Picture: Summerveld trainer Wendy Whitehead is manager of the Kwazulu Royals, who meet the Cape Stingers in the GTH series final on Friday evening at Hollywoodbets Greyville. (GTH).

Royals Manager Whitehead Seeking Another “Double Points” Gamebreaker

Wendy Whitehead is the manager of the Kwazulu Royals, whose astute use of their “double points” race was the key to their win over the Cape Stingers in the qualifying round.

They meet The Stingers in the final on Friday evening and Whitehead is hoping the Royals can remain unbeaten.

The Royals are all on a Whatsapp group and will get together on Thursday to select the double points race for the final.

A lot of form analysis will take place before then and there will no doubt be plenty of discussion on the Whatsapp group before a final decision is made.

Whitehead said she had really enjoyed the series.

“It is something different and a lot of fun. The jockeys are loving it. There is a great vibe and it is very exciting. A lot of the owners who have had runners during the series all want to be there for the final. So it is also clients who have been excited to be part of it.”

She added, “The only thing which we don’t really like is the whip rules. A lot of the horses when they are in the straight, especially the inexperienced ones, shy away from the grandstand and all they need is couple of flicks.”

The whip rules are the same as for Workriders’ races i.e. the whip hand cannot leave the rein. A flick on the neck is the most that can be done.

Whitehead said the battle hardened horses handle the non-use of the whip much better then the green, inexperienced horses i.e. they don’t need the couple of backhanders in the straight to remain focused.

She said this would be taken into account when selecting the team’s double points race.

Punters should also perhaps take that into account when doing their analysis.

Picture: The Gimmethegreenlight colt who fetched a South African record price for a two-year-old at a sale. (Candiese Lenferna).

Malherbe/Bortz Bidding War Drove The Record Price

A bidding war between Jehan Malherbe’s Form Bloodstock and prolific buyer Greg Bortz drove lot 91 to a price of R3.8 million at the Bloodstock South Africa (BSA) August Sale last week.

Alistair Gordon of BSA confirmed the price to be a new record for a two-year-old at a sale in South Africa.

Gordon added, “He was a nice horse. We didn’t really expect him to go for that amount, but when two people want a horse that is what can happen.”

He continued, “It was another incredible Sale. The quality at the sales has been very good throughout the year. There is a bit of a shortage of horses and it has been a battle for some to buy because the prices are high. But it is amazing that the prices are being maintained at such a high level. They keep on breaking records.”

The statistics comparing this year’s BSA August Sale to last year’s say it all.

Last year, 316 horses were catalogued, 280 were sold, 17 withdrawn and 19 not sold, there were zero buy-backs, the aggregate was R39,640,000, the average was R141,571, the median was R90,000 and the highest price R1.2 million.

This year 275 horses were catalogued,222 were sold, 35 were withdrawn, 18 were not sold, there were zero buy-backs, the aggregate was R48,975,000, the average was R220,608, the median was R140,000 and the highest price R3.8 million.

Lot 91 was a Wilgerbosdrift Stud-bred Gimmethegreenlight colt out of the Grade 3 Starling Stakes winner Sarasota (Kahal), who has had two runners to date and both of them have been winners.

Her Soft Falling Rain son Hope Is Power won by 3,75 lengths on debut over 1000m, albeit in a weak field, and next time out finished a well beaten third in the Listed Storm Bird Stakes, where he had some decent sorts behind him including RollWithThePunches. Hope Is Power has won one race since then.

Sarasota had earlier produced the Soft Falling Rain filly Florida Keys, who also won on debut. The Sean Tarry-trained filly was backed in to 19/10 for her first racecourse appearance over 1200m and won by half-a-length, although it was also in an uninspiring field. She won once more on the Highveld before being sent to the Eastern Cape where she is yet to place.

Picture: The Mike Azzie-trained Far Away Winter (What A Winter), who was bred by Drakenstein Stud and is owned by Larry Nestadt, Laurence Wernars and Harry Willson, is led in after making it two wins in four starts last Thursday at Turffontein Inside (JC Photos).

Faraway Winter’s Pedigree Has Speed And Classic Influence

PEDIGREE PROFILE FAR AWAY WINTER

Sarah Whitelaw

Progressive three-year-old Far Away Winter, who recently made it two wins from just four starts when winning over 1000m at Turffontein, has a pedigree made up of both speed and classic influences.

The gelding was sired by four time G1 winning sprinter What A Winter, South Africa’s Champion Sprinter of 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, and Champion Older Male of 2011-2012.

Already sporting a Leading First Season Sires title and Leading Sire of 2YOs crown, What A Winter has made fine start to the current season, and, at the time of writing, heads the South African General Sires List for 2022-2023.

The son of triple champion South African sire Western Winter also enjoyed plenty of success last season, where What A Winter was responsible for six stakes winners who picked up seven black type races.

Far Away Winter, a R550 000 purchase from the 2021 Cape Premier Yearling, lacks little in terms of quality on his female line. A half-brother to a winner, he is out of G3 Umzimkhulu Stakes winner Fromafar, a daughter of champion sire and increasingly successful broodmare sire Trippi.

The latter is already broodmare sire of highly successful US stallions, and half-brothers, Liam’s Map and Not This Time (sire of recent G1 Runhappy Travers Stakes winner Epicenter among others), South African champion Gabor and G1 winners Miss Florida and She’s A Keeper.

Fromafar herself is a half-sister to the exported G3 Cape Of Good Hope Nursery/Listed Somerset 1200 winner Armando -who, like Far Away Winter, was sired by What A Winter. Unbeaten in three South African starts, Armando has been retired from racing in Hong Kong where he failed to feature.

Fromafar and Armando were produced by Big Mona, herself a placed daughter of top US sprinter and successful sire Yes It’s True.

A half-sister to the stakes placed Curiosity, Big Mona was produced by the twice winning mare My Big Sis, a half-sister to G1 Kentucky Derby winner Lil E. Tee.

Her third dam Sailaway, herself a daughter of South African champion Hawaii, left her mark on the thoroughbred breed through the deeds of her granddaughter Baby Zip (by Relaunch). The latter, herself a stakes winning of four, was Broodmare Of The Year in Kentucky in 2005 with Baby Zip producing a pair of G1 winning sons in City Zip (Hopeful Stakes) and Ghostzapper (Horse Of The Year, Breeders’ Cup Classic, Vosburgh Stakes, Woodward Stakes, Met Hcp) -both of whom have since become hugely successful sires. Ghostzapper, one of the most brilliant horses seen in North America, is not only sire of brilliant recent Queen’s Plate winner Moira and 2022 G1 Ballerina Handicap winner Goodnight Olive but his daughter Stage Magic is dam of unbeaten US Triple Crown winner Justify, who has made a sensational start with his first two-year-olds this season.

Between them, City Zip and Ghostzapper are responsible for more than 180 stakes winners.

Far Away Winter is himself directly descended in female line from the flying Correction -the best sprint mare of her day in North America, and a full-sister to the legendary racehorse and influential sire Domino.

Among the other notable luminaries descended in female line from Correction is US Triple Crown winner, and successful sire Affirmed, as well as current top-class US sire Twirling Candy.

Take and Meisho Tsutsuji power to the line at Sapporo on Saturday. (Photo by Lo Chun Kit)

‘The Legend’ Yutaka Take Wins World All-Star Jockeys series

The star among All-Stars, Yutaka Take’s mastery spans decades

Michael Cox (Asian Racing Report)

A wild World All-Star Jockeys series win in Sapporo at Saturday was a reminder that ‘the Legend’ Yutaka Take is more than just a veteran trading off past achievements.

During an interview with the Report earlier this year, the feisty Italian Mirco Demuro let slip what at first sounded like a slight against ‘the Legend’ Yutaka Take: “He was so lucky to be born in the age he was born.”

Surely the ever-grateful Italian jockey wasn’t taking a potshot at the seemingly untouchable Take? Was Demuro daring to suggest that the greatest of all time was overrated? Take dominated in the late 1980s and through the 1990s, and the next decade and then some for that matter, but was Demuro suggesting the standard is higher now? … that Take has just been trading on reputation since? This reporter imagined an explosive headline: ‘The Legend, now a myth’, and wondered what the fallout for Demuro might be.

“No, no, no, not at all,” Demuro assured when asked to clarify. “Yutaka Take is a champion, a genius. A great rider. He has great style and balance. He just came along at a time when everybody would just go too fast.”

Demuro explained that when he first arrived in Japan in 1999 – the midst of Take’s prime – instructions from trainers were simple – “just go” – and as rivals rode their horses into the ground, Take’s balance, patience and poise had winning races at a record rate.

Regardless of the primitive tactics of those formative years, Demuro continued, and even if Take had taken advantage of substandard opposition back then, that doesn’t explain away more than three decades of sublime achievements.

Take sat, waited and swooped to the tune of 18 champion jockey titles in 20 years, he was leading prizemoney earner 16 times and had the highest strike rate on 11 occasions. In nine seasons he topped all three of those categories. Take has had at least one stakes winner per year for the last 35 years, 349 in total. He has won Group 1 races in five straight decades – the 1980s through to the 2020s – 79 of them in all.

On Saturday at Sapporo, Take was still sitting, waiting and swooping when Meisho Tsutsuji stormed home after others kicked too early in the second leg of the World All-Star Jockeys series.

That dramatic win – a record extending 4,371st of his career – and his second placing in the fourth and final leg, was enough for Take to overcome the late scratching of his third ride and clinch the series.

Even if the 2022 World All-Star Jockeys series trophy won’t find a place on the top shelf of his cabinet, it is only because it is such a crowded one. This year’s Tokyo Yushun was his sixth to go with eight wins in the Tenno Sho (Spring), four Japan Cups, three Arima Kinen wins among those top level victories, plus G1s in France, Hong Kong and Dubai.

It’s the longevity that really astounds: Take is 53. He won the precursor to the WASJ, the Super Jockey Series, 30 years ago. If that number doesn’t mean much, what about the names Take was competing against that year: Tony Cruz, Lance O’Sullivan and the late Pat Eddery. Take finished second in the second ever series, in 1988, riding against Eddery, Freddy Head and Bill Shoemaker.

At 45 years of age, Craig Williams looks to Take as inspiration and draws parallels with two other ageless stars; 51-year-old Frankie Dettori – whose fearless ride aboard Trawlerman in the recent Ebor Handicap was all class – and Gerald Mosse, who at 55 is still riding at a Group 1 level.

“Yutaka, Frankie and Gerald, first of all you are talking about all-time great riders,” Williams said. “But I draw a lot of inspiration from their longevity. I started to see it when I was a young rider and I went to Europe, the mentality was that you weren’t considered to be a great rider until you were a bit older, and again in Hong Kong, the leading riders there were in their 30s and 40s.

“Yutaka, Frankie and Gerald are great examples that you can keep riding: if you still have the passion and are still healthy, then there are no boundaries anymore.”

Williams said that what older jockeys lose in athleticism they make up for in other areas. “I think you have more belief, and you know what it takes to win those big races,” he said,

There is a special type of applause you hear from Japanese race fans that is reserved for Take; it is more like a reverential reception set aside for the arrival of royalty.

Even rival jockeys get caught up in the aura. As the Legend was announced to the crowd at the ceremony, visiting jockeys Vincent Ho and James Graham noted the different vibe.

“I was talking to James when Yutaka came out, and you notice the way the crowd reacts, and we were like “Oh the Japanese Godfather!”,“ Ho said. “Everybody respects him a lot.”

Japan’s current leading rider Yuga Kawada usually maintains an alpha male, peacock-like strut but when he was standing on the second-placed podium at the World All-Star Jockeys series, Take towering above him – not just in height but stature – Kawada turned fanboy. “The Legend was, as always, very hard to beat,” said Kawada. “I thought I had the win, but ‘the wall of Take’ was just too high to climb.”

Like all true legends, Williams had already ‘heard of the aura of Take’ before he had experienced it in person.

“The first time I rode against him and he was a bit like a pop star then in terms of fame, he had Japanese fans following him around everywhere,” Williams said. “He has been a great ambassador for Japanese and world racing. As a jockey I always admired him, he rode on a really long rein, which is a sign of confidence, and I love that style. The most important thing is that horses respond to him. And then the mentality: could see his coolness in a race in the way he rode this weekend.”

Take may not hit as hard as he once did, or push through daring inside runs, but anybody who thinks the veteran is simply riding on reputation should consider the support, or lack thereof, that he has received from the all-powerful Yoshidas in recent years.

While fringe jockeys at times struggle for opportunities because of the Yoshida family’s big-race dominance, particularly that of Northern Farm’s various race clubs, Take rarely rides in the Northern Farm silks of Sunday, Silk or Carrot Racing. He hasn’t ridden a Group 1 winner for a Yoshida or their raceclubs since the 2010 Japan Cup on Rose Kingdom.

Take’s chance to end Japan’s losing streak in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in October aboard his Derby winner Do Deuce looms large. Many think he is on the right horse, a backmarker that will benefit from a strong tempo, just like the Derby. If that is the case, the tactics will be familiar: sit, wait and swoop.

Picture: Colin Moore rode in Newmarket’s Town Plate over a gruelling three milkes and six furlongs on Saturday at the age of 80. (Newmarket Racecourse).

80 Year-old Rode In Saturday’s 352nd Renewal Of The Town Plate

Colin Moore rode in the Newmarket Town Plate on Saturday at the age of 80

Colin won a race under rules in 1961, and continues to love riding.

The Newmarket Town Plate is an historic British horse race which has been run in the town of Newmarket, Suffolk since 1665 or 1666. The race was instigated by King Charles II, who became the first and only reigning monarch to win a race in 1671. He stated that it should be run ‘forever’.

It is run over 3 mile 6 furlongs of the Newmarket Round Course, which runs “on the outside of the Ditch from Newmarket … starting and ending at the weighing post, by Cambridge Gap, called Thomond’s Post.” It is only used once a year for this race.

The prizes for the contest include a box of famed Powter’s Newmarket sausages. The Newmarket sausage is a pork sausage made to a traditional recipe from the Suffolk horseracing town.

This year’s Town Plate was won by Amateur rider Laura Gibson-Brabazon aboard the Christian Williams-trained Goldencard (Golden Lariat).

The 31 year old, who is the Partnerships Account Manager for The Jockey Club at Newmarket Racecourses, was given a warm reception by friends and colleagues who gathered around the July Course winner’s enclosure after she had steered the 11-4 chance to glory.

Picture: Racing father and son Neil and Devon Pretorius (Pauline Herman).

Good Commentary Debut For Devon Pretorius

Cape Racing

Devon Pretorius, son of well known racing presenter Neil Pretorius, loved his first experience commentating in the top box at Kenilworth.

The eagle eye view is the best view on the course and complimented a first call that will be remembered forever by the young commentator.

CLICK HERE TO HEAR THE POLISHED COMMENTARY

Picture: Wings Of Nike won in just her second start for trainer Shaylen Naidoo today at the Vaal, converting odds of 25/1 in a Graduation Plate over 1000m under Rachel Venniker.

Doubles For Lerena, Venniker, Lensley, Peter And Vercingetorix

Gavin Lerena, Rachel Venniker, Corrie Lensley, Paul Peter and Vercingetorix all scored doubles at the Vaal straight course meeting today.

Lerena goes to 9 winners for the season at a strike rate of 20.45%.

Venniker goes to 13 winners at 12.26%

Kabelo Matsunyane had a blank but still leads the early season log with 17 winners.

Corrie Lensley had his first two winners of the season and is going at 33,3%.

Paul Peter has had 16 winners atg a strike rate of 21.33%.

Vercingetorix has had eight individual winners this season.

Today’s Question

Who is the highest earning thoroughbred in history?

The highest earner in history is pictured above.(pastthewire.com)

Hollywoodbets Greyville Poly Wednesday Fields

Today’s Question Answer

The Bob Baffert-trained Arrogate, whose wins included the Travers Stakes (2016), the Breeders’ Cup Classic (2016), the Pegasus World Cup (2017) and the Dubai World Cup (2017), is the highest earning thoroughbred in history with stakes winnings of US$17,422,600.

The top ten earners in history are listed above (equibase.com).

Turf Talk Newsletter – 30 August 2022