David Thiselton

The national championships of all categories last season was notable in that there were no really close fought titles with all of them being clear cut, although there was a mathematical possibility that Varsfontein Stud could catch the eventual champions Mauritzfontein and Wilgerbosdrift at the World Pool Gold Cup meeting in the race for the Breeders Title.

Craig Zackey can now proudly and deservedly call himself Champion Jockey having reached a final tally of 286 wins for the season when landing a four-timer at the last meeting on the Fairview poly.

He had by far the most rides in the season of 1683, but his strike rate was a decent 16.99%.

Zackey had set himself a target of 275 for the season and such was his excellence throughout that his prediction turned out to be conservative.

He was 61 wins clear of nearest rival Richard Fourie, who had 225 wins at a strike rate of 21.55%.

Keagan de Melo is a man to watch as he ended on 158 wins in third place, despite starting the season four months in on December 5.

His strike rate of 20.57% tells a story as it was third highest on the log behind that of Aldo Domeyer’s (53 wins at 22.75%) and Fourie’s.

Fourie generally only travelled from Cape Town to the East Cape other than for big meetings in KZN and the Highveld and if it is the same this season then the title might be fought out by Zackey, De Melo and Gavin Lerena. The latter travelled to KZN for the first meeting of the new season and now looks to be Hollywood Racing’s chief rider.

The rest of the top ten together with their number of wins and strike rates were Muzi Yeni on 148 (11.96%), Calvin Habib on 133 (10.95%), Callan Murray on 117 (12.58%) , Serino Moodley on 100 (12.35%), Sean Veale on 94 (13.13%), Gavin Lerena on 92 (18.47%) and Rachel Venniker on 83 (11.96%).

Blaine Marx Jacobson will be crowned Apprentice Champion with 43 wins at 11.85% and he beat home Mxolisi Mbutho on 32 wins (7.60%), Damyan Pillay on 31 wins (11.40%), Dezahn Louw on 28 wins (8.33%) and Bavish Soodoo on 27 wins (10.31%).

If there had been betting on the Apprentice Championship Marx-Jacobson would likely have been a 100/1 shot at the beginning of February as he had mustered a paltry three wins from 97 rides in the season at that stage and was going along at a strike rate of at 3.09%.

The two leaders at that stage were Mxolisi Mbutho and Girish Samo-Burthia, who were both on 21 wins at respective strike rates of 9.68% and 12.73%.

Yet just seven weeks later Marx-Jacobson, after moving to the Highveld, had taken the lead on 28 wins and had improved his strike rate to 12.79%.

The leading Workrider in the country was Phenesile Mongqawa with 8 wins at a fine strike rate of 36.36% and Sam Mosia was next best with 7 wins at 25.93%, while Savanna Valjalo retired from the professional ranks in January but started riding in work races again in May and had five wins in 15 rides for a high strike rate of 33,33%.

The best bet of the season was Justin Snaith to land the Trainers Championship because at odds of around 5/10 it looked like buying money such was his firepower.

He ended up earning more than double the stakes money of his perennial closest rival Sean Tarry.

Snaith ended on stakes earnings of R39,579,158 from 140 wins.

The only statistic in which he was not leader was the number of wins in the season which saw Alan Greeff ahead on 149 wins.

The rest of the top ten was made up of Tarry (R17,897,882), Tony Peter (R15,419,938), Mike and Mathew de Kock (15,316,968), Alan Greeff (R13,191,599), James Crawford (R11,990,085), Candice Bass (R11,706,375), Dean Kannemeyer (R9,759,044), Vaughan Marshall (R9,543,629) and Glen Kotzen (R8,866,332).

The Breeders Championship was won for the third time in the last six seasons by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, who wrested the title back from Drakenstein Stud.

They won both the Gr 3 R1 million World Pool Gold Cup and the Gr 2 R500,000 Bet With The World Gold Bracelet on the final day of the season with Holding Thumbs and Mocha Blend respectively to remain clear of Varsfontein Stud, whose progeny Note To Self had won the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July.

Wilgerbosdrift is owned by Mary Slack, while Mauritzfontein is owned by her daughter and son-in-law Jessica and Steven Jell.

Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein’s progeny had 169 winners of 270 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 14 races for stakes earnings of R34,703,203.

Varsfontein Stud had 120 winners of 190 races with 17 individual stakes winners of 21 races for earnings of R32,261,776.

Drakenstein Stud had 85 winners of 135 races with 12 individual stakes winners of 14 races for earnings of R22,998,934.

Maine Chance Farms (Pty) Ltd had 69 winners of 117 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 13 races for earnings of R19,231,596.

Ridgemont had 96 winners of 142 races with 5 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R16,670,646.

Stallion phenomenon Vercingetorix secured his second Sires title with his progeny earning R40,770,265 from 138 winners of 248 races. He was unable to match his South African stakes race record from the previous season of 23 individual winners of 33 races, although his progeny did win more stakes races, 34, albeit with 21 individual winners.

Gimmethegreenlight (AUS) was in second places with 126 winners of 188 races. including 7 individual stakes winners of 7 races for earnings of R23,816,838

Querari (GER) had 92 winners of 143 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 12 races for  earnings of R22,888,859

Master Of My Fate had 88 winners of 147 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 16 races for earnings of R21,145,171.

Rafeef (AUS) had 110 winners of 162 races with 6 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R20,746,283.

Malmoos was the freshman champion stallion with 9 winners of 14 races and 1 individual stakes winner of 3 races for earnings of R1,800,896.

Note To Self was the highest earning horse of the season on R6,382,850, followed by See It Again (R5,080,750), Mocha Blend (3,948,275), Wish List (R3,749,363) and Questioning (R2,933,125).

Andrew Harrison

Patrick Kruyer was a regular during the KZN winter season when assistant to Terrance Millard back in the 1980’s but he arrived for this year’s Champions Season with just two modest runners stabled with old friend Michael Roberts.

One of them was Charlie Bucket who arrived with a string of places behind his name. That changed first time out as he got his maiden behind him and he followed up with an impressive second win, leading all the way under Rachel Venniker, in the C Stakes that headed the card at Hollywoodbets Scottsville yesterday.

The addition of a compression mask and earmuffs to his racing equipment appears to have him turn the corner. Slow out when winning his maiden, he ‘pinged’ the gate yesterday and was not for the catching with a wall of horses chasing him home.

Taking a leaf out of Venniker’s playbook, Tristan Godden made all aboard Rikkitikkitavi for Andre Nel, but it was a close run thing as he was chased home by a wall of horses, one being Captain’s Pride with Keagan de Melo riding an excellent race only to fail by a head.

Rikkitikkitavi was game up front as he kept finding all the way to the line while De Melo sat for as long as he dared on Captain’s pride before asking for maximum and just running out of runway.

Owen Heffer, the head honcho  of Hollywoodbets and the man behind Race Coast and Champion Owners Hollywood Racing, gave former local trainer Craig Ramsay, now resident in New Zealand, a brief to buy some well-bred fillies to race in this country.
The first of these to run was a winner. Australian-bred Umoyawokubambelela put the field to bed in the second in spite of doing very little right. Slow out of the gate and last for much of the race, Gavin Lerena slowly allowed her to build momentum and once into stride, she left to opposition for dead.

According to Hollywood Racing’s  manager Anthony Delpech, Umoyawokubambelela had a rough time in quarantine suffering from colic and having a colic operation, so the decision to leave the filly with Wengi Masawi and his team in the quiet climbs of the Ashburton paid dividends as she won with authority.

 Stuart Ferrie got his season off to a winning start as the well supported Iceberg Rose finished off her race smartly to touch off Paul Lafferty’s first timer Fleur Delacour in the first with favourite Forthegoodtimes in third.

Lovecomesknocking and Sweet Cherry set a strong gallop but both came up empty. The winner and runner-up both finished strongly with little separating them at the line. Forthegoodtimes was slow out and briefly looked as if she would make a race of it but was a tad one-paced at the business end and does appear to be looking for further.

CaLvin Habib had an armchair ride on Peaceful Duchess for Dennis Bosch in the first leg of the Pick 6.

Keagan de Melo tried to make all on Future Prospect but the writing was on the wall a long way out as Peaceful Duchess moved up under the hands to come home a comfortable winner with Future Prospect staying on for second.

Glen Kotzen held the key to the Class 4 over 2000m with Golden Angel and Sesame. The two met at their previous start with Sesame on the right side of the photo. Golden Angel was 3.5kg better off in yesterday’s race but Sesame defied the handicappers and stormed to a comfortable win from Golden Angel with the gamble on Our Lady Fate, 10’s into 4’s,  going awry. The race was run in two halves. If Habib had it easy in the previous race Zena’s Act got the better of him from the jump as she took a hold of the bit and hurtled off to the front and her race was run down the back straight as the opposition tracked her some 10 lengths adrift.

Janes Vision, back to the mark at which she last won, made all under apprentice Dezahan Louw to land the D Stakes for Michael Roberts. Out in a flash, Louw made a bee-line for the inside fence, a smart move given the mares tendency to hang right, but once there she was not for the catching with Champagne Mac, slow to start, flashing up late to snatch second.

De Melo may have timed his run a little too late aboard Captain’s Pride but he made amends for Louis Goosen. Just off the pace in the early exchanges, Blazing Fury came with a storming late run under a big weight to win the last going away from long-time pacemaker Axis Power and Luneluck, who was not so lucky as he got caught between Axis Power and Blazing Fury and Venniker was forced to ease for a few strides .

David Thiselton

Mickaelle Michel ended a fairy-tale tour to South Africa on a high note at the World Pool Gold Cup meeting at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday when landing the Gr 2 World Pool Bet With Tote Umkhomazi Stakes over 1200m on the James Crawford-trained Fish Tales, who fittingly races in the famous colours of Tony Moodley.

Fish Tales, who was bred by Ascot Stud and is by their underrated stallion Heavenly Blue, is now unbeaten in two starts.

His victory was all the more commendable in that he had to overcome a draw of 11 out of 13 runners.

Mickaelle took the athletic bay colt up to mid division and in expert fashion managed to slot him into a one wide position with cover before he had used up too much energy.

The colt continually found after being switched out in the straight and hit the front at about the 150m mark before going on to win by 1,10 lengths.

Fish Tales’ red and yellow checks, emerald sleeves and cap colours were carried to Summer Cup victory by the Mike de Kock-trained Rudra in 2006 and earlier that same year were carried to Gr 1 Champions Cup glory by Equal Image. Many other good horses have carried the colours.

Tony races in partnership with his son Nishen and the other owners in Fish Tales are Raphael Goolam and Selvan Naidoo. Fish Tales is in fact the first horse Raphael has ever owned.

Nishen said after the win, “My Dad has been involved in horseracing for the longest of time. He has never left the sport. We did go a little bit quiet, I think horseracing is a wheel, you will be at the top one day and be at the bottom again and now we are slowly rising to the top again.”

He said about the purchase of Fish Tales, “When we saw him at the August two-year-old Sale last year we absolutely fell in love with him. He is by Heavenly Blue, who I think is overlooked, he is such an underrated sire, and he is one of the better Heavenly Blues that we’ve seen. Myself and some friends decided to get involved and here we are today.”

Ashley Parker of Ascot Stud was alerted many years back to the fact that Fish Tales’ dam Caviar was for sale and he snapped her up.

The Var mare was trained by the late Colin Scott and won five times over distances from 1000m to 1400m.

The Australian-bred Heavenly Blue, who is by the iconic four-times Australian Champion Sire Snitzel, won the Gr 1 SA Classic over 1800m and he was third in the Gr 1 SA Derby.

Fish Tales, who has plenty of substance, ran like a horse who would enjoy further.

James Crawford said they would have preferred to have come into the race with one more run under the belt and he added, “He is still green and immature and once the penny drops we’ve got a lot more fun to have.”

Fish Tales is an exciting classic prospect.

He is a half-brother to the useful King Prawn, an Alan Greeff-trained three-year-old gelding whose two wins include the Listed Champion Juvenile Cup over 1400m, although he has had a somewhat disappointing three-year-old season.

Fish Tales was bought for R375,000.

At this year’s National Yearling Sale his full-brother was bought for R200,000 by Jaap van de Vendel and will be trained by Alan Greeff.

Caviar is currently in foal to the Mauritzfontein-based sire Digital Age, a Gr 1-winning son of Invincible Spirit..

Caviar’s third dam is the Champion Broodmare Soho Secret, which means she is from the family of the good racehorse and influential matriarch Secret Pact.

Caviar has had six runners for four winners and Fish Tales is her second stakes winner.

Fish Tales won by 2,30 length on debut over 1160m on June 7 and now that he has confirmed that promise he is definitely one to follow.

Meanwhile, Mickaelle Michel will be back in South Africa in October.

Before departing the racecourse on Sunday she was presented with a framed enlargement of a Sporting Post front page headline commemorating the day she made history on Star Major in the Daily News 2000, becoming only the second woman in South African history to win a Gr 1 event.

Her 47 wins on this tour were achieved at a strike rate of 9.2% and included one Gr 1 and three Gr 2s.

In exciting news for the South African horseracing industry it has been announced the UK have opened a direct equine export route from South Africa, which cements two-way trade for the SA Equine Industry.

SA Equine Health & Protocols NPC (SAEHP) sent out the following press release:

UK Opens Direct Equine Export Route from South Africa, Cementing Two-Way Trade for SA Equine Industry

Cape Town, 15 July 2026 — SA Equine Health & Protocols NPC (SAEHP) is pleased to announce that the British Government has confirmed a decision permitting direct import of live horses from South Africa to Great Britain. Following a positive assessment of South Africa’s disease control measures, imports will be permitted from the approved vector-protected quarantine station in Cape Town, for registered equines complying with UK import conditions.

This milestone reflects sustained collaboration between SAEHP, the South African Department of Agriculture, and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture — a powerful demonstration of this public-private partnership’s success in maintaining South Africa’s equine disease control measures to the highest international standard and translating that credibility into real market access.

The announcement follows closely on South Africa’s opening of imports from Dubai, New Zealand, and Australia earlier this year -making genuine two-way trade a reality for the South African equine industry.

Adrian Todd, Managing Director of SAEHP, thanked the Hong Kong Jockey Club for its funding, technical support, and vision in opening South Africa to the world, noting that the growing number of trade partners now opens a world of opportunity for South Africa across all equestrian disciplines.

About SAEHP:SA Equine Health & Protocols NPC is a South African public-private partnership established to ensure the sustainability and security of the African Horse Sickness control zones through risk mitigation measures and controls, operating under the authority of the South African National Director of Animal Health in partnership with the National Department of Agriculture and the Western Cape Department of Agriculture.