Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

KZN trainers stepping it up (part 1 of 2)

David Thiselton
The KwaZulu-Natal training yards gave further notice in the season just passed that they have moved out of the doldrums and could become a force to be reckoned with once again, landing four Grade 1 races courtesy of Herman Brown, Dennis Drier and Dennis Bosch.
International trainer Mike de Kock’s magnificent season here and abroad included an easy victory in the KZN Championship. He sent out 93 winners compared to second-placed Drier’s 64.
Drier’s Link Man, by Torreador, finished second on debut but won his next three starts including the Grade 1 Gold Medallion. He was honoured at the Equus Awards as Champion of the Two-year-old colt/gelding category.
Drier’s three-year-old Var filly Val De Ra’s four wins included the Listed KZN Stakes over 1 000m at Greyville. She then started second favourite in a top class field for the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint over 1 200m and finished a 1,5 length third. She won again after that to extend her career record to six wins in seven starts.
Drier also won the Grade 3 Christmas Handicap with his five-year-old Rambo Dancer gelding, Dance At Daylight. His other good horses during the season included the likes of Clearly Silver, Star Empire, Jo Piper, Speed For Gold, Oriental Express, National Emperor and Martial Eagle.
Brown finished seventh on the log with 36 winners, but had the third highest strike rate of the top ten behind De Kock and Charles Laird. He often leaves the running of his Summerveld yard to assistant trainer Frank Robinson due to his overseas campaigns.
The yard’s crack three-year-old Mogok gelding, Orbison, won the Grade 1 Champions Cup against a top class field and then extended the Brown’s excellent Vodacom Durban July record, despite having never won it, when finishing third in the big race from a very difficult draw.
Big things can be expected of Orbison at the Dubai Carnival.
Brown’s other Grade 1 win came with their Kahal sprinting filly Chocolicious, who won the Grade 1 Allan Robertson over 1 200m at Scottsville.
Their older sprinter, Intellectual, also had a good season with the highlights being two runner up spots in the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint at Turffontein over 1000m and in a Grade 3 race over the same course and distance.
Brown also won the African Holly Handicap at Scottsville with sprinter Tiwi Bomber and the In Full Flight Handicap with sprinter Jinzo.
He sent out the promising Australian-bred Absolute Heretic for four wins on the trot too, but this colt has now joined De Kock.
The Brown yard can look forward to another good season as they have a string of superb looking young Argentinian-breds, with last Sunday’s debut winner Antius serving notice of how good they could be.
The Bosch-trained Grade 1 winner was the four-year-old Kahal filly, Noble Heir, who won the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein. She also won a Grade 3 and finished second in both a Grade 2 and a Listed race during her superb Highveld campaign.
Gauteng-based Sean Tarry, second on the National log, finished third on the KZN log with 48 winners. Deshone Steyn did a fine job as Tarry’s Clairwood assistant trainer.
In fourth place with 46 winners was the up and coming Summerveld trainer Kumaran Naidoo, who continues to go from strength to strength having only taken his licence out in the 2006/2007 season.

Continues with part 2 of 2

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