Alyson Wright leads in Stealth Attack on Monday, the yard’s 47th win of the season. They will be hoping to have three more winners before the end of the month (Candiese Lenferna Photography).
Alyson Wright had a fine grounding in racing being the daughter of former top Zimbabwean trainer Penny Fisher.
She and her ex-jockey husband Kevin have kept up a steady flow of winners out of Summerveld since she took out her license back in August 2006.
However, this season could be a watershed one for a yard who have always threatened to join the big league.
Alyson is on a personal best of 47 wins.
The Wrights are hoping to reach a milestone of 50 wins before the season end which is two-and-a-half weeks away.
Alyson said, “Our goal this season was way less than what we have achieved. Every season we print out a sheet to predict how many winners and I think we put about 28 before the season. We didn’t have that much stock, but we have just been supported through the year.”
They train 12 horses for the Hollywood Syndicate, but KZN’s leading owner has not been their only source of support.
Alyson continued, “Hollywood have been a huge help. But different people have given us horses too. It has actually been incredible.”
She added, “We never thought we could get close to 50 wins. I think it is just we’ve been quite consistent.”
Alyson started out with 15 horses back in 2006, some from other yards, some sent down from Zimbabwe and three bought at local KZN sales.
The Wrights initially sub-letted stables from the late Niel Bruss.
A measure of their professionalism is they purchased a horse walker before they had even been allocated stables.
The walker has served them in good stead over the last 17 years.
Alyson grew up around horses and in her school years, apart from workriding for her mother, was an accomplished showjumper.
Her official career in racing started when landing a job on the stud farm of Christopher Peach.
After three years in that job she went over to Singapore to work as assistant trainer to former Zimbabwean champion trainer Mike Clements.
Kevin, a form Zimbabwean champion jockey, was already out there riding for Clements.
The yard had battled with just two winners in nine months before Kevin’s arrival and, after riding seven winners, he left the yard with a rosier outlook.
However, Alyson’s mother had taken out her license in Zimbabwe again after a period of retirement, so she returned to be her assistant while Kevin returned to his former position as stable jockey to Zimbabwean champion trainer Noeleen Peach.
A year later in 2003 Alyson joined Noeleen as assistant as the latter prepared to relocate to South Africa.
Kevin rode Peach’s first runner in SA to victory.
However, tragedy struck soon thereafter when he was kicked by a horse down at the start of a Clairwood race.
Kevin was by all accounts destined for big things in the saddle, but the knee injury ended his riding career.
He had a short stint as a stipendiary steward before becoming assistant to Alyson when she took out her license in 2006.
The popular couple have come a long way and hopefully with the renewed support they will get one or two of the big horses every yard yearns for and which the Wrights deserve.
They showed what they could do with a big horse when sending out the Black Minnaloushe gelding Kochka to victory in the 2013 renewal of the Gr 1 Premier’s Champion Stakes.
