Popular brothers Gary and Dean Aleander are ready to fire in Australia

Gary and Dean Alexander were a force in South Africa, having trained such horses as Clifton King, Wallah, Gay Tune, Bamboogie, Kick The Habit, Naval Guest, Heartwood, Thousand Nights, Speaking Oak, Imperious Sue, Tommy Hotspur, Flying Promise, Ruby Clipper, Timber Trader, Final Claim, Kazatzkah, Drum Star, Elegant Al, Brutal Force, Silver Sliver, Mosszao, Lady Of The Turf and Pierre Jourdan and others, and they now look all set to get rolling in Australia where they are based at Murray Bridge racecourse in South Australia,.

Their settling in period is over and their first yearling purchases will begin racing as three-year-olds this season, so it might well be worth the while of South African owners to invest in “the Springbok syndicate.”.

Dean explained, “We had a very nice start when we arrived initially, but our stables weren’t ready for two years from the time we got here … our stables in Murray Bridge hadn’t been built, so we started off with ten pre-stables at Morphettville Racecourse, then they moved us to Gawler and we only had ten stables there, but out of those stables we had eleven winners. In total we’ve had a bit of success, but last season was a bit quiet, because when we first arrived it was slap bang smack in the middle of COVID, so we couldn’t travel and we had to buy horses online to get going. We kicked off with horses that were in training, but they were basically horses that had been sold on. We only really started buying yearlings about two years ago. Our horses have won their races, but we did a bit of a clearing out this last season and we didn’t race too much, because we’ve just been waiting for the young horses. That’s why this is all happening now. Gary’s never been one to push his two-year-olds. These three-year-olds now are those horses that we bought at the yearling Sales and they’re all coming into their own. They’ll start racing as three-year-olds. So, basically, we’ve been here for four years, but it’s taken a while to get established and to get a team together. It has been tough as we started from scratch, we did not have one horse, and we’ve now got about 22 horses in training. We’re getting there. We’ve got a lot of young horses, which is nice, and it’s exciting. We have a couple of older horses, but not too many. It’s all about the season going forward and the season after that with the young horses and see what we can do.”

Dean said about the training facilities at Murray Bridge, which is a new racecourse about an hour out of Adelaide and about six or seven hours from Melbourne, “The training facilities at Murray Bridge are really good. They’ve got a fibre track. The main grass track is really nice and they’ve got an inside grass track, which you can work on. They’ve got a beautiful uphill sand track and then we’ve got a swimming pool and there is a nice spa. The stables were only built about two years ago, so all the facilities are really nice.”

The stakes are very good in South Australia.

Victoria State, which has Australia’s most competitive racing and biggest stakes, is within raiding distance.

Australia has no fewer than 92 Gr 1 races per season and all of them are for Aus$1Million or more, so with an exchange rate of 11 to 1, there is potentially big money to be made.

The general stakes in Adelaide on a Satuday are from about Aus$30,000 to Aus$35,000, which is about R400,000, and in midweek the stakes are generally the equivalent of about R180,000 to R200,000.

Dean added, “It goes up if you’re going across the border (to Victoria) and then most races are run for anything from about the equivalent of R700,000 to R1 million.”

Gary and Dean have always complemented each other as a team. Gary is the main trainer, while Dean focuses on owner relations and marketing, but when either is away they have the nous to fill each other’s main roles.

The details of joining the Springbok Syndicate can be read in the advertisements  below:

Mike de Kock fittingly had his 142nd Gr 1 win on the day he was inducted into the Hall Of Fame, World Pool Gold Cup day. Even more fitting was that the winning horse, Jan van Goyen (Master Of My Fate), who won the Wrld Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes, was part-owned by Henk Leyenaar, who was part-owner of the great filly Ipi Tombe, who well and truly put Mike de Kock on the world map in 2003 when winning the Gr 1 Duai Duty Free. In an amazing set of coincidences Peter Moor, breeder of Ipi Tombe, also had a Gr 1 winner on Gold Cup day with the exciting Alan Greef-trained Golden Palm (Master Of My Fate), who won the Douglas Whyte Stakes. 

Gallop TV created a fine video paying tribute to South Africa’s latest Hall Of Fame inductee Mike de Kock.

The induction happened at Hollywoodbets Greyville on World Pool Gold Cup day in the Classic Room.

Click here to watch the video 

AN EXCITING RACING PROPERTY FOR SALE IN RANDJESFONTEIN AH

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Click here to view listing.

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Fiona Ramsden is based in England at present, but she spent 25 years in South Africa and is currently looking for new opportunities in the equine industry, whether it be in England or South Africa.

She is well known in South African racing, especially as a much respected horseracing television presenter and program host, who brought valuable insight from all angles and delivered it in a crystal clear voice.

Whether anchoring a broadcast, voicing a commercial, managing high-performance stables, or coordinating events, Fiona’s strength lies in her calm authority, refined communication, and undeniable style.

Today, she offers a versatile portfolio of services across media, events, and equestrian consultancy.

To get a inkling of the wealth of experience she has gained, read on.

Fiona Alexandra Haynes was brought up on a farm in Wiltshire and was not only the daughter of a trainer, but she and all of the rest of her family were involved in equestrian pursuits too, from Pony Club to amateur race-riding.

She worked for trainer Barry Hills for four years when he was at Manton for Robert Sangster

She was later employed by Jack and Lynda Ramsden in North Yorkshire and that is where she met Joey Ramsden, who was to become a top trainer in South Africa, a multiple Cape champion.

Joey had decided at that time to come home from South Africa, where he had worked, amongst others, for Mike de Kock, and been an assistant to Vaughan Marshall.

After running a satellite yard in Southwell for his family, the charismatic trainer and his girlfriend decided to chance their luck in Africa and in 1995 Goodhope Racing was born at Milnerton.

“Fee” was a key player in the success of the high-flying and customer-orientated business.

But life and circumstances change and she eventually found her niche around 2006 in racing television, combining her natural screen appeal, eloquence, and broad -based horse knowledge, to popular effect.

She said to the Sporting Post upon departing South Africa in December 2022, “I will be living on the Wiltshire-Berkshire border, down the road from the ‘the Valley of the Racehorse’, more familiarly known as the Lambourne Training Grounds. Thankfully I have many friends and contacts in the racing industry in England – so I will hopefully be able to get involved there, again.”

For those who are interested in offering her a position in which her areas of expertise will be of value, please view the advertisement above and visit her website www.fionaramsden.com (click here to visit the website).

Sierra Leone came from last to first to win the Whitney Stakes (via youtube)

Defending Longines Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Sierra Leone, winless in three previous Saratoga starts with a second- and two third-place finishes, sounded a Breeders Classic warning for rivals when winning he historic Gr 1 Whitney Stakes at Saratoga on Saturday.

Tom Pedulla of Americasbestracing.net provided five key takeways you need to know from Whitney Stakes Weekend.

Click here to read the article

Danish Dynamite  makes it two wins from three starts and gives Luyola Mxothwa a treble (Pauline Herman Photography)

The first East Cape meeting of the season was on the Fairview turf and it saw Alan Greeff starting off where he left off with a treble.

It seems to have become an annual agreement that S’Manga Khumalo replaces Richard Fourie for the Greeff rides when the latter is away at the beginning of each season and Khumalo rode all three of the winners, while Luyola Mxothwa also scored a treble, two of them for Sharon Kotzen.

The most interesting of the day’s winners was the Gavin Smith-trained three-year-old Erik The Red filly Danish Dynamite, who led from start to finish under Mothwa over 1000m in the last race to beat the  boys in a MR 66 Handicap.

She is a half-sister to My Best Shot, an Alan Greeff-trained Fire Away gelding who last season became the East Cape’s first runner in the Hollywoodbets Durban July for 21 years.

Smith is the arch rival of Greeff, but it was one way traffic last season with Greeff scoring 165 wins in the East Cape to Smith’s 116 and today Smith only had a single winner to Greeff’s three.

The next three on the log last season were Kelly Mitchley with 47 wins, Sharon Kotzen with 33 and Cliffie Miller with 29.

Kotzen got the new season off to a great start with a double and Mitchley also had a winner.

Juan Nel ended last season in fine form and started it off well with a winner today, ridden by in form Turf Talk-sponsored jockey Chad Little, who had a double on the Hollywoodbets Greyville turf on Sunday, both for Lucinda Woodruff.

The Whitney Stakes was run at Saratoga on Saturday. This is the race which produced one of the biggest upsets in racing history. What year did that happen and who upset who?

The picture gives a clue to the answer