Herman Brown Jnr hails from a training dynasty with his grandfather Herman being a trainer and his father Herman being a legend who not only trained many Gr 1 winners but who also taught many others the ropes.
It was revealed in Charl Pretorius’ Off The Record column that Herman Brown would be making a comeback to the training ranks.
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Herman did very well as a trainer himself both in SA and with the overseas strings he campaigned with.
His greatest moment happened on 29 March, 2008.
Read about that pinnacle night in Dubai below in an article that was written a couple of days after the event.
Herman Brown Jr. arrived back in Durban from Dubai on Sunday and yesterday, away from the emotion of victory and the whirlwind of shouting race fans and frenetic pressmen, the enormity of Jay Peg’s victory in the Gr 1 US$5 million Dubai Duty Free over 1777m began sinking in.
“Any big race you win is a thrill,” he said, “but this race was on the world stage, so from the point of view of the publicity it has given our yard and the financial reward, it has to be the biggest day of my horse racing career. Jay Peg is also actually the first South African-bred to have won a Gr 1 race in Dubai.”
“As South Africans, this gave us such a thrill, it was like winning an Olympic gold medal. Jay Peg had been tried in first time blinkers in his previous race, three weeks earlier, and with a 3kg Group 1 penalty, he finished a one length second to a horse who had a rating of 112. His rating was consequently raised to 116, but in the Dubai Duty Free there were six horses rated higher than him and two equal with him, including the likes of Literato, Darjina and his own stable mate Linngari, who were rated 123, 122 and 121 respectively.”
“We put the blinkers on as we knew before the race that to have any chance, especially from his wide draw, we were going to have to run them off their feet as he is a bit one paced. But the win still came as a helluva surprise. Before the night we would have been very happy with just a couple of places.”
“Anton said afterwards to the press that he had got away with a couple of slow sections early on, but that was only for the first 500m or 600m. After that they went like the clappers and the plan worked out perfectly as he actually broke the course record. I was trying to watch both my horses and when I saw Jay Peg at the 300m mark I thought well he’s going to run in the first four so I was happy.”
“But then in the last 100m we realised he could win and we began shouting. I think the other horses had put in their runs just to get him and they then started running out of oxygen themselves. After he had crossed the line there just seemed to be pandemonium around me.”
“My phone was ringing, everybody was shouting and the pressmen were rushing around me and firing questions from all directions. My father phoned but with my emotions and all the noise and activity around me I don’t think I could talk. There was then the prize giving followed by a full-blown press conference where journalists from around the world asked questions.”
Jay Peg’s iconic victory in Dubai. “Moments like that might never happen in my career again, it’s something I will never forget. Having Basil Marcus who had a long association with my father in his riding days and other South African colleagues with me to share this pinnacle moment of my career made it extra special. But it has really been a huge team effort from the time Jay Peg entered quarantine to the time he won and I am really just the one who coordinates everything.”
“When I got back here I heard that in South Africa the fans had missed out on most of the post-race interviews, the lead-in and the prize-giving as they had flipped to another overseas meeting. I feel they could have at least had a split-screen as fans really want to watch the best horses and I think they missed out. But Andrew Bon was there and a racing DVD comes out in Dubai so hopefully they will still get to see it.”
Herman said all three of his horses who ran on the night, Jay Peg, Sushisan and Linngari had pulled up well and he has them entered for the forthcoming Grade 1 QEII Cup in Hong Kong and the Grade 1 Singapore Airlines at Kranji.
“But I will have to see what shape they are in in a week’s time before deciding whether to run them,” he added.
Herman said that winning big races is like a drug so he would naturally like to increase his operation in Dubai, but it depended on the quality of horses his clients could buy.
He said that buying ready-made horses made it easier and added that his overseas clients do take that route as well as buying yearlings. They will be attending this weekend’s National Yearling Sale with him. He also revealed that he had been given an attractive offer by some of his clients recently to train in England, but would rather stick to what he knew for the time being and consider it again in a couple of years after he had had time to check it out properly and do some planning.
He added, “I love South Africa and always want to be racing here.”
He said that the National Yearling Sales was looking positive over overseas buyers because of the week rand, but added that South Africa had received some negative sentiment lately, so buyers had needed some convincing.
Who knows, Jay Peg’s progeny might one day be on our most prestigious stage as Herman feels he has stallion potential.
“He has a big heart which showed on Saturday and he is a lovely looking horse and a nice size. His sire Camden Park is deceased, so perhaps he will take his place one day.”
