David Thiselton
The 2025/2026 season will go down as a memorable one for the thoroughbred owners of South African racing and the accolades included overseas success.
Hollywood Racing, who were crowned champion owners for the second season in succession, set a local target for themselves of 180 wins, way ahead of their best previous return of 128.
Remarkably they reached 179 wins with one meeting of the season left and looked set to get their target exactly on the Fairview Poly on Friday.
However, they were a short-head shy of reaching it when Whirlybird was second in the sixth race and then in the penultimate race of the season they were half-a-length back with Potenza.
Hollywood’s local highlight was a Gr 1 win with the Duncan Howells trained What A Winter mare Asiye Phambili, who produced a remarkable finishing burst from someway off the pace to get up by a neck in the wfa Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint Brought to you by the Witness over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, beating the crack Justin Snaith-trained mare Double Grand Slam. It was a hugely deserved Gr 1 win for the mare who had not had much luck in previous Gr 1s.
She also won the Gr 3 WSB Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and the Gr 3 Dennis Drier Poinsettia Stakes over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville as well as finishing fourth in the wfa Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship over 1000m and an unlucky third in the wfa Gr 1 Mercury Sprint over 1200m.
She gets better and better and this powerful filly resembled a tank in full flight when charging late in the Mercury, so it is great news to hear she will be staying in training as a seven-year-old.
Overseas, Hollywood Racing, in partnership with Rikesh Sewgoolam, went close to flat racing big race glory when their stalwart One World colt One Stripe finished a late-surging 0,25 length second to his Graham Motion-trained stablemate Test Score in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park over 1800m with Gavin Lerena up.
One Stripe had put his disappointing Woodbine Mile and Breeders Cup Turf Mile runs behind him when winning an Allowance Optional Claiming over a mile at Gulfstream Park in a time just 0,4 seconds outside the course record.
One stripe followed up his Pegasus run by finishing second in the Gr 1 Makers Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland and third in the Gr 1 Manhattan Stakes over 1900 at the iconic Saratoga “Meet”.
The Woodbine Mile and Breeders Cup Mile winner Notable Speech, who was an admittedly unlucky fourth in the Makers Mark Mile, franked One Stripe’s form recently when winning the Gr 1 Lockinge Stakes over a mile at Newbury in the UK by an easy and impressive two lengths.
Hollywood Racing’s other USA-based stalwart, the Graham Motion-trained What A Winter gelding Isivunguvungu, came back from a nine month layoff to recently win an Allowance Optional Claiming over 1100m at Laurel Park.
However, the Hollywood Racing overseas highlight was provided by their jumps racing superstar Il Etait Temps, who provided a moment any owner in the world would dream of when winning one of the Cheltenham Festival’s Championship events, the Gr 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase over two miles.
It was the Willie Mullins-trained grey’s sixth Gr 1 win. They own the champion chaser in partnership with the Kieswetter family’s Barnane Stud.
There was also overseas Gr 1 success for a former champion owner, Gaynor Rupert of Drakenstein Stud.
Her exciting UK Summer included being owner-breeder of a John and Thady Gosden-trained Sea The Stars filly called I’m The One, who was installed as Epsom Oaks favourite after a highly impressive six length victory over a mile and two furlongs at Newbury on debut.
She finished second in her next start in a Listed event at Chester and was unfortunately then sidelined with injury.
However, a St Mark’s Basilica three-year-old colt Gaynor owns and bred in partnership with Coolmore, Thesecretadversary, later won the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting before landing a Gr 1 in France over seven furlongs at Deauville.
Locally the second-placed owner
in the 2025/2026 championship was Durban-based Nick Jonsson, who pulled off surely the finest ownership feat in SA history when his Justin Snaith-trained Twice Over gelding won the wfa Gr 1 WSB Cape Town Met, because it meant Jonsson had won Cape Town’s most famous race four times in succession with four different horses. To win one Met could be due to luck but there is nothing lucky about winning four in a row and it proved Jonsson to have intuition of rare quality in the buying arena.
See It Again also landed the wfa Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge and Snaith and Jonsson ran one-two in the wfa Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville with Eight On Eighteen and See It Again.
Eight on Eighteen was Equus Horse Of The Year in 2024/2025 and See It Again looks a certainty to give Jonsson a second successive Horse Of The Year and a third one overall as his part-owned Do It Again was Horse Of The Year in 2018/2019.
In another fine ownership feat Nancy Hossack and Jonathan Bloch became the third known owners to land the Hollywoodbets Durban July exacta following Luke Bailles in 1990 and Nick Jonsson in 2018. Their charges Note To Self and Wish List, both trained by Justin Snaith, finished close together in that order in the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Bloch also likely broke a record by winning the July plus all four of what used to be KZN’s most important classics, with his part-owned charge the James Crawford-trained Star Major winning the Gr 2 WSB Guineas and the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and Wish List winning the Gr 2 WSB Fillies Guineas and the Gr 2 Lucky Fish Woolavington 2000.
Another notable season was had by Kenneth Pillay of Kestorm Investments as he not only had two Gr 1 wins with the Tony Peter-trained Buffalo Storm Cody, but he also had 37 overall wins during the season at an amazing strike rate of 28.24%.
