David Thiselton
Reigning KZN Champion Trainer Gareth van Zyl has closed within one win of Alyson Wright in this season’s race for the KZN Trainers Championship and his chances of retaining it were boosted when the useful former Highveld-based horse Barbaresco joined the yard.
The yard also has the campaigns of King Pelles, Imposing, Salani Kahle and thes like of Wild Justice to look forward too.
The Laurence Wernars and Rikesh Sewgoolam-owned grey gelding by Gimmethegreenlight, Barbaresco, is a versatile sort.
He has class, but also plenty of speed.
Van Zyl will have plenty of options with him.
Gareth said, “It is an exciting prospect to train him.”
Barbaresco is out of the useful Fort Wood mare Negroamaro, who won the Gr 3 Fillies Mile and she was second in both the Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic and Gr 1 Woolavington 2000, among other stakes places.
Barbaresco himself has followed in her footsteps to some extent under the guidance of the same trainer, Johan Janse van Vuuren. Like her he has earned many cheques in stakes races, although unlike her he is yet to win a black type race.
Interestingly, Gavin Lerena reckoned he would have gone close to winning his penultimate start over 1160m in the Gr 3 New Turf Carriers Merchants had he not been taken out just as he was beginning his run.
Lerena was not able to make amends over the same course and distance next time out, because Keagan de Melo has now become the retained rider for Laurence Wernars.
De Melo actually rode Barbaresco in his first two starts, both over the Turffontein 1160m course and distance, finishing second in both, and his last start was the first time he had ridden him since, a gap of two years and eight months.
Barbaresco was disappointing and unplaced last time, but Van Zyl and De Melo are likely to get the best out of him in his new KZN career.
Barbaresco’s best performances have been third in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000, tie second in the Gr 2 Betway Jo’Burg Spring Challenge over 1450m and third in the Gr 2 Allied-Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile.
Subsequent to his Daily News run he came in for a ton of support for the 2024 Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July and actually started third favourite at 8/1. However, the distance seemed to stretch him and he finished a 3,50 length eighth. However, he was only a three-year-old at the time and now as a five-year-old he might get the 2200m distance. It will be interesting to see whether the lure of the R10 million stake, together with the longer handicap, will prompt Van Zyl, Wernars and Sewgoolam to have another tilt at the country’s biggest race.
Van Zyl does not know what Barbaresco’s program will be yet, but he did speak about the July and was in favour of the longer handicap, which will see topweight being upped to 62kg and bottom weight lowered to 52kg.
He said, “It opens it up as it will make it harder for the good horses and will give the less proven horses a chance, it will be an exciting race to be part of. The thing about the July has always been the speculation … in the build up every horse seems to start having a chance even though it’s not the best horse in the race and now it’s going to be even more like that.”
A new environment can sometimes bring out the best in a horse and this can not be better illustrated than by the six-year-old Visionaire gelding Imposing, who has won five out of his six starts since joining the Van Zyl yard.
He arrived there at the beginning of this season as an 82-rated horse and he is now rated 107 after four victories over 1400m and one over 1600m, with all of them being on the turf except for one on the poly.
Imposing shows no signs of stopping either as he won his last start on poly the going way by 3,20 lengths under Van Zyl’s stable jockey S’Manga Khumalo.
Gareth said, “We will start asking bigger questions of him and step him up in company and see how he does.”
Imposing was obviously well regarded from day one as he was aimed high from day one by his first trainer.
He has at last started coming into his own as a six-year-old and shown his true potential, so there is exciting times ahead with him too.
Meanwhile, the yard have drawn a line through the Betway Summer Cup run of the stable star, the Equus Champion Stayer King Pelles.
He is being targeted at the Hollywoodbets Durban July.
Gareth said, “He’s doing very well and we are excited to get him going again. We would like to go for the July, he will just need to do well over one of the shorter distance races to get his confidence back, but the July is the race we would like to go for.”
He added, “”The Hollywoodbets horse Salani Kahle looks to have a bright future too.”
The Master Of My Fate colt has three starts and won his last two, both over 1800m at Hollywoodbets Greyville, one on turf and one on the poly, by 6,30 and 4,20 lengths respectively.
Gareth also mentioned the Vercingetorix colt Wild Justice, whose four starts, all over 1200m, have yielded three wins.
