Gary Player after winning the Cartier Paddock Stakes with Double Grand Slam. (Picture: Wayne Marks)
Gary May Celebrate 90th Birthday With Breeders Cup Runner
If – on New Year’s Eve – breeder and golf legend, Gary Player, raised his glass to 2024, that’s highly understandable. It’s not every year one breeds the Equus “Horse-of-the-Year” but he did it with Dave The King.
However, there’s every chance Gary could trump that in 2025. The nine-time Major winner could celebrate his 90th birthday with a Breeders Cup runner at Del Mar in California. The horse likely to represent Gary, Gaynor Rupert and Dave Maclean is Paddock Stakes victress, Double Grand Slam.
So will Double Grand Slam be making the journey for the two-day Breeders Cup meeting on Oct 31 and Nov 1.
America has been a happy hunting ground for Gary during his illustrious career. He won the Masters in 1961, 1974 and 1978, the PGA in 1962 and 1972 and the US Open in 1965.
Thanks to the efforts of my daughter, Jade, who lives in London, we were able to get hold of Gary for an exclusive interview for Turf Talk.
This is the message he sent back to her and my thanks for his swift response.
“It’s a pleasure to be able to speak to David Mollett, who I always like so much, and he is so knowledgeable about racing. The Breeders’ Cup, obviously I’d love to have a horse in the Breeders’ Cup. We have a winner but it’s a tall order.”
“I think if my horse had won the Majorca and had not lost by an inch, yet unfortunately we all make mistakes. But Richard Fourie rode a terrible race, if he’d run and listened to instructions, he would have won.”
“If he rode the similar ride that he had in winning the Met against the rail, which made a vast difference. But we all make mistakes. But it’s a very costly mistake because if she’s a two-time Group 1-winning mare, she obviously is worth a lot more if she goes to America and then would definitely be invited to the Breeders’ Cup.”
“Plus, I’ve got two half-sisters, which would have meant an awful lot to them. Plus, as a broodmare in the future. But the jockeys don’t seem to worry very much about all this. You’ve only got to see the sad things that happen. And the jockey said they’re not going to run the last two races because the grass is growing too much in the afternoon. Or in the met that some of the jockeys say they’re not going to ride the last two races.”
“Now imagine if I’ve got a horse or you’ve got a horse in the race and they turn around and say I’m not riding the last two races. Now you’ve got to scramble for a jockey. There should be some kind of a fine. Your word is your bond.”
“I’m 90 and I’m traveling around the world for companies and sometimes I feel very tired of the time-turn but I can’t turn around and say I’m not going to do it. I’ve got to honor my word. There’s not enough discipline in our business unfortunately.”
“As far as Justin is concerned, his opinion about the Breeder’s Cup, you have to ask him. I cannot answer for him. But I would prefer to have an American jockey if we ever did have a horse in that race because the tracks are so different and our jockeys are not riding. They’re not used to riding the same style and tracks and speed as the American jockeys are.”
“It’s always better to have a man who’s indigenous to ride your horse unless of course he’s a Frankie Dettori or with somebody of that nature. South Africa has had great horses.”
“You think of Bold Tropic, Ipi Tombe, I owned the sire of Ipi Tombe (Manshood), Mike de Kock still says it’s the fastest filly he ever had. Colorado King, how well he did. South African horses today are far better. We can stand our ground without a question. So all in all, I think that we have the stock, we have people like Gaynor, Rupert, we have John Koster, we have people like Susan Rowett, people who really are fantastic for the business in this country, and a host of others.”
“So we have the stock. I just don’t like also that I’ve had a few people that I’ve had interests in. I’m always trying to get people into the racing business and recently I’ve had people and they say, is there a money list, and I say yes, and they say, if I buy a horse do I qualify for the race, I say no, you’ve got to be an individual, they say but I don’t want to do it as an individual, I want to do it with you as a partner, and this happens across the spectrum.”
“Can you imagine an association, not including, if you’ve got three owners in a partnership and the first prize is 90, you allocated 30,000 towards your individual money list, but it’s too much
work, or there’s too much paperwork, whatever the answer is, it’s feeble. Today with all the technology that we have, AI, all the computers, etc etc…no excuse.”
“So we lost two very, very big owners here. We’ve got to do everything in our power to encourage people to come into the business. Because the horse business is a disease and the joy you get out of it is fantastic. And we have a lot of people in this country now that are dedicating themselves for the improvement of the sport.”
“But we need discipline, and we need everybody to play their role, as Shakespeare said,” concluded Gary.
It would appear there’s every chance of SA having four runners at the Breeders Cup – Double Grand Slam, One Stripe, Isivunguvungu and Quid Pro Quo.
The forward-thinking of Owen and Devin Heffer has seen Hollywood take a leaf out of Godolphin’s book and One Stripe will sport their colours overseas.
After her defeat on Saturday, it would be no surprise if Quid Pro Quo was on the next plane to the States.
All these developments may have perked the interest of charismatic KZN owner, Phil Georgiou. He has run several successful trips to Dubai for SA racing fans and looks the ideal guy to organise a group for the Breeders Cup.
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Dave Mollett column topic 2
Media bashing is usually confined to the political arena – American President Donald Trump is the perfect example criticising most TV stations (except his backers Fox) during his election campaign.
So there will have been raised eyebrows from SA racing scribes as – during the WSB Met prize giving – owner Nic Jonsson chose to launch an attack on the country’s racing media.
Apparently, his dissatisfaction centres around the naming of his three year-old and Met winner, Eight On Eighteen.
Personally, I had never given the subject much thought. I thought it might refer to the address of a family member.
I like to keep up to date with the sport’s ongoings by regularly checking out Turf Talk, Sporting Post, SA Horse-racing.com and African Betting Clan.
Scouring the Met previews I couldn’t find anything detrimental to the chance of Mr Jonsson’s runner, most of the comment was positive.
Turf Talk editor, David Thiseleton, liked the chances of See It Again which was fair enough. Regarding Eight On Eighteen, he wrote “TGhe three year-old is progressive and strikes as one who will enjoy the step up in trip.”
I awaited a response from the various websites but – with the exception of SA Horseracing.com – there was precious little.
Praise for Eight On Eighteen’s win for Mr Jonsson in Turf Talk while Sporting Post said the media had been subjected to “a bit of a rev” and Dave Scott in ABC called it a “perfect day.”
So its hats off to SA Horseracing.com which wrote a long piece on the incident and made a valid point when stating “the public lashing may further discourage those still committed to the craft.”
In my many years as a racing journo – 13 years with The Rand Daily Mail and 38 with Business Day – there were plenty of salvos fired regarding articles that ruffled the feathers of anyone ranging from officials at the Jockey Club, owners, trainers and jockeys.
That’s accepted as just part of the job, but Saturday’s “stinging critique of the country’s racing media” (SA Horseracing.com) looked like a case of bad timing by Mr Jonsson.
He was the centre of big race celebrations but the joyfulness went out of it when he suddenly got serious. He should rather have voiced his opinion on the comment sections of various websites.
