20 Years Ago: Sands Of Time – April 1993

March 28 – April 3

Michael Roberts is voted Jockey of the Year (1992) by his weighing room colleagues in England – by a short head (one vote) from George Duffield. Lester Piggot gets a standing ovation after being named Personality of the Year.

The Jockey Club opens an investigation into the well-being of Empress Club before last week’s Cup race. Owner Jaffee had remarked after the filly’s defeat that “her white-cell count was not quite right”. The Jockey Club investigation is done in terms of Rule 70, which requires anything that can affect the performance of a horse to be officially reported.

Bush Telegraph, leading sire of juveniles in the current season, dies of heart failure at stud in Robertson. Bush Telegraph won the Rothmans July as a three-year-old, before being retired early at 4 because of heart problems. The son of Jungle Cove is buried next to Persian Wonder (sire of his dam) at Highlands.

Lowell Price is appointed as Executive Secretary of the TBA, while Greame Hawkins is appointed CEO of the new TBA Sales division.

The TBA also appoints Mike Holmes (formerly of Chris Smith Bloodstock) as Sales Manager TBA Sales. The TBA announces that all sales previously conducted by Chris Smith Bloodstock have been taken over by the TBA, and that Chris Smith and the TBA are from now on coupled on the Tote as the former will act as Marketing consultant for the Breeder’s Association.

It is anticipated that the TBA Council will be able to concentrate on breed related issues rather than sales related matters as was the case in the past.

Cape trainer Watters is fined R10.000 by the Jockey Club for committing a corrupt, fraudulent and dishonest practice in relation to racing when he nominated I’m Me to race at a meeting in the Cape while the horse was already in Mauritius at the time. Watters had pleaded guilty.

The Jockey Club’s fining makes peculiar reading, if Watter’s fine is compared to the punishment of Natal trainer Brown (R10.000 after a positive test on one of his horses), Transvaal trainer Magner (R20.000 after a positive test on one of his horses) and to that of Cape trainer Hodgson (warned off for six months and fined R25.000 for bringing racing into disrepute). It is time the Jockey Club sets some clearer guidelines for allocating penalties and for what constitutes “bringing racing into disrepute” – and why on earth Watters wasn’t charged with that. There seems to be little consistency in the Jockey Club’s coping with crime, as shown by the penalty meted out to Highveld racing official Jeff Moffett, general manager of Newmarket Turf Club. Moffett is fined R10.000 for being directly or indirectly interested in bets while a licensed official. Believe it or not, but this archaic Jockey Club rule allows raceclub stewards, who are regularly required to sit in judgement when offenses are committed, to bet as they like, while racing’s official employees like Moffett commit an offense when they do so (or let their wives do so!).

Does punishment really fit the crime when Moffett’s R10.000 fine is compared to Watters’ R10.000?

Muscovy wins the second leg of the Fillies Triple, when she beats Vesta in a slowish run Gr1 Bloodline Fillies Guineas over a mile at Gosforth Park. Vesta, as usual, came form the tail-end of the field, but the slow early pace was her undoing: Muscovy got first run and that was that. Vesta had won the first leg, the Cape Fillies Guineas, in November last year.

Forty horses line up for the running of the Grand National at Aintree, and cause “a cock-up beyond the realm of farce” (Brough Scott, Racing Post) when after a second false start the majority of the riders fail to notice the recall flag. Local flagman Ken Evans, who gets paid œ28 to act as recall man to starter Captain Brown, is blamed by track officials for not raising his flag amidst chaotic scenes at the second false start. The race is declared a non-event after twenty-six runners complete a full Aintree circuit and seven of them go through the whole lung busting 4.5 mile ordeal.

 

Here’s another view from Racing Post:

A Not So Grand National

A catastrophe is the Titanic sinking or Hindenberg burning, or Aberfan, of what’s going on in Yugoslavia.

What happened on Saturday wasn’t a catastrophe. It was what one is given to believe they used to refer to in the Civil Service as an AFBU. (Unfamiliar with the word? Think acronym).

It was an AFBU of heroic proportions, achieved by people who dressed and looked and acted like Peter Sellers and Terry-Thomas once used to in films in which colossal AFBUs were constructed entirely for our entertainment. As far as the antiquated organisations of our sport is concerned, it would be nice to believe that this was the AFBU to end all AFBUs. Nice, but probably unrealistic.

Can anyone remember such embarrassment? It just makes your toes curl to consider what they must have thought of us around the world. In Hong Kong, for example, where they do things differently, the televised Grand National was to have been the ninth race on the Happy Valley card. Saturday’s events will not have increased respect for the departing colonial power.

Some will choose to see what happened as the perfect metaphor for the collapse of the old English ruling class. For years we’ve all suspected they couldn’t run a whelk stall. Here apparently was conclusive proof.

There are already howls around for heads to roll. But whose heads? Who really deserves the credit for this remake of all our ancient comedies?

The star certainly appears to have been the unfortunate Ken Evans, who failed, after the second false start, to raise the flag that would have told the jockeys they had to stop. Why? Because he was unsighted? Because he couldn’t believe it could happen twice? Because he was busy signing autographs after the first one? Who knows?

Then Keith Brown and his bowler hat deserve honourable mention for their brilliant performance as the dithery starter. A tour de force indeed. Nice one Keith. The man whose job it was to make sure the tape released smoothly when the lever was depressed has to be one of the unsung heroes. And it’s probably quite fair to describe the animal rights protesters as those “without whom none of this would have been possible.”

But it was really Ken’s show and we shouldn’t take it away from him, however tempting it may be to try and spread the blame. Will Hay couldn’t have done it better. Robertson Hare would have been left at the post.

What all those unfamiliar with the logic of the antique British comedy will want to know, however, is: Why was the destination of $75 million, the pleasure of 300 million people, the reputation of the sport and the results of months of effort by thousands who work in it ever allowed to depend on the alertness of one semi-professional with a little red flag?

The answer is that we have to rely on such people and on such primitive means of communication because there is no money around to produce an alternative.

So far all the howling for the introduction of electronic equipment, for professional stewarding, for the abolition of the Jockey Club and the BHB themselves followed by the immediate arrest of the nasty man in spats we all knew was the baddy from the start still completely ignores this fact.

Why? God knows. Maybe someone’s got them brain-washed. But the howlers ought to know that you cannot sweep away an old management when there’s nothing to put in its place. You cannot demand professionalism if you’ve got nothing to pay professionals with.

Some good can come of this.

If it makes people ask why there’s no money, why things have to be run as a joke by joke people, Ken’s failure to wave his flag may yet be the saving of British racing rather than just the instrument of its humiliation.

The truth is that there is no money to run things properly, no money to paint the sign boards, no money to get rid of the chaps in 1950’s macs and bowler hats, because almost everything our sport generates is consumed by the off-course betting industry.

Everyone outside Britain knows that. A lot of people inside Britain know it too. But for reasons best known to themselves, they will never admit it.

Instead of blaming the system, which is what they should be doing, they look for individuals to kick instead.

(Paul Haigh, Racing Post)

1993 Grand National Video

April 4 -10

Outstanding sire and broodmare sire Dancing Champ dies age 20 at Excelsior Stud in Robertson, probably from a heart attack. The sire of Olympic Duel and her 3yo brother Dancing Duel (amongst others) covered 50 mares in his last season.

In Ireland the Turf Board, the governing body of Irish racing and the equivalent of our Jockey Club, breaks with tradition when it publishes its accounts for the first time in its 202-year-old history. Says Brigadier Sam Waller, the senior steward: “We live in an age of accountability and it is imperative at a time of change on the racing scene that we be clearly seen as running a cost effective, efficient operation”.

Accounts showed that the board, which administers racing in Ireland and owns the famous Curragh racecourse, made an operating loss of 280.000 punts (Irish pounds) last season.

The Secret Prospector gelding Hidden Fortune runs on nicely to score in the Gr1 SA Derby at Turffontein, from Pyjama Party and New Zealand bred White Tie Affair.

 

April 11 – 17

Ormond Ferraris continues his stranglehold on the Gr2 SA Oaks, when 8/10 favourite Lambarina comes home in heavy going to defeat stable companion Catch Twenty Two and Forest Angel.

South African buyers return with 16 yearlings from the Australian Sydney Easter Sale, against a background of rumblings about unfair and restrictive importation criteria. A group of owners reportedly has taken legal action to have the TBA’s import restrictions lifted.

In the UK, the Jockey Club says it is looking into claims that the horse Now And Then was tampered with before his race last Saturday. Trainer Sue Bramall found a swelling on the horse’s neck, indicating that he may have been given an injection. Further clues are provided by the fact that, as the news report states, “a man carrying a syringe was seen fleeing from the area”. Now really…

July entries close. Sixty-two hopefuls are nominated for the final field of twenty that will contest the R1 million big race on July 3 (ten are from the Millard stable). Notable absentees are recent Arab-owned imports, the two-miler Braashi and miler Rami, as well as an another imported miler, Deprecator.

Former Zimbabwean trainer Robin Smith scores his first South African victory with the Nissr horse Solar Treasure at Greyville. The winner starts at 10/1, to win by a short head. The victory is an all-Whenwe affair, as Solar Treasure is ridden by former Zim jockey Dewi Williams, whose first South African winner this is.

Lucy’s Axe colt Young Victor (a son of highclass race filly Young Lady) causes an upset when he wins the R100.000 MEC Guineas at Newmarket. Favourite Lord Shirldor drifts from 5/10 to 11/10 on support for Gale Rising (5/1 to 7/2), but both finish unplaced. 20/1 shot Young Victor beats former Zimbabwean challenger Bluff by a neck.

Fulfillment puts in the best performance at the weights, but 58 kilos proves just too much for her to win the National 3yo Sprint Handicap at Gosforth Park, where she starts 22/10 favourite. London Mist (55 kilos, 12/1) and Little Kiss (51.5 kilos, 7/2) beat her by a whisker and the same.

On a damp afternoon in Hong Kong, 80.000 patrons watch the yearly Hong Kong invitational races – 68.000 of them present at Sha Tin, while the other 12.000 watch the big screen at Happy Valley, Hong Kong’s other track. Tote turnover exceeds HK$1 billion, before HK$45 million has to be returned after a false start in the last race on the card.

Romanee Conti gives New Zealand breds five wins from six Hong Kong International Cups run to date. Starting at 24/1, the daughter of Sir Tristram overhauls Sheikh Hamdam’s Australian challenger Fraar, to win going away. Local hero River Verdon runs fifth in the HK$4.5 million (!) race.

In the accompanying invitational Hong Kong International Bowl, US representative Glen Kate makes all the running. The daughter of Glenstal and Nonoalco mare Miss Kate races in the colours of Los Angeles icehockey team owner Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky, the team’s best player and main attraction. These owners also raced Japan Cup winner Golden Pheasant and Arc winner Saumarez, and bought Quest for Fame to stand as stallion at Graham Beck’s Gainesway Farm. Glen Kate had been bought as a weanling from David Nagle for 8400 guineas and won 3 races at 2 at 3 in England from as many starts (TFR 102)

 

April 18 – 24

Empress Club is posted as 5/2 favourite for the Rothmans July when betting opens at Natal Tattersalls. They bet 12/1 Dancing Duel, 14/1 Flaming Rock, and twenties bar.

Cape champion jockey Mark Khan makes what appears to be a sensible move when he departs for the Transvaal tracks to broaden his horizon. Khan has taken up an offer to join the Ferraris stable at Turffontein.

The Jockey Club releases the findings of its inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the failure of Empress Club in the Cup. Blood samples taken from the Empress show that the filly’s blood picture had been within acceptable parameters and no further action will be taken.

Whoa! The proposed sale of 78% of listed company Oakfields to Dutch-owned Turf Accountants is held up by a claim from a former director. A financial notice confirms that former CEO Godfrey Gird has an alleged claim against Oakfields. The company’s directors are of the opinion that the claim is without merit, but the agreement between the Dutch firm and Oakfields cannot be implemented until Gird’s claim is resolved.

According to the agreement, Turf Accountants will acquire 13.3 million shares for a cash consideration equivalent to Oakfields’ net asset value plus a premium of 4c a share. A similar cash offer will be extended to group minorities. Originally issued some three years ago at 100c, Oakfields last traded at 25c. Recently the share was offered at 30c, with buyers willing to pay only 20c.

Eric Gallo, 88-year old founder of the recording empire, leads 200 captains of commerce and industry in a rendition of “For he’s a jolly good fellow” in praise of Colin Dunn, outgoing chairman of Turffontein Racing Club. At the chairman’s dinner, Gallo (Turffontein’s life president) makes an impromtu dash for the rostrum to pay tribute to a man who has devoted much of his time to the promotion of racing in South Africa.

Another Golden Oldie, seven-year-old champion sprinter Senor Santa, shows he’s lost nothing of his old sparkle when he wins the R400.000 Gr1 Star Sprint at Turffontein by a long head. The old warrior carries 58 kilos (which includes jockey Jeff Lloyd) to victory over Divine Act, reversing the order of last year’s race, which Divine Act had won by a whisker. Fancied Natal raider Secret Rites runs third. The winner receives a thunderous ovation when he enters the winner’s circle. Senor Santa’s career earnings now stand just short of R2 million.

Australian juveniles are confidently expected to take the Gr2 SA Nursery, the supporting feature run over 1200m, in their stride. But the Model Man colt Bold Cruiser upsets calculations, by holding off Aussie colts Son of Adelaide and Red Raider at odds of 20/1 by a head and a short head.

 

April 25 – May 1

A plan is devised to end a R2 billion tax wrangle involving investors in film schemes. Finance minister Derek Keys says that taxpayers will be allowed to deduct for income tax 1.5 times the amount they invested (before February ’93). The treaty was adopted at a meeting between Inland Revenue, the film industry and partners in large accounting firms.

Even though the settlement is peculiar to the film industry, it sets a precedent showing the Receiver is willing to negotiate on such issues. “But”, says Acting Commissioner for Inland Revenue Trevor van Heerden, “it does not mean that similar settlements will arrived at for, amongst others, bloodstock schemes”.

Indeed.

Barry Patterson is appointed chairman of the Natal Stipendiary Board following the untimely death of Rudi Diener, for whom Patterson deputised during the latter’s illness.

Sayyedati scores a decisive, if narrow win in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket (UK). The daughter of Shadeed (Nijinsky) had been winter favourite for the race, then lost some supporters after blotting her copybook at her seasonal debut, but her trainer Clive Brittain and jockey Walter Swinburn never lost faith in the filly.

Three days later French raider Zafonic wins the 2000 Guineas in most impressive fashion. The 6/5 favourite breaks My Babu’s course record by more than a second when he runs the straight mile in 1.35.3 (My Babu set the old hand timed course record in 1946). Michael Roberts is a well beaten second on 10/1 shot Barathea, now quoted at that price, too, for next month’s Epsom Derby, which the winner (a miler) seems unlikely to contest.

Zafonic is a son of US stallion Gone West, whose dam is a half sister to local stallion My Earl.

Trainer Guy Rixon is fined R250 for presenting the horse Saucy Dancer shod differently to what was declared at final acceptance. The trainer had declared Saucy Dancer to run in steel shoes in this, the first leg of the Pick Six, but the horse walks into the parade ring on alumites. Saucy Dancer is backed, on course, from 7/1 to 28/10 and scores a convincing 2-length win. Rixon pleads guilty to the charge – and at a fine of a measly R250, who would have expected him to quibble? Natal punters will no doubt take note, in awe, of the deterring punishments meted out by the Jockey Club to protect the good name of the game.

Senor Santa is voted Horse of the Highveld Season at a ceremony held at Turffontein. The seven-year-old also collected trophees for Champion Older Horse and Champion Sprinter. Star Award and Royal Thunder won the juvenile awards, Lambarina and Lord Shirldor the ones for three-year-olds. Please Be True, runner-up in several big races without winning one, is champion older filly/mare, and Commanche Chief the stayer. Terry Lowe and his jockey Francois Naude are voted trainer and jockey of the season, while Odessa’s Lionel Cohen (Star Award, Bold Cruiser) collects the breeder’s prize.