Turf Talk Newsletter – 15 September, 2025

One Stripe winning the Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas under Gavin Lerena (Picture: Chase Liebenberg) 

Trainer Graham Motion was a touch disappointed with One Stripe’s fifth place finish on his overseas debut in the Gr 1 Woodbine Mile, but to others it looked to be a great run first up, considering he likely needed it and suffered a terrible trip before running on in eyecatching fashion in the straight.

The Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and L’Ormarins King’s Plate-winner was having his first run for six months and was a bit edgy in the preliminaries.

He jumped inward as the gates opened and interfered with the favourite and eventual winner, the English 2000 Guineas winner of last year, the Dubawi colt Notable Speech.

The Drakenstein Stud-bred One World colt likely needed it as he was then a little bit keen when going into a handy position early under Hall Of Fame jockey John Velazquez.

However, the early pacemaker My Boy Prince appears to put the brakes on a touch and One Stripe, caught in a three wide position. was unable to get clear of the horse inside of him, because the widest horse carried another horse inward on to One Stripe.

Velazquez had no option but to take a hold on the cramped One Stripe, who ends up wide and right near the back of the ten horse field.

Velazquez manages to get cover down the back straight, but only behind the biggest outsider.

Velazquez switches inward off the heels of the slow horse to get a rails run on the final turn, but had to drop back to second last to do so.

One Stripe then runs on remarkably well under the circumstances to be beaten five lengths, especially considering he was the only horse in the field carrying a two pound Gr 1 penalty.

Motion said he was obviously a little disappointed with One Stripe’s run, but added, “It was not without excuses. It was probably not the cleverest spot by the trainer to introduce him to American Racing but we had very limited options. He looks good this morning (Monday) and we will press on. Johnny (Velazquez) was very positive about him.”

The run would have brought One Stripe on well in his preparation for the Gr 1 Breeders Cup Mile, where he will likely get another crack at Notable Speech.

Notable Speech was cramped early, but thereafter had the rail in the running.

With a ton in hand turning for home William Buick manages to steer the Charlie Appleby-trained Godolphin runner from midfield into clear space on the outside.

The four-year-old colt then turns it on in style and mows them down to win by 1,75 lengths.

The Breeders Cup Mile is on November 1 and Appleby, Buick, Godolphin and Dubawi will be attempting the Woodbine Mile/Breeders Cup Mile double for the third time having done it with Modern Games in 2022 and Master Of The Seas in 2023.

Future Free wins easily on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Durbanville (Picture: Wayne Marks)

The strength of Cape racing is shown in the class of horse that has been appearing at what is supposedly their lesser centre of Hollywoodbets Durbanville and there were a number of impressive performances in the meeting on Saturday.

The star of the day was Eight On Eighteen’s half- brother by Futura, Future Free. The Justin Snaith-trained three-year-old colt was having his fifth career start having won last time out carrying 58kg off an 81 rating in an open maiden over 1400m. He relished the step up to 1800m on Saturday in a Class 5 handicap. He might have been running off only an 82 rating in a seven horse field, but it takes a good horse to come from last, then be switched wide for a run and end up winning going away by 2,50 lengths in effortless fashion. Justin Snaith and Craig Zackey were not getting carried away, but the latter summed it up well by saying he was a really nice horse and was still soft so there was plenty of scope for improvement. The Drakenstein homebred is part-owned by Bernard Kantor and runs in his familiar yellow colours with blue epaulettes, which are among the colours on Hollywoodbets Greyville’s Wall Of Honour as the colours carried by the great dual Hollywoodbets Durban July- winning Do It Again. The latter was in fact the last horse in the Snaith yard to run in the Kantor colours. July watchers would have earmarked Future Free as a candidate for next year’s big race after Saturday’s performance, although with Drakenstein being the part-owners, thus meaning breeding potential is foremost, a classic route is more likely this season than a weight-protecting July-targeting campaign. Future Free was always going to be a late bloomer being by stamina influence Futura and a half-brother to Eight On Eighteen, who got better and better throughout his three-year-old season. Future Free is one to follow. He will get better with another step up in trip and has exciting potential.

One of Snaith’s other winners was also particularly eyecatching. The Varsfontein Stud-homebred Gimmethegreenlight filly Gimme What I Want was having her third start, having won in good style second time out over 1200m. In Saturday’s 1250m Class 4 event she ran off an 84 merit rating and jumping from a good draw of four she found cover one wide in midfield. She turned it on impressively after being switched to the outside of her nine opponents and won going away by 0,75 lengths under JP van der Merwe. She is a half-sister to the like of Graded winners Bunker Hunt (Dynasty), My Soul Mate (Master Of My Fate) and Salvator Mundi (Dynasty) and as the latter pair have both won over 2800m she should should get a mile at least. This three-year-old could also be a classic contender.

The Greg Ennion-trained Arctic Wizard could take in a feature sprint this season as he quickened superbly late in the day, after sitting handy from draw three, to win a Middle Stakes event over 1000m by half-a-length under Muzi Yeni, carrying 61,5kg off a 101 merit rating. The four-year-old What A Winter gelding was bred by the partnership of Marsh Shirtliff’s Greenacres Trust and Hemel ‘N Aarde Stud and is out of a Bold Silvano half-sister to two Listed winners. He was a bargain R110,000 purchase.

The Snaith-trained four-year-old Gimmethegreenlight gelding Scottish Kiss also turned it on nicely in a 1250m event, coming from the back of an eight horse Class 3  field to win by half-a-length under Callan Murray off a 90 merit rating.

Snaith and Gimmethegreenlight had a treble together. The first of them was the progressive Klawervlei Stud-bred Lyrical Gangster, who won a 1000m maiden by 2,25 lengths for the partnership of Greg Bortz and Gina Goldsmit and Sandy and Eugene Arundel’s Itssa IT and Business Solutions, ridden by JP van der Merwe.

The Candice Bass three-year-old gelding Astronomical Boy was the other Gimmethegreenlight winner on the day and got his maiden out the way third time out, winning by a length under Craig Zackey. He was the second top priced lot at the Race Coast Sales Cape Premier Yearling Sale, going for R2.2 million. The half-brother to Gr 1 winner Cosmic Speed (Querari) was bred by Maine Chance Farms and is owned by Khaya Stables.

The Ricky Maingard-trained Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein-bred The United States four-year-old colt Pinot Grigio won the Remembering Barry Donnelly Middle Stakes over 1600m under champion apprentice Bevan Plaaitjies and could have a minor feature in him.

Glen Kotzen and Chad Little combined for a double on the day with Legislate filly Sesame exiting the maidens in her eighth career start at 33/1 odds over 1600m and One World gelding Worldy winning a 1250m Class 5 handicap off a 72 merit rating.

Picture: Andre Hauptfleisch accepts the Equus Champion Sprinter trophy from Joy Armitage at the 2014 Equus Awards

The popular breeder and owner Andre Hauptfleisch passed away last week much to the shock of racing industrymen.

He will be remembered as an affable man who had a great passion for the Sport Of Kings.

Andre Hauptfleisch first came into the racing public’s awareness as the part-owner of the Glen Kotzen-trained Durban July winner Big City Life, who was the last July victor to have a Monday night Chairman’s Dinner in his honour after his big race win on the first Saturday of July in 2009.

Hauptfleisch spoke at the Chairman’s Dinner and paid tribute to his father, Gren, whose horses he was able to enjoy as a kid, including Festive Season, who finished second in the J&B Met.

His father had also inadvertently played a part in him owning Big City Life, as it was he who had initiated a contract for him to build a road on Kotzen’s Woodhill Racing Estate.

Andre told the story of how, while building the road, he kept on encountering Big City Life, who was unmistakable due to his magnificent looks.

After enquiring about him and finding out he was for sale he encountered the horse alone in a paddock one day and once again the Casey Tibbs colt took his breath away.

He finally made the decision to go with Kotzen’s belief that he “would win the Met one day.”

He told Kotzen he would take a share if the horse ended up back at Woodhill after the sales, which he duly did, and he thanked owner Raymond Deacon for allowing him into the syndicate.

Big City Life gave Andre and wife Tilla and the rest of the syndicate a lot of fun, including winning the Gr 1 Cape Derby, then doing the Champions Season treble of the G2 KRA Guineas, Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and July. He was named Equus Champion Three-year-old Colt and would surely have been named Equus Horse Of The Year had his career not coincided with that of the great Pocket Power. Big City Life  later won the Gr 1 Gold Challenge too, but Andre had sold his share in him by then.

Later, Andre was in the limelight again with another great horse he both owned and bred, the Duncan Howells-trained sprinting sensation Via Africa (Var).

Andre raced Via Africa’s mother, the Qui Danzig mare Bump ‘ N Grind, with Noordhoek Beach-based trainer Mike Stewart and she won three races over 1000m. However, she did not have a strong female line on paper and Andre consequently bought out his racing partners for breeding purposes. His father Gren owned a share in Var and the rest is history.

Via Africa was named Equus Champion Sprinter in the 2013/2014 season. Among other big wins she won the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint twice and beat the boys in the Gr 1 Cape Flying Championship.

Via Africa was sold on to Australia where she became a Gr 1-producing broodmare.

Andre will be greatly missed. Turf Talk extends condolences to his family.

The Camargue Stud-bred What A Winter colt Buddy Boy comes home lonely on debut (Candiese Lenferna Photography)

Andrew Harrison (Race Coast)

Callan Murray is a tall ‘reed’ of a figure. Turned sideways you would hardly notice that there was anyone inside of the breaches and racing silks.  But what ever he eats, or doesn’t eat, has little to do with his performance in one of the most demanding jobs in sport.

Privy to his start at the South African Jockey Academy when cutting his teeth at the then Ashburton Training Centre where most apprentices, make that all, got their first taste of the system, Murray looked destined for an early exit given his stature.

He started off well enough in South Africa after coming out of his time before a stint in Australia where he has obviously honed his tactical skills and managed his weight.

He was in top form at Hollywoodbets Scottsville on Sunday, posting three winners, two for the Mike and Mathew de Kock partnership for whom he is attached and one for Duncan Howells.

The first of his De Kock winners came on Buddy Boy who looked to be a set-up for the yard. Stable companion Sunny Bills Ferrari set a solid gallop up front with Buddy Boy biding and Murray biding their time in the pack. But when all had cried enough, Murray brought home Buddy Boy with a storming run down the outside fence that caught all by surprise, cruising home by the best part of six lengths.

Runner-up was Dean Kannemeyer’s colt Green Glow, making his debut, who came from well back to snatch the minor money.

Given that Buddy Boy finished four lengths back to Hah Lah Lah, when both were making their debuts, Kannemeyer’s charge is definitely one for the notebook.

Murray had to work a little harder in the next but time his challenge to perfection on the De Kock- runner Officer In Command who kept rolling off a moderate early gallop.

Murray’s first winner was a romp for Perfume Power, the Duncan Howell-trained filly posting the exacta in the second. Perfume Power was off and gone from the jump and not for the catching with stable companion Austrian Beauty, having only her second run for Howells, trailing a distant second.

A rating drop and an exceptional ride by Kabelo Matsunyane saw Papa C score a second win for Howells. Turning for home with only two runners behind him in an eleven-horse field, Papa C’s chances of winning looked remote. However, Matsunyane kept the sick off of his mount who responded with a sustained finish to win going away with Ragnar The King finishing best ahead of the scrum.

It was a bitter-sweet weekend for Duncan Howells with the news of the death of Andre Hauptfleisch, joint owner and breeder of the Howells-trained star Via Africa, and yesterday’s two winners.

Howells and regular rider Kevin Shea were instrumental in the success of the daughter of Var who was crowned SA Champion Sprinter in 2013, and whose 10 wins included the Gr1 Cape Flying Championship and Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint twice.

Via Africa’s first foal was Pleasant Endeavour by champion stallion Redoutes Choice who won six races in Hong Kong and HK$7.1m (R15,2m). The second was the extremely fast sprinter In The Congo by another champion sire Snitzel who won the Gr1 ATC Golden Rose Stakes and A$1,7m (R19,5 million) and is now a stallion, covering 160 mares in his first season at a fee of A$27,500 (R300,000) each.

The third was a filly named Protea who was by Golden Slipper winner Vancouver but did not race.

And then came Saturday’s undefeated winner Autumn Glow, who topped the Sydney Easter Yearling Sale at A$1,8 million (R20,2 million) selling to Arrowfield and Hermitage Thoroughbreds out of the Silverdale Farm draft, and is unbeaten in her first six starts and five Stakes races.

Via Africa has now become one of the most important broodmares in Australia!

Howells and Gary Rich were ‘stable companions’  before the closure of the Ashburton Training centre and it was possibly fitting that the pair had winners on the day. It was a close run-thing for the Rich-trained Dawn Surprise who held on just long enough under Mxolisi Mbuto with his 2.5kg claim to hold off a late-charging Jame Lihaba on Double Olympic, a nose separating them at the line.

Terry Fripp has been the ‘shadow’ behind the Candice Bass operation during last Champions Season but he was too the fore for the stable yesterday as Turbo Twenty made short work of the opposition in the last of the day. Apprentice Dezahan Louw has been earmarked as an apprentice to follow although he did little more than a steer his mount through traffic as Turbo Twenty lived up to his moniker and sped away from his opposition inside the last furlong.

Picture: Distant Winter at her Herringswell Stables base 

Cape Breeders

Drakenstein Stud’s top-class sire What A Winter enjoyed international success on Saturday.

His Drakenstein bred and owned daughter Distant Winter won a good race in the USA on Saturday when victorious at Delaware Park.

Trained by Graham Motion, Distant Winter made it two wins from three US starts when she won a starter allowance over a mile and a sixteenth on turf.

Under Kevin Gomez, Distant Winter quickly went clear in the upper stretch of Saturday’s race and drew off to win by three and a half lengths.

Distant Winter, who has finished first or second in each of her three starts in the USA, won twice in South Africa including the 2023 G3 Winter Nursery.

Out of the Trippi mare Fromafar, Distant Winter is a full-sister to the smart sprinter Far Away Winter.

The inform What A Winter also enjoyed success in three different countries on Saturday, with the champion also having winners in both Mauritius and South Africa.

His son Summer Snow ran out a convincing winner of Mauritius’ The Chica Cup, with What A Winter gelding Arctic Wizard, a winner of two of his last three starts, picked up his fifth victory when victorious at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on Saturday.

South Africa’s Leading Sire of 2YOs in 2019-2020, What A Winter has five lots on offer at the Race Coast Sales Two Year Old Sale next month.

The Justify colt Scandinavia showcased both grit and class to deliver Aidan O’Brien a historic ninth victory in the St. Leger (G1), the world’s oldest Classic, run Saturday at Doncaster.

Click here to read about Saturday’s St. Leger

Who earned fame aboard a famous horse at the Grand National and later became a classic-winning trainer on the flat?

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