Africa Blue’s first win for Rob Fayd’herbe
Former Mike Bass assistant trainer Robert Fayd’herbe will remember last Saturday’s Kenilworth meeting with great pride in the years ahead. Fayd’herbe saddled his first winner when his brother Bernard rode a blinder to win the third race on the well bred filly, Africa Blue.
Robert Fayd’-herbe recently joined forces with veteran Neil Bruss in a joint venture training oper-ation from their Milnerton base. Bruss hails from a well known Zimbabwean racing family and has been training since 1972. And it has not taken Robert long to break the ice and find the winner’s enclosure. He only sent out his first runner on 6 November this year.
The beautiful chestnut Africa Blue looked beaten, but took off in the final 200m of the mile Maiden Plate to catch and beat the favourite Ma Choix in the final stride. In a further family twist, the filly runs in the silks of Robin Bruss, Neil’s brother and is from one of their great mares, Circle Of Life. Long associated with the legendary Pocket Power, Robert and older heavyweight jockey brother Bernard were born and bred in Pietermaritzburg.
He is a grandson of the great Harold “Tiger” Wright and rode professionally in Zimbabwe and South Africa until weight problems forced him to hang up his boots. His admiration for his former boss and multiple Cape champion trainer Mike Bass is well documented:
“Mr Bass was wonderful. He doesn’t like to call a vet for minor things and so I learned to watch for and treat a lot of things myself. I learnt a huge amount from Trevor Taylor about stable management and general horsemanship skills. If I had any advice for young apprentices coming through the ranks it would be to spend time in the yards in the afternoons. You learn so much. It was very good of Mr Bass to trust me enough to leave me on my own to train Gr1 horses. If I rang him up for advice he’d just say ‘You know what the horse looks like, Robert!’.”
He has listed English Garden’s win in the SA Classic as one of his proudest achievements and of course the recent Gold Cup win with Jeppe’s Reef. “But Pocket Power probably taught me the most,” he admits.
When interviewed at the start of his training career, Robert explained why he had taken the plunge in probably one of the toughest areas of horseracing: “Mr Bass always said one day he’d make a trainer out of me,” he said.
“Neil’s been trying to talk me into it for years, but it’s tough trying to make it on your own and boxes are scarce, so this seemed like a good way to start. And I guess if you don’t try you’ll never know.” The Fayd’herbe’s Facebook chatter was active this past weekend. Bernard playfully wrote of the filly: ‘Robert was naughty and didn’t tell me she was totally mad. She tried to attack me at the start. A cheeky filly!’
