David Thiselton
One of the feel good stories of the World Pool Gold Cup meeting was the Gr 1 World Pool Moment Of The Day Champion Stakes victory of the Erik The Red gelding Erik Dubois, who gave Laurence Wernars and family a fifth Gr 1 victory of the season, achieved with four individual horses.
The giant horse secured a first Gr 1 win in 35 years of training for Louis Goosen.
Goosen’s had said in the build up, “He is still a soft, big boy, but he is coming on all the time. You will see the best of him at three, but I think he is a huge, huge runner in the Champion Stakes on Sunday.”
Louis’ hopes soared on course in one particular, surreal moment.
He recalled, “I was standing next to Kurt Felix in the parade ring while my horse Ferrari Flair was going down for the second, when I looked around and saw Erik Dubois standing on his own after being taken off the float. It was almost as if he was an apparition. I said to Kurt, ‘Look at this!’ I could see he had tightened up and I told Kurt, ‘If I ever wanted to peak a horse it is today and I have peaked him!’ Then I knew.”
However, when asked if he was still confident at race time, he quipped, “No, I was taking immodiums and praying!”
He continued, “You have to understand I have had quite a few Gr 1 seconds, thirds and fourths over the years with a small string. The one year we had won the Gr 2 SA Fillies Nursery with Waywest Goddess and come down for the Gr 1 Allan Robertson. We went down to the line and heads up, heads down Chocolicious gets us in the last stride, so on Sunday when Duncan Howell’s horse starts coming back at us I was saying, ‘No, not again!”
Erik Dubois at over 600kg was the second heaviest horse at the meeting, despite being a two-year-old, and everything panned out perfectly for him.
Drawn three, the number two horse was a late scratching leaving the gate on his inside empty, which allowed Lyle Hewitson space to get big horse settled in the early stages. Hewitson is used to riding without false rails in Hong Kong and stuck to a one wide position. After the field had sorted itself out he found himself in a perfect position, one wide with cover, nothing on his outside and just forward of midfield.
As Louis said, “He was absolutely cantering, he looked like he was on the bottom track here at Summerveld!”
Hewitson switched him out at the top of the straight and after the big bay had gathered himself he began making up ground hand over fist.
He got into a stirring, eyeballing tussle with Kazenoyoni in the last 150m, but to the neutral observer he always had the latter’s measure. His stride is enormous and Hewitson had reserved the whip until he had reached Kazenoyoni. He then got Erik Dubois into full stretch in the closing stages with some left handed smacks and he got up by a cosy 0,30 lengths.
“Unbelievable ride,” said Louis. “and It was a very, very emotional moment.”
Louis was clearly lyrical in the parade ring and close to tears as he thanked Laurence Wernars, but despite the excitement he remembered his duty as a trainer in the lead in.
He said, “I stood back and ensured all the owners had a hand on the lead rope. But the horse then stopped and stood stock still when he heard all the noise from the grandstand. I stepped forward and said to him, ‘It’s ok, boy’. He immediately walked forward after hearing the familiar reassuring voice. But that is what kind of horse he is.”
Louis revealed that he often talks to his horses.
He said, “My horses are lovely to talk to, they don’t argue you know! So I went to talk to Erik last Wednesday evening and I said to Lauren ‘Come and make a video I want to send it to Laurence’. I said on the video, ‘Laurence, this horse is 33/1 but on Sunday I am going to win a Gr 1 for you. But I am going to ask you for three things if I do that .. Number one is a flight on your Lear Jet back to Jo’Burg so I can go and see my son in Pretoria. No. 2 I want to choose where the trophy stands in your box. And three is to send me a horse or two.'”
Louis went on a fishing excursion with Richard Fourie et al last Thursday and he said, “When we got off the boat one of them told me, ‘Your horse has shortened!’ I’m not sure where the money came from!”
Erik Dubois started as short as 14/1.
Louis thought it ironic and most gratifying that a man he has immense respect for, Mike de Kock, was to present him with the trophy.
He recalled, “The day Waywest Goddess was pipped Mike was standing next to me in the parade ring and said, ‘I think you got it, Goose’. But the slow motion replay then showed we’d lost. So it was great Mike was now here again to present the trophy.”
Louis association with Erik Dubois started when he was granted money by Race Coast for their pinhooking scheme. After he had secured the horse he was after at the Race Coast Sales auction, he asked Race Coast’s Justin Vermaak for another pinhooking grant as he had spotted Erik Dubois.
He recalled, “He looked good and used himself well and got his hocks down.”
He secured Erik Dubois too and after he had done his normal introduction training, which he calls “bone density” exercises, he phoned Justin Vermaak, who is the racing manager for Laurence Wernars, and told him this horse looked so good he might be interested.
It turned out Vermaak had also liked him at the Sale.
To cut a long story short Laurence ended up purchasing him from Louis and he kept the latter on as trainer.
Louis would never give a young horse, especially a big one, a holiday in a paddock as it can interrupt the bone density progression. So he will now give Erik Dubois an easy time, but keep in regular exercise, and his possible targets include Highveld Spring season races like the Spring Challenge and Graham Beck.
