Hollywood Syndicate allowing celebrities to name certain of their horses has been a wonderful innovation as the latter become attached to the horses they have named without officially being part of the ownership.
KZN’s father and son commentary team, Craig and Sheldon Peters, were given the chance to name one horse each out of a batch of 12 selected by Hollywood at one of the Sales.
Sheldon combined the names of his daughters Shiloh and Sophia to form the name Shipholia and this three-year-old William Longsword filly won on debut yesterday over 1200m on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly under Athandiwe Mgudlwa, fittingly called home by Craig Peters.
She was the first leg of a treble for both the Hollywood Syndicate and Mgudlwa.
Craig combined the names of his three offspring, Sheldon, Angelique and Tacita, to name a Bush Hill Stud-bred William Longsword filly Shanta’s Pride and this three-year-old has finished second and third respectively in two starts over 1200m on the poly and 1400m on the turf.
Craig and Sheldon were grateful to Owen and Devin Heffer for being given the opportunity.
Craig has know Owen for 35 years and said, “I first met him at Rawdens on the old stallion tour. Just before the July every year there was a bus tour put on where we were taken to visit all the stallions in the KZN Midlands and we used to stay overnight at Rawdens. Owen was was just starting out then. It is great to see where he has got to and how highly respected he is by industry people for all he is doing for racing. Our kids, including Sheldon and Devin, also used to go to karate lessons together growing up.”
Other media members who have been able to name a Hollywood horse are the on course photographers Anita Akal and her daughter Anneke Akal Kitching.
They named their horse Kitchakal and this Master Of My Fate gelding is showing promise with a third on debut followed by a win and then a narrow second to the well regarded Wiccan Warrior.
