It only really sank in for me when dual Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again stepped off the float at Summerveld yesterday. Interviewing Justin Snaith’s assistant trainer Janene Newlands at their Summerveld yard, it occurred to me that South Africa’s Champions Season for 2020 is nigh.

Snaith sent up the first batch of 11 horses from the Cape to settle in to the KZN yard. They walked off the Choice Carriers float looking like they had enjoyed their long journey and were happy to be in the province that is treated to such kind winters near the coast.

We spent some time at the stables before the horses had arrived and there is really a lot that goes on to prepare for the horse’s arrival. The bedding is laid out, the water buckets filled and food prepared. Once they had arrived, they were thoroughly checked by Newlands and Dr Ralph Katzwinkel from the Summerveld Equine Hospital. The report was that they all looked as if they had travelled well. Newlands said that they were drinking which was a good sign and they looked bright.

Dual Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again walked off the float like he owned the place and if he was able to speak I’m sure he would have said “I’m back to defend my crown. I’m not done for yet!” He looked a million dollars and came straight from Drakenstein Stud where he was rested.

There will be more horses coming to KZN from the Snaith yard later in the month and Vaughan Marshall’s string arrives today. Other trainers will arrive over the next few weeks. The Gold Circle media team go out of their way to welcome the visitors and ensure the coverage on social media is great for all to enjoy.   

Bunker Hunt, Winter Is Over, Wild Coast, Crown Towers, Rattle Mouse and Captain Tatters to mention a few accompanied the big boy Do it Again and are here for the big season. Team Snaith are sure to provide us all with some fantastic performances over the next few months.

By Warren Lenferna

Paul Peter described the feeling of landing his first Grade 1 on Saturday as “unbelievable, especially to have done it with a filly like that.”

His star Silvano filly Summer Pudding remained unbeaten and took one step closer to the Wilgerbosdrift Triple Tiara when cruising to victory in the Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic.

The win catapulted Peter into second place in the National Trainers Championships and his R8,673,625 in stakes is just under R3 million behind leader Sean Tarry.

Summer Pudding relished the step up in trip and won cosily by a length, having had to go all out to win the first leg of the Triple Tiara, the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas.

She will take a power of beating in the final leg, the Grade 2 SA Oaks over 2450m.

Peter referred to her as “the people’s horse” in the after race interviews.

He explained to the Racegoer, “She is a big, striking, black filly and the crowds just go crazy for her. She brings such a nice atmosphere to the course. She has such a nice temperament too, she loves people and loves to be spoilt and patted.”

Peter has had about seven or eight runner up finishes in Grade 1s and did go into Saturday’s race with one or two concerns.

He said, “The draw (10) was against her and was always going to be her biggest hurdle. But when they are that class they can overcome it. Warren (Kennedy) rode a great race and gets on well with her.”

Peter was thrilled to have won the race for the breeders Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein Studs and the owners Mauritzfontein.

He has a number of horses from this stud operation in his yard and said, “They are tough and sound and have good appetites. One of the main things about a horse is appetite, the more they eat the more you can work on them.”

He described Mary Slack of Wilgerbosdrift and Jessica and Stephen Jell of Mauritzfontein as “very nice people.”

The big meeting was a triumph for the Turffontein community as not only do Paul Peter and Joey Soma, who won the Grade 1 SA Classic with Got The Greenlight, train out of Turffontein but they also grew up in the area.

Peter and Soma’s respective fathers were friends and were regular racegoers.

Peter’s brother-in-law is in fact a cousin of Soma’s.

Turffontein trainers won eight of the 12 races on the card including a four-timer for Peter, who also won both of the Listed two-year-old features, the Ruffian Stakes with Springs Of Carmel and the Storm Bird Stakes with War Room. He later won a sprint handicap with Chief Of State.

Turffontein trainer Johan Janse van Vuuren won the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap with Lady Of Steel and other trainers from the centre, Weiho Marwing and David Nieuwenhuizen also won one race apiece.

By David Thiselton

Former Racing Editor of The Mercury and Racegoer correspondent, Richard McMillan (81) died in a Pietermaritzburg hospice yesterday (Monday).

Richard was well respected in South African horseracing circles for many years as Racing Editor if The Mercury before retiring.  He started his journalism career at the then Natal Mercury and for many years was their shipping editor but his life-long passion for horse racing saw him move to the racing department as deputy racing editor under Jack Ramsay. He took over as Racing Editor on Ramsay’s retirement.

On his retirement from The Mercury after four decades of reporting on the sport, he worked freelance for The Racegoer and Gold Circle. McMillan’s Time Ratings, a unique formula he developed over the years, had an avid following.

An old school journalist, Richard was always willing to go the extra mile to get a story and never missed a deadline – even when hard-pressed by a poor wi-fi signal or a dodgy computer.

He is survived by his wife Yvonne, son Justin, daughter Hailie and grandchildren.

Funeral arrangements will be announced later.

 By Andrew Harrison

Cape Derby winner Golden Ducat has been given the go-ahead to travel to Durban for the KZN season and so the intriguing possibility of his coming up against elder half-brother Rainbow Bridge in the Vodacom Durban July could be on the cards.  And indeed Hawwaam, the third Grade 1-winning half-brother, may be there too.

Eric Sands had serious reservations about sending Golden Ducat, explaining: “He had an issue with his hock as a baby and I was a little concerned about him on the hill at Summerveld. I thought I might be aggravating the situation but on the other hand I felt that I couldn’t leave him in his box and protect him for ever.

“So we had a discussion with all concerned (including the owners and Jehan Malherbe), and we decided he should go. The programme as of now is the Daisy Guineas (May 1), the Daily News (June 6) and maybe the July.”

The Cape Derby winner has gone on to take that season’s Durban July three times in the last 17 years with Dynasty (2003), Big City Life in 2009 and Legislate six years ago. Golden Ducat is a best-priced 33-1 in the pre-nomination July betting. Rainbow Bridge is second favourite at 11-2 and Hawwaam heads the market at 4-1.

Rainbow Bridge, beaten less than half a length in last season’s race, returned to Milnerton from his holiday home near Paarl last week and, according to his trainer, “is looking really well.”

He and Golden Ducat will travel to Summerveld at the beginning of next month as will WSB Cape Fillies Guineas runner-up Driving Miss Daisy. Sands  has still to make a decision about Larentina who was fourth in that classic.

Rainbow Bridge will follow the same route as last year – the Independent On Saturday Drill Hall (May 1), the Rising Sun Gold Challenge on June 13 and then the July – but his trainer is concerned about the different timetable, largely caused by the way the calendar falls.

He explained: “Last year there were five weeks between the Drill Hall and the Gold Challenge with a further four weeks before the July. But this time the respective gaps are six weeks and three weeks. If something goes wrong in the Gold Challenge – a bruised foot or a bang on a joint for example – you have that much less time to get the horse right for the July.

“Furthermore you are expected to take the horse to the course for the gallops in those last three weeks, and I don’t see the point in going there just to give him a canter.”

Viva Rio

Ex-jockey Jimmy Ting will train Viva Rio when the Cape Derby ante-post favourite reaches Hong Kong. Ting, a relative newcomer to the training ranks, is currently tenth on the log with 24 winners.

Those who backed the horse would have preferred him to have run in the February 22 classic – and so, apparently, would have Glen Kotzen but under the terms of the deal (brokered by Green Street Bloodstock) the horse was sold without the engagement.

“It would have been lovely to get the money and win the Derby – and I tried to get a deal with the engagement – but the purchasers didn’t want that,” Kotzen explained. “In fact I thought we were going to run which was why I didn’t scratch him until the Friday afternoon. I had to wait for the money to come through.”

The exact sum has not been revealed but Kotzen says that, even if Viva Rio won the Derby, the July and a whole lot more, he would not have earned what the new owners were prepared to pay.

Marcus

Anton Marcus is back at Durbanville on Saturday when he has four Ridgemont rides – Flame Tree, Yorktown and Private General for Brett Crawford and Still Tappin for Sands. His only other mount is Savea on whom he won at Kenilworth ten days ago for his old boss Paddy Kruyer.

By Michael Clower

Johan Janse van Vuuren has two of the most exciting fillies in the country in True To Life and Lady Of Steel and they will both be nominated for the same race, the Grade 3 Umzimkhulu Stakes over 1400m at Greyville on April 5, an event which is often used as a springboard to the Grade 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas on the first night of the SA Champions Season.

Both fillies won good races over the weekend.

Lady Of Steel is unbeaten in four starts from 1200m to 1600m and looks full of class.

On Saturday she finished as strongly as usual to win the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap over 1600m at Turffontein Standside by 2,25 lengths under Chase Maujean.

She ran off a merit rating of 98 and carried only 52,5kg but she did have to overcome a tough draw of 13.

She will continue to be trained out of Turffontein and her participation in the Umzimkhulu might depend on the draw she lands.

Janse van Vuuren is also considering a tilt at the Grade 1 HSH Prince Charlene Empress Club Stakes over 1600m at Turffontein on April 18.

True To Life has exceptional natural speed and she displayed this again on Sunday when easily winning a 1400m Pinnacle Stakes event on the Greyville turf.

She sat in second behind a slow pace and had soon quickened away from them and beat some useful KZN-based females, including Grade 1 winner Camphoratus, by 3,50 lengths without coming off the bit.

True To Life’s only defeat in five races over sprint distances was in the SA Fillies Nursery when a four length third to the outstanding Basadi Faith.

However, she has failed in both of her attempts at a mile, although both were at Grade 1 level.

Therefore, Janse van Vuuren will run her in the Umzimkhulu and decide from there whether she has another attempt at a mile in a race like the Grade 2 Daisy Fillies Guineas or whether she comes back down in trip for races like the Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint.

True To Life was bred by the outstanding breeder Robin Bruss and is looking to have a bit in common with the Bruss-bred Equus Champion Sprinter Will Pays, who defied his breeding as his sire Imperial Stride won a Group 2 over a-mile-and-two-furlongs and a Group 3 over a mile-and-a-half and his dam Rattlebag won a Grade 3 over a mile and finished third in the Grade 2 Natal Oaks over 2400m.

Bruss always breeds a horse with the Vodacom Durban July and the Sun Met in mind. He said thus there had to be a combination of stamina and speed, with the latter required in order for the horse to have the necessary acceleration.

He added, “But in thoroughbred breeding, being what it is, you can end up with the opposite to what you intended.”

True To Life’s sire Duke Of Marmalade was a European champion, whose five consecutive Group 1 wins as a four-year-old were from a-mile-and-two-furlongs to a-mile-and-a-half.

Her dam Mina Salaam won a Zimbabwean Grade 3 over 2000m and a Listed race in South Africa over a mile and she has plenty of stamina in her pedigree.

Bruss believes there are two reasons why True To Life is doing so well over shorter trips.

Firstly, Duke Of Marmalade is by Danehill, whose only Group 1 win was over six furlongs and as one of the all-time great thoroughbred stallions he became a particularly exceptional speed influence.

Bruss knows True To Life well as he bought her back at the sales when not realising a good enough price and owned her for her first couple of runs before she was bought out of the Roy Magner yard by Janse van Vuuren’s chief owner Laurence Wernars.

He reckoned the second reason for her doing well over shorter trips to date is she weighs in at 550kg and as with humans it is difficult to carry heavy muscle over long trips.

However, he said with age she might indeed be able to stay the mile.

Sunday’s run was encouraging from that point of view as she had failed in her only previous attempt at that 1400m course and distance in the Grade 2 Golden Slipper.

Whichever route these two fillies go they should make headlines in the SA Champions Season as they both possess true class.

By David Thiselton