Kimberly’s premier race meetings takes place tomorrow. This annual race day features three non-black type races that include the RA Diamond Stayers race, RA Flamingo Mile and the Betting World Sprint on the testing sand track.

The feature races on the day will start from races six through to eight and judging from the pools on previous year’s punters have taken a liking to the pick three bet specifically for these features.

Trainer Tinie Prinsloo said he is extremely excited for the day and is expecting decent runs from most of his runners. He saddles Portman Square in the sixth which runs in the RA Diamond Stayers non-black type. “He is a difficult horse to assess as he needs things to go his way, but he will most probably go to the front as that’s his favourite position. His work has been excellent and he looks well so I’m hoping for the best.

The stable companion Sea Bean is coming into form at the right time. “She has been putting in decent work of late and my stable jockey Shadlee Fortune has opted to ride her. If she settles well in the running she will be involved in the finish,” he said.

“Silver Swift in race three should be included in quartets, if reproducing her work she should be running on strongly.

“Nice Chap in race four has been consistent and his form speaks for itself and is a must include in all bets however does have a tricky draw,” concluded Prinsloo.

KZN based trainer Kumaran Naidoo usually makes the trip up every year and takes a string of 19 runners this time.

Royal Katrina in race five looks to be one of the better bets on the card based on current form and jumps from a reasonable draw of five and is currently trading at 4-1.

If you are one to believe in omens the nine-year-old Tuscan runs in race nine and jumps from draw eight with Serino Moodley aboard. The game son of Easing Along won the ninth race in Flamingo Park last year with Lyle Hewitson aboard.

Overall this meeting always produces decent pay-outs and punters will need to asses form thoroughly and especially take note of trainer comments as these meetings are never easy from a punting perspective.

The race day is also beginning to grow rapidly in importance since its inception. There will be a host of entertainment for the whole family including a playground area for the kids and huge crowds are expected. The meeting has a mouth-watering betting menu for racing enthusiasts with the Pick 6 pool estimated to reach in excess of R1.6 million.

By Devonne Govender

The numbers for the Savages Football Club Maiden, card opener at Scottsville on Sunday, are a little thin given that many trainers are desperate for a straight six furlongs on the grass.

But as one trainer commented, “If barrier trials hold any water, this should win by a street.”

He was referring to the Scat Daddy filly Mela Stregata who simply smoked home in her barrier trial in spite of her rider’s efforts to restrain her.

Bought out of the Mayfair Speculators dispersal, Mela Stregata has shown exceptional work at home and although Duncan Howells was stressing at possibilities when quizzed at Ashburton yesterday, the filly should not have any trouble seeing off the opposition and is likely to start deep in the red.

Howells will be hoping that she can half emulate US Triple Crown winner Justify, also by

Dyno Man is one of the ‘old boys’ in the Savages FC Old Boys Maiden but although a late starter for Garth Puller he caught the eye with a cracking debut over the Scottsville 1200m, finishing close-up behind the well fancied Autumn Rain. The gelding is bred to stay this trip and from pole position draw and Anton Marcus in the irons, he should take some beating.

If there is a danger it could come from Merlin From Belin. Ivan van Wyks’s gelding was a little disappointing last run even though he was taking on winners, but on debut had run Marchingontogether to two lengths. That form has worked out quite well.

Marcus and Puller team up with Mashari in the third with the four-year-old making his debut after two barrier trials. Puller, a master horseman and superb jockey, makes full use of the opportunity to tune up his horses in trials and Mashari has indicated in his two trials that he is good enough to win on debut.

His biggest threat could come in the form of Wildly In Love. The filly takes on males and older horses but was in a competitive maiden last time out and will prefer this trip.

Another to keep an eye on is Al Jackson. Wendy Whitehead’s colt had tongues wagging in the paddock for his barrier trial. He dwarfed most of his rivals in the paddock and is an exceptionally good-looking colt. However, he was carrying heaps of condition so his poor trial showing is probably best ignored.

He should strip a lot fitter on Sunday and should improve but his indifferent trial is a concern.

Burra Boy has been a loyal servant for owners Cathy and Blake Richard and he is definitely a horse for a course, the Scottsville 1400m right up his alley.

He has been unfortunate enough to meet up with two of Shane Humby’s well fancied runners in Waywood, a winner again next time out, and Moon Bird, but can finally score the fifth win of his career for Mark Dixon in the opening leg of the Pick 6.

Howells will be hoping for at least a double with Ninjinsky’s Son in the fifth.

Runner-up at his last two, he is at his best on the turf and was running on well enough over the mile last time out to suggest that he will have no difficulty seeing out Sunday’s trip, even though he has pulled an outside draw.

The sixth is difficult with the form behind Kilmokea likely to prove decisive but Queen’s Plain was a touch unlucky that day and can get the better of Star Evolution and Roy’s Stingray. Not a race to go light in for the exotics.

Bonnie Dawn is quick and can get the better of her male rivals in the seventh. Louis Goosen’s filly put in some good work at Ashburton on Thursday and looks primed for this.

The Goosen-trained Gratuity also showed good work and should have a good chance in the eighth while young apprentice Xola Jacobs takes 4kgs off the back of Love Theme and she could prove the biggest threat to the selection.

The last is another mine-field for punters and Lilibet, even from her wide draw, is a tentative selection from Indian Rain while Little Audrey is likely to make big improvement over this trip.

By Andrew Harrison

The underrated sire Mambo In Seattle has relocated from Moutonshoek Stud to the KZN Midlands where he will stand at Peter and Jenny Blyth’s Clifton Stud.

The syndicate members are still the same and he will stand for R10,000 a live foal.

The Kingmambo sire has produced a number of stakes horses but the statistic which caught Peter Blyth’s eye above all before accepting him was his good winners to runners record.

In his first season his 28 male runners returned 22 winners and in his second season his 32 female runners returned 21 winners.

Mambo In Seattle, whose dam is a half-sister to the great AP Indy, is suited to South African-bred mares as his second and third dams are the blue hen mares Weekend Surprise and Lassie Dear respectively. These two mares have had a great influence on the South African thoroughbred breed.

Lassie Dear is the dam of Al Mufti, who was SA Champion Sire, SA Champion Broodmare Sire and also sired the SA Champion Sire Captain Al as well as the Grade 1 producing sire Victory Moon.

Weekend Surprise is the dam of the late Wilgerbosdrift stallion Tiger Ridge (Storm Cat), who has had a lot of success in South Africa, including producing Triple Tiara heroine Cherry On The Top.

Weekend Surprise’s greatest progeny was AP Indy, who was the US Champion three-year-old colt in 1992, the US Horse Of The Year in 1993, the leading sire in North America in both 2003 and 2006 and the leading broodmare sire in North America in 2015.

Current AP Indy stallions standing in South Africa include the successful sire Judpot, who has produced three individual Grade 1 winners, KZN sire Just As Well and Marchfield. Furthermore, Jay Peg’s sire Camden Park was by AP Indy.

Mambo In Seattle is bred on the same lines as the prominent USA stallion Lemon Drop Kid. Both stallions are by Kingmambo, both of their dams are by Seattle Slew and Lemon Drop Kid’s second dam is Lassie Dear, who is the third dam of Mambo In Seattle.

All in all, Mambo In Seattle provides a good opportunity in SA for fans of line breeding.
As a racehorse his finest moment happened when he came second by a nose in the Group 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga to Colonel John despite running six wide. The Travers Stakes is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to international classifications behind only the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Mambo In Seattle also won a Listed race over 1800m at three.

His best progeny to date is Same Jurisdiction, a twice Grade 1 winner who went on to place in a Group 3 in the U.K.

He has also produced stake performers like Majestic Mambo, runner up in this year’s Grade 1 Daily News 2000 and fourth in the Vodacom Durban July; Saratoga Dancer, who has a number of Graded places to his name and finished fifth in the July; and stakes winners Mambo Mime, Smart Mart, Fortune Fella, Night In Seattle and Mambonick.

Mambo In Seattle finished 14th on the National Sire log of the season just past.

Blyth said he had settled in well since arriving in Mooi River a month ago. “He is fine, is doing well and is as relaxed as anything.”

He said the handsome bay, who was born in 2005, had a lovely temperament and was easy to work with.

Clifton Stud produced the like of Horse Of The Year Classic Flag when based in Mpumalanga. Since relocating to Mooi River there have been a number of black type winners born and raised at Clifton Stud, including Kangaroo Jack, who won two Grade 2’s and a Grade 3 from 1200-1450m, Bezanova, who won the Grade 2 Charity Mile, the Grade 2 Victory Moon and the KZN Breeders Million Mile and finished third in the Grade 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge, as well as Covered In Snow, Whatalady and Midnight Serenade. Cutting Edge, born and raised at Clifton, won the KZN Yearling Sale Million.

Horses born and raised at Clifton won 44 races last season, 56 the previous season and 58 the season before that.

Blyth has a policy of letting foals loose with their dams five days after foaling and they are then only brought in again for sales preparation. This ensures they are brought up tough.

Mambo In Seattle joins promising young sire Crusade at Clifton. The latter was relocated from Scott Brothers after their recent dispersal sale.

Blyth has taken care of a class stallion before, Allied Flag, who was the sire of Classic Flag but unfortunately passed away prematurely.

Mambo In Seattle and Crusade are in good hands and should both receive good support.

By David Thiselton

Aldo Domeyer is to concentrate once more on Cape Town – and in particular on his first-jockey job with Candice Bass-Robinson – after riding winners all over the country in the final few days of last season to achieve his objective.

Much has been made of his third in the national log earning him a place on the South African team to ride in Singapore next month but in fact his aim was focussed much nearer home.

He said yesterday: “I was trying to win the Cape jockeys championship which was decided on national winners’ basis. From this season, though, it is back to a Cape racemeeting only basis and Richard Fourie could be hard to beat in that.”

Domeyer rode 18 winners in the last 11 days of the campaign. For four of those days he didn’t ride but the other seven were scattered from Flamingo Park to Fairview and from the Vaal to Greyville.

He said: “I had a mountain to climb and I didn’t think I was going to do it but I don’t think I have ever been on a roll like this one.

“However I missed a lot of work, Candice has a lot of horses and I need to be fair to the clients so I won’t be doing all that again. I will go to Jo’burg to ride for Ashley (trainer wife of his father Andrew Fortune) when they need me but I doubt that I will go to other centres for them.”

The new season began on just the right note for Paul Reeves at Durbanville yesterday when the consistent Photocopy benefitted from a positive ride from Donovan Dillon to finally get his head in front where it mattered.

Reeves, 51 on Tuesday, reckons this could be just the first of several wins, saying: “He has been frustrating but he is still a big baby and he has always shown so much. He has a future.”

Justin Snaith only waited until race two to start the ball rolling in his bid to land a third trainers’ championship and younger brother Jonathan reckons punters should make a note of the Richard Fourie-ridden Margrethe.

He explained: “She is a bit light so we will probably stick her away for a bit but she has a lot of scope and is definitely one to follow. Over 1 400m and a mile she will be even better than this.”

African Night Sky has joined Mike de Kock and is in quarantine prior to being campaigned in Dubai. Fred Crabbia’s Winter Series winner started favourite for the Durban July but suffered more than any other horse from the long delay at the start. By the time the runners were eventually loaded all he wanted to do was gallop as fast as he could and Grant van Niekerk found him impossible to settle. He finished an expensive fifth.

*  Michael Clower won with four of his five selections at Durbanville yesterday.

By Michael Clower

Justin Snaith was officially crowned National Champion trainer when the season closed on Tuesday. Snaith led for much of the season on his way to his second championship, finishing R6 million ahead of reigning champion Sean Tarry.

The Championship is judged on stakes won and Snaith runners, that included 162 winners, earned R26 794 988. Tarry had 138 winners and his runners earned R20 522 775.

Mike de Kock finished third with Brett Crawford in fourth place.

The unfortunate fall that side-lined Anthony Delpech for the final three months of the season left the door open for apprentice Lyle Hewitson who took full toll. Hewitson racked up 184 winners in a memorable season that saw him land the National Jockey’s Championship as an apprentice, emulating the legendary Michael Roberts who was the last apprentice to win the National Championship.

Muzi Yeni finished a clear second on 149 winners and Aldo Domeyer edged out Delpech for third by just a single winner with Greg Cheyne, two back in fifth.

The battle between Domeyer and Cheyne went down to the last race meeting of the season with the pair fighting it out for a place on the three-man South African team to take part in the Singapore Jockey’s International taking place on September 25. Domeyer will join Hewitson and Yeni.

Naturally, Hewitson also took the National Apprentice title with Denis Schwarz and Ashton Arries in second and third places respectively.

Sun Met and Woolavington 2000 winner Oh Susanna was the leading stakes earner followed by Undercover Agent and Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again.

In sixth place was Yulong Prince, the re-named Surcharge, who will resume his racing career in Hong Kong.

The race for the National Breeders Championship was again a close-run thing but reigning champions Klawervlei Stud retained their title from perennial rivals Summerhill Stud.

By Andrew Harrison

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
* Mr L Hewitson (APPRENTICE)	1471	184	12.5	186	156	334	676	46	12,560,000	20,168,963
Mr M A Yeni	1447	149	10.3	164	190	309	663	45.8	11,494,938	18,108,375
Mr A Domeyer	695	137	19.7	107	96	152	355	51.1	8,698,750	13,732,220
Mr A C Delpech	527	136	25.8	98	59	83	240	45.5	9,708,063	14,482,075
Mr G M Cheyne	801	135	16.9	110	118	168	396	49.4	6,932,375	11,242,150
Mr C Murray	940	120	12.8	102	90	140	332	35.3	8,083,125	12,584,325
Mr R D Fourie	668	119	17.8	82	92	128	302	45.2	8,871,125	13,203,963
Mr K de Melo	1020	114	11.2	123	112	199	434	42.5	7,480,625	12,693,845
Mr G van Niekerk	552	107	19.4	82	68	117	267	48.4	15,718,125	19,106,325
Mr R Munger	1334	107	8	100	109	248	457	34.3	5,219,088	8,777,038

Top 10 apprentices

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Mr L Hewitson	1470	184	12.5	186	156	334	676	46	12,560,000	20,168,963
Mr D W Schwarz	722	50	6.9	40	75	112	227	31.4	2,837,500	4,651,625
Mr A Arries	421	45	10.7	45	46	62	153	36.3	2,545,000	4,036,325
Serino Moodley	424	31	7.3	24	36	92	152	35.8	1,690,000	2,780,275
Mr L J Ferraris	224	26	11.6	14	18	41	73	32.6	1,738,750	2,368,850
Mr D de Gouveia	287	22	7.7	25	20	49	94	32.8	1,225,000	2,051,850
Mr D R Lerena	264	22	8.3	19	14	41	74	28	1,226,875	1,827,475
Mr E Ngwane	350	16	4.6	20	25	57	102	29.1	934,375	1,800,125
Mr S Mbhele	188	16	8.5	13	24	34	71	37.8	885,000	1,453,725
Mr M Mjoka	485	13	2.7	25	28	65	118	24.3	710,625	1,589,900

Top 10 Trainer

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Mr S J Snaith	1154	162	14	135	121	240	496	43	18,806,250	26,794,988
Mr S G Tarry	1269	138	10.9	127	121	247	495	39	13,445,000	20,522,775
Mr M F de Kock	766	131	17.1	84	77	150	311	40.6	11,207,688	16,308,058
Mr B J Crawford	739	101	13.7	97	79	147	323	43.7	7,813,000	12,379,188
Mr A C Greeff	1020	148	14.5	127	108	213	448	43.9	7,100,250	10,669,525
Mrs C L Bass-Robinson	934	98	10.5	99	112	190	401	42.9	5,814,375	10,463,900
Mr P A Peter	634	88	13.9	52	55	104	211	33.3	6,022,500	9,145,720
Mr G S Kotzen	821	80	9.7	73	73	148	294	35.8	5,419,250	8,985,000
Messrs M G Azzie & A A Azzie	498	61	12.2	63	50	87	200	40.2	5,279,375	8,583,600
Mr J A Janse van Vuuren	477	67	14	62	54	89	205	43	5,083,750	7,676,970

Top 10 horses by stakes earned (restricted races excluded)

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Oh Susanna (AUS)	6	3	50	1	0	2	3	50	4,100,000	4,312,375
Undercover Agent	11	5	45.5	3	0	1	4	36.4	3,860,000	4,220,000
Do It Again	7	3	42.9	1	1	1	3	42.9	2,917,500	3,257,500
Dutch Philip	9	1	11.1	2	2	0	4	44.4	2,987,500	3,113,100
Coral Fever	9	2	22.2	2	2	1	5	55.6	2,650,000	3,085,000
Yulong Prince	9	5	55.6	3	0	1	4	44.4	1,625,000	2,695,000
Legal Eagle	6	3	50	0	1	2	3	50	1,812,500	2,115,500
Snowdance	7	3	42.9	4	0	0	4	57.1	1,500,000	2,016,000
Magical Wonderland	7	2	28.6	2	1	2	5	71.4	309,375	1,466,875
Nother Russia	8	3	37.5	1	1	3	5	62.5	956,250	1,449,250