Turf Talk Newsletter – 09 September, 2025

60 Day Foal Guarantee For Drakenstein/Snaith Stallions

Picture: Charles Dickens filly foal out of KRA Fillies Guineas winner Santa Clara (Duke Of Marmalade)

Breeding with Confidence: New 60–Day Foal Guarantee for the 2025 Season

Franschhoek, Western Cape, 8 September 2025

Drakenstein Stud Farm, in partnership with Snaith Bloodstock, is pleased to announce enhanced “Special Live Foal Fee” terms for the new breeding season, giving breeders greater protection and peace of mind.

Effective immediately, if a mare does not produce a viable foal, the syndicate will refund the Special Live Foal Fee in full. In addition, we have extended the traditional 48–hour stand–and–nurse window to 60 days post–foaling, providing cover in the unfortunate event of foal mortality within that period.

This guarantee applies to the following stallions: Charles Dickens, Jet Dark, A Case Of You, Oriental Charm and Sharp Frank.

“It’s an exciting time of year for our stallion roster,” said Jono Snaith. “The first Charles Dickens foals have arrived and they look the part—racy and athletic, just as you’d expect from a champion.

A Case Of You is stamping his stock, while the Sharp Frank foals are flashy with good bone and size.

Jet Dark’s first yearlings continue to earn rave reviews, and Oriental Charm has begun his debut covering season like an old pro”.

Key Terms (summary):
• Refund applies to the Special Live Foal Fee only.
• Extended protection to 60 days post–foaling for foal mortality.
• Standard veterinary, notification, and documentation requirements apply.
• Full conditions available on request from Drakenstein Stud Farm.
We look forward to welcoming your mares this season and providing additional assurance as you plan your matings.

Bookings & Enquiries
Jonathan Snaith — 083 254 6255
Tarryn Putz — 083 787 1982

Ends

Classically Bred Oriental Charm Has So Much Going For Him

Oriental Charm shows true courage to get up in the Hollywoodbets Durban July (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Sarah Whitelaw

Few, if any, of the young stallions standing at stud in South Africa today have as much going for them as does Oriental Charm.

A top-class son of South Africa’s reigning champion sire Vercingetorix, Oriental Charm won from 1250m to 2200m during a career which saw Oriental Charm earn more than R5.17 million in prize money.

The bay also hails from one of the greatest families in the stud book, with Oriental Charm’s numerous top-class relatives including such breed shaping stallions as Danehill, Halo, Machiavellian and Northern Dancer.

An uber game galloper, Oriental Charm finished first, second or third in seven graded stakes, with his graded stakes wins headed by the 2024 G1 Hollywoodbets Durban July. In that race, the three-year-old Oriental Charm accounted for champions Cousin Casey, Royal Victory and Green With Envy, as well as the likes of See It Again, Double Superlative and Purple Pitcher.

At four, Oriental Charm showed his class when he won the G2 World Sports Betting Green Point Stakes before going on to finish runner up in both the G1 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met and G1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge.

Oriental Charm’s sire Vercingetorix was Champion Sire in South Africa in 2024-2025, when he also headed the Leading Sires of 2YOs and 3YOs premiership. The champion son of Silvano was responsible for an astonishing 23 black type winners in South Africa last season, with this tally including such G1 winners as Double Grand Slam, Mia Moo and Gladatorian.

To date, Vercingetorix has been responsible for 62 stakes winners, with this tally including champions Cousin Casey, Double Grand Slam, Mrs Geriatrix and Nebraas.

His son Oriental Charm was produced by the smart racemare Souk, a three time winner who ran second in the Listed Sweet Chestnut Stakes.

A daughter of the Zabeel sired July winning champion Greys Inn, Souk is out of the Strike Smartly mare Tagine, a full-sister to G1 SA Derby winner Bouquet-Garni.

Souk, whose granddam Bay Tree is a full-sister to both multiple G3 winner Queen’s Bay and the dam of G2 Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks winner Frances Ethel, is directly descended in female line from Futurity Stakes winner Mother Goose, one of the most important broodmares in the stud book.

Not only is Mother Goose the ancestress of legendary sires Danehill, Northern Dancer, Halo and Machiavellian, her descendants also include another highly successful sire in the form of Arctic Tern, as well as such top-class gallopers Bago, Cannonade, Chou Croute, Coup De Genie, Denebola, La Prevoyante, Maxios, and 2024 G1 Dubai World Cup winner Laurel River.

Another top-class member of this family is Sajiyr, winner of both the G1 ARC Prix Maurice de Gheest and G3 Blandford Bloodstock Abernant Stakes in 2025.

Oriental Charm has settled in well to stud life, and is enjoying life at Drakenstein Stud. He was quick to learn in the covering shed, and is a horse with a great temperament and libido. Should his progeny inherit any of their sire’s talent and heart, then Oriental Charm will enjoy a very successful career at stud indeed!

Tawanda Taruvinga Is KZN Racing Personality Of The Year

Tawanda Taruvinga was named Racing Personality Of The Year at the recent KZN Racing awards.

This was most appropriate as this Digital Marketing Strategist’s youthful vibrancy appeals to the younger generation in a sport whose fan base had been tending to have an older and older average age and his go-getting style is a perfect fit for the new Hollywoodbets-owned Race Coast operator.

Tawanda does not view himself as a stand out personality and explained, “I just think it’s my confidence, my respect and my smile because I’m always trying to make people feel good. I just always try to be a good person and spread some positivity and optimism.”

His feel-good videos and directorship of the popular racing podcast In The Box Seat do just that, not to mention his input in marketing strategies.

Tawanda became familiar with racing as he actually lived within the boundaries of Hollywoodbets Greyville.

His father Edward is the Race Coast Buildings and Facilities Manager and has a house on the racecourse.

Tawanda was not particularly interested in racing in the beginning, but his creative mind attracted the attention of the Gold Circle media team.

He had taught himself how to make online videos by watching YouTube tutorials and was hired by a forex company to produce some video content, which he did by interviewing random people on nearby Florida Road.

Edward saw the videos and showed them to Warren Lenferna of Race Coast Publishing. Graeme Hawkins then offered Tawanda a position in Gold Circle to produce similar content for horseracing and provided him with some basic equipment.

The videos made an immediate impact and a podcast that began as an audio only entity slowly metamorphosed into the In The Box Seat podcast with Warren Lenferna and Andrew Harrison.

Tawanda said, “Podcasts are very, very good, it’s something I would advise for anybody trying to grow, whether it’s a business or a social media following, because if you invite industry leaders that sort of indirectly brands you as an expert as well. You’re adding educational and entertainment value and that’s why I knew In The Box Seat was going to grow.”

Tawanda went the extra mile by buying his own state of the art equipment, a laptop, camera and microphone.

He said, “It’s like I knew one day I was going to resign and start my own agency.”

His frustration at his videos not being published timeously led him to explore social media.

He then began posting his own videos.

He said, “That then made me want to learn about how to make my videos get more views, I started learning about how to grow views and engagements and that just led me down a rabbit hole of learning about social media, learning about copyrighting, learning about hooks and even learning about graphic design.”

A hook is something also used by musicians that “hooks” people into the content and makes them want to watch for longer.

Tawanda said, “Now, especially with all this short-form content, you need to hook a person in the first three seconds.”

He added, “What I realised is stuff that really goes viral are celebrations or content that the public don’t usually see. A flying dismount, that’s an interesting video, or a punter or trainer just going crazy shouting, and also jockeys being asked funny questions that are not really horseracing related. Following top trainers goes viral, so if you have a podcast with Justin Snaith that is going to go viral.”

A fascinating video produced by Tawanda and his team on Hollywoodbets Durban July day was of the favourite Eight On Eighteen’s connections following the race. The raw roller coaster of emotion on their faces was a reflection of exactly how the race unfolded.

Going back to his early Gold Circle days, Tawanda was drafted into the marketing department and ended up working for them by day and doing his social media work and research by night.

The 16 hour day did not phase him and he revealed, “I was inspired by Ken Twedell and Precious Mbatha when i was in marketing – I was in awe of Ken’s work on the Durban July and the Loerie award he won for it. As somebody who had always wanted to be an entrepreneur, it inspired in me a vision of having a starting point outside of the company and then expanding.”

Tawanda started Vinga Media during Covid in 2020 and is especially grateful to Gold Circle’s marketing manager Steve Marshall for providing him with an office that was being unused near the judge’s box on the West Wing. The rental costs were offset against work done for Gold Circle.

Tawanda has employed a number of people and even has a satellite office in Cape Town.

As Tawanda’s expertise has grown, he has been able to incorporate techniques used by the business world into horseracing as he believed horseracing had been behind in this sphere.

One of his role models is Gary Vaynerchuk, an American businessman and entrepreneur also known for his work in digital marketing and social media.

Today Vinga Media does social media, graphic design, videography and creative direction and strategy for Race Coast.

Their strategising experience led to them formulating and submitting this year’s Hollywoodbets Durban July theme, “Marvels Of Mzansi”, in opposition to other submissions from various sources. It was virtually an automatic choice, because as Tawanda said it must be one of the best July themes ever, not only due to how versatile it was and the special meaning it had to South Africans, but also due to the inspirational advertorial design that accompanied it. Tawanda is confident of winning a Loerie award for the theme, having entered it.

Of the future, Tawanda wants to get into animation and wants to create TV productions with horseracing themes.

Meanwhile he has never stopped learning about the sport of horseracing and views this as a vital continuous learning curve.

He concluded, “You can’t add value into an industry that you don’t know, especially with horse racing. There’s so much context that you have to have before you can create the content. Good context gives you good content.”

Trust Could Be The Real Truth

Classy Princess Hannah Can Beat The Boys

Princess Hannah has been tipped to win the sixth race (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Andrew Harrison (Race Coast)

Punters may well be looking for landing place on a competitive card on the poly at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday.

Heading the card is a competitive B Stakes, a dash over 1000m, where Princess Hannah is over her favourite course and distance. She takes on some useful males but is quick and should put in another good effort. Lady Of Vix takes on stronger but has a light weight and is useful on her day while Intrepid is up in class but has bottom weight over a suitable trip. Mojo Man has shown some recent improvement and gets a stronger rider aboard.

Mike and Mathew de Kock could have the answer in the form of the lightly raced Schipole in the fifth race. The filly caught the eye when beaten less than a length in a Class 5 Handicap behind Flying Reign Storm when making her local debut on the turf at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.

She steps up in class in this Class 4 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1400m but takes the corresponding drop in the weights over a trip at which she shed her maiden. She makes her poly debut from the widest draw but takse on some well exposed older horses and any improvement should see her finish close-up if not win.

Of the balance, Skytrix is down in class and has been coming down in the handicap and has a useful claimer aboard while Jazz Café was much improved in blinkers when winning last time out and only got a two-point raise in the handicap so could be a threat.

Xiphos can get the ball rolling in the first as he found some long-priced betting support last run. He make his poly debut and has a more experienced rider aboard but it aint going to be easy. Sovereign Command is the obvious choice as has made steady recent improvement and has the same draw as he had when finishing second last time out to Emoyeni who had not missed a place in five starts. . Little Cracker was a length behind in that same race but the latter is much better off in the handicap.

The second is a wide open handicap where all are in with chances. Greenlight Queen is down in class and was not far off last run and is back on the poly. On Board is 2kg better off with Ilha Da Orange on their last meetings and her best recent effort has been on the poly. Kom Naidoo’s mare has improved in blinkers for her new stable and all of her recent starts have been on the poly. She can go close from the best of the draw. Jane’s Vision was a beaten favourite last run. She steps up in trip but her poly form is a little suspect.

The opening leg of the Pick 6 is a tough maiden where form is thin but Saudi Sweep has her first run for her new stable and has shown some form on the Highveld. She could be the right one. Peggy Sue Shake was not too far back on debut and can make marked improvement in this line-up.

There is not much form to go on in the fourth but Sally Port is lightly raced and showed improvement when stepped up in trip. She goes a furlong further and could be the right one. Dee Day has shown some recent improvement and likes to go forward. From a good draw and a 4kg claimer up she can feature. Skipper O’Malley gets first time blinkers and makes her poly debut but has not been too far back in her six tries.

In the seventh, Trippi T is quick but has not been out since January. His racing fitness must be taken on trust but at best he will go close again. Isikwishikwishi will be a threat as he has been runner up at his last three and goes well this course and distance. Must be included in all bets. Preemptive Strike a poly specialist and never far off. He can go close in this line-up.

The last is another wide open handicap. Mc Dazzler is not well handicapped and has let the side down on more than one occasion. However, he comes in off bottom weight and showed signs of a return to form when having his second run for his new stable. Back on poly he could be worth a tickle. Viva Spirit takes a big drop in class but from the best of the draw, a rating drop, and a further 1.5kg relief from the saddle so he should be a big runner. Bank Street won well over course and distance last time out and can follow up. While Unicorn Alert made sudden improvement last run for a new stable when back to a sprint and another change of stable could see him close again.

Fourie, Veale and Crawford Score Doubles

The Candice Bass-trained Major Master (Master Of My Fate) gives Sean Veale a double on the day (Picture: Wayne Marks)

Jockeys Richard Fourie and Sean Veale and trainer James Crawford all scored doubles at Hollywoodbets Durbanville today (Tuesday).

Log-leading jockey Craig Zackey was at the meeting but scored a blank and he remains on 26 wins.

Fourie is now on 17 wins achieved at a strike rate of 23.94%.

Veale is on nine wins at 15%.

James Crawford is on six wins at 18.18%.

Justin Snaith leads the championship in stakes, although Alan Greeff has had the most winners so far, 16 to the 13 apiece of Snaith and Tony Peter.

What Happened To The X Factor (Large Heart) Theory?

Picture: Secretariat’s heart size remains a wonder of the racing world (NYRA).

Large Heart Gene (X-Factor)

The idea that there was a specific and traceable gene for the inheritance of a large heart (and theoretically superior for producing stayers) was widely published by the late Marianne Haun in 1994.

After Secretariat died and the autopsy revealed that he had a 22lb heart, his pedigree was analysed and found to carry five lines to Pocahontas (1837). Haun’s theory was that large heart size traces to this mare and it is passed down via the X (female) sex chromosome.

There has been much discussion about it since then and in 2016, leading US pedigree analyst Anne Peters gave the theory the big thumbs down. She postulates that firstly, there is no concrete evidence that a large heart will translate to a superior runner, with many famous champions having average sized hearts on measurement including Secretariat’s own sire, Bold Ruler.

Secondly, it is difficult to prove the theory of individual mares carrying the large heart gene back through the generations, when they are not available for measurement.

And thirdly and most conclusively, Peters points out that recent equine genome mapping has proven that heart size is not passed on via the X chromosome.

Read the article below in which Peters thoroughly debunks the Large Heart theory:

Click here to read Ann Peters’ debunk of the Large Heart Theory

Today's Question

What was the reason Lady Beaverbrook (Marcia Anastasia Christoforides) advised her trainer Dick Hern to not run a horse at Salisbury?

Picture: The Dowager Lady Beaverbrook’s racing colours

FIELDS, Wednesday, 10, September

Fairview Poly

Hollywoodbets Greyville Poly

Today’s Question Answer

Lady Beaverbrook said to Dick Hern: “You can’t run the horse at Salisbury, the lunch there is terrible.”

Michael “Muis” Roberts, when asked who his favourite owner to ride for was, replied, “It was always an honour to ride for Her Majesty. However, my favourite owner was The Dowager Lady Beaverbrook (Marcia Anastasia Christoforides). She was a real character. She used to call all the jockeys Mister, like Mr Roberts and used to wave her stick at us. I recall once she had two horses in a race and when Walter Swinburn came into the parade ring he said to her, “We’ve got pole position today My Lady, that should help”. She said later to the trainer Clive Brittain, “I don’t want that Walter Swinburn on my horses anymore, he thinks he is riding motor cars.”

Click here to read about Lady Beaverbrook