Champion. Dean Kannemeyer and Sam Sellars of Fieldspring Racing savour In Writing’s Equus victory
“I am thrilled that things are looking up. Now let’s hope that they reconsider levelling the playing fields!”
That was the response from Cape trainer Dean Kannemeyer as he read the Cape Times Racegoer page while putting his charges through their paces at Milnerton this week.
The Kannemeyer name has been inexorably linked to Natal racing’s major season for over four decades and the stable have won practically every major race on offer since Dean’s father Peter started raiding in the early 1970’s.
Kannemeyer had a fair past champions season, winning the Gr3 Byerley Turk with Capetown Noir and the In Full Flight Stakes with the smart Cape Royal. His Silvano gelding Hot Ticket won the KZN 2000 and was an unlucky loser in the KZN Derby:
“We won’t make excuses. We have been this road many times and we look forward from here. A nice season would have been a great season, but for Capetown Noir’s narrow defeat in the KRA Guineas and his courageous run in the Daily News 2000. Those two losing margins were a combined 0,20 lengths! Then Joey (Ramsden’s) horse beat us narrowly in the KZN Derby. He went on to frank that form with a second finish behind Jackson in the Gr1 Champions Cup on Super Saturday. That pleased me tremendously,” he said.
Kannemeyer’s ‘playing fields’ remark was a reference to a change of policy implemented in KwaZulu Natal where ‘outside’ trainers with satellite yards were subjected to various onerous restrictions at the lower levels of racing.
Back for the Queen’s Plate. Capetown Noir seen winning the Byerley Turk earlier this year
This has forced the Cape based horseman to reconsider his position and look at closing his satellite yard at Clairwood.
“We all love racing in KwaZulu Natal and Champions Season racing is unparalleled in terms of the quality and thrills on offer. Reading David’s article, I am pleased that the KZN guys are doing well. It can only be good for racing all round. But what I do not believe is good for racing is the effort to prop up the bottom end of the scale by restricting entry and placing conditions on minimum merit ratings and the like. Two sets of rules cannot be a sustainable business principle to promote quality,” he added.
He said that the Cape welcomed visiting trainers and that anything that promoted competition and boosted turnover should be welcomed for the greater good of the game.
Kannemeyer added that all trainers were subjected to buying horses out of the same pool and marketing their businesses in similar economic climates:
“If I do not look after my customer, then I must expect him to go elsewhere. But when my customer spends his hard earned cash at sale, then he should be entitled to race for his share of the prize on an equal footing wherever he chooses in the national jurisdiction,” he said.
In an article titled ‘KZN trainers on the up’ and which appeared in the Racegoer of 31 July, Gold Circle’s David Thiselton outlined and highlighted the excellent achievements of the KwaZulu-Natal trainers.
In Thiselton’s words, ‘much maligned and in the doldrums in the early years of this century, they are now threatening the top positions on the National Log that they once regularly occupied.’
Five KZN yards landed Gr1 victories this season and that excludes National Champion trainer Mike de Kock who is officially KZN-based but would more accurately be labelled an international trainer.
Dennis Drier. Leading KZN trainer
Dennis Drier won three Gr1’s and is currently sixth on the National log with earnings of R8,022,850.
Gavin van Zyl won two Gr1s and was lying in fifth place on the National log before today’s season ending meeting with stake earnings of R9,322,650.
Duncan Howells is currently fourteenth on the National log.
His lightning quick three-year-old Var filly Via Africa won the WFA Gr1 SA Fillies Sprint, having finished second to Champion Sprinter What A Winter in both the WFA Gr1 Cape Flying Championship and WFA Gr1 Computaform Sprint.
Alyson Wright won her native Zimbabwe’s biggest race, the Gr1 Castle Tankard, with the five-year-old Second Empire gelding A King Is Born who went on to also win that country’s Gr3 Republic Cup. Orbit War made it a yard one-two in the latter race.
However, the Wrights’ proudest moment was on Super Saturday when their Black Minnaloushe gelding Kochka won the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes over 1 600m, thus easing the disappointment of his hair-breadth’s defeat in the Gr1 Durban Golden Horseshoe on July day.
Paul Lafferty landed his first ever Gr1 when Love Struck won the SA Classic over 1 800m at Turffontein, although the Kahal three-year-old gelding had to survive a nail-biting objection. Love Struck won features in three provinces, having also won the Listed Betting World Guineas Trial at Clairwood and the Listed Politician Stakes over 1 800m at Kenilworth.
Charles Laird won the Gr1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint with his three-year-old Var gelding Contador. It was Laird’s eighth Gr1 win at the Scottsville Festival Of Speed meeting. His Australian-bred filly Dylan’s Promise won the Gr2 Betting World Oaks as well as a Non-Black Type event. Laird also won the Gr3 Godolphin Barb Stakes with Normanz, the Gr3 Cup Trial with Astro News and the Listed Darley Arabian with Distinguished. He also had one other Non-Black Type win.
Mike Miller won the Gr2 Umkhomazi Stakes with Colour Of Courage. Jeff Freedman won the Gr3 Christmas Handicap with Silver Age and his SA Derby-third placed Wild One ran in the July.
Kumaran Naidoo won the Gr3 Lebelo Sprint with Royal Zulu Warrior, the Gr3 Three Troikas Stakes with King’s Temptress as well as the Gr3 Strelitzia with Royalsecuritybaby.
