Winter Waves, ridden by Athandiwe Mgudlwa, gave What A Winter a double at today’s Hollywoodbets Greyville poly meeting and saw Alyson Wright go two ahead of Gareth van Zyl in the KZN Trainers Championship (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
The KZN Trainers Championship was wide open for much of the season, with a host of trainers in contention, but it has turned into a two horse race between Alyson Wright and Gareth van Zyl.
Today Alyson had a winner to reach 48 wins in KZN for the season, which is two clear of Gareth on 46.
The Wrights have spoken of the championship as something they would very much want to win and it would be their first.
Last year they had 49 wins in KZN and 50 overall, which was the yard’s best ever return.
All 48 of their wins this season have been in KZN, but they should nevertheless break their record for a season.
Gareth van Zyl was the KZN champion trainer two seasons ago.
Championship races can sometimes come down to numbers of runners in the end, but there is not much between the two yards in that regard.
The Wrights have had 390 wins in KZN this season compared to Van Zyl’s 295.
However, that does not tell the whole story, because Gareth has a yard in Cape Town and might well have brought a number of horses from there to KZN for the Champions Season.
In April the Wrights had 32 runs to Van Zyl’s 27; In May the Wrights had 35 runs to Van Zyl’s 33 and this month the Wrights have had 16 runs to Van Zyl’s eleven.
It should be an intriguing tussle down to the line and there will be lots of vocal support for horses from the sidelines, with two yards known for their passion vying for the title.
The top ten in KZN are:
Wright 48
Van Zyl 46
Whitehead 39
Miller 38
Puller 36
Muscutt 33
Howells 28
Roberts 27
Goosen 24
Nel 23
