Crawford Gelding Wins ‘Servant Of The Tote’ Award

The close of the racing season brings a raft of new data to analyse and dissect, especially for breeders making stallion selections.

In the context of these important numbers, it’s likely that the one that leapt out at me says more about my off-piste perspectives, but here goes anyway.

Oscar Foulkes writes that when Cape Racing announced the appearance fee being paid to all runners, with the exception of first and last place finishers, along with lump sum payments to horses that had 12, 15 or 20 starts in the season, his assumption was that a large amount of money would be paid out.

The gutsy soldier Donder Storm wins his maiden under Louis Mxothwa at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth in April ’23 (Pic- Chase Liebenberg)

If I’d been the person doing the budgets, it’s possible that I would have allowed for something close to R2 million in end-of-season payments alone.

Before I reveal the actual number, a small caveat is necessary, in that an unexpectedly large number of race meetings was lost. We own a filly, Fallo Ancora, that ended the season one run short, having had two accepted engagements fall away due to the rain. There must be others.

I didn’t expect any horse to get to 20 starts, so no surprises that the R50k bonus wasn’t paid out. The final tally was just one horse on 15 starts, and 22 horses on 12 starts.

As a breeder, the first question I have to ask is about the soundness of our horses. Do we really have just a couple of dozen horses in the Cape that are sound enough to race 12 times per year?

I wouldn’t expect the big race contenders to line up for this many races per year. Those careers need to be carefully managed. In any case, the opportunities for those horses are limited.

This applies to the run-of-the-mill horses only. Assuming they don’t run last, if one combines the appearance fee plus end of season bonus, in 12 starts they can earn close to half their training fees for the year. And this is without earning a cent in stakes.

In this sprit, the horse that deserves the ‘Servant of the Tote’ award must be Donder Storm.

He raced 15 times, for just one win, earning stakes in 11 of those starts, for a total of a shade under R115k.

His average beaten distance was a little over three lengths, pointing to his consistency.

With his bonus and appearance fees, his income for the year isn’t far off R200k.

We all want to win Grade I races, but this is a version of racehorse ownership that is rewarding on multiple levels.