Maestro trainer Dennis Drier was based at Summerveld but has taken a string down to cape Town for the Cape Summer season every year for over a decade (Hamish Niven Photography).

Dennis Drier’s Pending Retirement Was A Tough Decision

Dennis Drier’s decision to retire, announced earlier today, was not an easy one and he did it with a heavy heart having loved what he had been doing for 55 years.

The stresses of training racehorses is partly due to the complex relationship between trainer and owner, which begins through a shared love of horses and can extend to friendship, but it is ultimately a business relationship, meaning the trainer will continuously be experiencing highs and lows.

There was a famous saying about one of the country’s most famous racing families, the Lairds, of which Dennis is a member, “When we win we cry, when we lose we smile.”

This was seen in Dennis, who visibly shed tears after almost every Grade 1 event he won.

However, keeping up the smiles when losing must have become difficult in the last couple of years when economics made it tougher and tougher for trainers to buy new horses.

The Laird family’s history in the game traces back to Dennis’s grandfather Alec Laird, who in 1911 won the July in the saddle on Nobleman, the only two-year-old to ever win the country’s premier race.

Dennis’s great Uncle Syd Garret was a legendary horseman known as “The Wizard of Roamer Lodge” and he won two Julys as a jockey and three as a trainer.

Garrett passed on what he knew to his nephew Syd Laird, who won a record-breaking seven Julys and is South Africa’s only Hall Of Fame trainer.

Syd Laird was Dennis’s Uncle and mentor.

Dennis joined Syd as an assistant trainer in the late 1960s and thus learnt from the best.

Dennis won the July once and his cousins Alec Laird and Charles Laird have each won it once apiece too.

Dennis became a maestro of his trade and this was reflected in his phenomenal run of Grade 1 success in an eleven year period from 2010 to 2020, but this golden time was not reached without many earlier trials and tribulations.

He had spent nine years as assistant to Syd Laird and this period of his career was packed with the highlights brought by greats like Mazarin, Politician, Yataghan, Archangel, Ocean City and others.

There was also one memorable lowlight when a disgruntled punter attempted to attack Syd Laird in the parade ring after the 1972 July because of Mazarin’s unplaced run. Dennis intervened and was smashed in the face with a pair of binoculars.

Laird’s insight into horses and his legendary intuition became deeply ingrained in Dennis and even today when faced with a tough decision he takes his mind back in time and considers what “Uncle Syd” would have done under the same circumstances.

Dennis started out on his own with about six or seven horses.

He married Gill, who was the daughter of the Oppenheimer’s trainer John Breval, and this might have been one reason why he later became the Oppenheimer’s trainer.

He trained for the Oppenheimers for twenty years with success, including winning the July.

However, the biggest single blow to his career came when they decided on a change of trainer and he lost 32 horses in one morning.

However, he certainly bears no grudges and said he gets on famously with Mary Slack and Jessica Jell today and added, “They have been very good to me.”

He said about the blow of losing those horses, “My owners buckled down and I was able to make a recovery.”

It was more than just a recovery because he became the perennial KZN champion trainer this millennium, and was often locked in a ding-dong tussle for the title with Mike de Kock and later with Duncan Howells.

Drier’s career best achievement will be go down as his phenomenal success in Grade 1 races at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.

His first Grade 1 success there was with Spook And Diesel in the 1990 Smirnoff, today known as the Gold Medallion.

Twenty years later Drier began dominating this two-year-old Grade 1 winning it with Link Man in 2010, Potent Power in 2012, Captain Of All in 2013, Guiness in 2014, Seventh Plain in 2015, Sand And Sea in 2017 and Tempting Fate in 2020.

His other Scottsville Grade 1 victories were with Sound Of Rhum, Val De Ra and Sommerlied in the 1994, 2011 and 2018 SA Fillies Sprint respectively and with Captain of All in the 2015 Tsogo Sun (Golden Horse) Sprint.

So that was a total of twelve Grade 1s at the Pietermaritzburg course, ten of them within that amazing eleven year stretch.

However, Drier’s personal best moment was when winning the country’s biggest race, the Durban July with Spanish Galliard for the Oppenheimers in 1992.

The two most successful horses he has trained have been Beach Beauty and Val De Ra, both of whom have wonderful stories attached to them.

Beach Beauty was chosen by Dennis from Trevor Armitage’s farm and she was to race for the “Shanks Syndicate” in memory of Trevor’s late son Mark.

The tiny Dynasty filly was viewed by Mark’s family and best friends, who formed the syndicate, as more of a cute pet to pat when she first arrived at the Drier Summerveld yard … that was until she displayed an eyecatching burst of speed to win over 1450m on debut at Clairwood.

She went on to become a five time Grade 1-winner and “the darling of the South African turf”, because in every one of those Grade 1 wins (two Paddock Stakes, two Garden Provinces and one Majorca Stakes) she was regarded as the meeting banker and never once let the public down. She would have won more Grade 1s had she not tackled the Met twice and the July once. She was twice the Equus Champion Older Female in 2012/2013 and 2013/2014.

Val De Ra was a phenomenal sprinter with exceptional natural speed coupled with a turn of foot, but she first had an epistaxis incident as a two-year-old and later was critically ill with peritonitis. She came back from death’s door to win three weight for age Grade 1s, the Computaform Sprint, the SA Fillies Sprint and the Cape Flying Championship, and was named Equus Champion Sprinter of the 2010/2011 season.

However, Drier regards the unsound 1992-born Harmony Forever (Foveros) and current successful sire Master Of My Fate (Jet Master), whose career was cut short by injury, as the potentially best he ever trained while he said Spanish Galliard was the “gutsiest”.

Owners have enjoyed being with the Drier yard over the years not only for Dennis’s meticulous professionalism and fine horsemanship, but he is also a gregarious personality, so clients became good friends.

However, as mentioned earlier, this also made the ups and downs harder to bear.

Gill is a fine horsewoman in her own right, so added immense value and did a lot of the admin.

Stuart Ferrie had a great grounding in training, including a stint in Dubai, and was a hardworking, trustworthy assistant whose friendly demeanour fitted in perfectly.

Loyal jockeys like Sean Cormack and Sean Veale were also vital cogs.

In Drier’s letter to his clients he saluted “Menz” and “Nxys”, his longtime loyal grooms, and said there were too many others to thank to mention.

Dennis Drier’s popularity can be summed up by him being known throughout the industry today simply as “Uncle Den.”

He said about his pending retirement, “There are many who are under the impression I will be training a small string in Cape Town, but I will not be. I am handing over the reins to Stuey (Stuart Ferrie) and have no doubt he will be a success.”

He explained, “I am 77, have been in this job for 55 years, and the game is not like I used to know it. There is too much politics and too many ego’s and I also battle these days to deal with the disappointments. I have appreciated what Greg Bortz and Hollywood have been doing for the sport and hope they succeed in taking it back to where it was.”

Jet Dark is the perfect mix of Trippi and Jet Master (supplied).

Jet Dark To Stand At Drakenstein Stud

The five times weight for age Grade 1-winner Jet Dark will stand at the stud that bred him, Drakenstein Stud.

Owners Nick Jonsson and Tommy Crowe felt when retiring the Justin Snaith-trained Trippi five-year-old to stud, there could be no more appropriate choice than the farm who originally produced this “extraordinary horse”, Drakenstein Stud. Both partners said they were delighted to welcome Gaynor Rupert.

An appropriate poem accompanied the announcement, “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colours. And the people there see you differently too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. “

Jet Dark retires rated merit rated 130.

He was believed to be the first horse in South African history to win two open weight for age Grade 1 races over classic distances as a three-year-old. He won both the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate over 1600m and the HKJC World Pool Champions Cup over 1800m in 2021 as a sophomore.

He retained his title in both of those races in 2022.

Those two Grade 1s were respectively run at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and Hollywoodbets Greyville, proving he could travel and still win at the highest level.

In 2023, in his last start, he added Cape Town’s most prestigious event, the WSB Grade 1 wfa Met to his glittering CV, proving he was as effective over 2000m as he was over a mile.

That race highlighted both his brilliance and his courage. He was bumped and jostled at a crucial stage, but lifted himself off the floor to produce his famous and exhilarating late burst.

He bears resemblance to both his sire Trippi and damsire Jet Master and his groom Rasta Mwelase will attest to him being a horse of tremendous character.

He is a very exciting stallion prospect indeed.

Jet Dark was bought for R200,000 at the 2019 BSA National Yearling Sale and helped Justin Snaith win one of his three national trainers championship in the 2020/2021 season.

His stud fee has been set at R30,000, a bargain for an Equus Champion three-year-old colt who won five Equus awards in total.

Snaith described him as easy to train due to his kind temperament.

As well as bringing Trippi and Jet Master with his pedigree, his third dam Pine Chip is a full-sister to the 1997 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Peintre Celebre.

As a stallion prospect, Jet Dark ticks absolutely every box – conformation, athleticism, speed, stamina, temperament, action, pedigree, soundness and most importantly, heart.

An official press release today promoted the great horse in more detail, stating:

In addition to nine wins from his nineteen career starts, the 16.1hh five-year-old also holds the distinction of being named 2020/21 Equus Champion three-year-old colt, 2020/21 and 2021/22 Equus Champion Miler, 2021/22 Equus Champion Older Male and 2021/22 Equus Champion Middle Distance Horse.

Champion trainer Justin Snaith, who helped select Jet Dark as a yearling and produced him throughout his career commented, “Jet Dark was an incredibly easy horse to train. He was a gentleman with the most kind temperament which allowed me to get the best out of him while retiring him completely sound. I will be sad to see him go as I believe he had a few Group Ones left in the tank. I cannot wait to buy his yearlings!”

A group winner at ages two, three, four and five, the son of Trippi accumulated no fewer than five Group One wins, beating 2021 Horse Of The Year Rainbow Bridge in the 2021 Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and Gr1 Champions Cup. He repeated the feat in 2022, beating Kommetdieding in both the 2022 Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and Gr1 Champions Cup and put the final seal on his glittering career with victory in the 2023 Gr1 WSB Cape Met over ten furlongs. In his only attempt at the HWB Durban July over 2200m, he flew home under top weight to run a fast finishing second. He also has the unique distinction of being the only two time LQP winning colt since his maternal grand sire Jet Master, in 1999 & 2000.

Jet Dark not only combines all the best attributes of Drakenstein stalwart and Champion Sire Trippi, and seven time Champion Sire and four time Champion Broodmare Sire Jet Master, his impressive pedigree also boasts 1997 French Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Peintre Celebre.

As a stallion prospect, Jet Dark ticks absolutely every box – conformation, athleticism, speed, stamina, temperament, action, pedigree, soundness and most importantly, heart.

He won over five furlongs as well as proving effective up to eleven furlongs at Group One level.

The losses of Captain Al, Silvano, Dynasty and Jet Master have created an urgent requirement for a top class classic sire to fill the mile to twelve furlong category and it is this which makes Jet Dark uniquely appealing.

To make him as accessible to all breeders as possible, Jet Dark is being launched at a service fee of R30,000. His owners also offer the assurance that breeders who support him early, will receive preference for repeat bookings.

Jonathan Snaith will manage Jet Dark with the assistance of Drakenstein Stud and Kevin Sommerville. They say you haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home. Why not take a trip with us?

Itsrainingwilliam (Wayne Marks).

Itsrainingwilliam Is The Cape Derby “Sneaker”

The Justin Snaith yard have declared seven horses for the Grade 1 Cape Derby and Jonathan Snaith said the sneaker among their entries would be Itsrainingwilliam.

Jonathan admitted their large number of entries had been simply in order to save the race as a spectacle.

He said, “Otherwise there would have been four runners … you can’t have that for a Grade 1.”

He said Charles Dickens, quoted at 1/4 by Hollywoodbets, would be extremely hard to beat.

He quipped, “I think we are in as spectators!”

On a more serious note he spoke of his scepticism of the form of the Grade 3 Politician Stakes, won by the Snaith-trained Rockpool, who is the Cape Derby second favourite at 5/1.

Rockpool won the race cosily by half-a-length from stablemate Without Question.

In third place, beaten 2,75 lengths, was the Brett Crawford-trained At My Command, who was coming off a 4,35 length third to Charles Dickens in the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas.

Jonathan said, “We beat At My Command, but we were receiving 6kg and also, in my opinion, At My Command doesn’t stay.”

Rockpool does have a huge and interesting action to watch, throwing his front legs out unusually far, so is going to be a popular choice for second place.

However, Jonathan said, “I think the sneaker among ours is Itsrainingwilliam. Piere Strydom rode a fine race on him in the Gold Rush (to finish a close up 1,25 length third) and he is back aboard. Yes, he is by William Longsword, but he is a half-brother to Rain In Holland.”

The Gold Rush over 1600m was in fact the first time Itsrainingwilliam had run over further than 1250m and he stayed on with long-strides in eyecatching fashion.

He gave the impression he would stay the trip and his female line should help.

Jonathan said, “I think he is a sneaker for the first three.”

Jonathan did confirm that Itsrainingwilliam was not the easiest of rides, a concern expressed by Strydom before the Gold Rush. However, he certainly settled well and travelled comfortably throughout in that race, although a draw of eleven in the Cape Derby will be tricky.

The field for the Cape Derby is below:

5	At My Command	Brett Crawford	114
3	Charles Dickens	Candice Bass-Robinson	132
4	Cosmic Event	Justin Snaith	86
6	Grinkov	Glen Kotzen	102

11	Itsrainingwilliam	Justin Snaith	106
1	King Regent	Glen Kotzen	105
7	Mucho Dinero	Justin Snaith	87
2	Nevada King	Justin Snaith	87
12	Rockpool	Justin Snaith	101
10	See It Again	Michael Roberts	104
8	Triple Time	Justin Snaith	104
9	Without Question	Justin Snaith	99

This colt by new sire Buffalo Bill Cody will be sold on the BSA Cape Yearling Sale 2023 at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth racecourse on Sunday, February 26.

Buffalo Bill Cody Makes His Sales Debut

Wilgerbosdrift Stud has 15 yearlings on offer on the 2023 BSA Cape Yearling Sale. Six of them are by the new kid on the block Buffalo Bill Cody.

Trained by Mike de Kock, the Irish-bred Buffalo Bill Cody (Redoute’s Choice) made an instant impression, despite being six months younger than his South African rivals, when he made a winning debut over 1160m in November 2017.

In the process, Buffalo Bill Cody accounted for subsequent G1 SA Classic winner Lobo’s Legend by head.

After finishing fourth next time out, Buffalo Bill Cody proceeded to reel off five wins in a row, while scoring by an aggregate of more than 15 lengths.

Among those beaten by Buffalo Bill Cody during his career were the graded stakes winners Cirillo, Eyes Wide Open, Kampala Campari, Lobo’s Legend,and Equus Champion Talktothestars.

His multiple champion trainer Mike de Kock described Buffalo Bay Cody as one of the best looking and most talented horses he ever trained. “I never got to the bottom of him, the best was still to come.”

Buffalo Bill Cody retired to stud in 2020 having won six of just ten starts, while stamping himself as one of the most exciting prospects around.

He is a son of multiple champion sire Redoute’s Choice, whose 170 plus stakes winners include fellow multiple Australian champion Snitzel and fellow successful sires Not A Single Doubt and Stratum. Another of Redoute’s Choice star sons, five time G1 winner The Autumn Sun, is currently standing in Australia for a stud fee of AUS$66 000 -or more than R770 000.

Redoute’s Choice has enjoyed tremendous success in South Africa where his representives include champions Majmu, Musir and Mustaaqeem, as well as such G1 winners as Rafeef and Wylie Hall.

Buffalo Bill Cody is out of top-class racemare and high-class producer Buffalo Berry, who won four times including the G3 Reeve Schley Jr. Stakes (on turf), and who is also dam of G3 Transylvania Stakes winner Chattahoochee War.

Buffalo Berry’s granddam is G1 Spinaway Stakes winner PrayersN Promises, one of the best two-year-old fillies of her year in North America.
This is the same family as G1 King’s Bishop Stakes winner, and top-class sire, Hard Spun. Hard Spun himself was sired by Danzig- the grandsire of Redoute’s Choice himself.

Granville Gorton pictured with his stallion Drum Beat at Noreen Stud in Robertson. Possessed of brilliant speed, Drum Beat was a half-brother to 2000 Guineas winner Nearula (The South African Racehorse August 1959).

Oscar Foulkes On Harry Hotspur, Drum Beat And The Sprinting Sire Question

“If anything, we have a shortage of reliable sources of Classic ability”

Yesterday’s newsletter questioned whether South Africa needed to source a specialist sprinting sire.

It touched on some of the great stallions of the past, including Harry Hotspur, who gained the reputation as a specialist sprinting sire, as well as Drum Beat and others, who all looked capable of producing world class sprinters.

Oscar Foulkes of Normandy Stud responded with a fascinating and insightful letter which is published below:

There was something magical about Harry Hotspur. One could start with his looks, his fragile brilliance on the racetrack, or the way he stamped his progeny. It’s impossible to not highlight his inbreeding to Gold Bridge, one of the world’s great speed influences, or his broodmare sire, Silver Tor, the ill-fated Kings Stand Stakes winner by the breed-shaping Grey Sovereign.

But any discussion about Harry Hotspur is surely incomplete without referencing his grandam’s sire, Persian Gulf, a late-maturer who won the Coronation Cup. There are further stamina influences in Harry Hotspur’s pedigree: his fourth dam was by the St Leger and Ascot Gold Cup winner Solario, and his fifth dam was by another St Leger winner, in Hurry On.

While Harry Hotspur was undeniably a speed influence, one has to wonder to what extent these great stamina influences supported the brilliance of the speed influences.

Drum Beat, who also stood at Noreen Stud, was a similarly mythical stallion, possessed of as much quality as one could imagine in a Thoroughbred. As a Kings Stand Stakes winner by breed-shaping Fair Trial, he was an extraordinary stallion prospect. He was inbred 3×4 to the Stout influence Son-In-Law, and one has to wonder to what extent this was critical to his stud success.

To invoke Drum Beat is to do something bold. He sired 67% winners from foals (yes, foals, not runners), and over 10% stakes-winners from foals. Plus, his sons and daughters were also successful at stud, his daughters especially so. Opinions are easy to express; stats like that are something else altogether.

My view is that we have more than enough sources of speed in South Africa. Yes, none have the dominance of Drum Beat, but stallions like him come along very rarely.

If anything, we have a shortage of reliable sources of Classic ability. The two most sought-after stallions at present, Vercingetorix and Gimmethegreenlight, do not reliably sire runners that will get 2000m (or even 1600m, in many cases).

Anecdotally, Australia is one of the best resale markets for British horses with proven ability over 10+ furlongs, because they struggle to breed those horses themselves. Their mania for speed has had an inevitable impact on their local breed. If our export markets ever open up, we’d have instant customers if we could breed horses that have top-class ability over classic distances.

Silver Tor and Drum Beat were not the only Kings Stand Stakes winners to stand at stud in South Africa. We also had Fearless Lad and Flirting Around, both substantially less successful as stallions. Indeed, the list of winners of the world’s great sprint races has very little overlap with the list of breed-shaping (or even Champion) sires. If you have any doubt, simply compare the winners of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint with the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

On the other hand, the top seven furlong races in New York, such as the Vosburgh, have a decent record as sources of future breed-shapers. Perhaps the answer lies in the different aptitude required to win races like that. Speed is critical, but so is stamina.

Oscar Foulkes

Oisin Murphy (www.attheraces.com).

Oisin Murphy Returns To Action At Chelmsford On Thursday

Just one ride but leading chance for three-time champion’s comeback.

www.attheraces.com

Oisin Murphy returns to the saddle with one ride at Chelmsford on Thursday, following his 14-month ban for alcohol and Covid breaches.

Murphy, a three-time champion jockey, will partner the Mick Appleby-trained Jupiter Express in the second race on the card, the Winning Connections Networking Handicap.

The British Horseracing Authority announced last week that Murphy will undergo increased alcohol and drug testing after he was found to have failed two breathalyser tests.

He has not ridden since November 2021, and in February at the conclusion of a lengthy hearing, at which it was revealed he also breached Covid rules by lying about his whereabouts in September 2020, he was told he could not reapply for his licence until February 16 this year.

Jupiter Express is owned by The Horse Watchers syndicate, which is partly run by jockeys’ agent and broadcaster Chris Dixon, although Gavin Horne will continue to look after Murphy as before.

“Gavin had asked Mick if there was anything he could ride when he was available,” said Dixon.

“Tom Marquand rode Jupiter Express to be second last time, but he’s in Australia now so the jockey who rode him last time wasn’t there and this was an opportunity for him to have a ride when he came back.

“Mick was always going to support him, he’s ridden plenty of winners for him over the years – and us – so when a top jockey is available we are not afraid to use them. We’re happy to give him his first ride back.

“He’s got a decent chance. He’s been freshened up since his last run as he’d been a little busy and we’d aimed at this card ever since really.

“He’s got a decent chance, he’s in good form and hopefully there’s a little bit of mileage in his handicap mark.”

Murphy is due in Qatar at the weekend to ride Flaming Rib for Hugo Palmer with trips to Dubai, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain also pencilled in over the next few weeks.

Coral make Murphy their 15-8 second-favourite for a fourth championship behind last year’s winner William Buick, who is their 1-2 favourite.

Calvin Habib (picture via Singapore Turf Club press release)

Singapore Turf Club Introduce Calvin Habib

Jockey Calvin Habib, 25, hails from South Africa where he has ridden for nine years.

He was rejected by the South African (SA) Jockey Academy twice as they assessed his frame to be too big for a jockey, but the determined young man enrolled in the work riders’ training programme at the Thoroughbred Racing Development Centre and rode nine winners from just over 50 rides under the tutelage of trainer James Maree.

He was accepted into the SA Jockey Academy in 2015 on his third try, with South African multiple champion trainer Sean Tarry one of those who recommended and supported his application.

Habib has since gone on to take out four Grade 1 wins, four Grade 2 wins and two Grade 3 wins in more than 330 winners to-date. All his four grade 1 wins were for Tarry, including the Allan Robertson Championship with Under Your Spell (2021) and Sweet Pepper (2022), the Gold Horse Medallion with Thunderstruck (2022) and the Summer Cup with Flying Carpet (2021).

Crowned the Zimbabwe champion jockey in the 2018/2019 season and Zimbabwe champion apprentice jockey in the 2016/2017 season, Habib has also ridden with success in Bahrain as an apprentice jockey during a three-month stint in 2017 where he bagged seven winners. He also represented South Africa in the Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Apprentice World Championship in France during the same year.

Licensed by the National Horseracing Authority of South Africa, Habib is currently ranked 6th on the South African jockeys’ premiership at 71 wins.

Habib goes to scale at 53kgs.

Singapore Turf Club

Noble Mission, the 2014 CARTIER Champion Older Horse in Europe, stands at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky (https://www.champsofthetrack.com)

Today’s Question

Why do Northern Hemispehere stallions look forward to Valentine’s day?

Hollywoodbets Greyville Poly, Wednesday, CLICK HERE

NB Please wait a few seconds for fields to appear.

Lane’s End Farm, where the current highest Timrform rated horse in the world, Flighline, will be enjoying his first season of covering mares.

ANSWER TO TODAY’S QUESTION:

Northern Hemisphere Thoroughbreds turn a year older on Jan. 1, with the covering season officially opening on Feb. 14 (Valentine’s day).

Mares will sometimes be covered earlier, but their foals are not permitted to be registered as born the following year if they foal prior to Jan. 1.

Turf Talk Newsletter – 14 February 2023