Another South African Champions Season may be a thing of the past with the curtain coming down on Gold Cup day at Greyville on Sunday, but it’s still business as usual at Scottsville tomorrow where Racing. It’s a Rush Pinnacle Stakes heads a competitive card.

Once the country’s highest rated horse, Talktothestars has not won since scraping home in a Pinnacle Stakes event at Flamingo Park. Be that as it may, the former Gr1 Tsogo Sun Sprint winner was matching it with the best towards the tail end of the season, finishing second to Rafeef in the Gr1 Computaform Sprint, beating Carry On Alice, and then second in the Gr2 Post Merchants to Search Party with a host of the country’s best sprinters behind him.

Coennie de Beer’s champion ran no sort of race in the recent Gr1 Mercury Sprint last month but was reported as coughing post-race.

He was decidedly unlucky not to have finished closer than three and a bit lengths behind Bull Valley when defending his title in the Tsogo Sun Sprint, and although he may not have won, he ran into serious traffic just as he was making his final bid and lost all momentum.

With rising star in the apprentice ranks in Ashton Arries taking 2.5kg off his back, Talktothestars has a lot in his favour and he can kick his season off on a winning note.

Talktothestars (Nkosi Hlophe)

Brutal Force has not found the form that saw him win two races on the Highveld when sent up for the Computaform Sprint as his target but he did show signs when three lengths back to Bull Valley in the Mercury Sprint. Joey Ramsden is likely to hold off heading back to a wet and wintery Cape Town for a while and Brutal Force will need to pay his way.

Dennis Drier was touched off in the last two weeks of the KZN Trainer’s Championship, losing his crown to Duncan Howells, but he signed off his season in style with Lady In Black winning the Gr1 Thekwini Stakes.

In Sommerlied he has another smart filly but the daughter of Var has been lightly raced in spite of winning three of her four starts.

She has it all to do at these weights with the likes of Talktothestars and Brutal Force but she should have come on from her come-back win when touching off Sergeant Hardy and should be a big threat to her older male rivals.

Formerly Vaal-based Louis Goosen has his first runners as an official Ashburton-based trainer, saddling three runners in Doing It For Dan, Hashtag Strat and Bonnie Dawn. The last mentioned was touched off last Saturday by Gee Wizz in a five-furlong dash at Greyville under 61.5kg and with apprentice Craig Bantam, back from a successful spell in Cape Town, taking 2.5kg off her back, she will feel as if she is running ‘loose’.

Aforaway met winners when some lengths behind Bear Hug in the KZN Breeders Juvenile Plate and newly crowned champion trainer Sean Tarry can get his KZN season underway. The step up in trip and Anton Marcus aboard points to a much improved run although there are a number of well bred debutante’s in the line-up and the betting could prove a better guide.

African Honey is lightly raced with modest form to back her but a step up in trip and a tongue-tie could see Robbie Hill’s filly show major improvement and open the Pick 6.

Eina! Was probably what many punters where feeling after most took a drubbing at Sunday’s Gold Cup meeting but the horse of the same name can ease some of that pain in the fourth although the likes of Sitia and Black Cashmere will make it difficult.

By Andrew Harrison

With just days to go before the inaugural Flamingo Park Race Event in Kimberley, some dozen grooms are gearing themselves up to race for the first time ever.

As part of the Race Association of South Africa’s Work Race Programme, twelve grooms will ride in the first race on the card on 5 August – a first for Kimberley.

The Race Association of South Africa says the Work Riders Programme, which started in the Eastern Cape last year, will be rolled out throughout the country over the next few years.

Mphumelelo Mjoka (Nkosi Hophe)

The programme is aimed at providing previously disadvantaged people the opportunity to undergo training in the sport so that they can ride at a level equivalent to that of a professional jockey.

The race will afford the workers to receive the same prize money as that of a qualified professional.

In partnership with the City of Kimberley and supported by Phumelela Game and Leisure, the event spearheaded by Bosco Sports Management is aimed at developing horse racing knowledge and creating transferable skills as horse racing has been identified as a developmental node within the Northern Cape province.

The Flamingo Park Race event is aimed at introducing a new, high-quality experience to the Kimberley community and is an opportunity for Kimberley to raise its profile as a destination that is worth visiting.

Professional jockey Mpumelelo Mjoka is earmarked to attend the meeting. Mjoka who is in the fourth year of his apprenticeship, recently represented South Africa in the Prix Longines Future Stars Campaign in France where he came first.

Considering the popularity and rich history of the horse racing sport in South Africa, Kimberley is the best-suited host city for the Flamingo Park Race because of the racecourse that features an authentic dirt track – the only one of its kind in the country.

While all of the other horse racing events in the country have become an elite experience showcasing premium brands and lifestyle activities, the Flamingo Park Race event will be more of a multi-cultural and inclusive event that caters for varying tastes of horse racing enthusiasts as well as the Kimberley community.

In addition to the horse racing event, the day will be packed with various entertainment showcases for all aged groups and varying tastes.

Ten local entrepreneurs have been invited to promote youth businesses in the city and province at large.

This event is not exclusive to punters but serves to invite guests from every city in South Africa to visit Kimberley and communicate that all South Africans can get involved in the horse racing industry.

Children under the age of 18 enter for free.

Durban July hero Marinaresco lost a front shoe in the course of last Saturday’s World Sports Betting Champions Cup and this may well have been why he ran way below form, finishing with only one behind him.

Marinaresco (Nkosi Hlophe)

Candice Bass-Robinson said yesterday: “Bernard Fayd’Herbe told me that the horse felt scratchy so maybe it affected him. But I also think that the way the race was run didn’t suit him – nothing was coming from off the pace – and so it could have been a combination of the two things.”

The five-year-old will return to his Milnerton base next week and will have his horse sickness vaccinations before going on a well-earned break while his connections reflect on his place in South African racing history – the first July winner to be trained by a woman and the one who carried more weight to victory in the country’s greatest race than any horse has ever done.

In the Cape season he will attempt to atone for managing only fourth in the L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and fifth in the Sun Met, and then there is the intriguing possibility of an overseas campaign.  “It’s possible, we will have to decide at a later stage,” said Mrs Robinson.

It’s My Turn, only just in front of Marinaresco in the Champions Cup, was found to be not striding out on his right fore but the course vet could find nothing to account for the performance of Judicial who finished over five lengths last.

By Michael Clower

Newly crowned champion sire Silvano smashed his own record for earnings in a season and was dominant throughout the 2016-2017 term.

The Maine Chance Farms-based German-bred stallion won his second National Sires Championship with earnings of a staggering R27,867,675, which surpassed the record of  R20 946 892 he set in the 2012-2013 season.

Silvano (Supplied)

This season he was R8,775,037 clear of the 2014-2015 champion sire, the recently late Captain Al.

Silvano recently achieved his fourth victory in the country’s premier race, the Vodacom Durban July.

He is undoubtedly one of July history’s most dominant sires and to emphasise this point he sired Marinaresco, Al Sahem and Nightingale to first, second and tie-fourth in the big race this year, while he famously sired the July trifecta in 2015 and he sired the first and third-placed horses in the 2013 renewal.

Silvano had four individual Grade 1 winners this past season and they each won a single Grade 1. They were Marinaresco, Nightingale, Orchid Island and Al Sahem.R27,867,675

He was also the leading sire of three-year-olds and dominated in this department too. His three-year-olds earned R11,836,200, which was R4,852,000 clear of second-placed Dynasty.

Silvano’s average earnings per runner was R126,098 and he had a 54,3% winners to runners ratio.

He had 13 individual Black Type winners of 20 races and all in all from 221 runners had 120 winners of 207 races.

A symbol of his dominance this season could be seen in the running of the Grade 2 Gold Bracelet over 2000m on Sunday where half of the ten runners were by him.

By David Thiselton

Yesterday’s Kenilworth meeting fell victim to rain and will now take place on Sunday with the first race again at 1.15pm.

Heavy rain began falling shortly after 7.30am and 28mm was recorded. The wet weather panel (including jockey and trainer representatives plus a vet) was convened and at 11.30am Greg Cheyne galloped a horse on the course, reporting that there was surface water and inconsistent underfoot conditions. The course was declared unsafe and the meeting called off at 11.50am.

By Michael Clower