Gladatorian secured the KZN Horse Of The Year award when winning the Gr 1 wfa HKJC Champions Cup (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
In a welcome change only KZN horses were considered for the KZN Racing awards, so there was no confusion, unlike some years in the recent past, and the best horses in the province were able to be honoured.
The Stuart Ferrie-trained Gladatorian (Vercingetorix) was the star of the show after a marvellous season in which he won the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes, was a narrow third in the Gr 1 wfa Gold Challenge over 1600m and he won the Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m.
Those performances were in the gelding’s five-year-old year and he was named KZN Horse Of The Year, KZN Middle Distance Champion and KZN Champion Older Male.
Ferrie is now planning to send Gladatorian to the Cape, with the 2026 1600m L’Ormarins King’s Plate (Gr1) and the 2000m World Sports Betting Cape Town Met (Gr1) the obvious targets.
For Gladatorian’s regular pilot, Sean Veale, the 2024/2025 season proved a break-through year with Veale riding more than 100 winners for the first time in his career.
Of these, 70 were recorded in his home province – enough to secure the popular Hollywood Racing-retained and Sporting Post-sponsored rider the honour of being crowned the Province’s Champion Jockey.
Gareth Van Zyl retained his Champion KZN Trainer title with 49 winners, comfortably clear of Dean Kannemeyer and Garth Puller who saddled 43 winners each in KZN.
Gareth delivered a touching speech in which he thanked his father Gavin for keeping a KZN yard going which enabled him to have something to fall back on when things began “crumbling” in the Cape.
The Van Zyl yard also played a major role in Hollywood Racing’s Asiye Phambili being voted Champion Sprinter & Champion Older Mare.
In his care, the daughter of What A Winter won the Grade 2 Sceptre Stakes and Grade 3 Southern Cross during the Cape Summer, before being transferred back to Duncan Howells for Champions Season.
In search of an elusive Grade 1 victory, Asiye Phambili was denied by the narrowest of margins in the SA Fillies Sprint at Hollywoodbets Scottsville before finishing a highly creditable third against the boys in the Mercury Sprint on the final day of Champions Season.
Dual Feature race winners, Quickstepgal and I Salute You, emerged as the respective Champions in the Two-Year-Old and Three-Year-Old categories.
Another chaneg this year is he age groups only had one champion and not a female and male champion.
Quickstepgal is trained by Tienie Prinsloo and raced in the colours of Rakesh Singh but has now subsequently been sold to the Wernars family, while I Salute You hails from the Peter Muscutt stable.
King Pelles, trained by Gareth Van Zyl, was a dominant winner of the Champion Stayers Award, having closed out his season with victories in the Tote Derby, the Durban Gold Vase and the World Pool Gold Cup, having previously won a Gr 3 staying race in Cape Town too.
The Champion Apprentice Award was shared by Brevan Plaatjies and Mxolisi Mbuto who each rode 14 winners in KZN, although Plaatjies’ additional winners around the country were enough to secure him the Equus Award as National Champion Apprentice.
Hollywood Racing were crowned Champion Owners of KwaZulu-Natal while Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein emerged as leading breeders in the province for the second consecutive year.
In the special awards’ category, Tawanda Taruvinga was voted KZN’s Racing Personality of the Year. Tawanda’s infectious smile, fiery passion, creative talent, and effervescent personality have made him a popular figure amongst the local racing fraternity and a valuable asset to Race Coast KZN’s social media and broadcast teams.
Anita Akal presented her annual award to Race Coast KZN’s Marketing Executive Stephen Marshall, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the sport of horseracing in general,and the success of Champions Season 2025 in particular.
