Picture: Muzi Yeni after riding the 2000th win of his career on Friday night at Hollywoodbets Greyville on the Glen Kotzen-trained Canford Cliffs filly Feeling Groovy (Candiese Lenferna).
Muzi Yeni To Realise Dream?
Picture: Justin Snaith holds the HKJC World Pool Champions Cup trophy together with Jet Dark’s owners Nick Jonsson (right) and Tommy Crowe. (Candiese Lenferna).
Justin Snaith To Approach Millard’s Grade 1 Record?
Picture: Felix Coetzee on the way to post for the 1986 SA Fillies Sprint on the crack British-bred filly Sunera, who came home in Scottsville 1200m course record time. (The Racing Museum).
Felix Coetzee Might Be Joint Record-Holder For Grade 1’s In A Season
A debate began recently about which SA jockey had won the most Grade 1’s in one season and when it was shown that Weichong Marwing had won 12 in the 1998/1999 season most would have accepted that phenomenal score as the record.
However, it has now been discovered that Felix Coetzee rode at least 11 in the 1985/1986 season and possibly 12 depending on which season the early August Durban Winter season Grade 1s counted for.
His Grade 1 wins that season were:
Picture: The Mike de Kock-trained Humdinger wins yesterday’s Listed Off To Stud brought to you by RH Construction and Concrete Floors (Candiese Lenferna).
International Racing Club’s First Listed Winner
The Mike de Kock-trained Humdinger (What A Winter) gave the IRC Syndicate their first Listed win yesterday when running on in fluent style under Kabelo Matsunyane in the Off To Stud Stakes over 1600m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
“We are over the moon, well done to part-owners Mike de Kock and Laura de Haast, and also João da Mata’s IRC Syndicate inclusive of Krish Nagendran and Ian Lewis,” said an IRC spokesman.
Humdinger’s dam Himalayan Hill won the Off To Stud stakes in 2012.
CLICK TO WATCH REPLAY OF THE OFF TO STUD STAKES
SA-born UK-based businessman Joao de Mato created the International Racing Club in 2014 and got the ball rolling with Michael De Haast.
He said in an interview a couple of years ago with the Sporting Post, “Our goal was to bring new people into racing via syndication without running the business as a profit machine. In other words if we purchased a horse for R10 000 we syndicated it for R10 000. Obviously if it had run and won we would adjust the cost.”
He adds that their strength is that they tell all their clients up front that they only guarantee them a few things with their purchases:
- it will sometimes run last
- whether it runs last or first, they will ensure your experience is special
He went on to say he had introduced a number of new owners to SA racing and added, “Our trips out to the beautiful country are legendary and overall our owners have fallen in love with South Africa and its people.”
At present IRC owns close to 30 horses.
The ten in full training in South Africa include a number of promising horses.
Humdinger will be aimed at suitable summer features in Gauteng and possibly be sent to Cape Town for their big Summer Season.
Cleaver Greene (Rafeef) is a good Mike de Kock-trained sprinter who has won two and finished runner up twice in four starts, including second to subsequent Grade 1 Computaform Sprint winner Master Archie in the Grade 3 Man O’ War Sprint, albeit when receiving 8kg.
Climate Control (Ideal World) is promising and will be aimed at the WSB Dingaans.
Money Heist (Gimmethegreenlight) is a promising colt trained by Gareth van Zyl, who finished a close third on debut over 1400m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
The club has high hopes for the Peter Muscutt-trained Captain Bombshell (Captain Of All), who is still a maiden but he finished fourth in the Grade 1 Gold Medallion.
The Alec Laird-trained Billy Bowlegs (The United States) also has promise and beat two subsequently impressive winners, Total Protection and Eyjaffyallajokull when winning his maiden over 1600m.
The club has a further five unraced youngsters in training in SA and six new horses recently bought at the sales.
They have five horses in the UK and Ireland, including two jumpers.
They had their first runner in Ireland on Saturday, Skip Mahler (Great Palm), who finished a promising third in a National Hunt Bumper.
They have one horse who has shown promise in Australia and is with Matthew de Kock and Robbie Griffiths.
They also have one horse in Zimbabwe, Evocative (Vercingetorix), who is with trainer Thomas Mason.
The club also has six broodmares.
They have a spelling farm in Summerveld called Fiddler’s Green, which is run by Sigi Sauter.
A lot of the club’s retired horses also reside at Fiddler’s Green.
Picture: Do It Again displaying how much ground he covers in the picture from the 2020 July Gallops (Gold Circle).
Do It Again Targeting Record-breaking 6th July Appearance
Do It Again will remain in training this season, although he is not certain to run in the Cape Summer Season.
However, the aim is to give the Justin Snaith-trained champion “one more dip” at the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
He is statistically the greatest July horse in history.
In five July appearances he has won twice, finished third once and fourth twice (one of them a desperately unlucky fourth).
He has been the best performed horse at the weights on four occasions.
His fourth place finish this year was the third best performance at the weights behind his stablemate and runner up Jet Dark and fifth-placed Kommetdieding.
He will be attempting to become the first horse to win the country’s premier race three times if lining up.
He will become the first to run in the July six times.
Today’s Question
The above image shows a famous painting by Theodore Gericault called “The Derby at Epsom.”
Turffontein Standside Tuesday August 9 Fields
Today’s Question Answer
Eadward Muybridge’s pioneering work changed photography and painting forever.
While living in the United States in the 1870s, he developed processes to capture multiple frames of animals in motion, revealing the mechanics of how they run.
At the behest of California governor and racehorse owner Leland Stanford, on the land that would become Stanford University, the photographer caught images of horses trotting and galloping.
He did so by lining up several customized cameras triggered when a running horse tripped sequential threads.
Viewed in succession, the prints confirmed for the first time that a horse’s four legs are all off the ground simultaneously when they run.
They also demonstrated that the common depiction of a racehorse in motion with front and back legs outstretched all at once was woefully inaccurate.
Muybridge (England 1830-1904) is thus also credited with making the first film (motion picture) in history.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE FIRST FIRST FILM IN HISTORY
Picture: Eadward Muybridge’s sequential pictures of a horse’s action at full gallop (Picture credit: Researchgate.net)
