David Thiselton

 

The 2025/2026 season will go down as a memorable one for the thoroughbred owners of South African racing and the accolades included overseas success.

Hollywood Racing, who were crowned champion owners for the second season in succession, set a local target for themselves of 180 wins, way ahead of their best previous return of 128.

Remarkably they reached 179 wins with one meeting of the season left and looked set to get their target exactly on the Fairview Poly on Friday.

However, they were a short-head shy of reaching it when Whirlybird was second in the sixth race and then in the penultimate race of the season they were half-a-length back with Potenza.

Hollywood’s local highlight was a Gr 1 win with the Duncan Howells trained What A Winter mare Asiye Phambili, who produced a remarkable finishing burst from someway off the pace to get up by a neck in the wfa Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint Brought to you by the Witness over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, beating the crack Justin Snaith-trained mare Double Grand Slam. It was a hugely deserved Gr 1 win for the mare who had not had much luck in previous Gr 1s.

She also won the Gr 3 WSB Southern Cross Stakes over 1000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and the Gr 3 Dennis Drier Poinsettia Stakes over 1200m at Hollywoodbets Scottsville as well as finishing fourth in the wfa Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship over 1000m and an unlucky third in the wfa Gr 1 Mercury Sprint over 1200m.

She gets better and better and this powerful filly resembled a tank in full flight when charging late in the Mercury, so it is great news to hear she will be staying in training as a seven-year-old.

Overseas, Hollywood Racing, in partnership with Rikesh Sewgoolam, went close to flat racing big race glory when their stalwart One World colt One Stripe finished a late-surging 0,25 length second to his Graham Motion-trained stablemate Test Score in the Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational at Gulfstream Park over 1800m with Gavin Lerena up.

One Stripe had put his disappointing Woodbine Mile and Breeders Cup Turf Mile runs behind him when winning an Allowance Optional Claiming over a mile at Gulfstream Park in a time just 0,4 seconds outside the course record.

One stripe followed up his Pegasus run by finishing second in the Gr 1 Makers Mark Mile Stakes at Keeneland and third in the Gr 1 Manhattan Stakes over 1900 at the iconic Saratoga “Meet”.

The Woodbine Mile and Breeders Cup Mile winner Notable Speech, who was an admittedly unlucky fourth in the Makers Mark Mile, franked One Stripe’s form recently when winning the Gr 1 Lockinge Stakes over a mile at Newbury in the UK by an easy and impressive two lengths.

Hollywood Racing’s other USA-based stalwart, the Graham Motion-trained What A Winter gelding Isivunguvungu, came back from a nine month layoff to recently win an Allowance Optional Claiming over 1100m at Laurel Park.

However, the Hollywood Racing overseas highlight was provided by their jumps racing superstar Il Etait Temps, who provided a moment any owner in the world would dream of when winning one of the Cheltenham Festival’s  Championship events, the Gr 1 Queen Mother Champion Chase over two miles.

It was the Willie Mullins-trained grey’s sixth Gr 1 win. They own the champion chaser in partnership with the Kieswetter family’s Barnane Stud.

There was also overseas Gr 1 success for a former champion owner, Gaynor Rupert of Drakenstein Stud.

Her exciting UK Summer included being owner-breeder of a John and Thady Gosden-trained Sea The Stars filly called I’m The One, who was installed as Epsom Oaks favourite after a highly impressive six length victory over a mile and two furlongs at Newbury on debut.

She finished second in her next start in a Listed event at Chester and was unfortunately then sidelined with injury.

However, a St Mark’s Basilica three-year-old colt Gaynor owns and bred in partnership with Coolmore, Thesecretadversary, later won the Gr 3 Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs at the Royal Ascot meeting before landing a Gr 1 in France over seven furlongs at Deauville.

Locally the second-placed owner

in the 2025/2026 championship was Durban-based Nick Jonsson, who pulled off surely the finest ownership feat in SA history when his Justin Snaith-trained Twice Over gelding won the wfa Gr 1 WSB Cape Town Met, because it meant Jonsson had won Cape Town’s most famous race four times in succession with four different horses. To win one Met could be due to luck but there is nothing lucky about winning four in a row and it proved Jonsson to have intuition of rare quality in the buying arena.

See It Again also landed the wfa Gr 1 Premier’s Champions Challenge and Snaith and Jonsson ran one-two in the wfa Gr 1 HKJC Champions Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville with Eight On Eighteen and See It Again.

Eight on Eighteen was Equus Horse Of The Year in 2024/2025 and See It Again looks a certainty to give Jonsson a second successive Horse Of The Year and a third one overall as his part-owned Do It Again was Horse Of The Year in 2018/2019.

In another fine ownership feat Nancy Hossack and Jonathan Bloch became the third known owners to land the Hollywoodbets Durban July exacta following Luke Bailles in 1990 and Nick Jonsson in 2018. Their charges Note To Self and Wish List, both trained by Justin Snaith, finished close together in that order in the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July.

Bloch also likely broke a record by winning the July plus all four of what used to be KZN’s most important classics, with his part-owned charge the James Crawford-trained Star Major winning the Gr 2 WSB Guineas and the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 and Wish List winning the Gr 2 WSB Fillies Guineas and the Gr 2 Lucky Fish Woolavington 2000.

Another notable season was had by Kenneth Pillay of Kestorm Investments as he not only had two Gr 1 wins with the Tony Peter-trained Buffalo Storm Cody, but he also had 37 overall wins during the season at an amazing strike rate of 28.24%.

David Thiselton

 

The Stuart Pettigrew-trained imported Irish-bred Sea The Stars gelding Mission To Mars could be Betway Summer Cup bound after another easy and impressive win and this time it was in a MR 96 Handicap over the Summer Cup 2000m course and distance.

 

At Turffontein Standside on Saturday the gelding was having just his third career start, despite now being a six-year-old.

 

He was drawn two with Philasande Mxoli keeping the ride and he was backed into 5/10 favourite.

 

He broke well and soon found the rail.

 

He then settled nicely, third in line on the rail under the beautiful long rein of the underrated Mxoli.

 

In the straight he turned it on effortlessly and sped past the pacemaker Royal Edition while still under a tight hold.

 

Mxoli just had to steer him, showing him the stick and administering one reminder as he sauntered to a 3,50 length victory from Prince Of Kildare, to whom he gave 2,5kg, and the third horse was beaten 8,75 lengths.

 

He will likely get the maximum eight point raise for the handicap win, which will take him to a 94 merit rating.

 

That is still some way short of Summer Cup qualifying standard, but he has hardly come off the bit in his two wins over 1600m and 2000m respectively, following his debut over 1500m in which he came from a mile back to run second.

 

Pettigrew said he would get his African Horse Sickness Vaccinations now and they then had a plan for him “up until the end of November”, which was a hint that he would be targeted at the Summer Cup.

 

Pettigrew is a horseman of vast experience and is not one to jump the gun. He admitted the horse still had a number of hurdles in front of him and would have to prove himself good enough. However, he added that the horse was a lovely, sound type and he believed he would be even better with the sting out of the ground after the rains came.

 

Owner Willem Ackerman said it had been his acid test going from a maiden to a MR 96 Handicap and admitted the performance had left him excited.

 

For a horse who arrived with a reputation of not wanting to work and who then took over a year to get to the racecourse he appears to be remarkably professional and there is little hint of any problems other than him going down to the start with his best friend, the stable pony.

 

It is interesting to note that Mission To Mars is out of a mare by Jeremy, as the latter is by Danehill Dancer.

 

The nick between Galileo and Danehill Dancer mares is one of the world’s elite thoroughbred crosses and with Sea The Stars being a half-brother to Galileo and Danehill Dancer being the grandsire of Mission To Mars’ dam, the cross could be said to be there to some extent.

 

Please note: South African Quartet Pools with fractional betting offered at Ripon and Windsor (UK) – 3 August 2026.

David Thiselton

The national championships of all categories last season was notable in that there were no really close fought titles with all of them being clear cut, although there was a mathematical possibility that Varsfontein Stud could catch the eventual champions Mauritzfontein and Wilgerbosdrift at the World Pool Gold Cup meeting in the race for the Breeders Title.

Craig Zackey can now proudly and deservedly call himself Champion Jockey having reached a final tally of 286 wins for the season when landing a four-timer at the last meeting on the Fairview poly.

He had by far the most rides in the season of 1683, but his strike rate was a decent 16.99%.

Zackey had set himself a target of 275 for the season and such was his excellence throughout that his prediction turned out to be conservative.

He was 61 wins clear of nearest rival Richard Fourie, who had 225 wins at a strike rate of 21.55%.

Keagan de Melo is a man to watch as he ended on 158 wins in third place, despite starting the season four months in on December 5.

His strike rate of 20.57% tells a story as it was third highest on the log behind that of Aldo Domeyer’s (53 wins at 22.75%) and Fourie’s.

Fourie generally only travelled from Cape Town to the East Cape other than for big meetings in KZN and the Highveld and if it is the same this season then the title might be fought out by Zackey, De Melo and Gavin Lerena. The latter travelled to KZN for the first meeting of the new season and now looks to be Hollywood Racing’s chief rider.

The rest of the top ten together with their number of wins and strike rates were Muzi Yeni on 148 (11.96%), Calvin Habib on 133 (10.95%), Callan Murray on 117 (12.58%) , Serino Moodley on 100 (12.35%), Sean Veale on 94 (13.13%), Gavin Lerena on 92 (18.47%) and Rachel Venniker on 83 (11.96%).

Blaine Marx Jacobson will be crowned Apprentice Champion with 43 wins at 11.85% and he beat home Mxolisi Mbutho on 32 wins (7.60%), Damyan Pillay on 31 wins (11.40%), Dezahn Louw on 28 wins (8.33%) and Bavish Soodoo on 27 wins (10.31%).

If there had been betting on the Apprentice Championship Marx-Jacobson would likely have been a 100/1 shot at the beginning of February as he had mustered a paltry three wins from 97 rides in the season at that stage and was going along at a strike rate of at 3.09%.

The two leaders at that stage were Mxolisi Mbutho and Girish Samo-Burthia, who were both on 21 wins at respective strike rates of 9.68% and 12.73%.

Yet just seven weeks later Marx-Jacobson, after moving to the Highveld, had taken the lead on 28 wins and had improved his strike rate to 12.79%.

The leading Workrider in the country was Phenesile Mongqawa with 8 wins at a fine strike rate of 36.36% and Sam Mosia was next best with 7 wins at 25.93%, while Savanna Valjalo retired from the professional ranks in January but started riding in work races again in May and had five wins in 15 rides for a high strike rate of 33,33%.

The best bet of the season was Justin Snaith to land the Trainers Championship because at odds of around 5/10 it looked like buying money such was his firepower.

He ended up earning more than double the stakes money of his perennial closest rival Sean Tarry.

Snaith ended on stakes earnings of R39,579,158 from 140 wins.

The only statistic in which he was not leader was the number of wins in the season which saw Alan Greeff ahead on 149 wins.

The rest of the top ten was made up of Tarry (R17,897,882), Tony Peter (R15,419,938), Mike and Mathew de Kock (15,316,968), Alan Greeff (R13,191,599), James Crawford (R11,990,085), Candice Bass (R11,706,375), Dean Kannemeyer (R9,759,044), Vaughan Marshall (R9,543,629) and Glen Kotzen (R8,866,332).

The Breeders Championship was won for the third time in the last six seasons by Wilgerbosdrift and Mauritzfontein, who wrested the title back from Drakenstein Stud.

They won both the Gr 3 R1 million World Pool Gold Cup and the Gr 2 R500,000 Bet With The World Gold Bracelet on the final day of the season with Holding Thumbs and Mocha Blend respectively to remain clear of Varsfontein Stud, whose progeny Note To Self had won the R10 million Hollywoodbets Durban July.

Wilgerbosdrift is owned by Mary Slack, while Mauritzfontein is owned by her daughter and son-in-law Jessica and Steven Jell.

Wilgerbosdrift & Mauritzfontein’s progeny had 169 winners of 270 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 14 races for stakes earnings of R34,703,203.

Varsfontein Stud had 120 winners of 190 races with 17 individual stakes winners of 21 races for earnings of R32,261,776.

Drakenstein Stud had 85 winners of 135 races with 12 individual stakes winners of 14 races for earnings of R22,998,934.

Maine Chance Farms (Pty) Ltd had 69 winners of 117 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 13 races for earnings of R19,231,596.

Ridgemont had 96 winners of 142 races with 5 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R16,670,646.

Stallion phenomenon Vercingetorix secured his second Sires title with his progeny earning R40,770,265 from 138 winners of 248 races. He was unable to match his South African stakes race record from the previous season of 23 individual winners of 33 races, although his progeny did win more stakes races, 34, albeit with 21 individual winners.

Gimmethegreenlight (AUS) was in second places with 126 winners of 188 races. including 7 individual stakes winners of 7 races for earnings of R23,816,838

Querari (GER) had 92 winners of 143 races with 7 individual stakes winners of 12 races for  earnings of R22,888,859

Master Of My Fate had 88 winners of 147 races with 11 individual stakes winners of 16 races for earnings of R21,145,171.

Rafeef (AUS) had 110 winners of 162 races with 6 individual stakes winners of 6 races for earnings of R20,746,283.

Malmoos was the freshman champion stallion with 9 winners of 14 races and 1 individual stakes winner of 3 races for earnings of R1,800,896.

Note To Self was the highest earning horse of the season on R6,382,850, followed by See It Again (R5,080,750), Mocha Blend (3,948,275), Wish List (R3,749,363) and Questioning (R2,933,125).

Andrew Harrison

Patrick Kruyer was a regular during the KZN winter season when assistant to Terrance Millard back in the 1980’s but he arrived for this year’s Champions Season with just two modest runners stabled with old friend Michael Roberts.

One of them was Charlie Bucket who arrived with a string of places behind his name. That changed first time out as he got his maiden behind him and he followed up with an impressive second win, leading all the way under Rachel Venniker, in the C Stakes that headed the card at Hollywoodbets Scottsville yesterday.

The addition of a compression mask and earmuffs to his racing equipment appears to have him turn the corner. Slow out when winning his maiden, he ‘pinged’ the gate yesterday and was not for the catching with a wall of horses chasing him home.

Taking a leaf out of Venniker’s playbook, Tristan Godden made all aboard Rikkitikkitavi for Andre Nel, but it was a close run thing as he was chased home by a wall of horses, one being Captain’s Pride with Keagan de Melo riding an excellent race only to fail by a head.

Rikkitikkitavi was game up front as he kept finding all the way to the line while De Melo sat for as long as he dared on Captain’s pride before asking for maximum and just running out of runway.

Owen Heffer, the head honcho  of Hollywoodbets and the man behind Race Coast and Champion Owners Hollywood Racing, gave former local trainer Craig Ramsay, now resident in New Zealand, a brief to buy some well-bred fillies to race in this country.
The first of these to run was a winner. Australian-bred Umoyawokubambelela put the field to bed in the second in spite of doing very little right. Slow out of the gate and last for much of the race, Gavin Lerena slowly allowed her to build momentum and once into stride, she left to opposition for dead.

According to Hollywood Racing’s  manager Anthony Delpech, Umoyawokubambelela had a rough time in quarantine suffering from colic and having a colic operation, so the decision to leave the filly with Wengi Masawi and his team in the quiet climbs of the Ashburton paid dividends as she won with authority.

 Stuart Ferrie got his season off to a winning start as the well supported Iceberg Rose finished off her race smartly to touch off Paul Lafferty’s first timer Fleur Delacour in the first with favourite Forthegoodtimes in third.

Lovecomesknocking and Sweet Cherry set a strong gallop but both came up empty. The winner and runner-up both finished strongly with little separating them at the line. Forthegoodtimes was slow out and briefly looked as if she would make a race of it but was a tad one-paced at the business end and does appear to be looking for further.

CaLvin Habib had an armchair ride on Peaceful Duchess for Dennis Bosch in the first leg of the Pick 6.

Keagan de Melo tried to make all on Future Prospect but the writing was on the wall a long way out as Peaceful Duchess moved up under the hands to come home a comfortable winner with Future Prospect staying on for second.

Glen Kotzen held the key to the Class 4 over 2000m with Golden Angel and Sesame. The two met at their previous start with Sesame on the right side of the photo. Golden Angel was 3.5kg better off in yesterday’s race but Sesame defied the handicappers and stormed to a comfortable win from Golden Angel with the gamble on Our Lady Fate, 10’s into 4’s,  going awry. The race was run in two halves. If Habib had it easy in the previous race Zena’s Act got the better of him from the jump as she took a hold of the bit and hurtled off to the front and her race was run down the back straight as the opposition tracked her some 10 lengths adrift.

Janes Vision, back to the mark at which she last won, made all under apprentice Dezahan Louw to land the D Stakes for Michael Roberts. Out in a flash, Louw made a bee-line for the inside fence, a smart move given the mares tendency to hang right, but once there she was not for the catching with Champagne Mac, slow to start, flashing up late to snatch second.

De Melo may have timed his run a little too late aboard Captain’s Pride but he made amends for Louis Goosen. Just off the pace in the early exchanges, Blazing Fury came with a storming late run under a big weight to win the last going away from long-time pacemaker Axis Power and Luneluck, who was not so lucky as he got caught between Axis Power and Blazing Fury and Venniker was forced to ease for a few strides .