Gold Circle Pty (Ltd)

Today's Racing :

Alyson has the Wright Stuff

David Thiselton
Former Zimbabwean and now Summerveld-based trainer Alyson Wright has made a remarkable start to her training career, assembling an owner base from scratch and sending out 16 winners in her first full season, and now building on that success in her all important second season.
The yard’s 14 winners before Christmas this season placed them sixth on the KwaZulu-Natal log and of the province’s top ten only the quality stock of Joey Ramsden’s Clairwood satellite yard have achieved a higher strike rate.
Wright’s husband, former Zimbabwean Champion Jockey Kevin Wright, is her assistant and the pair’s skill compliments one another perfectly.
Kevin described Alyson as the one who does the “guts of the job”, the breaking in, training and horse care, while he does what he called the “easy side”, the placing of horses and selecting of horses at sales.
Alyson also does a lot of work-riding, a role Kevin can no longer fulfil due to a leg injury that ended his career in the saddle.
The importance of Kevin’s role as selector can’t be underestimated and the fruits of his labour in this regard will soon tell.
“Our strategy in the beginning was to buy horses in training rather than having to go a whole season without a runner,” said Alyson. “We bought horses from the likes of Neil Bruss and our string grew to about 40.
“They have done very well for us, but recently, on our suggestion, 10 of them were sold on to Mauritius. Kevin has had a long and successful relationship with buyers in Mauritius and our owners will benefit from the sale as they are getting money that would have been very difficult to reap in stakes earnings at this stage of those horses;’ careers.”
The future will now lie largely with the youngsters in the yard, and Kevin said, “We are after a big horse now, a Grade I winner, and we are hopeful that one of our five very nice two-year-olds will have the X-factor that will take us to the next level.”
Regarding his selection methods, Kevin said, “We work strictly to a budget. I like a certain stamp of horse and match the specimen to the pedigree. If a horse doesn’t have the pedigree I will pass it by and would rather buy a well-bred horse with a fault and then work around that fault in training. I have learnt that blood comes through at the racetrack, even with some horses that show nothing at home. I do have my favourite sires.”
The yard currently has horses bought from the likes of the National Yearling Sales and from Australia and Kevin will shortly be attending the January Magic Millions Sales with well known KZN owner, Mary Liley, one of the yard’s supporters.
The Wrights have horses in their blood, Alyson, an active showjumper, being the daughter of former Zimbawean trainer Penny Fisher, and Kevin having had his first job in horseracing as a fifteen-year-old, when assistant to Neil Bruss before joining the Zimbawean jockey’s academy.
Through their grounding and the subsequent plying of their trade in Zimbabwe, Singapore and South Africa, they have been able to apply a very professional approach.
“Successful trainers don’t alter the tried and tested,” said Alyson, “rather they add to it.”
She pointed out that “the tried and tested” varied between different training centres and it was very important to know what worked at a given centre.
Alyson’s time at Summerveld with Neil Bruss, from whom she sub-let stables, helped her learn the in’s and out’s of KZN’s biggest training centre, and like all good trainers she has now adapted the use of the facilities to best suit her horses.
The Wrights believe KZN racing is burgeoning and think that alongside the Cape it is the place to be in South Africa.
“We are enjoying training at Summerveld and Hillcrest is a very nice place to live,” concluded Kevin.

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