Turf Talk Newsletter – 5 February, 2025

Atticus Finch pictured winning the Betway Summer Cup under Calvin Habib (JC Photos)

Alec Laird will try and have his Betway Summer Cup winner Atticus Finch ready in time for the Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge on March 29.

He said, “Turffontein is his track and at this stage I’m going to try and get him to the Premier’s. It’s a two month gap (between the Met and the Premier’s) and we are monitoring how he does. I wish it was a three month gap, but they’ve changed it for some reason, it’s not at the end of the season anymore.”

On the other hand Atticus Finch did not endure a hard race in the WSB Met.

Laird said, “He couldn’t get a good position in the race. It was almost like he needed blinkers to get him into the race, because he hardly had a race. When he came back he wasn’t blowing and he weighed the same as he did going in. The Met 2000 is not as hard as the Turffontein 2000. He used to be effective at 1600, but I think it has become too short for him as an older horse (he finished 11,10 lengths back in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate.) The Met wasn’t a gruelling race for him, he ran a good race in a way to run just 3,15 lengths back, but it wasn’t his race.”

He said about Hollywoodbets Durban July ambitions for the Master Of My Fate gelding.

“He finished a 1,50 length second in the Consolation race last year. Now that he’s gone up in the weights, I suppose we will have to have a crack at the July, there’s nowhere else to go.”

Atticus Finch is merit rated 121, so he could get into the July with a nice weight. He finished two lengths behind See It Again in the Met and will get 3,5kg from him in the July as things stand, so he could be an interesting runner.

Suzette Viljoen was the last individual owner to be champion owner and it was not without controversy, because whilst restricted race stakes earnings reflect on the NHA Stats they are excluded from the championship. Viljoen thus won the championship at the expense of Chris van Niekerk, whose stakes earnings when including restrcted races were higher. (Picture: Equus) 

NHA CEO Vee Moodley and NHA chairperson Susan Rowett explained why the owners’ championship is not a moneylist of individuals or individual companies  i.e. for an individual owner only the stakes earned by horses he or she owns outright will be included in their individual stakes tally for the championship – the stakes earned by horses he or she part-owns will not be added to that owner’s individual tally. Partnerships are treated as separate entities for the championship.

So if Joe Soap owns five horses outright, which earn R1 million during a season, and he owns two horses in partnership with H. Bloggs, which earn R250,000 in the season, and he owns three horses in partnership with J Smith, R Jones, I Briggs, Q. Higgins and Z. Presley, which earn R500,000 during the season, the championship will have the following entities somewhere in the standings:

Joe Soap – R1  million
Joe Soap/J Smith/R Jones/I Briggs/Q Higgins/Z Presley – R500,000
Joe Soap/H Bloggs – R250,000.

Gary player questioned this in an exclusive interview with Dave Mollett for Turf Talk.

In Player’s opinion all of the above owners should be separate entities for the owners championship.

So if, for example, Soap and Bloggs own an equal share of all of the horses under their partnership and in the partneship with six members shown above Soap owns 50% of every horse and the others own 10% each then in the championship their tallies should be:

Soap R1,375,000
Bloggs R125,000
Smith R50,000
Jones R50,000
Briggs R50,000
Higgins R50,000
Presley R50,000

Moodley explained that when partnerships are declared the percentages each owner had of each horse under the partnership was unknown to the NHA. It is known only to the owners themselves.

He said if this was changed, who would be responsible for verifying the percentage of each horse owned by each owner in the partnership?

It would understandably be a logistical nightmare and invoices would have to be passed over to the official who is verifying it.

He said it would also be open to manipulation. i.e. an owner who is in contention for the title could claim he owned 90% of a horse for a certain expensive race and he did not just own the original 20%.

Another owner who is just R1 million behind with a month to go could buy shares in a number of expensive horses and then claim he owns 50% of each.

Those sort of things would probably not happen, but Moodley’s explanation was convincing in painting it as a logistical nightmare – accurately keeping track of every percentage every owner has in every horse they own would be a difficult task and policing it would be even more difficult.

He also argued that an individual owner and a partnership were two different entities anyway.

It is not the analogy he used but one which could be used is comparing a singer playing for a band to the same singer playing solo … the band and the solo singer are two separate entities.

Susan Rowett said on the matter, “We looked into it thoroughly when I was chair before when someone made the same suggestion about four years ago.  If I remember correctly there were various IT and administrative reasons on registrations and also a concern that it could easily be manipulated by changing shareholdings. Furthermore NHA data and IT functions are outsourced to NRB/Gold Circle and sometimes it’s difficult for NHA to get things done that it wants to get done.

I did look at what they do with owner stats elsewhere.  In the UK, France and America owner stats all have partnerships listed in their stats – so we are like them.

In Ireland the people appear as individuals – I am not quite sure on the calculations as it seems a win counts as a win for every partner.

In any event Equus Champion owner is actually decided by Equus and they have a different approach than the NHA official stats – they exclude restricted stakes whereas official owner stats include restricted races.”

The strapping Malmesbury Missile (Gimmethegreenlight), who fetched R900,000 at the Cape Racing Cape Premier Yearling Sale, is fittingly named after Springbok powerhourse Pieter-Steph du Toit. He is the first winner for Gabor, Equus Champion Two-year-old fillly in 2018/2019 and was brought home by Turf Talk sponsored jockey Chad Little.  (Picture: Wayne Marks) 

Graeme Hawkins (Gold Circle)

Malmesbury Missile, named by Drakenstein Stud in honour of Springbok and two-time World Rugby Player of the Year, Pieter-Steph du Toit, was the popular choice in the opening event, a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1200m, and the 2yo son of Gimmethegreenlight duly obliged with a comfortable victory. Ridden by Chad Little and trained by Glen Kotzen, Malmesbury Missile (11/10) was always in the firing line, and he stayed on well to hold out One Stripe’s half-brother Vapour Trail by a length.

The second race, a Maiden Plate (F&M) over 1400m, looked a match race between Diamond Bomber and Catch A Penny and so it turned out to be. Night In Japan made the early running but soon came under pressure in the straight and Catch A Penny moved through with Diamond Bomber poised to strike. Catch A Penny (2/1) tried gamely to maintain her advantage, but Diamond Bomber (8/10) responded well under Aldo Domeyer and gained the upper hand to score by half-a-length.

Tenpenny, bred by Brett Van Laun’s KZN-based Camargue Stud, was all the rage to win the third race, a Maiden plate over 1600m, and the progressive son of What A Winter had the race safely won 400m out. At that stage Tenpenny (9/10), trained by Patrick Kruyer for Greg Bortz and Gina Goldsmith, was travelling well within himself, and the favourite drew clear to put daylight between himself and runner-up War Hawk.

JP van der Merwe completed a race-to-race double when Ahead Of The Facts stormed home from the rear of the field to take out the fourth race, a Maiden Plate over 2000m. The pace was frenetic throughout with Jet A One setting a brisk gallop ahead of a well-stretched out field. The odds-on favourite Future Frequency was in trouble a long way from home, and it was left to Ahead Of The Facts (6/1) to score at the expense of Umfula and Wood World.

Double Dash attracted solid on-course support from 11/2 into 15/10 and the money proved spot on as the temperamental daughter of Master Of My Fate landed top honours in the fifth race, a Maiden Plate (F&M) over 1800m, under a good ride by Grant Van Niekerk. Double Dash turned for home in front and maintained a resolute gallop to hold off the cavalry charge headed by Greenlight Skye and Tuscan Romance.

Red Dawn made light of 62,kgs on his handicap debut scoring an emphatic win in the sixth race, a Class 5 over 1800m, to give Aldo Domeyer and Candice Bass-Robinson their second winner of the afternoon. The 3yo son of Horizon has improved significantly since being fitted with blinkers and he could complete a hattrick in Class 4 next time.

Give Me Everything is clearly a filly heading in the right direction. Trained by Dean Kannemeyer for Owner-Breeders Varsfontein Stud, the 3yo daughter of Gimmethegreenlight had won a modest maiden last time but she stepped into Class 4 company in the seventh race over 1600m yesterday and blew the opposition away. Craig Zackey was content to sit midfield one off the fence and when he called for an effort approaching the final 200m, Give Me Everything (14/1) lived up to her name and forged ahead to win comfortably with Pentolina (14/1) and My Only Weakness (28/10) completing the Trifecta.

Easy Money, a three times winner over 1000m, dispelled any doubts about her ability over 1200m with a fluent victory in the eighth race, a Class 5 Handicap (F&M), when leading from start to finish and holding off the favourite Royal Lytham by the best part of a length. Why Not Jackie made some late progress from well off the pace to claim the third spot.

Patrick Kruyer signed off in the ninth race at Kenilworth yesterday with his second winner of the afternoon, and JP van der Merwe’s third, when First Masterpiece (10/1) put a disappointing last effort behind her with an exciting victory over Tanneron. Palo Queen ensured the race was run at a blistering pace but the swoopers closed quickly over the final 200m and First Masterpiece, coming from near last, just edged out Tanneron (9/2), with the well-backed Lucy Rocket and Love Shack making up the frame.

Which great horse is said to have been the first to have been made famous by television and in his 22 starts his only defeat was in the Kentucky Derby. He went on to become a major sire and an influential broodmare sire.

The subject is pictured above. (wikipedia)