Last week it was Glen Kotzen, today it’s Vaughan Marshall and tomorrow Justin Snaith. The annual racehorse migration to Durban is on in earnest and in the vast majority of cases the man organising the great trek is Peter Choice.
Choice (“the best in the business,” according to Marshall) is a 62-year-old Australian who once trained a Group 1 winner and who has been in South Africa since 1994. His Choice Carriers firm has eight trucks (he doesn’t use the word float) each specially built for horse transport.
Taking anything as highly strung as a racehorse on the open road can be fraught with danger and few in the industry have forgotten that dark day in 1989 when ten of the legendary Terrance Millard’s best horses were injured in an accident on the N1 and July winner Right Prerogative was among those killed.
Pack Leader (Candiese Marnewick)
Choice, somewhat understandably, places particular importance on his drivers and on ensuring they avoid fatigue. “Anyone can drive a truck,” he says. “But with racehorses the driver has to be special. He is carrying a very valuable cargo, he mustn’t brake too suddenly and he has to know how to load horses.”
The principal driver and his co-driver split the journey into two hour-plus shifts and aim to leave Cape Town by 7.00am. The trucks take 16 horses, each in a partitioned stall, but the normal load to Durban is restricted to between ten and 13 to allow for all their accompanying baggage.
The horses are given roughage such as oat hay, but no concentrates, and are watered in Laingsburg, Beaufort West and Colesberg. Depending on roadworks Choice expects them to make the 1 000k to the Bloemfontein stopover between 7.00pm and 8.00pm.
“They go into five star accommodation there and stay for two hours minimum and possibly longer, depending on how they have travelled.”
The remaining 600k to Summerveld is done through the night and, as it is so much cooler, usually only one stop for water is required. They arrive at dawn, importantly before the heavy N3 traffic begins in earnest.
The cost to the owner – there are no subsidies – is between R4 000 and R 5 000 per horse and the same again when they return to Cape Town at the end of the Durban season.
Choice, who has been doing this for the past 15 years, has been planning his loads for weeks. “Vaughan has 19 or 20 horses going and so we split the load because we try not to have colts and fillies on the same truck.
“When that’s not possible we put them on different levels – each truck has three levels as transporting racehorses is such a specialised thing.”
By Michael Clower
