Richard Fourie and the Alyson Wright-trained William Longsword gelding Imaginable secure the increasingly prominent owner Rikesh Sewgoolam his first ever treble (Candiese Lenferna Photography)
Prominent KZN-based lawyer and owner Rikesh Sewgoolam comes from a family who have had colours for over 30 years and today (Wednesday) on the Hollywoodbets Greyville poly he landed his first ever treble.
The winners are all described in the newsletter’s first article today.
Although his father has had his colours since 1988, Rikesh took a while to own horses himself, and explained, “I was obviously introduced by my father, but was just on the periphery and never really focused on it until a mate of mine, an advocate actually, decided he was going to go to one of those auctions. He ended up buying one and then he gave me a ring and said, ‘You own a racehorse with me.’ And I said, ‘No, no, no, please leave me out, I’ve seen enough of this, my Dad has plenty of racehorses and this is not for me!’ He said, ‘No, no, just come in, it’s a cheap horse.’ I think he paid R10,000 for it. So eventually I went in with him and that’s how it started. And then when the bug bites, that’s the end of it!”
That first horse was called Silas Marner and won five races and got 17 places in a 61 race career that started in August 2003 and ended in December 2007.
However, today Rikesh’s orange colours with a dark blue ‘V’ bib, halved sleeves, orange cap and blue peak are becoming increasingly familiar.
The horse who really got those colours rolling was the Vaughan Marshall-trained Vercingetorix entire Seeking The Stars, who beat Rainbow Bridge, Linebacker and Jet Dark when winning the Gr 2 Green Point Stakes in 2021. This horse also won three Gr 3’s and was a seven-time winner overall.
However, at present Rikesh is excited about a number of horses, including the Marshall-trained two-year-old One World colt One Stripe, Time Thief four-year-old filly Time Fo Orchids, Vercingetorix two-year-old gelding Cymric and Gimmethegreenlight three-year-old gelding Barbaresco.
He owns One Stripe and Time Fo Orchids outright and owns Cymric and Barbaresco in partnership with Laurence Wernars.
One Stripe made headlines when topping the 2023 Cape Racing Sales Ready To Run And Unbroken Two Year Sale at R1.4 million. However, Rikesh was actually pinhooking him there and was just determined to buy him back against some strong opposition. Grant Knowles of Central Route Trading had bought the Drakenstein Stud-bred colt for just R100,000 at the BSA August Two-year-old sale and Rikesh had then bought him from Grant before pinhooking him, with the probable idea of qualifying him for the relevant sales races.
Vaughan Marshall was the official buyer of One Stripe at the Ready To Run Sale and said afterwards he had never seen a better “breeze up” in his career.
Rikesh, impressed by One Stripe at that time, did a separate deal and bought his dam off the previous owners. That has turned out to be a most shrewd purchase, because One Stripe has won his last three starts in impressive style after a good debut in a Non-Black Type race. One Stripe did the Cape Of Good Hope Nursery and Winter Nursery double, both Gr 3’s.
Rikesh said, “I spoke to Vaughan yesterday and he’s exceptionally excited about One Stripe. We’re just waiting now for him to go around the turn. He’ll do that in the Langerman in June.”
Rikesh purchased Time Fo Orchids in training at a Sean Tarry dispersal sale in late 2022 for the specific purpose of running her on the ticket he had bought for the inaugural R7.5 million Gold Rush. He had to go to R850,000 to secure her, because she was the highest rated eligible horse for the Gold Rush at the time.
He said, “I thought she would be the right one, being a filly and getting the sex allowance. But unfortunately, the 1600m was too far for her. So that didn’t quite work out, but in hindsight it was still a very good buy … she’s a very nice sprinter.”
Rikesh has three trainers, Marshall in Cape Town, Alyson Wright in KZN and Johan Janse van Vuuren on the Highveld.
Time Fo Orchids has had a stint with all three, but really began blossoming over sprint trips on the Highveld, winning four in a row, before finishing second in the Gr 2 Camellia Stakes over 1160m.
She is now headed for the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint.
Rikesh will have a strong hand at that Hollywoodbets Scottsville Festival Of Speed meeting, because Cymric is the current favourite for the Gr 1 Gold Medallion.
Rikesh is yet to win a Gr 1 race.
Asked which race he would most like to win, he replied, “It sounds like a cliché, but all of us want to win the Durban July. I’m hopeful that I can have a runner there, because I’ve got Barbaresco this weekend in the Daily News 2000. So we hopefully can run a forward race, and then we’ll decide whether we try the July or not. He’s exceptionally well-bred (Gimmethegreenlight out of Fort Wood mare Negroamaro, who won a Gr 3 and was runner up in both the Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic and Gr 1 Woolavington 2000) and we think the Daily News distance will suit him. But, he is just headstrong in his races, so that’s the only thing against him. Hopefully Gavin can settle him. He will run a nice race on Saturday.”
Rikesh has three mares at present on the breeding side.
Beside One Stripe’s dam Silver Stripe (Silvano), he also has the Master Of My Fate mare Preferential. The latter’s first foal was a colt by One World and Rikesh put him on the BSA Cape Yearling Sale in February with the intention of buying him back. However, Hollywood went to R900,000, the highest price of the Sale, and Rikesh decided to let him go.
Nevertheless it is exciting times for Rikesh and his orange and blue colours are sure to be seen in the winner’s enclosure more times this season and will hopefully be brought home in a Gr 1 soon.
