De Kock is introducing horses bred in the purple in conveyor belt like fashion and in the first race tomorrow he steps out the Australian-bred Dhabyaan, a three-year-old son of Medaglia D’Oro, who won three Group 1s in North America on the dirt from 1800-2000m. Dhabyaan’s dam is an unraced half-sister to Undoubtedly, who won the Grade 1 Blue Diamond Stakes over 1200m, Victoria’s most expensive two-year-old race. Dhabyaan has JP van der Merwe aboard from pole position and doesn’t have a lot to beat. King Of The Delta and Gypsy’s Answer have run some fair races, but are quite exposed. National Host was backed on debut, but was one-paced and was reported to have made a breathing noise. He might improve. Bella Ciao is the most interesting of the other first-timers, being by Black MInnaloushe out of an unraced Silvano mare, who was a half-sister to the useful middle distance to staying type Rippling Ring.

Mike De Kock

De Kock could also win the third with Kremlin Judgement. He did not have the wow factor on his debut, but was certainly staying on nicely from a wide draw in an uninspiring event over 1500m. He will enjoy the extra 100m of this 1600m event and is now drawn in pole. Red Revolution ran a similar sort of race to Kremlin Judgement from draw three over 1500m last time and is drawn three again, so could be a threat. The other De Kock runner is Yaamen, who ran a reasonable race on debut over 1200m and will appreciate the step up in trip. One of De Kock’s regular riders, Callan Murray, is aboard Kremlin Judgement, which suggests he is the stable elect.

In the fourth race over 2000m Murray is aboard Big Parade, who is superbly bred and bred for the distance, being by July winner Dynasty out of Summer Cup winner Flirtation. He caught the eye staying on with long strides from a wide draw over 1600m last time and will be hard to beat. If there is one who could upset him it is his stablemate Tremendous, who is a nice looking type and stayed on well in his penultimate start over 1800m. He took no interest last time and the blinkers are now on, which could see him fulfil his potential. Furthermore, he is drawn two, while Big Parade has to overcome draw eleven.

In race five, a MR 90 handicap for three-year-olds over 1600m, De Kock has a chance with eye-catching debut winner Alshibaa. He is by the superb sire Street Cry and showed a fine turn of foot on debut to win easily over 1200m. That was not a strong field and he still has plenty of maturing to do, but he should relish the step up to this trip. However, the choice to win is Forafewdollarsmore even though he hasn’t run since May, as he impressed with his sustained finish over 1400m on debut. De Kock also runs King’s County, who won his third start as a gelding easily last time to exit the maidens, and he is the dark horse.

In race six, a MR 83 Handicap for three-year-old fillies over 1600m, De Kock could win it with Mohallela. Her sire Exceed And Excel was a sprinter, but her dam Yaasah is an unraced half-sister to a stakes winner over 2000m. In her last start she looked outpaced in the finish and looked to be wanting further. However, she will be given a lot to think about by Jet Start and Flying Fable, who look to have some class too. Raven Girl could also play a part if bouncing back to the form of her debut, and further down the weights the Lucky Houdalakis pair of Tundra Taita and Braxton should still be improving.

By David Thiselton

Everything points to Captain America when the big guns return for the Supabets Pinnacle Stakes at Kenilworth tomorrow.

The Gold Challenge winner and his Champions Cup-winning conqueror Sail South have 4kg (roughly three and a half lengths) in hand over the rest and, while fitness will be a big factor, Corne Orffer’s mount was able to win the Matchem first time out last season.

Captain America (Liesl King)

His stable companion has also been off for over three months but could be a big threat. He was receiving 2kg when winning the Champions Cup by a length and a quarter and tomorrow they meet at levels. He won this race 12 months ago but on that occasion he had the advantage of a run under his belt.

Only stable companion Black Cat Black and Table Bay have that plus point this time. The former, in fact, has had two runs but that is just about his only advantage – on merit ratings his chance is pretty slim.

Table Bay ran well in the Matchem but was a bit disappointing when odds-on over a furlong further last time. Significantly many form experts consider him best at this 1 400m but he has so far failed to live up to his Cape Guineas third, let alone the expectations raised by his brilliant Cape Classic performance.

Interestingly the TAB sheet racecard (on the Tabonline website) tips him and the sahorseracing computer has Lyle Hewitson’s mount finishing second to Edict Of Nantes with Captain America third. That said, the computer apparently didn’t consider Sail South and Black Arthur worth a run!

Edict Of Nantes is a cracking good horse who was only beaten a neck when third in the July but he has not raced over as short a trip as this since the Cape Classic in October last year. Horizon, only a neck further back when coming from a bad draw in the July, also needs further.

So too does African Night Sky of whom great things are expected this season. But his winning margin in the Winter Derby was way bigger than in the Guineas and Classic combined.

Black Arthur just might be the surprise packet although the emphasis is very much on the word might. He was fifth on his return in this race 12 months ago and he ran well in the July.

The Laisserfaire Stakes, although the name makes no mention of it, is a handicap so the advantage should lie with those with good recent form. Princess Peach is suggested from Anime with Nordic Breeze and Captain’s Flame worthy of consideration.

Finally there is Silver Coin in the last. The fact that Joey Ramsden sees only positives from his Durbanville return is a tip in itself and he is a big price at the forecast 10-1.

By Michael Clower

Grade 1 Allan Robertson Championship winner Brave Mary will be leaving South Africa for France to test her ability against some of the best horses in Europe.

The Brave Tin Soldier three-year-old departed trainer Paul Matchett’s yard on Tuesday for the arduous journey to her new life. She’ll enter quarantine in Cape Town before heading off to Mauritius for another stint in isolation. She will reach France only in February, just in time to start preparing for the European Flat racing season. She will be put in training with leading French handler Alain de Royer-Dupré who handled the career of Zarkava, the best of her era.

Brave Mary

Bred by Rupert Plersch at Summerhill Stud, Brave Mary cost just R40,000 at last year’s Cape Thoroughbred Sales’ Johannesburg Ready To Run Sale and has already banked R1,106,250. Said Matchett: “I trained the mother Mary Lou, who won six races for me (including the Swallow Stakes). When I saw Brave Mary at the sales she looked just like her mother so I bought her.”

Brave Mary started racing in March for owners Les Taylor and Dean Bayley and few could have predicted the heights to which she would rise when she went off at 22-1 and finished fourth behind Spring Breeze in that 1000m Maiden Juvenile Plate.

She only got off the mark three races later, in a Maiden Juvenile Plate on 9 May, and Matchett then threw her in at the deep end in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Championship. Brave Mary started at 30-1 but there is a racing adage, “horses can’t read” and she won a great race in the Grade 1, beating Green Plains by 1.75 lengths.

Within hours, prominent USA racehorse owner Barry Irwin of Team Valor was sniffing at the door and Brave Mary changed hands for an undisclosed sum to race for Irwin’s syndicate in partnership with Vanashree and Anant Singh.

In her two starts as a three-year-old, Brave Mary has shown her mettle against the colts, finishing second in both. The first was to Pera Palace in the Sophomore on Heritage Handicap Day at the Vaal and then last Saturday on Charity Mile Day she found only Big Bear too good in the R2.5-million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup sponsored by CTS.

“After she changed hands, it was always the intention to export her,” said Matchett. “I was expecting to have her a little longer, but after last Saturday’s race I think her owners decided she had a lot of ability so not to waste any time.

“It’s a blow for my stable, but I think she has the ability to do well in Europe and she will fly the South African flag proudly to give South African racing and breeding a big boost,” said Matchett.

Veteran trainer James Goodman has decided to call it a day. He will be handing in his trainer’s license after almost 43 years in the game. On 16 December, his horses and stable equipment will be sold lock, stock and barrel at his Summerveld stables.

Goodman was granted his license on 1 January 1975 and started training at the Vaal with just six horses. In that same year he won the equivalent of the then Grade 1 Germiston November Handicap (Charity Mile) with Profumo, a “PE chuckout” ridden by Robbie Hill.

James Goodman (Sportingpost)

He moved to Newmarket and later was one of the pioneering trainers at Randjesfontein, where the initial years were hard but where he enjoyed a high rate of success with runners like Duke Of Marmalade, All The Rage, Natural Force, Last Watch and Gold Tax. He trained over 40 Graded winners, including seven Grade 1s.

Seeking a more relaxed lifestyle, Goodman moved his operation to Durban in 2004 and decided on a “boutique yard” of 30 horses, which suited him very well and brought the peace of mind he desired, but the string dwindled down to between 15 and 20 in recent years.

Goodman said on Wednesday morning: “I can’t make a living anymore. Little stables can’t survive and I predict that more small trainers will give it up soon. You have to run a big stable these days to make a decent living. Costs are high and if you haven’t got a good horse or two in the stable it’s impossible to keep going.

“I’ve thrown money at it to keep going. My partner Sandra and her parents have also helped, but there are no more funds left and this is where it’s at now. Our TV show ‘Winning Ways’ lost a few sponsors and that was money that plugged a few gaps.

“For the last two years I haven’t been able to find a single new owner for my yard. Earlier this year I bought five horses at a sale and I tried to syndicate them, but I couldn’t secure even one owner to take shares, not even among existing patrons and friends. As it stands I own 55% of my own stable, so I am responsible for more than half of the feed bill to start. Nobody can keep this business afloat without financial backing.”

Goodman believes his well-publicised “caffeine” case resulted in a poor impression created in public and said: “The National Horseracing Authority’s lawyer Jonathan Witts-Hewinson went vigorously after me. They attacked me as an individual and as a trainer, making derogatory statements, accusing me of being obstructive when all I wanted to do was prove my innocence.

“While I won the case, it cost me a huge amount of money. I didn’t lie down and in the end I was vindicated, but the NHA will only be paying my costs from the High Court Application and nothing before that.

“In their commentary on the matter the NHA admits that there was a reasonable apprehension of bias on the part of Witts-Hewinson, the chairman of the inquiry board but they still put claim on the illegal substance found in one of my horses.

“The fact is, my witness Dr Tobin had not been allowed to testify in the case to refute the allegations, the judge calling it ‘manifestly unfair’! Had Tobin been allowed to speak, I believe we would have won the case on merits alone, coming up against Dr Schalk de Kock of the NHA. But we were denied. This case had a major effect on my training career.”

It’s perhaps all water under the bridge now and Goodman, a man with an extraordinary cheerful and enthusiastic approach to life, will not be lost to racing forever. He will continue in his role as anchor of ‘Winning Ways’ and said: “I will stay involved in bloodstock, become an agent. I remain a horseman. I can still put my expertise to good use for clients.”

He will be missed by his colleagues at Summerveld and by punters and fans around the land and he will miss his horses, but Goodman said: “The decision is made. On 16 December I will be selling everything, from horses to bridles to the last feed bucket.”

– Turf Talk.

Trainer Nathan Kotzen has been criticised for running my horse Cumulus, at Turffontein last Saturday, against Mujaafy, trained by his former ‘boss’ Mike De Kock. But that criticism is wide of the mark, as the decision was mine, and I would submit that it was a sound decision.

Allow me to expand. Cumulus won his first start impressively and in a good time over 1200m at Scottsville, while I was overseas. In his second run, he faded somewhat to finish fifth to Zen Arcade over 1400m on the Greyville poly, and it is worth noting that Zen Arcade was entered, and indeed won, the Graham Beck Stakes at Turffontein last Saturday. I was anxious to see just how good Cumulus is over 1200m on turf, but with Scottsville out of use until December, and with Greyville now primarily a poly track – especially if there is any rain – I began to look at the Vaal and Turffontein meetings in November. Anton Procter, who bred Cumulus, encouraged me but again the decision of when and where, and to compete in a race which included runners from the De Kock and Tarry stables, was mine. De Kock versus Kotzen was not a consideration.

Cumulus (Candiese Marnewick)

Of course, there were Doubting Thomas’s who felt that little old Cumulus would embarrass us in such good company – pick an easier race they opined. But, apart from the fact that they don’t pay the training fees, I wanted to answer a fundamental question: just how good is Cumulus? We knew he was fast, working well and racing fit. We also knew he was very quick into his stride and cruising speed over 1200m, and that he kept finding over that distance. Therefore, I was confident of a place cheque to cover the costs of racing him on the Highveld. Of course, Cumulus was up against Mujaafy, who had won his maiden impressively and could be anything, but his merit rating was 84 while Cumulus had been rated 87 after his first win. So, was Cumulus worth his merit rating, and wouldn’t the Turfffontein race answer that conclusively? Besides it seemed more sensible than running him in a local 84, in which a placed run would only see his rating increased even higher, and not tell us anything we did not already know about Cumulus.

I must admit that having been born at the Turf Club Nursing Home, which looks onto the Turffontein course, where my father had raced horses, and a stone’s throw from Wembley Stadium where he staged several world title fights, added a boyhood dream element into decision.

Although he was well beaten, Cumulus did not disappoint and was clearly second best only to a horse owned by the Crown Prince of Dubai. Even a highveld thunderstorm did not phase Cumulus, and given that Mujaafy looks to be a future champion, his run was certainly full of merit, and confirmed his rating. After the race Mike de Kock graciously said “I am sorry you had to come all the way here and bump into a champion, who may even become a stallion of note”. Anthony Delpech, who rode Mujaafy and had won on Cumulus, added “I told Craig Zackey that your little horse can really run”.

So for me it was mission accomplished, as Cumulus ran a blinder and Nathan Kotzen deserves nothing but praise on a job well done. We may well have horse will travel again, if the paucity of turf races in this province continues.

By Rob Haswell