It's "all systems go" for Salani Kahle
Salani Kahle, out-and-out stayer. (Candiese Lenferna).
There could be a truckload of value about Gareth van Zyl’s runner Salani Kahle in the Grade 2 SA Derby over 2450 at Turffontein. If you’re quick on the button, you can get deep double-figures about him before the start of Race 9 at 16:15 on Saturday.
At this writing, there was 19-1 available on World Sports Betting, with 20-1 on the Lucky Fish and Hollywoodbets websites, and as much as 22-1 with bookmaker Lance Michael. WSB’s betting chart shows that Salani Kahle opened at 14-1 and drifted through 16-1 and 17-1 in the last few days. One has to wonder why, but it is possible that the strong ante-post sentiment for the filly, Curious Girl, has something to do with it.
Are we barking up the wrong tree? Well, only the race will show, but Salani Kahle is the fourth-highest rated runner in the race – rated higher than Curious Girl, the second-favourite Diogenes and the third-favourite, Texas Missile. He has a beautiful, flowing action, has won two of only four starts in emphatic fashion and there was an excuse for his defeat when he attempted a hat-trick of wins last time.
One also has to consider that Curious Girl, despite the formidable De Kock factor, has history firmly against her. The available research material shows that the last filly to win the Derby was Noble Lady, in 1917, just after the start of World War I! It is true that female runners have been rare in the Derby since – most have raced in the Oaks – but still, on paper Curious Girl needs to break through a 109-year barrier.
On top of all that, Salani Kahle looks to have the right pedigree to win this prestigious stayer’s contest. His sire, Master Of My Fate, has produced many decent marathon runners including stakes winners Barak, African Adventure, Master Supreme and Love Is A Rose. His dam , Insignis, won the Listed Jacaranda Handicap over 2000m and his damsire, Go Deputy, produced Abashiri, who completed his Triple Crown success by winning the Derby in 2016.
The Van Zyl family – Gavin and Chesney – won the Derby with Seal, who beat English Garden in 2011, and Gareth has shown time and again that he is more than capable around top horses.
Gareth said: “Salani Kahle is an out and out stayer. He’s had a very good prep and we’ve targeted this race for him. He won two good races over 1800m and then got beaten over 1750m when he was incorrectly ridden and they sprinted away from him. He needs time to build up his run, and he should be well suited to 2450m and the long straight at Turffontein. He’s a decent horse, so we’re hoping for the best. It’s all systems go!”
Trust is scratched from Premier's Challenge
Picture: Trust will bypass the Premier’s. (JC Photos)
In disappointing news, Candice and Tammy Dawson’s top three-year-old, Trust, was withdrawn today from Saturday’s R2 million weight-for-age HKJC World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge at Turffontein.
This follows after Trust’s merit rating was reduced from 119 to 110 earlier this week following an appeal. His connections are eyeing the R10 million Hollywoodbets Gr1 Durban July, and the related risks of running their now 110-rated 3yo to finish on top of, or even beating the likes of established older hard-knockers like See It Again (130) and others, was factor that must have played a role in their decision.
The merit rating system has sometimes embarrassing flaws – a confusing patchwork, open to interpretation and arguably as likely to mislead as it is to inform – and this is the type of decision that owners are trainers are faced with. One cannot blame the Dawson yard for taking Trust out to fry a bigger fish.
The Premier’s Challenge now looks a proverbial gift for Justin Snaith’s stable with See It Again and Okavango, unless Fire Attack or Grand Empire can upset the apple cart.
Rafeef is well represented in Computaform Sprint
Picture: Rafeef, 2017 winner. (JC Photos)
The TAB Computaform Sprint at Turffontein on Saturday is one of only two Group 1 sprint contests on the SA calendar. It was first run as the Castrol National Sprint in 1970, a race which virtually overnight became SA’s premier test of speed and its honour roll is a true embarrassment des riches, littered with the names of SA turf greats such as Sentinel, Senor Santa, Taban, Tommy Hotspur, dual winner Golden Loom, National Colour, J J The Jet Plane and recent winners Shea Shea and Isivunguvungu. Comptutaform added its name to the race way back in 1978 and it has stayed there ever since.
Corne Spies-trained, 7yo William Robertson, teams up with jockey Ryan Munger to defend their 2025 title, but there will be plenty trying to deny them the double, including Buffalo Storm Cody, one of the highest rated horses in the country, and East Cape raider Kingdundee, who is currently on a four-race winning streak.
William Robertson is one of three 2026 contenders sired by the 2017 Computaform Sprint winner and now leading sire, Rafeef (Redoute’s Choice). The other two are outsiders, Ziyasha and Mover and Shaker.
HWB Greyville Race Previews
Picture: Catch A Penny, winning chance in Race 8. (Race Coast).
ANDREW HARRISON previews the Hollywoodbets Greyville card (Polytrack) for Friday evening.
Race 1 3 FLYING FATE raced green when finishing off her race well on debut. She is sure to have come on from that effort. 2 PEACE ROSE has improved with each outing. She was narrowly beaten last time out and should be a big runner. 1 SIYABAMBELELA is holding form well and from the best of the draw must have a winning chance. 4 VAANS SPIRIT has run two promising races on the poly over further. She is back to a sprint and gets 1.5kg relief from the saddle.
(Andrew Harrison: 3-2-1-4)
Race 2
2 DREAM DECISION has been runner-up in open handicaps with a light weight. Meets modest opposition and can go one better. 7 CAN WE START started favourite last run over further, but faded badly. All three runs have been in the soft and the switch to poly could bring out the best. 6 CALI BULLET was well beaten when trying further. Shows some ability and can feature. 1 QUANDURA has shown some ability and can improve with first time tongue-tie.
(Andrew Harrison: 2-7-6-1)
Race 3
7 MASTER DU ROUVRAY is never far off. He has a big weight, but goes well over course and distance. 5 HIGH QUEUE is hardly ever out of the money of late. Course and distance suits and he has a strong winning chance. 4 SESAME takes on the boys, but won well under a big weight on the poly last time out. She did get a five-point raise in the handicap which could be an issue. 1 THE WOLF goes well on the poly and has been improving slowly of late. He should be in the shake-up.
(Andrew Harrison: 7-5-4-1)
RACE 4
3 MAGIC MAVERICK has shown signs of coming to hand and with a 1.5kg allowance, a light weight and a world class rider aboard she should go close. 4 TAKEYOURBESTSHOT has excellent poly form. De Melo is replaced by a 4kg claiming visiting apprentice who could prove better than his allowance. 5 CHASING GOLD was a length back to Takeyourbestshot last time out but is 9kg out at the weights with her rival give the apprentice claim. 7 NATIONAL DREAM is showing signs of his best and now gets blinkers. He can surprise.
(Andrew Harrison: 3-4-7-5)
RACE 5
Competitive handicap. 6 RAGNAR THE KING has come down in the ratings and is back over what looks to be his preferred surface. He should start at lengthy odds. 7 MY LUCKY CHARM showed up well on his local debut after showing some fair Highveld form. He is down in class and progressive. 3 DEANDRE’S DREAM ran well below ability when taking on stronger last start. He showed up nicely on the poly at his penultimate start and looks competitive in this line-up. 4 GREEN MILE enjoys the poly and was not far back on her handicap debut. He can feature in the placings.
(Andrew Harrison: 6-7-3-4)
Race 6
4 THOUGHT CONTROL makes her poly debut, but showed up well first run out of the maidens. She meets 3 SPIRIT OF SHIMLA on 1kg better terms and although there should not be much between the pair the weight could tell. 2 OKLAHOMA GIRL is lightly raced but has her peak run after returning from a break. She showed early promise before winning her maiden. 1 OH MY GUCCI GIRL only has 48kg to shoulder and from the best of the draw she could prove the one that they all have to catch.
(Andrew Harrison: 4-3-2-1)
Race 7
Competitive handicap. 2 QUEEN FENN is over her best course and distance. She has a good draw and should feature prominently. 6 GRUE OF ICE has been knocking at the door for some time now. She boasts consistent form over course and distance and has a useful apprentice back aboard. 10 TIME IN PARIS has been improving nicely of late. She now gets a 4kg claimer aboard which could be enough to see her home. 7 RHAFEEF’S CHOICE is another that has been improving of late and was touched off last run. Her last win was on the poly.
(Andrew Harrison: 2-6-10-7)
Race 8
4 CATCH A PENNY shed her maiden in KZN, but currently boasts useful Cape form. She was touched off last run and should go close again. 1 MAGICAL SKY has won both of her recent starts over course and distance. She obviously enjoys the poly and can go in again. 2 SUMMER WINTER is seldom far back and was possibly in need of her last run. 7 RUBY RISING has her third run back from a break. She was a close-up third last run and has a good chance here.
(Andrew Harrison: 4-1-2-7)
Ramkhalawon is on a roll
Picture: Divesh Ramkhalawon. (Race Coast).
Mauritian apprentice jockey Divesh Ramkhalawon rode his first winner in February and he added five to that tally in a profitable March to serve notice that he’s a name to watch going forward. By the end of March, Ramkhalawon had ridden six winners from 23 rides at a strike rate of 26.1 percent.
However, in a busy month of seven meetings which saw the launch of the KwaZulu-Natal feature race season, it was the experienced hands of Keagan De Melo, Rachel Venniker and Craig Zackey who shared riding plaudits, booting home eight winners apiece, while Tristan Godden and Sean Veale landed on six each.
There were 33 trainers who landed in the No.1 box, which shows the diversity across the industry, while 122 individual owners – not counting those involved in bigger syndicates – had winners, another example of the interest for the sport in the region. Adam Azzie continued his momentum building in his new province with three winners in March, while Justin Snaith sent out OKAVANGO and MALMESBURY MISSILE, who won feature races to serve notice of the national champion trainer’s intent for the coming KZN season.
Overall it was a profitable month for Drakenstein Stud who bred six winners to come from KZN which made it a combined total of 13 from that region and the Western Cape.
Valenzuela (63) rides first winner in 10 years
Picture: Patrick Valenzuela, towing the line again. (Paulick Report).
Though his first career win came at New Mexico’s Sunland Park on 10 November, 1987, jockey Patrick Valenzuela got the rookie treatment from his fellow riders at Turf Paradise in Phoenix, Arizona, on Wednesday after he rode Definitely Prbable to a nose victory in the seventh race, a one-mile turf event for maiden 3-year-old fillies.
Shortly thereafter, the 63-year-old Valenzuela, was doused with ice water and shaving cream in a ritual usually saved for apprentice jockeys winning for the first first time.
For Valenzuela, whose career has had numerous interruptions due to substance-abuse issues, it was his first win in almost 10 years. His last victory came at Fair Grounds in New Orleans on 25 Novemberm, 2016. He rode in Southern California for most of his career.
Valenzuela had been denied a jockey’s license multiple times by the California Horse Racing Board, most recently in 2025, though the CHRB granted a license as exercise rider. In March, stewards at Turf Paradise gave conditional approval to his application for a jockey’s license, contingent on him successfully participating in a drug-testing program.
His first day back race-riding at the Phoenix track was March 30, when he managed a third-place finish with one of his three mounts on the day. His only named mount on March 31 was scratched. Definitely Prbable, an Improbable filly owned by BG Stables and trained by Vann Belvoir, was his only ride on Wednesday. Making her seventh career start and first at Turf Paradise after racing in Southern California, Definitely Prbable was backed down to 7-5 favoritism.
Valenzuela now has 4,373 wins in a career that began in 1978 when he was 16 years old. A native of Montrose, Colorado, known as “P. Val” by fans and horsepeople, Valenzuela won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 1989 in two memorable duels with Easy Goer. – Paulick Report.
"Will we ever breed another horse like this?"
Picture: Hawaii and his connections, after the Man O’War Stakes in October, 1969.
This Saturday marks the 56th running of the Grade 2 Hawaii Stakes over 1400m on SA Derby Day at Turffontein, a race inaugurated in 1970 – the same year the legendary South African champion after whom the race is named was retired to stud in Kentucky, bringing the curtain down on a glittering international career.
Hawaii’s story begins at breeder Archie Dell’s Platberg Stud near Colesberg on Saturday, 5 September 1964, a crisp spring morning that saw his dam, Ethane, deliver yet another in a long line of high-profile winners.
Hawaii was sired by Dell’s 1963 Italian import Utrillo II, who was mated to the proven speed influence of his prolific broodmare Ethane in an effort to give the new stallion a strong foothold at stud. At 17, she’d already produced champion racers in Just Spirit (Fair Judgement) William Penn, Entrance and Courtella (all by Netherwood).
The young colt was raised tough – like most Karoo-breds at the time – growing up on open, dry and wind-swept plains dotted with grasslands, shrubs and small, rocky hills. Yet his handsomeness and natural class shone through his woolly exterior long before he was sent to the Sale of Thoroughbred Yearlings, staged by the Witwatersrand Agricultural Society in March 1966.
The sale was held at the old Milner Park Showgrounds on a slope in Braamfontein, Johannesburg – then home to the spectacular Rand Easter Show and just a stone’s throw from the newly built Johannesburg Planetarium – an apt setting for a future star about to make his first public appearance in the auction ring.
Accomplished trainer George Azzie was a member of the three-man panel tasked with identifying the best-conformed yearling on the sale. Hawaii was the unanimous choice, with breeder Dell receiving the rosette for ‘Champion Show Yearling’.
Azzie himself was taken by the beautiful colt, even more so because his brother, Joe Azzie, had trained Hawaii’s grandam Ethyl. Azzie was the first and last to raise his hand in the auction ring. He secured Hawaii for 4,300 guineas (about R9,000), the third-highest price on the day, on behalf of his biggest patron, the American metals magnate Charles Engelhardt.
Hawaii arrived at Azzie’s Wood Ditton House in the village of Newmarket, Alberton, where his grandson Michael Azzie, then just nine years old, recalled this week: “Hawaii was checked into stable 32, alongside Caradoc and Prize Bell, both top performers on the track.”
Read the full article by Charl Pretorius, below:
BHA denies a licence to Chelmsford City track
Picture: Chelmsford City Racecourse, future unknown.
All forthcoming fixtures at Chelmsford City Racecourse have been cancelled after the British Horseracing Authority refused to give the new operator a licence.
Chelmsford City Racecourse opened in 2015 and now hosts weddings and music events, including a festival headlined by Justin Timberlake in July.
The previous tenant of the course, Great Leighs Estates Limited (GLEL), was placed in administration last month.
A new tenant, Golden Mile Racing Limited (GMRL), applied for a fresh licence, but the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) refused the request.
The BHA said the fixtures that were scheduled for Thursday, Friday and 9 April were among the dates cancelled.
“It is regrettable they have been cancelled at such short notice,” a spokesperson said.
“We recognise this will impact owners, participants – especially trainers, staff and jockeys – as well as racegoers.”
An administrator was appointed for GLEL on 25 March, but the BHA said a fixture went ahead the following day “with agreement” from the administrator.
BHA said GLEL’s licence expired on Tuesday.
GMRL made a case for a new licence to the BHA board on the same day, but “having considered the matter carefully”, they refused to grant one.
“The reasons for this decision are confidential,” the spokesperson added.
The venue first opened as Great Leighs Racecourse in 2008, becoming the first new racecourse in Britain in more than 80 years.
However, it went into administration within a year and hosted its last fixture in January 2009.
It reopened six years later with new investment.
In September, the racecourse was told it could not host music events with more than 10,000 people after police complained that spectators could have died at the Timberlake concert.
Attendees of the Chelmsford City Live festival abandoned their cars and walked on the verge of a dual carriageway because of traffic chaos.
The announcement that Chelmsford had lost its racing licence little more than 24 hours before its two-day Easter meeting was due to begin has been slammed by trainers and jockeys, with Eve Johnson Houghton saying that the decision’s timing showed a “complete disregard” towards the sport’s participants. – BBC.
Yeeee.. haw! Pauline is a tornado!
Picture: Pauline Herman on Texas Tornado. (Facebook).
Look what popular Eastern Cape race photographer Pauline Herman does in her spare time.
Here’s Pauline riding her horse, Epol Texas Tornado, in a barrel racing event presented by the PE Polocrosse Club.
Pauline said: “We went barrel racing and had a heap of fun… Tex couldn’t believe that I asked her to go faster, instead of slow down. We had two wins and second place, not bad for our first time.”
She said about Texas Tornado: “What a lovely chestnut mare – she is special, willing, honest and brave.”
Today's Question
Name the winner of the South African Derby, 2002.
The picture gives you a clue.
WEEKEND FIELDS, Friday, 3 April – Monday, 6 April
Fairview (Polytrack), Friday
Hollywoodbets Greyville (Polytrack), Friday
Turffontein (standside), Saturday
Hollywoodbets Scottsville, Sunday
Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, Monday
Today’s Question Answer
The 2002 Grade 1 SA Derby over 2450m at Turffontein was won by Timber Trader (NZ), by Woodman out of Glenview (Sir Tristram). He was trained by Gary Alexander and ridden by Mark Khan. He raced in Kirk Michael’s silks for Michael, Greg Sadie, Myron Berzack and Darryl Cousins.
The second horse was Steiger, ridden by Karl Neisius and third was Wolf Whistle, ridden by Kevin Shea.
