Wish List is led in after beating the boys in the Gr 1 Lucky Fish Cape Derby (Picture: Wayne Marks)
The Hollywoodbets Kenilworth meeting on Saturday 15 August was used as the stage to present the Race Coast Cape Racing Awards.
The Race Coast Cape Horse Of The Year was Wish List, who as a three-year-old filly won the Gr 1 wfa Cartier Paddock Stakes against older females and the Gr 1 Lucky Fish Cape Derby against the boys, both races being in Cape Town. She also won two Gr 2s in KZN and finished a narrow second in the Hollywoodbets Durban July, while in Cape Town she was also third in the Gr 1 WSB Fillies Guineas.
Wish List, owned by Nancy Hossack and Jonathan Bloch, was also the Champion Three-year-old filly and she also got the Middle Distance Award ahead of stable companion See It Again, as the latter’s WSB Met win can be compared to her two Gr 1s in Cape Town over middle distances.
However, it would appear that out of province races might also have counted for the awards, because otherwise how could Questioning, who was a narrow second in the L’Ormarin’s King’s Plate and won the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge in KZN, have won the Champion Miler award ahead of The King’s Plate winner The Real Prince?
If that was the case then the Champion Middle Distance award will have to go down as a surprise, because See It Again’s record of winning two open Gr 1 wfa middle distance races, the WSB Met and the HKJC World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge, and finishing second in another, the HKJC Champions Cup and a close third in the Gr 1 wfa L’Ormarins King’s Plate, would in the view of most racing aficionado’s be a superior achievement to Wish List’s feat of winning two restricted Gr 1s (a female wfa and a three-year-old event) and a restricted Gr 2 (female). She did also finish a narrow second in the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July, but that was a handicap event in which she raced off a 117 merit rating, a race See It Again thus avoided off his 130 merit rating.
If The Cape Middle Distance Award is questionable then so is the Cape Horse Of The Year Award, considering See It Again is reckoned to be a shoe-in for the Equus Horse Of The Year Award.
But perhaps it is not questionable, as it all depends on the criteria. And this is an annual complaint about the often confusing Provincial Awards … what exactly are the criteria?
In any case, few would begrudge any racing award given to Wish List, as she is not the biggest but has a heart as big as the great outdoors.
The Cape was the only one of the three major provinces in which Hollywood Racing did not take the title of Champion Owner and it deserves special mention as the Champion Owner Nick Jonsson achieved the incredible feat in the season of winning a fourth successive WSB Met and did it with four different horses (Jet Dark, Double Superlative, Eight On Eighteen and See It Again, all trained by Justin Snaith).
Cape Racing Award Winners:
Champion 2yo Male – Red Spice
Champion 2yo Filly – Grapes Of Wrath
Champion 3yo Male – Note To Self
Champion 3yo Filly – Wish List
Champion Older Male – See It Again
Champion Older Female – Double Grand Slam
Champion Sprinter – Outlaw King
Champion Miler – Questioning
Champion Middle Distance – Wish List
Champion Stayer – Holding Thumbs
Champion Jockey – Richard Fourie
Champion Trainer – Justin Snaith
Champion Apprentice – Sifisokuhle Bungane
Champion Owner – Mr Nick Jonsson
Champion Breeder – Drakenstein Stud (Nom: Mrs G A Rupert)
Horse Of The Year – Wish List
KZN Racing Award Winners
The Race Coast KZN Awards were published in last Friday’s Turf Talk newsletter, but for the record here they are.
CHAMPION TWO YEAR OLD ERIK DUBOIS
CHAMPION THREE YEAR OLD QUICKSTEPGAL
CHAMPION SPRINTER ASIYE PHAMBILI
CHAMPION MIDDLE DISTANCE MOCHA BLEND
CHAMPION OLDER FEMALE ASIYE PHAMBILI
CHAMPION OLDER MALE HOLDING THUMBS
CHAMPION STAYER HOLDING THUMBS
CHAMPION APPRENTICE DAMYAN PILLAY
CHAMPION JOCKEY KEAGAN DE MELO
CHAMPION TRAINER GARETH VAN ZYL
CHAMPION OWNERS HOLLYWOOD RACING
CHAMPION BREEDERS VARSFONTEIN STUD
GROOM OF THE YEAR MOSES TLALI
HORSE OF THE SEASON QUICKSTEPGAL
