunging them, and then I put them under a long rein, and then we put the rider on top.”

She continued, “The fillies are going very nicely. The first filly Heritage Ridge was ridden for the first time on Monday and the second filly Garden Of Eden was ridden for the first time on Tuesday. They are both nice fillies and are working well under saddle at the moment. We are only trotting in the lunge ring at the moment, we don’t go faster than trots. Heritage Ridge, being a Querari, can be a little bit high strung. She gives her moment and then she starts working nicely like she should. Garden Of Eden is a lovely filly. She is nice and laid back, she enjoys her work. She comes to work, does her job, and that’s it.”

She added, “Conformation wise they are both quite nicely put together fillies. I like horses with a good hindquarter and they both have nice hindquarters on them, you want the power at the back!”

She continued, “We will move up to the track next week. Generally we have them trotting on the track for two weeks before we put them into a slow canter and we then work them up from there. ”

Paarl Diamant Estate is 30 km away from Durbanville racecourse.

It has a fine pre-training record.

Of the current crop of three-year-olds who were backed and pre-trained at Paarl Diamant Estate, 40 of them have raced and 50% of those have won and 80% in total have been in the money.

“So far we have only had eight horses from that crop unplaced,” said Lisa.

Lisa has been working with horses for years.

She worked in the Eastern Cape with both Alan Greeff and Gavin Smith and in her stint at Jane Thomas’s Far End from 2014 to 2020 she worked with horses of the calibre of It’s My Turn and African Night Sky.

So Heritage Ridge and Garden Of Eden are in fine hands.

Watch out for Garden Of Eden’s Elusive Fort half-brother Irish Luck running on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Scottsville in the third race over 1400m. This Duncan Howells-trained gelding finished second in his second start and should have a chance despite a wide draw.

Meanwhile, Heritage Ridge’s Stuart Ferrie-trained Fire Away half-brother King’s Island finished second in a 1600m handicap on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly last week.

Watch out for the first Paarl Diamant Estate runner from the current two-year-old crop, the Sean Tarry-trained Laurence Wernars-homebred Gimmethegreenlight colt Proceed, who is out of Captain Al mare Xplosive Kiss. He runs in the 800m scurry on Betway Summer Cup day.

Royal Victory (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

The Pedigree Obsessor

The dominance of Cape and Gauteng horses in the 2023 Summer Cup Final Field is overwhelming and from which the winner is expected to come, the appearance of just one KZN Raider is conspicuous in the fact.

ROYAL VICTORY, a strapping son of the continuously-surprising Pathfork and one of 2 for the Sire will be running his 15th race in a fairly light career that has seen him in the winners box 3 times with 6 places. His last win was a very different but impressive from-behind effort in the NBT Pink Drive Michaelmas Handicap over 1900m at Greyville on 15 October. It was not the quality of the field that stood out but more so the manner in which he won that event and thereby confirming his acceptance into the Summer Cup.

That win was not only a very sentimental and emotional one for Co-Owners Peter & Belinda Victor but it also exposed the Geldings ability to race beyond the mile which had been his upper test distance prior. It was Peter Victor that implored Trainer Nathan Kotzen to run him over more ground and the emotional scenes recorded and shared on social media was a joy to behold, epitomising the very essence of this wonderful sport.

Kotzen will be up against the like of his former boss Mike de Kock and will no doubt be quietly wishing to get one over him. His colleagues back home in KZN will be screaming Royal Victory home.

Notwithstanding the quality of it, ROYAL VICTORY is from a pedigree that on simple desktop review does not ooze potential beyond 1800m except for the presence of Sadlers Wells in the female side of his sire line. It is therefore technically difficult to rate his chances in this field over this distance as anything more than “fair”. But in horseracing nothing is ever guaranteed and some of the sports biggest surprises have come from an unexpected place.

His Pilot, Muzi Yeni, is no stranger to the Big T nor the number 1 box adding to the fact he strengthens the Durban quotient by being homebred himself. The enigmatic Muzi climbs aboard this runner for just the 2nd time and that alone might be the only concern. That Yeni has the talent to get a horse into a Grade 1 No 1 box is not in doubt however.

James Armitage (Sandown Stud) must be relishing the fact that one of his 2 Resident Sires has 2 runners in the big race including the consistently well performed BINGWA. Those with a deeper Punting knowledge seem to be leaning more toward the more youthful entry.

It is another eagerly awaited contest of some of the countries top horses so here is to hoping the weather plays ball, all horses return home safely and we are treated to another spectacle of magnificent racing.

Royal Victory drew barrier position 14, but he did have a similarly tough draw of 12 out of 13 when finishing fourth at the euqilvalent meeting last year in the Dingaans.

Picture: The Summer Cup (Michael Bega)

Turf Talk

Eight KZN horses will be raiding Turffontein next Saturday for the Betway Summer Cup meeting, including Royal Victory in the big one and Sovereign State and Mexican Pete in the prestigious Gr 2 Jonsson Workwear Dingaans.

Will the altitude factor affect their performances?

A study of the effects of altitude on racehorses has never been done for the reason that South Africa is the only major racing country in the world where it is considered an issue.

However, South African trainers have their own theories learnt through trial and error over decades of practice.

Five-times national champion trainer Geoff Woodruff is well qualified to speak about the impact of altitude, having trained out of Cape Town as well as Johannesburg, while he has also campaigned extensively in Kwazulu-Natal.

Looking at the production of haemoglobin from a practical point of view, he said, “You tend to have to work them harder at altitude. In order to get a horse fitter it has to reach a stage where it is in oxygen debt. Incrementally, you will work the horse to reach this stage until it is fit enough to race, and at altitude horses need to be fitter to race because the oxygen content of the air is less.”

It stands to reason a horse trained at high altitude that will start going into oxygen debt at the two furlong mark in a Johannesburg race might still be debt free by the furlong mark when raiding at sea level.

Woodruff recalled El Picha (Tough Critic) had a naturally low “blood count” (haemoglobin measurement).

He had won seven races in Cape Town, including a Grade 3, by the time Woodruff moved to Johannesburg to take over the yard of his brother-in-law, Tony Millard.

However, he reckoned that in El Picha’s first three months in Johannesburg his blood count improved “out of sight”. He reaped the benefit by going on to win two Durban July’s in succession as well as the Summer Cup and he also finished second in The Met.

However, Woodruff is adamant it takes from three months to six months for a horse to acclimatise in Johannesburg, unless the horse is a sprinter or sprint-miler.

He cited the case of a horse called Parade Prince (Parade Leader).

This horse had run eight times in the Cape as a three-year-old in the 2008/2009 season without a win before arriving at his Johannesburg yard.

He promptly won a maiden over 1450m by four lengths, but then took six months to find his feet before winning five races, all over a mile, in the next seven months.

However, he said an extenuating factor in his thinking was the long almost 1500km journey from Cape Town to Johannesburg, which might also have had an effect on the horses he brought from the coast up to the Highveld.

When raiding from the coast to high altitude, it is generally accepted horses taking part in sprints up to a mile have a better chance and it is better to arrive as close to the race as possible.

Alistair Gordon, who was based at Summerveld, said, “Sprinters are better off and up to a mile you’ve got a chance. But there are no rules. Some horses handle altitude and others don’t. I had a horse called Saintly Lady (Peacetime) that won a Grade 1 in Johannesburg, but couldn’t win a B division race in Durban. I’ve also won races up to two miles on the Highveld. We used to travel on a Thursday for a Saturday race, but the roads weren’t as good back then. But, I remember the November Handicap (a Grade 1 over a mile) once being postponed for a week due to rain. The Durban horses had to stay up there and should have had no chance according to the theories, but still filled five of the first six places.”

Admittedly, Durban was the strongest racing centre back in those days.

Woodruff also pointed out that Summerveld, from which most KZN horses raided, is at an altitude of over 700m, despite being only 35km from the sea.

“It is already more than a third of the altitude of Johannesburg and from there a horse can get away with a run over any distance,” he said. “I remember David Payne finishing first, second and third in the IGN Gold Bowl over 3200m at Turffontein in the 1980s. He took his most fancied couple, White Tie Affair (Sir Tristram) and Sweet Secret, up for a preparation run over 1800m and left them up there. He raided with the outsider of the party, Golden Peak (Peacetime), from Summerveld. Golden Peak won (at odds of 25-1) beating White Tie Affair (evens) and Sweet Secret (Peacetime) (20-1) into second and third.”

That result might also have proved Woodruff’s theories on acclimatisation in Johannesburg, which, as mentioned earlier, he reckoned took three to six months.

Woodruff reckoned horses could need five to six weeks to recover merely from raiding the Hollywoodbets Scottsville course in Pietermaritzburg from the old Clairwood training centre at sea level in Durban, even though the altitude in Pietermaritzburg is only 650m.

“Horses take quite a chemical shunt at altitude when raiding from the coast and need time to normalise,” he said.

This, coupled with the arduous journey, is perhaps one of the reasons Cape Town horses seldom raid Johannesburg.

One point of agreement among trainers is that coastal horses campaigning on the Highveld hit a flat spot roundabout three weeks after arriving.

Dennis Drier had twelve winners during a two month campaign on the Highveld in the 2006/2007 season.

He said, “For the first three weeks of my campaign all of them ran to the form I expected. But they hit a slight dip at the three week mark. Some of them weren’t finishing their work and were a bit off their feed. But two weeks later they were back to normal again.”

Gavin Van Zyl, based at Summerveld, has had much success on the Highveld including on his current campaign.

He said, “I was told by a top trainer that the flat spot starts at the 19 day mark. Personally I have found that the horses will be flat between the 19th and 21st day.”

Another factor that some believe plays a part in a successful raid or campaign of the Highveld is the weather.

During rainy seasons, oxygen concentrations tend to be higher because the rain interacts with oxygen in the air as it falls.

Mike Bass, a many-times Cape Champion trainer, had success with his three-year-old gelding English Garden (Camden Park) in a Highveld campaign in 2011 where he won the Grade 1 SA Classic over 1800m, and another Cape Town horse, the Vaughan Marshall-trained Top Seller (Al Mufti), finished second.

English Garden was subsequently an unlucky second in the SA Derby.

English Garden spent the first month at altitude doing slow work and Bass reckoned the wet weather over this period had also contributed to the success of the Cape campaigners.

Furthermore, English Garden was a known “bleeder” and scientific studies have shown that Exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage (EIPH) has a higher prevalence and greater severity at sea level.

However, this might be due to factors other than altitude, for example non-sweating in thoroughbreds is associated with high temperatures and humidity and there is a correlation between non-sweating and EIPH.

Of course there is one theory that states, “A horse who is good enough will win on the moon.”

But only the races will tell.

Expert Eye winning the Gr 1 Breeders Cup Turf Mile under Frankie Dettori (Picture: Edward Whittaker (Racing Post)) 

Turf Talk

The newest stallion imported to South Africa is Expert Eye, who is already enjoying notable success in the world’s strongest turf racing centre, the U.K.

Sally Bruss, who is the stud manager of Paardeberg Stud where Expert Eye will stand, said, “The main reason we have hope for him is he has had 58 individual winners already from his first two crops, a lot of then two-year-olds, and they have good actions and like good going. For him to have 58 individual winners in England where the racing is very strong is positive and they haven’t been getting the going they prefer this season as there has been a lot of rain. He himself also finished so well in all of his races, which is also the indication of a horse with a good action and one needing good going.”

Furthermore, his sire Acclamation has been making headlines.

Acclamation’s Hong Kong-based son Romantic Warrior won this year’s renewal of Australia’s most prestigious weight for age event, The Cox Plate.

In the last big juvenile race of the season in the U.K, the Gr 3 Horris Hill Stakes over seven furlongs on the Newmarket Rowley Mile, a son of Acclamation finished first and a son of Expert Eye was second beaten a length after being hampered.

Furthermore one of the highest rated two-year-olds in the U.K this year, the Juddmonte homebred Frankel colt Task Force, is out of a mare who is a half-sister to the dam of Expert Eye.

Expert Eye’s dam is by Dansili (Danehill), meaning she has the Norther Dancer-Mr Prospector nick.

Acclamation was a Group 2-winning sprinter who was placed in Gr 1 sprints multiple times and he by the European Champion Sprinter Royal Applause.

Acclamation’s dam line hails from a mare by Tudor Minstrel, who is the joint third-highest Timeform rated horse in history on 144.

Turdor Minstrel was a source of speed, so there is a lot of speed on Expert Eye’s sire side.

Expert Eye’s dam won over a mile on debut so will provide some stamina. Her sire Dansili was a miler who was the leading sire in France in 2014 and he has produced both a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner and a King George Vi and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner.

Expert Eye’s defining moment in his own career was when winning the Gr 1 Breeders Cup Turf Mile at Churchill Downs in 2018.

He was bred by Juddmonte Farms Ltd and raced for Juddmonte owner Prince Khalid Abdullah.

Franke Dettori dropped him back from a middle draw early in the Breeders Cup turf mile and crept up on the back of the outside train. He went for his run down the middle and still had plenty to do with a furlong to go. However, he then found another gear to win going away by a cosy half-a-length.

He won a Gr 2 over seven furlongs at Goodwood as a two-year-old and won the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting as a three-year-old. He also won a Gr 3 at York that season and was retired at the end of his three-year-old season after his Breeders Cup win.

Expert Eye has had two stakes winners to date, the filly Juniper Berries who won a Gr 3 on good to firm going over six furlongs at Salisbury, and the filly Snellen, who won the Listed Chesham Stakes over seven furlong at the Royal Ascot meeting also on good to firm going.

The first two Breeders Cup champions to stand in SA were Daylami and Miesque’s Approval. They had limited success but Daylami had been tried for longer as a sire before arriving here and Miseque’s Approval was a dirt horse.

Expert Eye will soon be leaving quarantine and will arrive at Paardeberg Stud on 23 November.

He will be in good hands as renowned horsewoman Sally Bruss’s many years of experience includes breeding and raising no fewer than 20 Gr 1 winner during her time as stud manager of Lammerskraal Stud.

Paardeberg Stud is a collaboration between British businessmen, Steve Ajax and Charles Palmer, along with Sally Bruss. Steve and Charles are most recognised in the racing world as the creators of the ground breaking and award winning Global Team Horse Racing.

Peach Daiquiri (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Jack Milner (Tab4Racing)

Racing fans in Joburg are in for a treat on Friday with a twilight meeting taking place at Turffontein.

Racing is on the Standside track and there are eight really decent races to enjoy, with Race 1 kicking off at 3.25pm with the final event going off at 7.40pm.

Topping the card is Race 6, a Pinnacle Stakes over 1400m, and it could be dominated by the fillies competing in the event. Leading the charge are the Stuart Pettigrew-trained pair of Captain Peg and Feather Boa and both are talented and consistent. Feather Boa, who did everything but win a Graded feature last season, finally got her nose down when it mattered when she beat stablemate Captain Peg by one length last time in the Grade 2 Joburg Spring F&M Spring Challenge over 1450m on the Inside track.

However, under the race conditions it is Captain Peg who is now 4kg better off and is expected to turn the tables.

Nevertheless, they could both face a strong challenge from last season’s KZN Fillies Guineas winner Peach Daiquiri, who will be making her debut for trainer Tony Peter. This Vercingetorix filly proved to be a star in Port Elizabeth when starting her career with Sharon Kotzen but it was clearly felt she was too good to stay in the Eastern Cape.

Her last start was in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1700m at the Vaal in July where she finished 2.75 lengths behind Melech, and it will be interesting how she performs in this event back over 1400m.

Calvin Habib takes the ride.

The other filly who needs to be considered is Sean Tarry-trained Winter Greeting, who has won four of her six starts and has won both of her runs over 1400m.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 2 Secret Chord, 1 Ethanator, 12 Smashing, 7 Glawari

Race 2: 4 Witblits, 7 Universal Love, 9 Summer Fling, 6 Be Real

Race 3: 5 Quiet Rebellion, 3 Elembee, 2 Littlemarysunshine, 4 Special Charm

Race 4: 7 Vesuvio, 5 Radu, 4 Napoleon, 1 Pewter Sky

Race 5: 3 Mount Pilatus, 5 American Biscuit, 1 We Are The Logans, 4 Courageous Cat

Race 6: 3 Peach Daiquiri, 4 Captain Peg, 2 Feather Boa, 7 Winter Greeting

Race 7: 8 Virginia Beach, 2 Mist In Scotland, 10 Woman Of Power, 3 No Filter

Race 8: 5 Cornwall, 11 Law Of Success, 3 Fostinovo, 1 Power Broker

BEST BET

Race 2 No 4 Witblits

VALUE BET

Race 7 No 8 Virginia Beach

BEST SWINGER

Race 1 1×2

BIPOT

R324

Leg 1: 1, 2

Leg 2: 4

Leg 3: 2, 3, 5

Leg 4: 4, 5, 7

Leg 5: 1, 3, 5

Leg 6: 2, 3, 4

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R324

Leg 1: 4

Leg 2: 3, 5

Leg 3: 4, 5, 7

Leg 4: 3, 5

Leg 5: 2, 3, 4

Leg 6: 2, 8, 10

Leg 7: 3, 5, 11

PICK 6

R1728

Leg 1: 2, 3, 5

Leg 2: 1, 4, 5, 7

Leg 3: 1, 3, 5

Leg 4: 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 5: 2, 3, 8, 10

Leg 6: 3, 5, 11

JACKPOT 1

R192

Leg 1: 1, 4, 5, 7

Leg 2: 1, 3, 5

Leg 3: 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 4: 2, 3, 8, 10

JACKPOT 2

R144

Leg 1: 1, 3, 5

Leg 2: 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 3: 2, 3, 8, 10

Leg 4: 3, 5, 11

Robin Bruss leads in his homebred Erupt filly Back To The Future whom he part-owns together with EL Maguire and RS Maguire. The filly gave trainer Paul Matchett a double on the day. 

Turf Talk

Calvin Habib rode a double for Tony Peter at the Vaal Classic meeting on Thursday.

Paul Matchett also had a double.

Habib is now on 40 wins for the season at a strike rate of 11.05%.

Peter goes to 32 wins at 23.53%.

Matchett is on 20 wins at 11.56%.

Turf Talk

The 1947 July carried stakes money of £10,000, a new South African record.