In the late 1980s legendary trainer Ormond Ferraris put his faith in a young apprentice named Weichong Marwing and the partnership developed into one of the finest combinations in the modern era of South African racing.
Marwing, who later became a worldwide name through his association with Mike de Kock and as a leading rider in Hong Kong, last week paid tribute to Ferraris in keeping with the latter achieving his 2500th career winner.
Back in the 1980s horseracing was one of the biggest industries in the country and crowds flocked to the racecourse.
On one particular Saturday, October 7 1989, young Marwing woke up with his name in the headlines and facing enormous pressure. He had ridden a five-timer at Newmarket the previous Tuesday, the last three of them for Ferraris, and was now confidently expected to bring home three favourites at the “Big T”.
Marwing well and truly arrived as a big name rider later that day when he brought all three of them home in the manner of a consummate professional, one of them for De Kock and two for Ferraris. The massive Turffontein crowd roared their approval in an era when jockeys and trainers were celebrities.
Apprentice Marwing took it to another level just a week later when winning the Gr 1 Ok Gold Bowl aboard the Ferraris-trained USA import Vigliotto for prolific owner Hilda Podlas.
Vigliotto beat three Gold Cup winners that day, Aquanaut, Castle Walk and Tropicante, as well as the Gr 1 Administrator’s winner Evening Mist.
Thinking back to those heady days, it came as no surprise when the Ferraris-Marwing partnership was renewed upon the latter’s return from Hong Kong a couple of years ago.
Marwing, speaking last week, counted himself as fortunate to have spent the last three months of his apprenticeship with Ferraris.
Upon attaining his jockey’s license the partnership continued unabated, yielding many big race winners.
Marwing confirmed Ferraris to be an extremely loyal man and added, “He is a very nice man to work for, you become more like friends than the normal trainer-jockey relationship. He is a true professional and sticks to one stable jockey who can expect to ride everything. As everybody knows, he is straight, and has never changed, there is only one way with him and that’s the right way, there is no bending of the rules.”
On the latter point Ferraris named his proudest achievement, upon being represented with a commemorative award two Saturdays ago, to be his 100% clean record.
Marwing continued, “It is a pity a lot of his big owners like Paddy and Moira Hinton have moved on and he also trained a lot of winners for the late Graham Beck. But 2500 winners is a remarkable achievement considering he has never had more than 60 horses in his string. The big trainers these days have at least 120 in their yards, so he did exceptionally well and was blessed to have had some top horses.”
Ferraris named the two best of these to be the four-times Gr 1-winning sprinting champion Tracy’s Element and the Triple Tiara winning-champion Cherry On The Top.
Marwing rode the Australian-bred Tracy’s Element to victory in three of her Gr 1s. He said, “She was top class and quite straight forward to ride, she had a lot of speed and then gave a kick. It was the early days of South Africans buying in Australia and the particular batch which came over with Tracy’s Element were outstanding.”
Paddy Hinton, an envelope magnate, allowed all of his fillies to race in the colours of his wife Moira, while the colts raced in his own colours.
Hinton sold Tracy’s Element back to Australia upon her retirement and she went on to produce dual Gr 1 winning filly Typhoon Tracy and two other black type horses, all three of them being by Red Ransom.
Veteran racing journalist Dave Mollet has noted Marwing is these days virtually the assistant trainer to Ferraris.
Marwing’s wife Anneli and son Wesley are now also involved in the yard as owner and budding jockey respectively. There was a special moment for the stable on Sansui Summer Cup day 2014 when Weichong rode Anneli’s filly Lazer Star to victory in the Gr 3 Magnolia Handicap. Since then he has won a Listed race and a Gr 2 aboard this classy Ferraris-conditioned filly.
Ferraris has an apparent aversion to the press, but Marwing said this is a misinterpretation. The great trainer in actual fact simply has an aversion to being misquoted. Marwing said, “He is from the old school and if he says ‘apples’ he expects it to be quoted exactly as he said it.”
Ferraris’ loyalty, as displayed through the Marwing family association, has been repaid to him. A good example is Peter Dimakogiannis, who has had horses with the yard since the early 1970s.
Therefore it was fitting Dimakogiannis’ promising colt Romany Prince scored the magic 2500th winner for Ferraris and even better that it happened in a feature race at Turffontein, the Listed Drum Star Handicap ( on March 12). The only pity was Marwing not being aboard as he is still recuperating from a back injury.
Wesley is also on the sidelines with a compressed fracture.
Weichong expects to start riding at the beginning of next month. He said both he and Wesley were as eager as each other to be back riding winners for the man who is affectionately known in the industry as “Uncle Ormie” and whose zest after 63 years of training remains undimmed.
By David Thiselton
