CHRIS SAUNDERS, former chairman of Gold Circle and the first chairman of the Tongaat Hulett Group, died on Saturday night after a lengthy illness.

Saunders was one of the first directors of Gold Circle and was elected chairman after the company’s first chairman, Roy Eckstein retired.  Saunders retired as chairman in 2005 after steering Gold Circle back to profitability and weathering pressure to amalgamate with Phumelela.

Saunders was a staunch supporter of KwaZulu-Natal racing and his Invermooi Stud was one of the leading thoroughbred nurseries in the country.

Saunders’ white silks with red stars and cap were a familiar sight and he stood the stallion Rollins, the broodmare sire of champion racehorse and sire Jet Master. Saunders raced many of his home-breds, easily recognised by alliteration such as Raise A Raucus (Rollins) or Slewper Slipper, named after her sire, Slewpendous.

At the KZN Breeders awards in 2013 he was honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Award where in his absence his good friend Bill Lambert gave a stirring speech on his behalf.

David Thiselton

CARL HEWITSON, operating out of Summerveld, will have his first runners as a licensed trainer on Sunday at Hollywoodbets Greyville. 

He passed his trainer’s license examination eight months ago but his plans to go on his own had to be put on hold due to Covid-19.

Hewitson had been the assistant trainer to Yvette Bremner for 12 years.

His career in the industry began in his home country of England. 

He was a football mad as a youngster but his father, who was a master thatcher, loved racing and was at one stage driving for a transport company which had associations with the racing industry so he one day suggested Carl go and spend some time working for trainer Henry Candy during his school holidays.

Candy’s stables at Kingston Warren in Oxfordshire were close to the famous racing town of Lambourn, which is in turn close to Hungerford where Hewitson was at school. 

Carl said, “The bug bit that holiday as a thirteen-year-old.”

Hewitson was soon a stable lad and apprentice rider to Candy and had his first rides at Lingfield racecourse.

However, his first winner came in Belgium at the age of 17.

He was offered a position over there riding for Tommy McGarrity and he later rode for the Marquis de Merga.

The latter’s stable jockey was Tommy Young but she had a big operation and Carl thus rode in many feature events.

Later, he went on a working holiday to South Africa and initially rode in Port Elizabeth for Ian Passanah, whom he had met in Belgium. 

He rode in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg too and later had six seasons in Mauritius and six seasons in Malaysia. His biggest success came when riding a Group 1 winner in Malaysia.   

However, he always returned to Port Elizabeth and thus took up the position with Bremner when his riding days were over.

Port Elizabeth was also the birth place of his son Lyle who was destined to become the South African Champion Jockey while still an apprentice in the 2017/2018 season and he retained the championship the following season.

Carl said, “I did not expect Lyle to ever become a jockey but he took to riding horses, first in polocrosse, and then used to ride work when he came to visit me in PE.”

Bremner gave up training recently due to unfortunate and well documented circumstances but this unforeseen event inadvertently provided a boost to Carl’s new venture. He was offered the opportunity to choose from 60 of Bremner’s string. He chose 35 and all of the relevant owners agreed to go with him in his new venture out of Summerveld.

Carl will have a lot of experience to draw on and confirmed Bremner’s methods would have a lot of influence.

He added, “We had a good working relationship and would bounce things off each other.”

Hewitson said looking for a certain type of horse was a luxury few could afford in the game and elaborated, “You have to make do with what you are given and I am fortunate to have some owners who are very good at picking horses at the sales. I have a very nice bunch of owners and am very appreciative they have stuck with me.”

Fittingly Lyle will ride his father’s first ever runner, Love The View, owned by the International Racing Club. This first-timer three-year-old gelding must have a shout from a plum draw of two in the 1200m maiden considering his sire Global View was a miler who gets them to run early and his dam, an Irish-bred by the legendary Sadlers Wells, has produced six winners and her five multiple winners include the like of Pacific Spirit, a five-time winning sprinter who is Listed placed.

Lyle also rides two of his other runners on the day, the imposing Mangrove who runs over 1900m and Brazil Nut who is on a hattrick and is stepped up to 1400m. 

Carl’s sprinter Quinlan will be ridden by Rocky Agrella in a Pinnacle Stakes event over 1200m and although his recent form is not too inspiring he is the best weighted runner according to official merit ratings. 

David Thiselton

THE year 2020 was going to potentially be a groundbreaker in South African thoroughbred history as an audit by the European Union on South Africa’s measures to prevent the export of African Horse Sickness had been scheduled for April.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 meant an automatic postponement of this audit.
However, Adrian Todd, MD of SA Equine Health & Protocols (SAHEP), said the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) had a push for the audit on their agenda and he is hopeful it will still take place this year.
A successful audit will potentially open the way for a change to the stringent export protocols which effectively prevent direct travel to the European Union and to other racing countries around the world.
Todd has for a long time been supremely confident that SA will pass the audit.
The stringent quarantine protocols which must be undertaken by SA competition horses flying to overseas destinations is the bane of the SA thoroughbred industry as it discourages overseas trade on SA bloodstock which has proved to be outstanding value for money.
A positive change to the export protocols would provide a massive boost to SA’s ailing thoroughbred breeding industry as new overseas money will be injected.
Mike de Kock explained the current process which had to be undertaken to race a horse overseas in an article in 2014 written by Howard Wright:
“The horses go into quarantine towards the end of July and we do 21 days in Cape Town in what is known as a ‘free area’,” de Kock said. We then fly five hours to Mauritius and do another 90 days there, 50 of which are residency and the last 40 of which are under strict conditions where the horses are locked up in a barn two hours before sunset and come out two hours after sunrise. Then you can ship directly to the EU, where you have to do a 30-day residency if you want to come to Dubai, but it’s 60 days if you want to go to most other places.”
SAHEP
Meanwhile, one relatively recent measure put in place by SAHEP has improved the ability of trainers to travel horses around South Africa in the event of an AHS outbreak.
State veterinarians place an automatic forty day travel ban on horses who reside within a 30km radius of a confirmed AHS case. However, Highveld racehorses who are under this ban have the option to spend 14 days in a vector protected barn erected at Randjesfontein and as long as they comply with the regulations to the satisfaction of the state veterinarian they are then free to travel to Cape Town, for example, in a vector protected trailer and there would be no need for them to spend any further time under vector protection upon their arrival. The horses placed in this barn are allowed out between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. to excercise.

ANDREW HARRISON

HORSES with only one serviceable eye are banned from racing in Australia but there is no such restriction in South Africa. I am not sure of the reasons for the Australian ruling but horses, with what to most would be a handicap, have done pretty well in this country.

Australian-bed Traces, banished from his land of origin, is one of them. His restricted vision may have been the cause of his loss of form when promising much early in his career but he finally brought his A-game when touched off in the Umgeni Handicap jumping from the worst of the draw on the final day of Champion Season.

Muscutt

Peter Muscutt, who runs Brett Crawford’s satellite yard at Summerveld, appears to have got the gelding’s confidence back and if he can repeat his feature race effort, he will have a strong chance in a competitive sprint that heads the card on the poly at Hollywoodbets Greyville this afternoon.

Traces has a big weight in a race where one can make out a winning case for many of the runners and although atop the bookmaker’s boards in the early ante-post market, 3-1 does not instil any confidence.

Coldhardcash is among the longer shots in the race but could prove good value.

His breathing problems are well documented but Duncan Howells has remedied that with a Cornel Collar that keeps the gelding’s air passages open.

Coldhardcash is a horse that showed top class ability before his ailment manifested its self and in spite of that the gelding has racked up five wins from his 16 starts.

That said, he does not go much further than 1000m as he showed over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville last time out where he was in contention all the way until the last furlong found him out. He will much prefer today’s trip on his favoured surface and first-time blinkers should bring out the best in him.

At around 14-1 in the ante-post market he could prove to be a fair wager.

It’s not quite that simple though with Shane Humby declaring first time blinkers on Waywood who has had two warm-up runs leading into this race. This stable is beginning to warm up after getting all of their African Horse Sickness jabs behind them, their runners could pay to follow.

Of the balance, Candy Galore is a smart mare who seldom runs a bad race while the likes of Goliath Heron and Winter Blues are sure to be competitive.

Wayne Badenhorst does not have too much in the thatch department but he will have been pulling out what’s left with his filly Rachel. She has let the side down on numerous occasions and one has to be wary of her doing any further damage to the wallet. But she may still be worth one more stab today as she has the best of the draw in the seventh and the drop to 1200m may be what gets her home.

Macara

Her biggest threat could come from Wendy Whitehead’s recent maiden winner Macara. Donovan Dillon was under pressure to get her home in that race and earned a seven-day holiday in his effort to find the rail from a tough draw. Macara responded with a smart turn of foot in the chase for home and looks progressive.

Others that warrant consideration are Flaming Desire who is plagued by many niggles and is way better than her last effort. She put five lengths over her rivals at her penultimate start but did take the maximum penalty for that win. Lowan Denysschen’s filly Passivity took time to come to hand but has come well over course and distance. With a 4kg claimer up she also has winning prospects.

David Thiselton

JUSTIN SNAITH has issued a challenge to Mike de Kock, saying, “It would be Pleasant to have him racing under the Mount.”

De Kock’s colt Mount Pleasant is currently the highest rated three-year-old in the country but Snaith would like to challenge the overall pundit opinion that he is the best by taking him on in the only Grade 1 mile for three-year-olds on the South African program, the Cape Guineas on December 21.

De Kock stated after Mount Pleasant’s win last weekend in the Grade 2 Jo’burg Spring Challenge, “I have made no secret that this is one of the best bunch of three-year-olds I have had in many a year.”

Mount Pleasant was coming off a 14 week break so should come on from the run and De Kock confirmed that in his post-race interview, saying, “I did as much as I could on the sand and he had one very easy bit of work on the grass.”

Snaith echoed De Kock’s words by saying that this could be the best three-year-old crop he himself had ever had.

He did not want to favour any particular colt but said the punting public should look out for any of them who had caught the eye previously, advising, “They have had a lack of gallops available so are all going to improve a lot.”

Snaith’s three-year-old fillies have already proved themselves strong.

His Captain Al filly Captain’s Ransom downed the best performed three-year-old female in the Cape, Clouds Unfold, last weekend in the Grade 3 Diana Stakes over 1400m. She won by 0,3 lengths, although she was facing the latter on terms 3kg better than weight for age. On the other hand her rider, apprentice Joshwin Solomons, was unable to claim his normal 2,5kg so it was a win full of merit.

Snaith said Captain’s Ransom still had a lot of maturing to do. He added she had pulled up phenomenally well.

He praised Solomons for keeping the stick away and lamented that, according to his observation, many riders had been replacing any lack of strength they had with an over-use of the whip.

Snaith is also excited about the Camelot filly Dazzling Sun and the Captain Al filly Really Royal. The latter, who is a full-sister to the Cape Guineas winner and now sire William Longsword, won on debut in June and is running in the seventh race over 1250m at Durbanville on Tuesday.

Snaith spoke fondly of his older speedster Kasimir, who rallied gamely to win the Grade 3 Matchem Stakes over 1400m last weekend. This horse appears to be one of the few who can maintain his stride length in the latter stages of a race. Snaith also spoke about his wonderful nature which made him a “dream horse” to train.

Snaith had considered running Vodacom Durban July winner Belgarion in the Summer Cup, but decided with the depressed stake money it was not worth it as it would have had an effect on his Cape Summer campaign.

Do It Again and Wild Coast were two other older horses he mentioned whom he believed would make an impact during the summer.

He lamented the Grade 2 WSB Guineas, which Wild Coast won at Hollywoodbets Greyville not being a Grade 1 which he believed it should be in order to attract all of the best down from Johannesburg.

Wild Coast is by Trippi out of the champion five times Grade 1-winning Dynasty mare Beach Beauty, so Snaith is desperate to win a Grade 1 with him as he would then be an automatic to join the stallion ranks.    

Meanwhile, it is nervous times for those who do wish to travel down from Johannesburg for the Cape Summer Season as any African Horse Sickness (AHS) outbreak within a 30km radius of the training centres brings with it a 40 day travel ban from the State Veterinarian. On the bright side there is a protocol in place for competition horses under these circumstances which allows them to travel if they spend ten days under vector protected conditions, subject to the approval of the State Veterinarian. However, on the downside these horses would then have to go straight to the Kenilworth quarantine station where they would have to spend more time under vector protection. These two vector protected stints are hardly conducive to good preparation for feature races.

There has already been an AHS case this summer in Germiston reported on October 7 meaning the 40 day ban is currently in place for horses at Turffontein and Randjesfontein.