Trainer Colin Scott, the nephew of the late “Uncle George” Scott and the brother of Tellytrack CEO Rob Scott, died on Sunday night after a protracted battle against cancer.

The 52-year-old had held a trainer’s license since 1999 and was one of the most popular racing industryman in the country due to his ever friendly and down-to-earth demeanour.

His father Tom was formerly involved in the breeding industry and held his racing colours for decades. Colin spent his holidays as a schoolboy assisting his father, as well as the local trainers, in his hometown of Bloemfontein.  He was willing to assist Uncle George, who was the leading trainer in Bloemfontein, whenever possible.

After schooling he worked as a dealer on the Johannesburg stock exchange before becoming an assistant trainer to Uncle George and, later on, to Brian Wiid. Uncle George was one of the wisest trainers in the country and it was he and Wiid who most influenced Colin’s training methods.

Colin Scott

Colin then took out his own license and, from a small yard in Alberton close to the now defunct Newmarket racecourse, he made a good start in this toughest of professions. He moved to Turffontein when council bylaws put an end to horses being trained out of residential areas. In his training days on the Highveld he trained the like of Hale Sapieha (a seven-time winning sprinter who won a Gr 3), Cool Prospect (an eleven-time winning sprinter, who ran third in the Gr 1 Merchants). Another Ace (an eight-time winner) and Gravity (a nine-time winning sprinter, who won five-in-a-row in 2005).

In 2007, Colin moved his training operation from Turffontein down to Summerveld and cited the “nicer lifestyle” in Durban as the reason. His wife Gill was transferred at the same time and daughter Claire began attending St. Mary’s, a top private school in Kloof, where she matriculated in 2011. Colin’s father Tom also made the move down to KZN and initially acted as his assistant. He was a regular at the yard up until Colin’s passing.

Colin arrived in KZN with a string of 40 horses, 25 of whom were owned in various partnerships by brother Rob.

The move soon began paying dividends as he trained over 20 winners in a season a number of times, including a high of 27 winners in the 2010/2011 season.

Colin’s first big Summerveld-trained horse was the sprinter Extinct, who finished third in the 2009 Gr 1 Mercury Sprint in Rob’s familiar black and white checked colours.

This horse was unsound yet still won seven races, a testament to Colin’s training and horsecare skills, as well as his patience.

Colin, renowned as a hard worker, prided himself on buying inexpensive horses and training them into profitable racehorses for their owners. His good eye was partly behind his ability to achieve this goal.

Brother Rob had the same gift and this was illustrated when he bought a three-year-old by Dynasty called Sage Throne at the Graham Beck Dispersal sale in 2011. In his only two Cape starts this horse had been beaten 14,95 lengths and 8,15 lengths.

However, he was backed from 25/1 to 5/1 in his first start for Colin and won in impressive style over 1600m at Scottsville. Sage Throne won next time out too and then crossed the line first in the Gr 2 Gold Circle Derby over 2400m at Clairwood, only to be demoted after an objection. In 2012 Sage Throne gave both Colin and Rob their first respective runner in the Vodacom Durban July.

The brotherly partnership also did well out of Summerveld with another Dynasty gelding, Fourth Estate, a classy miler who won eight races, including the Gr 3 Christmas Handicap.

Another of their stalwarts has been the evergreen grey Stolen Destiny, an eight-time winner who is still competitive off a 90 merit rating at the age of nine. Colin’s final winner was the Australian-bred Mackdesi, who was backed from 28/1 to 15/1 at Greyville last Friday night and stormed to his fifth career victory. Fittingly he is owned outright by Rob.

Colin’s passing will come as a double blow to his family who have recently had to endure the death in tragic circumstances of his sister Janet.

Colin will be sorely missed by everyone in the racing industry and by all others who met him.

By David Thiselton

Andrew Fortune may possibly have dealt any hopes of a second jockey’s title a mortal blow after his antics in the fourth at Turffontein on Saturday. Nine winners behind Greg Cheyne and seven behind Gavin Lerena with nearly half the season ahead, Fortune has been prepared to tour the country in search of winners this term and his prospects of a second title were promising.

But although a supremely talented horseman, Fortune is never far from controversy, and he was at it again on Saturday. Riding Bay Style for Gary Alexander, Fortune injudiciously waved his whip in the face of third-placed Lerena-ridden Flipflash which had social media in a tizz.

Andrew Fortune (Nkosi Hlophe)

From the couch and watching numerous re-plays, the damage done to Flipflash was marginal if having any effect at all as the only blow landed appeared to be on the sheepskin noseband of Flipflash who never faulted.

The stipendiary stewards immediately called a race review followed by an objection which was not a surprise given the incident – the grounds being intimidation in the closing stages.  That it was over ruled was also not a surprise given that the incident happened a few jumps from the line and Flipflash would never have got to Bay Style in any case.

But there is often a fine line between race-riding and winning at all costs.

Racing alone up the inside fence, Fortune deliberately let his mount drift across to join Flipflash and favourite Handsome Henry. A perfectly legitimate move given that a horse generally tends to try just a little harder when racing with company.

What happened next is what got many people’s gander up. Bay Style was roughly half-a-length clear when joining Flipflash and under a soft left-handed stick. However, Fortune’s flailings changed from down the neck to ‘stirring the porridge’ with Flipflash catching one on the noseband.

Just how this incident is viewed by the authorities will be interesting in its self.

By Andrew Harrison

Punting first timers is a risky business even at the best of times and there were more than a few anxious moments come the first at Scottsville yesterday as the heavily supported Varallo made equally heavy weather of the opener.

Among the general public, the word out was ‘impossible’, those closer to the favourite were seemingly not that confident and as the race unfolded it became clear why.

Keagan De Melo (Nkosi Hlophe)

The expensive yearling purchase was backed in to 5-10 favourite but was all over the racecourse under Anton Marcus, racing like a horse that had never see a racetrack before. “He’s a laid-back horse,” said Charles Laird and Marcus later made light of his mounts antics. “If he had got beat it would not have been a train-smash.”

Cold comfort for those that had plunged!

The value of racing experience was shown as Hoppertunity, the only runner with a race under his girth, kicked on for second.

Owner Alesh Naidoo, who races under the moniker The Fire Trust Racing, was later the recipient of the Gold Circle Owner of the Month, an award richly deserved.

Much of the ra-ra surrounding the first two foals to make the course out of the superb race mare Val Da Ra, in spite of their lofty breeding, have not made an auspicious start to their racing careers. That may all change in an instant but first foal Dream De Ra was never in the hunt on debut as Rainbowinthesky showed her mettle from a tricky draw to land the second ahead of the rank outsider Khetiwe that was having her first run for Paul Lafferty.

The going down the centre of the Scottsville track appears to be as good as anywhere but Keagan de Melo had no intention of taking chances on Duncan Howells’s runner and immediately headed for the inside fence from the widest draw.

He was pressed all the way to the line by Khetiwe, only getting the upper hand late, but the balance of the field were well beaten.

Hot favourite Midnight Man gave supporters some anxious moments as he gave some cheek at the gate but eventually won well enough for Mike Miller although Rebel Circus pushed him to the line.

With two scratchings, the fifth cut up into six runners with everyone for themselves come the top of the straight. Pacemaker Heir Line kept finding to hold off Mr O’Neill and Cockade but it was a strange race and one where the form is likely to prove suspect. Roman Emperor appeared more attracted to the water lilies in the racecourse dam than racing as De Melo struggled to keep in straight while the balance made their own way to the line spread across the track.

A strange finish indeed.

By Andrew Harrison

Robert Khathi has cut short his promising stint in Bahrain – four winners in eight meetings – to ride in Mauritius and he leaves early next month after signing up with the 40-horse stable of Shirish Narang.

He celebrated his brief return to Kenilworth by taking Saturday’s 2 500m maiden on Australian import Dorset Noble for Marsh Shirtliff and Candice Bass-Robinson. But it was Richard Fourie who stole most of the show.

Richard Fourie (Nkosi Hlope)

Fourie’s 21% strike rate this season is bettered only by Anton Marcus and Gavin Lerena and on 11-2 chance Zodiac Jack in the two-year-old maiden he made every post a winning one to end  15 costly weeks in the wilderness for Greg Ennion.

“My horses had a virus that started in October and has taken this long to clear,” the Milnerton trainer explained. “I lost six or seven horses with owners sending them to other centres but I was confident about this one and I told Braam van Huyssteen that his horse wouldn’t get beat unless there was something special among the unraced ones.”

In the 1 400m handicap Fourie appeared to take a leaf out of the Bernard Fayd’Herbe racing manual (Chapter 3 – How To Hoodwink the Opposition) by switching Shall Be Free to the stands side and coming home alone on the well-backed Mike Robinson winner.

In the Riverside Estates Handicap 35 minutes later they all headed for the outside strip but Fourie later disclosed: “I went across on Shall Be Free because he fights with other horses and so he is better on his own.”

The Adam Marcus-trained Quippi, the middle leg of the Fourie treble, gave Glenn Hatt his first success in his new role as racing manager for Andreas Jacobs’ Maine Chance Farms. “I am now looking at racing in a totally different light,” said the man whose many big race wins included two Mets and three Queen’s Plates. “But the big thing for me is that I am back involved in the game.”

Loadshedder took five races to win his maiden but the way he followed up in the Riverside Estates Handicap, after being backed from 11-2 to 7-2, suggests he could yet prove a punter’s friend particularly as Andre Nel said: “He won this with real authority and there is a lot to look forward to.”

This was the second leg of a double for Aldo Domeyer who delivered Mtoroshanga late to justify 3-1 favouritism for Paddy Kruyer in the Raging Romantics Maiden.

Harold Crawford is convinced that Perovskia wants a mile or ten furlongs even though Grant Behr was able to make most of the running on her in the 1 200m Kinney’s Maiden.

Sean Veale will be concentrating on Durban from now on but he came back to win the last for Eric Sands on Excellent. The top weight  was one of several in the race who came up the outside so maybe there was more to the Fourie precedent  than he thought!

What A Winter’s reputation is growing. He stood at R20 000 last season but a service to him made R47 500 in the Peninsula Room auction whereas those to R100 000 big boys Duke Of Marmalade and Oratorio went for R60 000 and R55 000.

By Michael Clower

Aldo Domeyer is to give up his job with Andre Nel and Plattner Racing to become first jockey to Candice Bass-Robinson.

Aldo-Domeyer

“I don’t like the term stable jockey but I will have first claim on Aldo,” said Mrs Robinson. “Grant van Niekerk will still ride for me – I often have more than one horse in a race and Aldo is restricted as to what weight he can do – but he will no longer have first call.”

Marinaresco may yet fly the South African flag overseas despite plans to send him to New York having to be cancelled.

Marsh Shirtliff, in whose colours the Champions Cup winner runs, said: “He will stay in South Africa and go for the July but we will then make another call regarding overseas. That would be a good time to go, bearing in mind Dubai next year.”

Reflecting on the four-year-old’s slightly below par performance in the Sun Met, Shirtliff added: “I don’t think he would have won – Whisky Baron was weighted to win the race on Winter Series running – but I do feel that he could have finished a bit closer.”

Whisky Baron’s break at Drakenstein is being restricted to three weeks and then he returns to Brett Crawford to be prepared for the Vodacom Durban July. “I would think that he will start off in possibly the Drill Hall or the Gold Challenge,” said Crawford.

Investec Cape Derby winner Edict Of Nantes will stay in Cape Town for the Winter Guineas (April 22) “and we will then decide,” said Derek Brugman referring to when the colt moves to Durban to be prepared for the July. He expects a similar approach with Table Bay but admits to some puzzlement over the runaway Cape Classic winner’s disappointing effort in the Derby.

By Michael Clower