David Thiselton

The most welcome aspect of the KZN Racing Awards held on Friday night in the Classic Room at Hollywoodbets Greyville was that only KZN horses were eligible i.e. horses whose home is a KZN yard – and it was thus the Stuart Ferrie-trained Gladatorian who was named KZN Horse Of The Year and the stalwart bay  walked away with two other awards too.

The Highveld region’s awards are called the Highveld Feature Season awards, so out of province horses can be awarded if they do well enough in the features, but the KZN Racing Awards have never had a qualifying clause like that. The awards were thus wrought with confusion in the period of a few years when it was not just limited to KZN horses. Some horses who happened to have run three times in the province were eligible in those days and there was also the use of words like “KZN domiciled”, but that method of naming the award winners thankfully looks to have been scrapped.

The other change was there was only one winner for the age group awards and not a winner for each gender.

The Stuart Ferrie-trained Gladatorian’s marvellous five-year-old season included winning the Gr 2 IOS Drill Hall Stakes over 1400m, finishing a narrow third in the Gr 1 wfa Gold Challenge over 1600m and he won the Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup over 1800m. The Erasmus Thoroughbreds CC-bred Vercingetorix gelding also finished second in the Gr 2 Allied Steelrode Onamission Charity Mile at Turffontein among other good performances. He was named KZN Horse Of The Year, KZN Middle Distance Champion and KZN Champion Older Male.

The two-year-old winner was the Tienie Prinsloo-trained Vercingetorix filly Quickstepgal, who represented Rakesh Singh, but has subsequently been sold to the Laurence Wernars family. Quickstepgal, who was bred by Marsh Shirtliff’s Greenacres Trust, won three out of five starts, including the Tote Strelitzia Stakes and Listed Ridgemont Devon Air Stakes and she was runner up in the Gr 2 Splashout Golden Slipper.

The Peter Muscutt-trained Soqrat colt I Salute You, owned by Messrs Tony Zackey, E C Abraham, T Herdon, K Nattar & Miss Trinisha Pillay and bred by Shadwell Stud, was the three-year-old Champion having won the Listed WSB Sledgehammer and Listed Michel Nairac Appreciation Stakes, both in open fields.

The Gareth van Zyl-trained Drakenstein Stud-bred Duke Of Marmalade gelding King Pelles was a dominant winner of the Champion Stayers Award, having closed out his season with victories in the Tote Derby, the Durban Gold Vase and the World Pool Gold Cup, all Gr 3s, and he had earlier won a Gr 3 in Cape Town too. He is owned by Lucky Vest 12 CC (Nom: Mr Ravi Padayachee), Messrs D D MacLean, Gary Player Stud Farm (Pty) Ltd & N V Parmanand.

The Hollywood Racing-owned Hemel ‘N Aarde Stud-bred What A Winter mare Asiye Phambili was voted Champion Sprinter and Champion Older Mare. In Gareth van Zyl’s care she won the Grade 2 Sceptre Stakes and Grade 3 Southern Cross during the Cape Summer, before being transferred back to Duncan Howells for Champions Season, in which she was a narrow second in the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint and a highly creditable third against the boys in the Gr 1 wfa Mercury Sprint.

Gareth Van Zyl retained his Champion KZN Trainer title with 49 wins, comfortably clear of Dean Kannemeyer and Garth Puller who had 43 wins each in KZN. Gareth, who has now won the KZN championship three times, delivered a touching speech in which he thanked his father Gavin for keeping a KZN yard going which enabled him to have something to fall back on when things began “crumbling” in the Cape.

The Champion Apprentice Award was shared by Brevan Plaatjies and Mxolisi Mbuto who each rode 14 winners in KZN, although Plaatjies’ additional winners around the country were enough to secure him the Equus Award as National Champion Apprentice.

Hollywood Racing, the national Champion Owners, were duly crowned Champion Owners of KwaZulu-Natal while Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein emerged as leading breeders in the province for the second consecutive year.

In the special awards’ category, Tawanda Taruvinga was voted KZN’s Racing Personality of the Year. Tawanda’s infectious smile, fiery passion, creative talent, and effervescent personality have made him a popular figure amongst the local racing fraternity and a valuable asset to Race Coast KZN’s social media and broadcast teams.

Anita Akal presented her annual award to Race Coast KZN’s Marketing Executive Stephen Marshall, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the sport of horseracing in general and to the success of Champions Season 2025 in particular.