Sandringham Summit is entered in the R1 million Gr 2 Allied Steelrode On A Mission Charity Mile (Picture: Wayne Marks).

Sun Blushed (4G) 52 106 A Michael Roberts

Infinite Wonder (6G) 52 103 A Paul Matchett

Electric Gold (4G) 52 102 BA Tony Peter

River Romeo (4G) 52 101 A Paul Matchett

Another Level (5G) 52 98 A Candice Dawson

Running Rifles (5G) 52 95 A e Tony Peter

Juliet Tango (5M) 52 94 A Paul Matchett

Silent War (5G) 52 93 A Tony Peter

Cape Racing

This year marks 34 years since Normandy Stud first started taking two-year-olds to ready to run sales. The top-class sprinter Knife Edge was in that first draft, followed two years later by the Germiston November Handicap winner, Quick Wit.

Oscar Foulkes of Normandy, deeply passionate about breeding and racing, is proud of the
stud’s achievements over the last three-and-a-half decades and said, “Since then, our drafts have produced many graded stakes-winners, most recently the Equus Champion
Sprinter, Rio Querari. Another recent Grade One-winning sprinter was Sergeant Hardy.

“A regular feature of our RTR drafts has been the presence of pinhooks – yearlings we
bought for resale on RTR. Three Grade II winners are on this list – Bishop’s
Bounty, Wonderwall and Homely Girl.

“Four of the top 20 on the 2023 RTR Race log are from our 2022 draft, three of which are
pinhooks, including the log-topper, Tail of the Comet. The owners of these horses are
taking advantage of the hard yards we’ve put in at various yearling sales.

“Our fourth representative on the top 20 is the smart prospect, Public Benefit. There wasn’t
a bid for her when she was on the sale last year, which shows opportunities throughout the
catalogue!

“Our 2023 draft comprises 15 two-year-olds, representing many of South Africa’s leading
stallions.”

Lot 14 colt Hospices de Beaune (Erupt (IRE) – Good Cause) (Pictured below)
The full-brother to Public Benefit, out of a half-sister to Crowd Pleaser, who was one of four
graded stakes-winners from our 2015 RTR draft. He looks like a precocious type. ‘Double-dipper’ qualifies for the BSA Juvenile Bonus as well.

Paarl Diamant Estate

Distributed by: Cape Racing

Monique and Louw Schabort’s Paarl Diamant Estate, in its 10th year of existence, have had many super runners through their hands in recent years, including Coastal Commander, a Ready To Run Stakes hopeful this year.

Others who were backed and pre-trained at Paarl Diamant include Greg Ennion’s 2023 Farm Sale race winner, Lines Crossed, Andrè Nel’s up-and-coming sprinters Candy Town and Boogiefied (a first winner in SA for stallion, Justified), Johan Janse Van Vuuren’s smart gelding Red Bomber and another Janse Van Vuuren-trained, Barbaresco, one of the most promising three-year-olds in training; also Justin Snaith’s G3-placed Baltic Secret. Three of the runners, as mentioned earlier, won at first asking.

With such an impressive list of pre-trained graduates, buyers will be looking for more gems
from Paarl Diamant’s seven-strong draft at the 2023 Ready To Run and Unbroken Two Year-Old Sale at Hollywoodbets Durbanville on Sunday, 22 October.

Here are Monique’s comments on their 2023 two-year-olds at the sale:

Lot 11 Rendezvous in Rio (bf Trippi x Fairyinthewoods) (Pictured Below)
“A racy, eye-catching daughter of Trippi from Milkwood Stud’s prominent Fairy line. Her dam won six times, including the G2 Southern Cross Stakes. She is a speedy-looking filly who is getting better by the week.”

Lot 16 Sun Hijacked (cf Erupt x Hijack) (Pictured Below)
“A well-grown, deep-girthed daughter of Erupt from an excellent Ascot Stud female line. She puts her best foot forward every time she steps onto the track. She is a very honest
filly.”

Lot 36 Unnamed (bf Legislate – Paper Nautilus) (Pictured Below)
“A Legislate filly out of a full sister to Argonaut (sire) & Simply Salmon (10 wins). She is a progressive filly with a good hindquarter and loads of scope. She gets better by the week.”

Lot 59 Good Shine (bc Legislate – Tiffendell) (Pictured Below)
“If dynamite comes in small packages, here’s an eye-catching package! He’s a well-puttogether, balanced colt; being out of a Silvano mare, he will continue to improve.”

Lot 61 American Ultra (bf The United States – Ultimate Shamrock) (Pictured Below)
“She is a powerful, athletic filly with a great hind quarter. She looks to be early. A Classic
type daughter of The United States.”

Lot 71 Preserve Forever (cf Futura – Ancient Spirit) (Pictured Below)
“A precocious, deep-girthed filly with a good walk from a five-time winning mare. This
daughter of Futura has a great temperament and a generous eye.”

Lot 76 Cumbre Vieja (bc Erupt – Circle In The Sand) (Pictured Below)
“A strapping, substantial son of Erupt from the family of Captain America. He’s a scopey colt with a big, powerful hindquarters. He’s been impressive throughout his prep and has a good action.”

Ray Paulick (Picture: Paulick Report)

Ray Paulick (Paulick Report)

Fred Pope took exception to my View From the Eighth Pole last week in which I said the Interstate Horseracing Act (IHA) of 1978 made it difficult for an owner’s group he created – the short-lived National Thoroughbred Association – to get off the drawing board and become a reality.

The column was written in the wake of Mike Repole’s remarks on a racing telecast that “it’s time now that the owners take back this game.”

If only it was that easy.

Yet it failed.

“The IHA was never a problem of any kind with implementing the NTA,” Pope wrote in an email after publication of my commentary. “In the same way the IHA was never a problem implementing the Breeders’ Cup. You just signed a contract with the host track, which included all the rights and permission of that track. Think about it.”

If only it was that easy.

One racetrack giving up one day of revenue a year when the Breeders’ Cup began in 1984 (expanded to two days starting in 2007) is one thing. Multiple tracks leasing their facilities and giving up revenue any number of weekends throughout the year is entirely something else.

The NTA failed, Pope said, because the late Jockey Club chairman Ogden Mills Phipps flipped Tim Smith, who was hired to help launch the NTA but wound up as the commissioner and CEO of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which included racetracks, horsemen’s groups, and other racing organizations.

In theory, the NTA was a way to skirt the federal law governing interstate simulcasting, which gave control to the tracks and the horsemen’s group that “represents the majority of owners and trainers” racing at the track.  But as Mark Twain wrote, “How empty is theory in the presence of fact.”

A Dumb Question, But A Serious One

Repole has not gotten into details for how the new owners (or owners-trainers) organization he wants to create would work, but he isn’t the first person to call for change in how racing is run. I’m very interested in how he proposes to pull this off.

All of the major league sports – NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, etc. – run themselves as owner-driven entities that hire professional staff, led by a commissioner. The leagues set the rules, hire the umpires and game officials, contract with drug-testing and integrity agencies, and negotiate television and licensing deals. They don’t just run their sports, they self-regulate them. They are not regulated at the state or federal level.

For nearly a century, horse racing has been regulated at the state level. More recently, the Wire Act, Interstate Horseracing Act, and Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act have brought federal regulations or oversight to the game.

The reason for all this regulation, I’ve been told by people much smarter than me, is that you can gamble on horse racing. The states felt a need to oversee the integrity and fairness of the participants and racing itself because people were betting real money on the outcome.

Horse racing for many years was the only legal form of gambling outside of the state of Nevada. Five years ago, the Supreme Court opened the floodgates for sports betting. As a Kentuckian, I can bet on baseball, football, basketball, and hockey, among other sports, in addition to horse racing.

I’m not aware of state regulatory boards for any of these other sports, even though there is legal gambling on them in a growing number of states. There may be state gambling commissions, but they are regulating the betting companies – not the sports leagues or their games.

Here is the dumb but serious question: Why should racing continue to be saddled with state regulatory oversight?

Racing is not currently in position to self-regulate the way major league sports do. However, if the Repole plan – or someone else’s  – can fashion a blueprint similar to MLB, NFL et al and create a sustainable league office, there’s no reason horse racing should be shackled with government regulation, either at the state or federal level. It should be treated like every other major sport.

If only it was that easy.

That’s my view from the eighth pole.

Tony Peter has a phenomenal strike rate with ex-Cape horses (Photo: 4Racing)

Jack Milner (The Citizen)

Although not winning, Perilla had a great first run for trainer Tony Peter. The four-year-old daughter of Erupt moved up from the Western Cape to the Highveld as a two-time winner and looks likely to add to her tally when she lines up in Race 7 at the Vaal on Thursday in a MR 72 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1450m on the Classic track.

Peter has done very well with horses joining his yard from the coast with many of them making a winning debut. Perilla failed to do that but there was virtually no betting support for her and she drifted to start at 8-1.

She showed tremendous pace from the off and it was only in the closing stages her stride started to shorten. In the end she was beaten into third but finished just 0.85 lengths behind Queen Bomi.

That race was over 1600m and this time she will be racing in a similar class level but over 1450m. The drop in trip should be ideal and should enable Perilla to get the better of her opposition.

That race was also run up the straight but this time she will race round the turn and is well enough drawn at No 6 in this 12-horse field.

Jason Gates rode her last time and he will be back in the irons for this race.

One has to go back to June 2022 to find when Alabama Anna last paid a visit to the winner’s enclosure, but this Lucky Houdalakis-trained mare has been consistent of late and a win cannot be too far away.

Two runs back she finished a 0.75-length second behind Cerulean Dancer and last time she ran a three-length fourth behind a rejuvenated Whorly Whorly where she took on the colts.

The only concern is that all three of her wins have been up the Vaal straight and now she will be racing around the turn.

Craig Zackey rode her in both of those races and Houdalakis has engaged him to take the ride once again.

Another runner to consider is Dancing Arabian who on collateral form should finish very close to Perilla. Roy Magner’s charge ran in the race won by Queen Bomi and finished seventh, 2.85 lengths behind the winner.

That put her two lengths behind Perilla and she will now be 2kg better off. However, more improvement is expected from Peter’s charge and a reversal of that form line seems unlikely.

Jack Milner’s selections

Race 1: 7 Mary’s Greenlight, 8 Rugger Lover, 2 Nkandla Gold, 3 Remains Of The Day

Race 2: 1 Street Art, 3 Breeze Over, 4 Mambo Come Tesio, 5 Namaqua Blossom

Race 3: 6 Emblem Of War, 1 Kambulu, 7 Officer In Command, 5 In A Blue Moon, 4 Bregardt

Race 4: 6 Silvano’s Song, 2 Pewter Sky, 4 Romeo’s Magic, 8 Viva Brazil

Race 5: 1 Princess Kesh, 7 Burmese Tiara, 4 Kind Judy, 2 Colorado Creek

Race 6: 11 Corapi, 1 Leao Alado, 4 Coromandel, 2 Fifth Of July

Race 7: 1 Perilla, 3 Alabama Anna, 8 Dancing Arabian, 5 Sparkling Jubilee

Race 8: 12 Beaded Gown, 11 In The Ether, 7 Simply Magic, 3 Brosnan

BEST BET

Race 1 No 7 Mary’s Greenlight

VALUE BET

Race 2 No 1 Street Art

BEST SWINGER

Race 3 1×6

BIPOT

R192

Leg 1: 7

Leg 2: 1, 3, 4

Leg 3: 6

Leg 4: 2, 4, 6, 8

Leg 5: 1, 2, 4, 7

Leg 6: 1, 2, 4, 11

PLACE ACCUMULATOR

R243

Leg 1: 1, 3, 4

Leg 2: 6

Leg 3: 2, 4, 6

Leg 4: 1, 4, 7

Leg 5: 1, 4, 11

Leg 6: 1

Leg 7: 7, 11, 12

PICK 6

R2000

Leg 1: 6

Leg 2: 2, 4, 6, 7, 8

Leg 3: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 4: 1, 2, 4, 9, 11

Leg 5: 1, 3

Leg 6: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13

JACKPOT 1

R250

Leg 1: 2, 4, 6, 7, 8

Leg 2: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 3: 1, 2, 4, 9, 11

Leg 4: 1, 3

JACKPOT 2

R400

Leg 1: 1, 2, 3, 4, 7

Leg 2: 1, 2, 4, 9, 11

Leg 3: 1, 3

Leg 4: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13

Wendy Whitehead’s double today took her joint top of the KZN Trainers Championship log together with Alyson Wright (Candiese Lenferna Photography).

Richard Fourie and Wendy Whitehead were the only double scorers at the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly meeting today

Fourie goes to 58 wins for the season at a strike rate of 20.57% and he is now just four wins behind national log leader Muzi Yeni.

Wendy Whitehead’s double means she goes joint top of the KZN Trainers log with Alyson Wright and her 13 wins have been achieved at a strike rate of 15.29%.

The subject of the question (Photo: Sports.coral.co.uk)

What was the significance to racing of “Hamilton Lodge” in the 1950s in Durban close to Greyville?