Paul Reeves (credit: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Sunday, 4 October dawned grey and overcast in Milnerton, but the weather did little to dampen the spirits at Reeves Racing, who were hosting their second annual ‘baby day’.
Paul Reeves hails from the UK, immigrating to South Africa with his family at the age of four. He developed an early interest in horses and successfully applied to the SA Jockey Academy, graduating alongside jockeys like Gerrit Basson, Alan Levy, Ian Hemingway, Glyn Schofield and Andrew Fortune.
Originally indentured to the Bobby Schutt yard, Paul saw out his time with Colin Burroughs, before heading to Johannesburg to ply his trade. After 6 years in Joburg, which he describes as a ‘good period in his life’, he returned to Cape Town with his wife, Charlmain and two young daughters, Stacey and Claudia. In 1999, a head-on collision on Milnerton’s cinder track early one morning brought his career to an abrupt halt.
Fortunately, he escaped the incident with his life, if not his riding career and chose to pursue a different career path in the UK. He spent 3 years working for Newsells Park Stud, pre-training horses for the likes of Sir Michael Stoute, Mark Johnson and Marco Botti and counts himself lucky to have handled horses like Gitano Hernando (currently doing stud duty at The Alchemy in Robertson) and Strawberrydaiquiri.
Family business
The family came back to South Africa and Paul sat his trainer’s exam in 2009, starting out at the Philippi training centre. Reeves Racing is very much a family operation, so it would be fair to say that they had their first winner on 23 December 2009 when their son of Victory Moon, Current Line, posted a 1.25 length victory at Kenilworth in Charlmain’s fuchsia pink and lime green silks. Making it an even more memorable day for the family, was the fact that jockey Devin Ashby, now Paul’s son-in-law, was in the saddle and that it was his first win as a fully-fledged jockey.
Starting a new venture is always tough, and never more so that in the existing racing climate. However, even though it’s only been 6 years, the family have come a long way from their Philippi yard. With the green and white Reeves Racing sign firmly affixed to the wall at their Milnerton training base, they now have 40 boxes, some feature race success and an expanding client base to their credit. However, they have not lost the fun, family touch and hosted their second annual ‘baby day’ last Sunday.
Hive of activity
Viewing the babies (credit: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Visitors kept the security guard on the gate busy and soon the loading ramp was filled with cars, turning the normally quiet training centre Sunday morning into a hive of activity. Tables were laid with snacks, there was a Mimosa fountain and Stacey, who is not only a talented assistant trainer, but also an accomplished baker, had produced a cake which featured an (edible) photograph of their very first winner.
It’s the little homely touches – like Saturday morning bacon and egg sarnies – that have always been their trademark and has ensured that many of the owners that joined them at Philippi were still there on Sunday and as enthused about their racing as always.
Getting established
“It’s tricky trying to grow and upgrade your string. When you start out, you need a certain number of horses and when you’re the new kid on the block, you’ve got to get your name out there somehow. Either you spend a lot of money trying to acquire top sale lots – not a reality for many of us, particularly considering how competitive it is out there – otherwise you hedge your bets across more conservative purchases. So it’s a difficult balance of quantity over quality. We’ve been lucky and have built up some great clients. People like Dr Aniruth and Erhaard Strooh (who bred Nonki Poo) have been with us from the start, Paul Barrett and his family have been absolute soldiers and the Govenders are also growing their racing interests. Now that we’re a bit more established and have proved that we can produce results, we’ve also got a few new faces and are upgrading our string. Slowly slowly,” he grins.
Shrewd purchases
Sea Cat downs the boys in the Listed East Cape Guineas
As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Paul has managed to ‘box clever’ with shrewd selections such as the improbably named Nonki Poo, Tiger Tiger and Sea Cat, although he’s posted enough smaller wins and places to keep his clients having fun and wanting to come back for more.
“It’s tough on a budget obviously, but we’ve had a lot of luck without spending too much and the CTS Book 2 and Klawervlei Farm Sales have been particularly rewarding for us.” So much so that Grant Knowles has opted to send him a Rebel King colt out of Hope Jo’anna, cleverly named ‘Eddie Grant’. Keep an eye out for that one!
They’ve also been lucky in acquiring new clients and Paul’s cheeky chappie approach of ‘he who dares’ has paid dividends. A visit to local dental surgeon Dr Sunil Aniruth for Stacey’s wisdom teeth operation sparked a conversation about racing and when he mentioned he’d only get back in racing for a Goldmark colt, they were happy to be able to offer him one. Stable stalwart Paul Barrett came via the Graham Beck dispersal sale, where Paul had prepped a few of the sale lots. Mr Barrett enquired which were Paul’s pick of the sale, to which he replied “I’m not going to tell you, or you’ll just buy them for someone else!” Mr Barrett clearly liked his chutzpah and went halves on a Windrush colt called Code Red, who ended up an 11 time winner. “Mr Barrett has been an absolute solder for the yard. His whole family get involved and they’re great fun to have around. They love their horses and love travelling with them to PE and Kimberley.”
Confidence
Paul isn’t scared to put his money where his mouth is. “You’ve got to trust your eye and sometimes you just like a horse. Often a client will ask me to look at something and I won’t like it. If I show them something that I like and they’re not interested, then I’ll often buy it myself.”
One such purchase was Sea Cat, who he bought in partnership with Paul Barrett and later sold to Mary and Jessica Slack. However, the quirky filly proved something of a conundrum to her new conditioner and eventually, rather sensibly, Sea Cat made her way back to her Milnerton home and Reeves Racing is very proud to have a set of Oppenheimer silks in their inventory. “Sea Cat always had her own mind, but that’s just the way we know her. She’s had quite a long break, but we hope to get her back on form.”
Marsh Shirtliff spending some quality time with his colt (credit: hamishNIVENPhotography)
He also blagged his way into a rather impressive Soar With Eagles colt at the recent Book 2 sale. “I really liked the colt and had pulled him out a few times. Marsh Shirtliff came by and said he also liked the colt and asked whether he could look at him with me. I’ll be honest, my heart sank a little because I thought highly of the colt, but I can’t play in Marsh’s league, so I said ‘How about you buy him for me?’ Marsh set me a budget and we got him just below it. When the hammer came down, you’d have thought we won the July!” We consider all our clients important, but it’s a huge compliment when someone like Marsh trusts you with a horse and we really hope we will do him proud.” Not only is Marsh a firm fixture on the local racing scene, he is one of our genuine enthusiasts, often getting up early to watch gallops and coming to races whether he has Pocket Power running in the Met or a first timer at Durbanville. He joined the rest of the guests on the rail on Sunday, appreciatively looking over the baby string and exchanging comments and looking very satisfied with the progress his colt has made.
The babies
Team Reeves Racing (credit: hamishNIVENPhotography)
Which brings me to the business end of the morning – the babies! While some horses did have shares available and others didn’t, the young stock were all paraded and we were treated to their history, what they’d done so far and how they were shaping up. There were colts and fillies of various descriptions, from a choice of bloodlines and stud farms and they even have 6 horses eligible for January’s $1 million race. A nice touch was having jockeys Robert Khathi, Devin Ashby and birthday boy Brandon Morgenrood on hand to answer any pertinent questions.
Paul explains, “Our baby day was a success last year and it got the guys involved. It’s a fun opportunity for clients to visit the yard, see their horses, have a drink and a snack, chat and get to know one another outside of sales or racing. Often people will end up taking shares together or even swapping shares in horses and it’s just a good excuse to get together and spend some time at the yard. It’s just a little something extra that we like to do.”
“We have some fantastic owners in the yard and our owners become more than patrons, they’re friends and we all enjoy racing together. It’s tough being a small yard and not necessarily having the budget of some of the bigger guys. Obviously everyone wants to own a champion, but not everyone can or necessarily wants to buy in the big league and that’s OK with us. One’s got to be realistic – only one horse can win the Met or the Queen’s Plate every year, but that still leaves plenty of other races. We’re not scared to take on the big guys and we’re always out there trying. As they say, horses don’t know what they cost and we beat a lot of more expensive horses a lot of the time, so we make sure we have a lot of fun!”
Anyone who is interested in purchasing a share, a whole horse or just wants to find out more is welcome to contact either Paul or Charlmain on [email protected].
