David
Thiselton
Competition
between operators in South
Africa might have inadvertently led to a
brighter outlook for the owner and breeder as they and their sponsors have
driven stakes upward in order to attract the best horses to their respective
jurisdictions.
SA Champion
trainer Justin Snaith said, “I don’t think we have been in a more
positive situation for years. We have gone through the hardest time ever in SA
racing and the racing operators should be applauded for whatever they have had
to do to pick up the pieces. Racing has been the winner at the end of the
day.”
Towards the
end of last year 4Racing announced a commitment to a total stakes increase
from R186 million in 2021 to R207 million in 2022 and an announcement of
handsome minimum stakes amounts for feature races.
Snaith said
as a response to this commitment many Cape
trainers had been set to take strings up to the Highveld at a time they would
normally be travelling to KZN.
However, KZN
then announced exciting stakes incentives at a glittering ceremony held on
February 17 to announce a new Durban
July sponsor.
Gold Circle
announced Hollywoodbets as the new sponsor and the two entities, who have been
working together for some time to improve racing in KZN, then jointly announced
a July stake increase to a record-breaking R5 million. A further R13 million
has been injected into minor races and feature races from 1 March – 31
August, meaning a total R16m boost to the KZN stakes pot.
KZN also
announced that from 1 March until the end of May
2022 grooms would receive R2000 for each winning horse, an increase of R1000.
Snaith said
the announcement by Gold Circle
was sure to have attracted the attention of connections around the country.
He himself
will be in KZN for the SA Champions Season which he has supported every year
for the past 22 years.
He said the
only negative in SA racing at present remains the export situation and he
reiterated, “They would like me to send a horse to the USA but it takes me two weeks to get a horse
from the Eastern Cape to Cape Town. They have to sit for two weeks in
quarantine even if they return a negative PCR test. The horses we buy at
the sales in other provinces will have to sit in quarantine halfway back to Cape Town before being
allowed to go to their pre-racing centres. The question I have for the experts
is, how is all of this seen to be ‘moving forward’.”
Snaith
called his Grade 1 R1 million Jonsson Workwear Cape Derby winner Pomp And Power
a “smart little horse” and added, “He needed his first run back and hasn’t put a foot wrong since.”
He revealed
he had battled to book a rider for the Derby and divulged that Richard Fourie’s
agent had said he was waiting “to see what else he could get” when
initially offered the ride and had only accepted some time later.
Fourie was
confident the son of Vercingetorix would stay and suggested a “happy
bit” to try and help him settle. Fourie then surprised all and sundry by
reining him back into midfield after a good break as everybody had expected him
to lead. Pomp And Power proved himself to not be one-dimensional and ran on
strongly in the straight to win easily.
He has only
been given a 118 merit rating which will allow the connections an opportunity
of targeting the Hollywoodbets Durban July by avoiding the classics and
protecting his July weight. The route he takes is yet to be decided by the
connections but he has not surprisingly been scratched from Saturday’s Grade 1
WSB SA Classic at Turffontein.
Pomp And
Power gave Vercingetorix a third individual Grade 1 winner and saw him increase
his lead in the national Sires Championship to just over R600,000 from reigning
champion Gimmethegreenlight, whose son Cosmic Highway won one of the main
supporting features, the R600,000 Grade 2 Khaya Stables Diadem Stakes
Snaith was
disappointed by the well beaten third of the favourite Double Superlative and
said, “His Met run seemed to have flattened him. It was tempting to go for
the Derby, but
maybe it was the wrong call.”
He predicted
a big future for the runner up, the Adam Marcus-trained Universal who had to do
it the hard way in front, and called him “impressive”.
Snaith had
one other winner on the day, his four-year-old Dynasty gelding Salvator Mundi
winning the Listed Kenilworth Cup over 3200m.
In the Grade
2 Prix du Cap, won easily by the Adam Marcus-trained Princess Calla, he
finished second with Rain In Newmarket (Kingsbarns) and said, “I couldn’t
be happier with her and she has now finished second to two top horses, Marina
and Princess Calla, but I’m not sure of her route because it will be hard to
find races for a four-year-old filly of her class other than in the Grade
1s.”
He was
disappointed with Rio Querari’s third place in the Diadem and said,
“He never traveled and was tailed off.
He kicked but he has had some issues and an ordinary summer and I am going to
have to change something.”
He said the reigning Equus Champion Sprinter was unlikely at
this stage to defend his Computaform Sprint title.
He added if horses who had run at Hollywoodbets
Greyville before were not allowed a gallop there it would be a detractor to Rio
Querari going to KZN.
However, he concluded by saying all horses are checked for
soundness and weighed after races to see where they are and it is taken from
there.
