Duncan Howells will be crowned the KZN Champion trainer for the second time in his career later in the year at the KZN Racing Awards.

Overall KZN yards had a few highlights in the 2016-2017 season, but will be hoping for a better Graded class campaign this term.

Howells got the better of Dennis Drier in what has become an annual duel for the KZN title, although Cape-based Dean Kannemeyer, who has a satellite yard at Summerveld, threatened once more to join the fray.

The KZN Trainer’s Championship is decided by number of winners in KZN-based races. Howells finished with 75 to Drier’s 69 and Kannemeyer’s 58.

However, the highest stakes earner in KZN races was national champion trainer Sean Tarry. In KZN he had 42 winners and stakes earnings of R9,277,425.

Tarry won three Grade 1 events in KZN. Carry On Alice won the SA Fillies Sprint and Bull Valley won both the Tsogo Sun Sprint and Mercury Sprint.

Drier had two Grade 1 victories during the season, both in KZN. Sand And Sea won the Grade 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion and Lady In Black won the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes. Remarkably, it was Drier’s sixth Gold Medallion victory in eight years and seventh overall.

Howells was second in stakes earnings in KZN races with R7,853,262 and Drier was third with R6,934,412.

On the national log Howells finished in eleventh place with stakes earnings of R8,144,138 (75 winners) and Drier was in twelfth with R7,784,163 (80 winners).

The duel at one stage in KZN was between Drier and Mike de Kock, but Howells emerged in the 2013/2014 season to beat De Kock to the title.

Drier won for the next two seasons from Howells as De Kock began diminishing his KZN operation. However, this season it was the famously hard working Howells’ turn. Drier had his winning-most month in August last year with 11 victories, a month in which Howells had only three winners. By the end of September Drier was on 18 and Howells on ten and by October’s end Drier was on 23 and Howells 15. Kannemeyer’s eight winners in November saw him moving into second place on 17 winners behind Drier on 25, while Howells was in third on 16.

Drier’s quiet spell was not surprising as he takes his best horses down to Cape Town to campaign in the Cape Summer Of Champions Season.

Howells, in typical fashion, emerged from his November drought firing on all cylinders and had his second best month of the season in December with eleven winners. His yard proved once more their dynamism during this month.

The three-cornered contest had now hotted up.

The log in the next six month-ends’ respectively read: December: Drier 28, Howells 27, Kannemeyer 26; January: Drier 33, Howells 33, Kannemeyer 32; February: Howells 39, Drier 36, Kannemeyer 36; March: Howells 43, Drier 43, Kannemeyer 41; April: Howells 50, Drier 49 Kannemeyer 45; May: Howells 55, Drier 54, Kannemeyer 47.

There was all to play for entering the last month of the season as the standings at the end of June were Howells 62, Drier 60 and Kannemeyer 56.

However, the Howells yard had their best month of the season when it counted. Their 13 winners in July saw them finishing the season six clear of Drier’s yard, who were in turn eleven clear of Kannemeyer.

Howells’ highlights were winning the Grade 2 Betting World 1900 with Ten Gun Salute, the Grade 3 Strelitzia Stakes with Neptune’s Rain, the R1 million BSA Mile with Legend and he also won three other Non-Black Type events.

Drier had his most disappointing Cape season this decade. However, besides his two Grade 1 wins in KZN, he also won the BSA Million Sprint with Hack Green and the Cornubia/Phoenix Sun Durban Dash with the three-year-old filly Sommerlied, who in the first KZN meeting of the season last Thursday lowered the Scottsville 1000m course record to 55,61 seconds.

There were a few highlights for other KZN yards during the season.

Gareth van Zyl made a dream start to his career as a licensed trainer at Greyville on Friday night, 28 October, when sending out a winner with his first  runner and later in the evening he capped it by winning the Listed Jonsson Workwear Michaelmas Handicap over 1900m with Celtic Captain. Gareth also won a Non-Black Type race with Celtic Captain and won the Listed Gatecrasher Stakes with Trojan Harbour. He finished the season with 25 winners.

His father Gavin, who has a yard at Summerveld and a satellite yard run by his son Chesney at Turffontein, finished in 15^th place on the National Trainers log and had 73 winners in all.

Among these was a Non-Black Type feature victory.

Charles Laird was as prominent as usual in KZN with 41 winners.

Paul Lafferty doubled his number of winners this season from 17 last term to 34.

Alyson Wright, Dennis Bosch and Mark Dixon all had good seasons with 31, 30 and 29 winners respectively.

Dixon’s crack sprinter London Call started the season with four wins on the trot including in the Non-Black Type Marula Sprint and ended it with a fourth place finish in the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint.

Lezanne Forbes, Yogas Govender, Dennis Bosch, Tony Rivalland and Michael Roberts all had one Non-Black Type victory apiece too.

By David Thiselton

Glorious Goodwood may have been hit by the worst weather in its history this week, but by Friday order was restored. The sun came out; the gale force winds died down and Al Jazi (IRE) under Frankie Dettori defended her Group 3 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Stakes (1400m) crown in style. The race is part of a twinning agreement between Goodwood and the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate.

It was the third straight victory for French trainer Francois Rohaut and Goodwood Festival sponsors Al Shaqab, who won also won the race in 2015 with Amy Eria (IRE). By Canford Cliffs (IRE), who will join the Highlands Stud stallion band in 2018, Al Jazi is a 1400m specialist and with Dettori in the saddle the mare started as 9/4 favourite.

Despite a dash for the line Eternally (GB), Tomyris (GB) and even former South African runner Same Jurisdiction (SAF), the result was never in any doubt. With just over 400m left to go Dettori sent Al Jazi into the lead and the mare extended away from her rivals to win by 1.25 lengths with Eternally in second and Tomyris in third, a further head back.

It was the first victory of the week for crowd favourite Dettori and the roar as the popular jockey entered the winner’s circle was deafening. Dettori did not disappoint and despite his recent troubles with a persistent shoulder injury, he flew skywards in style, followed by a happy dance once safely back on the ground.

Harry Herbert, racing manager for Al Shaqab, was equally delighted with the victory: “She’s a specialist at this trip and at this racecourse, coming back to win this for the second year running. It is Frankie’s first win of the week so far. It’s great, the reaction he gets from the racing public is so unique and so special and of course he feeds off that, and those scenes in the unsaddling enclosure is what it is all about. It’s good for Frankie, he’s a superstar. Gregory Benoist would have ridden the filly, but he’s hurt his neck and has been off for a few months.”

Herbert confirmed that Al Jazi would be returning to top level competition, with the Group 1 Prix de la Forêt over 1400m on Arc weekend the most likely target.

By Liesl King

South African jockeys Raymond Danielson and Brandon Lerena have arrived back in South Africa after their ordeal in Mauritius and Muzi Yeni has also been cleared to leave the island and will be on a flight this morning (Sunday).

It is well documented Lerena, Danielson and Yeni went on a catamaran trip on a sunny day in June and one of the other people on the boat, unbeknown to them, turned out to be a licensed bookmaker.

Lerena and Danielson were found to be in breach of a Mauritian Turf Club (MTC) rule regarding associations between licensed jockeys and licensed bookmakers and were charged.

However, an appeal against the subsequent guilty verdict and the three month riding suspension handed to them was heard internally on the MTC premises on Tuesday and was upheld.

They were subsequently cleared to leave the island

Yeni was not charged with the same breach and was in fact never charged with any breach of Mauritian law whatsoever.

However, for reasons which have still not been explained by anybody an “objection to departure” was placed upon him and an application he brought to the supreme court regarding the matter was adjourned until about August 18.

However, he was suddenly given notice of an intent to clear him for departure on Thursday and was then cleared to leave the island.

By David Thiselton

Brett Crawford, six Grade 1s last season, has tremendous strength in depth and he can strike with Captain Ram in the Racing Association Maiden at Kenilworth on Sunday.

This colt was pipped on the post on his first attempt over this 1 400m and, while he looked as if he might not have quite seen out the trip that day, he had enough ability to run in the Somerset 1200 and Corne Orffer can be relied upon to nurse him home.

Tripple Explosion is second favourite and looks a big danger after finishing second in his last three starts but, as a four-year-old, he may not have as much scope for improvement as his younger rival.

Crawford, incidentally, was only narrowly beaten by Justin Snaith for the top Western Cape trainer award and had a strike rate of 13% at Kenilworth last season. Joey Ramsden also recorded 13% while Snaith and Mike Robinson fared next best with 12%. Andre Nel (20%) did better than anybody apart from Shane Humby (25%) who moved his string to KZN in search of more opportunities.

With the exception of Anton Marcus who clocked up an incredible 33%, Aldo Domeyer and Bernard Fayd’Herbe had the best Kenilworth riding strike rates with 19%. Western Cape champion Richard Fourie recorded 18% and Grant van Niekerk 15%.

The Crawford-trained Greenstreet Tractor, a R260 000 Captain Al newcomer, was the early favourite for the opening maiden but the originally booked Greg Cheyne is now sitting out a suspension. Orffer partners stable companion Undercover Agent, also a Captain Al first-timer.

However Streetfighting Man still makes more appeal. His previous run gives him an advantage and it is worth noting that he was considered useful enough to start joint favourite – and that he would have finished a fair bit closer had not his inexperience cost him valuable ground at the start.

Wine Festival looks the bet of the day in race three. This Ramsden filly has had two good runs – the second of them over this trip – and she has a good draw which is important over 1 400m. Daring Miss and Le Claire may follow her home.

Hithimagainchuck is favourite to defy top weight in the Place Your Bets Handicap (race seven) but the Snaith gelding faces a stiff task for a horse only just turned three and preference is for Western Storm who ran well over a furlong further last time.

By Michael Clower

The horse transport companies will be busy over the next week or two ferrying the visiting horses back to home base, but there are still a few with unfinished business, one being Johan Janse van Vuuren.

Many of his horses have already left Ashburton and returned to the cold and dusty Vaal, but others like Hardball in the first and Till Dawn in the second look to have bright chances on the Greyville poly tomorrow.

Hard Ball makes his local debut but has shown promise on the Highveld in spite of being lightly raced. Van Vuuren has stepped him up to 2000m tomorrow but his Australian pedigree suggests that this is what he has been looking for all along. If he stays he rates the one to beat in what otherwise stacks up into a weak maiden. If there is a danger the threat will in all likelihood come from the consistent Air Salute who has been consistent and stays the trip. The form of his last poly race has worked out well so he must rate a serious threat.

The draw on the Greyville poly track does not appear to be a major factor so Till Dawn’s wide gate should not be too much of a hindrance. The gelding made good improvement at his second outing when racing in a tongue-tie and winner that day Borya, contested a Gr1 feature at his next start. Charles Laird had a quite Champions Season by his standards but steps out a host of runners tomorrow and Mighty Mercury could get him off the mark for the season. Laird’s runner has a plum draw and should enjoy the extra.

Of the balance, Q Behind Me returns from a break but has shown some ability while Lions Den has his third run after a break and tries blinkers. He is one to watch.

The third is something of a minefield but Roy’s Barbel has improved with each outing and now looks ready although the long-suffering Pomona is long overdue and should be thereabouts again. Another to consider is One Dimension who has had a single sprint and should much prefer the extra. He is one to watch in the market.

Laird is two-handed in the fourth with Yankeedoodledandy and The Carpenter, both in with strong chances. Anton Marcus presumably had the pick of rides of the two Mayfair Speculator-owned horses so the consistent Yankeedoodledandy may be the right one. He has some consistent form to stronger and with a fair draw he should be competitive. Stable companion The Carpenter was not too far back in useful company at his last two and has won over course and distance. The Des Egdes-trained Asyouplease showed up well first up in handicap company from a difficult draw over the Scottsville mile and must come into the reckoning.

Laird has another strong hand in the fifth where the stable elect could well be Dance On Air. He ran a good second to Cutting Edge last time and looks ready to go one better. Stable companion Waltzed Home is seldom far off the action and loves the surface. He should make a race of it.

The sixth is another lowly handicap and decidedly tricky Roy’s Rolls Royce is a bit of a poly specialist and has the form to be very competitive. Toa Nui shed his maiden last time out but that form has been franked and he must come into the reckoning in a field of this calibre. Selvan’s Jet, Master Shogun, Emperor Niarchos and the lightly weighted Discourse all rate winning chances.

The Lion Guard has a wide draw to overcome in the seventh but has the form to be competitive. His last run to Roy Royale was particularly good. He can go one better. Veteran Eddie Sweat is running well and is seldom far off the action. He gets the services of an astute judge of form in Anton Marcus and the veteran gelding can break a long winning drought.

If the two in the first two races do not fire for Janse van Vuuren he could end off the meeting on a winning note with the lightly raced mare Clifton Road. She has her third run after a break and could prove too strong for the likes of Kutlwanoslove and Mermaid Siren.

By Andrew Harrison