MDK Laments Gerber’s Absence During Racing’s Tough Times

Chris Gerber Would Have Played A Leading Role During Racing’s Dark Days Says Mike De Kock

David Mollett

On the fourth anniversary of the passing of businessman and owner-breeder Chris Gerber, top trainer, Mike De Kock, has emphasised how serious the loss of the 53 year-old has been to the sport.

Back in 2018 after Chris succumbed to complications following a bout of malaria, De Kock told Business Day “Chris’s loss is incalculable. He was a man who cannot be forgotten and who cannot be replaced. We’ll be having memorials for him years from now.”

Many-times champion breeder, Mick Goss, said: “There are few men who have served the industry in so many capacities and with so much competence.”

Fast forward to 2022 and Mike De Kock remains convinced Chris would have tackled the troubles racing has experienced in the last four years.

He told me yesterday: “Chris Gerber was a one-off. I’ve been in the industry since the early 80’s and seen some very big players come and go.”

“There’s always someone there to replace them – not this man. I firmly believe that when the shit hit the fan at Phumelela he would have been at the forefront and – who knows – may even have taken it all over.”

“The leadership he showed is what’s greatly missed today. The sales have never been the same without him and Moutonshoek.”

Colin Gordon, Chris’ racing manager and now Chief Operating Officer at 4Racing, commented: “We miss Chris every day and I believe that – if he was still with us – his energy and forward thinking would have been a huge asset to racing.”

Chris was the first owner of champion racehorse, Rainbow Bridge, who was retired at the beginning of the year. He went to R300 000 to acquire him as a yearling from Wilgerbosdrift Stud.

It was his dream – and that of his next owner the late Mike Rattray – to win the July but it wasn’t to be.

Still, Rainbow Bridge retired with a superb record of 11 wins and five Gr 1 victories. He delighted his many fans with two wins in the Cape Met winning the race in 2019 and 2021.

The words “sorely missed” are overused in tributes to people who have passed on. In Chris Gerber’s case “enormously missed” would be more accurate and many of us count ourselves lucky to have spent time him in his company.

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Zackey Reaps The Rewards For Years Of Endurance 

In a sport with more than its fair share of drama and intrigue, it’s heart-warming to highlight the success of a trainer who has survived the ups-and-downs of the sport and – quite simply – been a credit to his profession.

Tyrone Zackey – or “Uncle Ty” as he is affectionately known – has always called a spade a spade.

In an old interview with the Sporting Post, the Turffontein trainer said: “It’s not difficult to train good horses, but it’s not an easy game training slow horses.”

“When you have ordinary horses you feel yourself trying tongue-ties, blinkers, different bits, different jockeys, work routines or do they need more ground. But we love it and we soldier on.”

That soldering on has seen Tyrone’s small stable nearly making history when Smanjemanje was narrowly beaten by Pomodoro (Piere Strydom) in the 2012 Durban July. No doubt the trainer still has nightmares about that close finish.

One of the reasons Tyrone has been a survivor is that – not having big-spending patrons – he had to find value-for-money horses who could win a few races.

For many years, he found those value-for-money horses at the Highdown Stud of Robin Scott in Nottingham Road. It was a tragedy when Robin lost his life to covid during the pandemic.

The Apache was one of the stallions at Highdown and it won’t have been lost on Tyrone that his recent winner, Flashy Apache, is a son of the horse who was controversially disqualified after winning the Arlington Million in Chicago.

Ridden by Ryan Munger, Flashy Apache won his third race when successful in a 96 Handicap at Turffontein last month and started the ball rolling for more successes for the stable.

Tyrone was beaming from ear to ear in his interview with Lyall Cooper at the Vaal last week when Otto Luyken – also ridden by Munger – left the maiden ranks when winning over 1800m.

Quite naturally, the biggest supporters of the stable have been Tyrone’s close family – his daughter, Nadine, and her husband, Kevin Bakos.

But what seems to have been a big influence in what Tyrone might call “better days” is the arrival of Willem Ackerman as a patron of the stable. He owns Otto Luyken in partnership with The Bakos’ and they went to R180 000 to acquire the Flower Alley colt from Wilgerbosdrift/Mauritzfontein.

A far more expensive purchase for Ackerman, whose filly Gilded Butterfly, trained by Stuart Pettigrew, won Saturday’s Gr 3 Yellowwod Handicap, is Boisterous who cost R775 000 when purchased from Maine Chance Farms.

Tyrone would have known within a few weeks that Boisterous – a son of Silvano – had ability and he opened his account at Turffontein at the end of July.

Following a second behind Pyromaniac in September, Tyrone and Willem Ackerman probably decided it was worth a go at the Gr 3 Graham Beck Stakes.

Unfortunately, Boisterous was never a serious factor behind Robert Maroun’s winner, Anfields Rocket, and beat only two home.

Expect the colt to bounce back and keep Tyrone’s yard on the boil. His belief is “if we don’t have a ticket – we don’t have a hope of glory.” You can’t fault the Turffontein conditioner’s aim to saddle as many winners as possible.

Sparkling Water And Aragosta Line Up In Victory Moon

Mike de Kock’s Grade 1-winning pair Sparkling Water and Aragosta will be using the Grade 3 Victory Moon Stakes as a stepping stone into the Grade 1 Gauteng Summer Cup.

They are both drawn wide in the 1800m event and have to carry 59.5kg and 59kg respectively.

S’Manga Khumalo retains the ride on the Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Sparkling Water and it is nice to see talented but under-utilised rider Julius Mariba getting the ride on the WSB SA Derby winner East Coast.

Their talented three-year-old stablemate East Coast, a colt by Galileo sire The United States, is an interesting runner carrying 51kg from draw ten with Nathan Klink up. This colt relished the step up to 1700m last time and won a Graduation Plate comfortably.

The Corne Spies-trained William Robertson, who is the highest rated entry in the Summer Cup, has to carry 61kg, but is drawn two and he will be ridden by Marco van Rensburg.

Sean Tarry has five entries, Nebraas, Zillzaal, Litigation, Indlamu and Platinum Sky and all with the exception of 118 rated Nebraas, tenth on the last Summer Cup log, and possibly Zillzaal, 18th in the last log, will need to produce big runs to book a place in the big race.

Another eyecatcher in the field who will need a big last gasp effort to get into the Summer Cup is the talented Johan Janse van Vuuren-trained Outofthedarkness, who has not had much luck in his build up to date. The 106 rated campaigner only has 51kg to carry, but has a wide draw of 15 out of 17. Chase Maujean rides.

The field in draw order:

Jet Dark, Rascallion Land Middle Draws In Cape Mile, Golden Ducat Wide

Twice Equus Champion Miler Jet Dark was a supplementary entry last week for the Grade 3 Cape Mile, which is being run on Saturday at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth, and he thus had to still be given a draw.

He has landed a draw of four out of eight.

However, it should not make a difference because if he sits at the back in a field of this small size with a fair pace being set by his stable companion Crown Towers, then his exceptional turn of foot coupled with his fine finishing speed should see him able to mow them down.

Richard Fourie will ride Jet Dark.

Rascallion, who hasn’t been seen since beating Do It Again in a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1800m on December 1 last year, has drawn five and will be ridden by Corne Orffer.

Golden Ducat has been out for 18 months and has drawn eight out of eight.

He will be ridden by Aldo Domeyer.

All of the horses are rated above the benchmark of 101. 60kg is given to horses rated that high or higher.

Jet Dark carries a 2kg penalty for having won a Grade 1 within 13 months of the setting of the weights of this race and and likewise IOS Drill Hall Stakes winner Silver Operator carries a 1kg Grade 2 penalty.

The final field for the Grade 3 Cape Mile in draw order.

Janse van Vuuren Sticks To The Shadows To Allow Horses To Shine

Among horses he learnt the ropes with were superstars Jet Master, El Picha and Yard-Arm

Mike Moon (The Citizen)

Johan Janse van Vuuren is not one for the limelight and doesn’t do personal interviews. He’ll talk about his horses, not himself.

Dillon, Kennedy, Vorster Doubles And Alexanders Also Score

Donovan Dillon had a perfect double in two rides in Australia on Sunday, while Warren Kennedy had a double in New Zealand today and Barend Vorster’s double in Australia today included one for Gary And Dean Alexander.

Dillon has only had eight rides since arriving in Australia, but he has already had three winners, including winning on both of the mounts he had on Sunday.

All of his rides have been for trainer Paul Messara, the son of Australian racing legend John Messara.

John Messara, in partnership with Ireland’s Coolmore Stud, purchased a top class sprinter called Danehill in England in around 1990 from Khalid Abdullah and hence the practice of shuttle stallions began.

Danehill went on to become probably the greatest sire in Australian history and put Messara’s Arrowfield stud, which he founded in 1985, on the map.

Since then Arrowfield have stood a number of leading sires like Snippets, Danzero, Flying Spur, Redoute’s Choice and Snitzel at their stud farm, which comprises 2,500 acres in the fertile Segenhoe Valley, near Scone in the Upper Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

Paul Messara is the trainer at Arrowfield’s private training centre and Dillon has landed the position as one of his jockeys.

Warren Kennedy had four rides today at Pukekohe Park in New Zealand and won the second race for Peter And Dawn Williams on a 92/1 shot (!) and the fourth race on a Lance Noble-trained 9/2 shot.

He has had 20 rides for three wins so far in NZ, a 15% strike rate.

Gary and Dean Alexanader won the first race yesterday at their home course Morphettville with Playboycharlie (Myboycharlie), converting 3/1 odds under Barend Vorster.

Vorster scored a double at the meeting.

The Alexanders have had 51 runners in Australia to date for five winners (10%) and 13 places (35%).

Vorster has had 1107 wins in Australia at around 13%, including three Group 1s, three Group 2s, eight Group 3s and 14 Listed wins.

Emotional jockey Mark Zahra reacts after Gold Trip wins the 2022 Melbourne Cup

By Andrew McGarry and Jon Healy (abc.net.au)

(Zahra was suspended for breaking Covid protocol by partying at an AirBnB with fellow jockeys).

The field of 22 horses runs around the first turn in the Melbourne Cup, with grandstands full of fans in the background.

The winning jockey stands up in the irons and raises his arm as he rides the Melbourne Cup winner with the field behind him.

The two trainers of the Melbourne Cup winner stand either side of the winning jockey, all holding trophies after the race.

The six-year-old went on to make history, becoming only the third topweight in nearly seven decades to win the Cup, joining three-time winner Makybe Diva (2005) and Rising Fast (1954).

CLICK HERE TO WATCH TODAY’S CUP REPLAY

Today’s Question

What is the oldest continuously used racecourse in the Southern Hemisphere?

Answer at bottom of newsletter.

Hollywoodbets Greyville Poly Fields

Today’s Question Answer

Champ de Mars racecourse in Mauritius is the oldest continuously running racecourse in the Southern Hemisphere.

This course saw racing taking place officially for the first time in 1812.

Based in the Port Louis capital of the Indian Ocean island, the course was opened by The Mauritius Turf Club in the same year that it was founded by Edward Alured Draper.

The Mauritius Turf club (MTC) is the oldest horse racing club in the Southern Hemispehere.

MTC had been organising racing exclusively in Mauritius since 1812, until this year.

Currently, the MTC and the new operator, the People’s Turf Club, appear to be taking it in turns to organise racing at Champs De Mars on alternate weekends.