The man behind horseracing’s most famous voice, Sir Peter O’Sullevan, died last week at the age of 97. The famous commentator was aptly named the “Voice Of Racing” and his unique, dulcet tones became associated with all of Britain’s and some of Europe’s top races. The Grand National, of which he called home 38 winners for BBC television, lost a little of its grandeur after O’Sullevan’s retirement at the age of 79 in 1997.

The Guardian paid tribute to O’Sullevan last week and described his life and career.

He was brought up by his maternal grandparents in the Surrey countryside after the separation of his parents in the 1920s. An only child, he was always content with his own company, and that of his pony, Fairy. He remained essentially a loner for most of his life, preferring to work, travel and eat on his own when away from home. Educated at Charterhouse in Surrey and a boarding school in Switzerland, O’Sullevan suffered in his youth from poor health and in late adolescence from a disfiguring facial skin ailment.

His health issues led to him being turned down for military service and he spent much of the Second World War serving in the Chelsea Civil Defence rescue service.

Even during wartime, betting on such horse racing as there was occupied much of his time, and in December 1944 he applied for a job as a racing subeditor at the Press Association news agency. After the war he was employed as an “outside” man responsible for race descriptions. It was during this period that he encountered Peter Dimmock, a former RAF pilot, who after demob was briefly employed by the PA before moving on to BBC TV’s outside broadcast department.

Dimmock’s bustling self-confidence rapidly earned him a role both as producer and race commentator for the BBC. He employed O’Sullevan as a much-needed race-reader and the latter’s skill in this role earned him a broadcasting trial at Cheltenham in autumn 1947. His first “live” commentary followed two months later. The following year he commentated on his first Grand National, covering the first fence for BBC Radio. When Dimmock, who became head of BBC outside broadcasts in 1954, finally persuaded Aintree’s owner, Mirabel Topham, to allow television coverage in 1960, O’Sullevan led the commentary team, and called home the next 38 Grand National winners.

In 1950, O’Sullevan left the Press Association to become racing correspondent of the Daily Express. Thus began the legendary partnership with the Old Etonian Clive Graham, which had developed its roots in television, with Graham acting as O’Sullevan’s race-reader. Graham was to become BBC TV’s paddock commentator in a partnership that lasted for 25 years until his death in 1974.

O’Sullevan soon earned a reputation for unearthing “dark horses” in his pre-season tours of French stables. His fluent grasp of French gave him a head start over his journalistic rivals and enabled him to land some substantial ante-post betting coups on the frequent French winners of top British races.

His successful betting enabled him to own several racehorses during this period, but the first dozen failed to win a single race.

However, In October 1965 he bought a yearling for 2,800 guineas at the Newmarket October sales, and after naming him Be Friendly the colt went on to win 12 races and become Champion Sprinter of Europe. He ended his career with a stallion valuation of £88,000.

O’Sullevan earned widespread plaudits for his controlled television commentary on Be Friendly’s big successes and was also behind the microphone when his other successful racehorse, Attivo, won the Chester Cup and Triumph Hurdle. As a journalist he enjoyed the confidence of leading personalities in racing, notably Lester Piggott. He was entrusted with betting commissions by several top trainers, in particular his friends in Ireland and France.

By the late 1960s, O’Sullevan was at the height of his journalistic and broadcasting fame and in 1968 he was approached by ITV to “change sides”. Dimmock knew the value of O’Sullevan’s popularity, however, and went to extreme lengths to hold on to his prize asset. Despite O’Sullevan’s frequent criticisms of the BBC, both privately and in print, neither Dimmock nor any of his successors chose to risk earning the label of “the man who lost O’Sullevan”.

O’Sullevan exploited his untouchable status with considerable skill financially, as he did when approached by the Daily Mail in 1973. His temporary resignation from the Express, and reinstatement, led to a salary rise from £5,500 to £9,000 pa. When he finally left the Daily Express in 1985 it was in an atmosphere of acrimony. No love had been lost between him and the newspaper’s sports editor, who had hoped that O’Sullevan would retire three years earlier at 65.

In truth, while O’Sullevan was much admired by fellow journalists, until recent years he had few close friends. As a broadcaster he was considered difficult to work with and rarely, if ever, socialised with colleagues.

As his career in journalism drew to an end, O’Sullevan threw himself into charitable work. In 1983 he embarked on fundraising for the International League for the Protection of Horses. Other charities to receive his support were the Brooke Hospital for Animals, the Thoroughbred Rehabilitation Centre, and several other horse-related charities. In 1999 he established the Sir Peter O’Sullevan Charitable Trust, which raised more than £3m for six animal-related charities. In 1986 he was elected a member of the Jockey Club, which gave him an official platform from which to voice his antagonism towards excessive and improper use of the whip.

O’Sullevan was married in 1951 to the former model Pat Duckworth. She died in 2010. His personal life remained very private, and his wife’s dislike of flying meant that he spent many holidays on his own. Travel, fine wine and haute cuisine remained his favourite pleasures.

He was appointed OBE in 1977 for his services to broadcasting and CBE in 1991 for his charity work. In 1997, the year of his retirement from broadcasting, he received a knighthood.

  –  Article supplied by The Guardian

  –  Picture supplied by The Independent

Long-time racing fanatic and racehorse owner Jeremy Chetty was the deserved winner of this year’s Gold Circle sponsored Charity Turf Challenge. His entry under the pseudonym “Common Law” held on to the lead on Super Saturday and he walked away with the R100 000 first prize.

Second-placed Selvan Pillay’s “Bourne Identity”, who finished five points behind the winning total of 226, could have overtaken the leader if either Punta Arenas or Light The Lights had found a place in the Gr 1 Champions Cup. However, it was not to be and he had to be content with the R20 000 runner-up award.

A loyal supporter of the competition Philani Mfeka was a further five points back and earned R10 000 for third place.

Jeremy’s key horses were Power King and Captain Of All. He is an avid form studier and correctly predicted that Power King would enjoy a good Vodacom Durban July preparation and come in well weighted. He couldn’t see Captain Of All being beaten in either of the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint or the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint. The Conglomerate was another horse he liked. However, he is still lamented opting for Alboran Sea at the expense of the high-scoring Carry On Alice, as his entries would otherwise have filled the first three positions. His other three entries ultimately finished joint sixth, joint 24^th and joint 84^th.

Jeremy usually submits ten entries, but this year only made a last minute decision to enter.

His winning entry was named after the first and most successful horse he has owned, the Duncan Howells-trained three-time winner and Listed placed Dominion Royale filly Common Law.

His love of the Sport Of Kings began as a kid when he used to accompany his grandmother to the Tote. A horse he remembered well around that time was the classy grey filly Breyani.

The bug bit in his early twenties his passion was fueled through his friendship with Rajan Samuel, father of the jockey Marcus. Jeremey set himself goals in ownership and bought a share in Common Law. It was soon clear how talented she was when beating the useful older horse Rebel Patriot in a gallop. At the age of 25 Jeremy led in his first winner when Common Law won a Maiden Plate over 1000m at Scottsville in her sixth career start under Alec Forbes, having finished second in her first two outings. She won next time out and a few runs later Jeremy asked Willie Figueroa to fly down to ride her in the Listed Kwazulu-Natal Stakes over 1000m at Scottsville, in which she finished a 1,55 length third to the decent sort Mocha Java.

Jeremey later took a share in the Howells-trained Restructure colt Tarkwa Gold who won one race.

His next three horses were with various other trainers and didn’t win a race between them so he took a break from ownership until buying a share in the Yadav Singh-trained Irish Eminence. He believed this Grey Eminence colt had real ability and he duly won easily second time out over 1200m at Scottsville before being plunged straight into the Gr 1 Golden Horseshoe over 1400m on Vodacom Durban July day. Irish Eminence was badly cut into that day and was never the same horse afterwards.

Jeremy has an interest once more as he has bought into a Hemel ‘n Aarde Stud-bred Gimmethregreenlight colt that was knocked down at this year’s Suncoast KZN Yearling Sale. The colt is the first foal of the twice-winning Jet Master mare Tisane and has been named Rev Your Engine. The experienced Summerveld conditioner Ivan Moore will train him and the nice-sized colt has already been assessed as having both a good action and temperament.

Jeremy was also shortlisted for a position as a presenter on Tellytrack recently and was hoping another such opportunity materialised in his home province of KZN.

The Charity Turf Challenge certainly adds a lot of interest to the Champions Season and is a must for any racing enthusiast. Furthermore, the African Horse Sickness (AHS) Trust benefits from the proceeds to the tune of R30,000.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Jeremy Chetty (Nkosi Hlophe)

Gavin Lerena has earned widespread admiration for winning the South African Jockeys Championships this past season chiefly due to the mental grit he showed in burying the albatross of the 2011/2012 season.

On Thursday evening last week, the day before Gavin was officially crowned Jockeys Champion, his cousin Kevin Lerena won the South African cruiserweight boxing belt after an impressively one-sided 12 round victory over the title holder Deon Coetzee, so there will likely be a big family celebration sometime this week.

In the 2011/2012 season Gavin saw a big lead being diminished to virtually nothing in the final month.

He was still one winner clear of Anton Marcus entering the final meeting at Kenilworth but rode a blank to the latter’s double.

He later sat in the jockey’s room shell-shocked and heartbroken.

He admitted, “Every morning after waking up or whatever I was doing in the day it was always in the back of my mind. I thought what could I have done differently, I had it in the bag and I just needed to follow through, but the cards didn’t fall that way. I didn’t have the support he had and it was very hard for me, it took me a long time to overcome it.”

Lerena also admitted that rather than making him mentally stronger the experience actually made him more fearful. This is a reality often seen in golfers after a major has slipped from their grasps – the task of keeping the choking demon at bay in subsequent majors becomes that much more difficult.

He continued, “It’s just great that we’ve got the win under our belt and everything from now on is a bonus.”

Lerena has a riding weight of 57kg and looked to have a tough task with two months of the season to go as he was going neck and neck with the then reigning champion S’Manga Khumalo, whose riding weight of 52,5kg allows him a wider range of opportunities. However, Lerena showed what he is made of in June when breaking a new South African record for the number of winners in a month, 42. His 154 rides that month were achieved at a strike rate of 27.27% and he had three four-timers, four trebles and five doubles. An indication of how taxing it is to chase a jockeys championship is that of those 42 June winners 12 were at Turffontein, nine were at Fairview, eight were at The Vaal, six were at Scottsville, four were at Flamingo Park and three were at Greyville.

The June milestone was the second South African record Lerena has set as he broke the legendary Michael “Muis” Roberts’ mark of 260 when riding 283 winners as an apprentice. He was a twice South African Champion Apprentice last decade.

Lerena said about his approach to this year’s title chase, “I set myself goals from the first day of the season and everything just went to plan. I couldn’t have asked for more, the support from the trainers and owners was really amazing.”

He added, “I had it won for about a week (before the end of the season) and everyone was saying how do you feel and it never really hit me, but last Thursday after the last race it hit me that I’ve done it and I thank God everything fell into place and went according to plan. I feel on top of the world.”

The title chase not only requires extreme levels of mental toughness but also a high level of physical fitness. However, Lerena revealed there was nothing like “racing fitness” and the only time he ever did extra exercise was during recovery periods when he did a lot of swimming.

Lerena has always been known as an outstanding horsemen. He was born into the racing game and was sitting on the back of horses before he could walk.

“I think my love for horses has a lot to do with my passion for the game. Without the horse we’re nothing.”

He said of the immediate future, “I want to take a couple of breaks over the next couple of months, a week here and a week there, but if within striking distance I’m definitely going to give the championships another shout.”

He has had a couple of job offers from overseas but has turned them down for now, “I’ve missed out a lot on my son’s growing up over the past couple of months and I just want to spend a lot of time with my family at this stage.”

Lerena spoke about his cousin Kevin, “He’s 23 years-old now and eight years ago he rode a winner at Clairwood – now he’s a heavyweight boxer! He’s a true sportsman and he’s very dedicated to his sport and I’m just so blessed that he’s back on top. He’s mentally and physically a very focused man and I’m very proud of him.”

The professionalism Gavin and Kevin have displayed this year appears to run in the family and another of the cousins Brandon is also a fine jockey in his own right.

Gavin revealed, “We’re very competitive and from a young age myself, Kevin, Brandon and my other cousins Steven, Evan and all of them, whether it was racing around the farm on horses or our bicycles, or cricket or soccer or rugby, we were very competitive and loved winning.”

Gavin has not ridden work for the last three months due to his travelling commitments and he concluded, “I love riding work and can’t wait to get back to the tracks and get to enjoy the horses in the mornings again.”

By David Thiselton

Picture: Champion Jockey Gavin Lerena

MJ Byleveld returns to action at Durbanville tomorrow after being off for over five weeks, the result of a horrific, eight stitches-needing gash just below his right knee when kicked at Kenilworth.

“The rehab took a little bit longer than I thought but I was able to resume riding work two weeks last Saturday,” says the Northern Transvaal-born Marthinus Johannes who will be 34 next month. “It’s good to be back, particularly when the yard is in form.”

Vaughan Marshall had four winners here last week and the Milnerton trainer may waste little time in returning to the winner’s box because Mystical Twilight looks nailed on for the opening Welcome To Durbanville Maiden.

You don’t get many Grade 1-placed horses running in maidens and, while Mystical Twilight may have been flattered by his third in the SA Nursery, his subsequent fourth to Purple Mountains looks more than good enough.

“He is quite highly rated and, while he hasn’t been on the course, there is nothing in the race that looks like giving us trouble,” is the jockey’s assessment.

But the early betting suggests that King Of The North might well worry him. The Eric Sands newcomer was all the rage when Betting World opened him at 5-1 yesterday. The price tumbled as the money poured on and by 2.30pm 22-10 was the best you could get.

Byleveld considers Victorious Jay in the Z.A.C. Hamilton Handicap the next best of his five rides but this three-year-old had to be ridden four furlongs out when scoring over 1 400m last time. This is 100m less and on a faster course so the 6-1 chance could struggle against the likes of Ochoncar (5-1) and Twentymanjones (6-1).

Donovan Dillon makes his Cape Town debut and the best of his three rides could be Team Valor’s Megan Jones in race two. This filly ran quite well behind Princess Royal when making her debut for Justin Snaith in January, she is a generous-looking 8-1 and Mike Robinson says: “I am hoping she will run well.”

However Supercilious, odds-on last time, has more recent form claims and the 12-10 favourite may be able to confirm the placings with La Rochelle (22-10) even though the Bass filly started slowly and so should, in theory, get closer.

Aspara also has losses to recover in the Ladies Day Maiden and the running of Mystical Twilight (less than a length behind her in Purple Mountains’ race) should provide a pointer. Just A Jag, nibbled at yesterday, looks the danger.

Race four is wide open but 5-1 shot Frenni could be another for the Marshall-Byleveld combination. She came from some way back to get up close home over 1 400m last time and looks capable of further improvement.

Gift Of Rain took a long time to win a maiden and, surprisingly, she was strongly supported yesterday (4-1 to 28-10). That price looks too short but money usually talks so don’t write her off.

There is not much between Exclusive Knight, River Blaze and Baksteen in the last while Charlie Strong gets the longer trip he has been looking for. However Archie is comparatively lightly raced and could be the answer at 5-1.

By Michael Clower

Picture: MJ Byleveld

Rising star Donovan Dillon is moving from Durban to Cape Town to become first jockey to Michael Robinson.

He said: “I will also be riding a lot for Mr Snaith and I have good support behind me from a couple of other Cape Town trainers.”

Dillon, 21, has ridden nearly 130 winners including this year’s Lonsdale Stirrup Cup on Solid Speed and he finished second on Melliflora in last Saturday’s Thekwini Stakes. He has impressed a number of the Summerveld-based Cape Town trainers in recent months.

Robinson, who will have around 50 horses this season, said: “I need a jockey who can ride work for me every morning and give me feedback. Donovan looks naturally gifted and he has been riding a lot for my father-in-law Doug Campbell who speaks highly of him.”

By Michael Clower

Picture: Donovan Dillon (Nkosi Hlophe)