Sands Of Time – May 1994

May 1 – 7

Apprentice Michael de Beer makes the most of his rides in the Macau racing festival. The Transvaal jockey scores a first, a third and a fifth in the two-day event where the accent is on apprentice riders from all over the world.

Jockey Piere Strydom is suspended for three months for not riding to trainer’s instructions at a meeting in Bloemfontein. A Jockey Club Inquiry concludes that Strydom rode Reno’s Way in such a manner that he failed to ensure the horse was given a full opportunity to win or obtain the best possible placing back in March of this year. Strydom has the right of appeal.

The Jockey Club announces the appointment of Rob de Kock as deputy GM: Racing Control. The position makes him responsible for the co-ordination and management of all aspects of the Jockey Club’s stipendiary, investigative and veterinary control.

Winners of the 1994 Highveld feature awards are honoured on the Rand. Juvenile colt Special Preview is voted Horse of the Season, the first time this award has fallen to a 2yo. Ormond Ferraris and Weichong Mawing collect the trainer and jockey awards, Lionel Cohen (Odessa Stud) gets the breeders prize.

Mister Baileys (owned and raced by feed company Baileys) breaks the 2000 Guineas track record at Newmarket (also broken last year, by Zafonic), when he wins the famous Gr1 mile by a short head from Grand Lodge and Colonel Collins. The winner starts at 16/1 and is the first winner in 17 years to be trained in the North of England. He’d been sold for 10.000 guineas as a foal and was re-sold for 10.500 guineas as a yearling. Pedigree buffs may note that winner Mister Baileys has the same third dam as Summerhill’s Busted mare Miss Miracle, who has two daughters racing in SA this season: 4-time winning Mount Hagen 4yo Miss Wonderful on the Rand, and 3yo maiden Lady of Lourdes (Imperial Dilemma) in PE. The SA connection does not finish there, as the dam of second finisher Grand Lodge is a half sister to Karoo sire Lost Chord.

The Jockey Club amends its Rules to prevent the possible abuse of hydrocortisone, an anti-inflammatory and pain killing substance produced naturally in horses. The change follows a recent decision of the International Federation of Racing Authorities to adopt a threshold of 1.0 microgram hydrocortisone per millilitre in urine specimens as admissible – anything over that is regarded as a prohibited substance.

A “List of 100” published in Business Age magazine shows the wealth of the world’s biggest earners in sport. Nigel Mansell takes pole position with a cash stash of £45 million, followed by Nick Faldo and Jackie Stewart each with £35 million. The top fifteen include three jockeys: Lester Piggot with £13 million (officially at least), Pat Eddery £7 million, and Willie Carson £6 million. Number 100 is judoka Brian Jack with earnings of just under a measly million.

Bush Telegraph colt Crimson Waves makes for a return to Gr1 status for the familiar colours of “Mr GJ and Mrs RD Beck” after a drought of a good few years. Crimson Waves makes light work of the Gr1 Natal Guineas, winning comfortably by two lengths from fillies Star Award and Outstanding Star. The Greyville race is marred by a delay of over half an hour when first the outside bank of stalls fails to open (causing a false start), then at a second (flag-start!) attempt Golden Taipan drops his jockey and bolts the course (to halfway, the furthest point from anywhere, where the Cape horse patiently picks grass, waiting to be shown the way home). Rumour has it that the SA Guineas may be renamed IEC Guineas, in honour of judge Kriegler’s equally impressive delaying tactics at SA’s election time not even a week ago.

The Kentucky Derby, first leg of the US Triple Crown, falls to 9/1 shot Go For Gin who makes all the running to collect a first prize of $628.000 in the 120st renewal of the famous race. A night of rain makes the track sloshy, which predictably suits Go For Gin. The rain dampens attendance, though, and may have helped race favourite Holy Bull to finish well back – the fifteenth year in succession that the favourite gets plastered. The winner was pinhooked as a weanling for $32.000 by John Finney, and resold a year later at the Saratoga Yearling Sales for $150.000 to his current owners. Go For Gin is from the same female line as Hula King, the unsound stayer who raced for trainer Ferraris a year or so ago, and the Orfords of Bosworth Farm Stud still have some of the female blood in the paddocks.

May 8 – 14

In Mauritius, the 1994 racing season kicks off with the running of the Duchess of York Cup. The 1400m race is won by Electric Air, a length in front of Beet The Book and Bobby Bean. At the same meeting, visiting jockey Conrad Wilkinson earns himself a 3-month suspension for not giving his mount Thunderdrome, a 10/1 shot, every opportunity to win. Peculiarly, Wilkinson is only beaten by a short head in a tight finish.

Champion sire Danzig joins an elite club when his 4yo daughter Princess Polonia wins the Gr3 Sixty Sails handicap in the US. The filly is Danzig’s 100th stakes winner. Only four other stallions that stood in North America have reached this milestone: the son of Northern Dancer now joins Nijinsky (149 SW’s), Northern Dancer (146), Mr Prospector (129) and Riverman (103).

Sagging Tote turnovers force Greyville’s Durban Turf Club to put the knife into the purses of several of its major races. Biggest cut is for the Gr1 Daily News 2000, which goes from R250.000 to R150.000. Four other events are affected to the tune of R50.000. Almost simultaneously, the Durban Turf Club jumps the gun by announcing its sponsorship of SA’s first Breeders Cup, to be staged at Greyville in 1996, the year of the club’s centenary celebrations. The SA Breeders Cup is the brainchild of the Thoroughbred Breeders Association. Surprisingly, a spokesman for the TBA says he isn’t at all aware of the selection of Greyville as the inaugural venue, but at the same time expresses his pleasure over the fact that the Durban Turf Club clearly must have found the money needed to stage a day of this magnitude.

Clairwood Turf Club applies for permission to reallocate the Saturday meeting to the next day, Sunday. This because the FA Cup final is televised live on Saturday, and the Super 10 rugby final is played at Kings Park the same afternoon. Permission is refused by Province on technical grounds: new betting legislation, including sports betting and Sunday racing, is on hold until a new Gambling Board, still to be appointed by the new government, can make recommendations. It may be a while before the sacred Sunday peace is allowed to be disturbed at Clairwood.

Ironically, this is the same week in which Sunday betting (and racing) is given the go-ahead in Britain. Nearly ten years after the formation of the Sunday Racing Campaign Committee, members of Parliament vote 290 to 189 in favour of a simple amendment to remove the word “Sunday” from the Betting, Gaming and Lotteries Act. After the successful resolution of the VAT-issue, this is the second notable victory for racing in Britain’s corridors of power. It seems certain now that the British classics, including the Derby, will be run on Sundays from next year onwards. The 1995 Newmarket Guineas meeting is set to be the kick-off day, with the Jockey Club Stakes taking place on Friday evening, the 1000 Guineas on Saturday, and the 2000 Guineas on Sunday. At Epsom the picture will be similar: Coronation Stakes on Friday, The Oaks on Saturday and the Derby on Sunday.

Meanwhile on Saturday, grey mare Sweet Secret (Peacetime – Keep It Secret) pulls off a remarkable double when she wins the Gr2 Woolavington Cup at Clairwood Park for the second successive year. Bought for R180.000 as a yearling the mare has now more than paid her way, and must be a valuable stud proposition.

Hot freshman sire Al Mufti hits the headlines when his daughter Eastern Juliet embarrasses her opposition by winning the Debutante Stakes by five lengths. Trained by Transvaal based Tobie Spies, 20/1 shot Eastern Juliet appears to be in the race purely to set a good pace for better fancied stable companion Salima, but her relentless front running tactics take everyone by surprise.

The first leg of the Cape Winter Challenge (a R200.000 winter triple crown, with a 20.000 bonus for the highest point scorer) is won by Rhode Island. The son of Roland Gardens, third behind Comareen in the Cape Derby, wins the Milnerton Mile by a short from Wreford and Cossack Warrior.

After side-stepping the 2000 Guineas earlier this month because of the too firm going, Sangster-owned colt Turtle Island wins the Irish equivalent by fifteen lengths, no less. Just a week after a narrow defeat in the French Guineas at Longchamps, Turtle Island shows he relishes the soft going at The Curragh. The winner is a son of leading sire Fairy King, a full brother to Sadler’s Wells.

May 15 – 21

Full Colour colt Fine Colour fetches the top price at the annual Zimbabwe Yearling Sales, where the average is well up on that of the previous year. Local trainer Halfpenny acquires the colt for Zim$175.000 from Rumbavu Stud, which also consigns the top priced filly Garland of Roses. This daughter of Tilden is knocked down to South African Mile Olivier for Zim$110.000.

Boom sire Model Man has not had an easy time of it. When he went to stud many breeders derided his future, saying his female line lacked the necessary class. Then when his first crops of youngsters hit the headlines it was “he only gets fillies, his colts don’t run”. Any of the former champion’s critics who were at Scottville on Smirnoff day will have eaten their words. For Model Man’s 2yo son Special Preview leaves his rivals well and truly in a cloud of dust in the Gr1 R350.000 1200m sprint, winning very impressively by four lengths from Cape challenger Bushmanland and Gilded Cage. Special Preview is the first living foal of 6-time winner Modern Music, a half sister Gr1 Mainstay and Champion Stakes winner Call The Guard. Her next foal, a full brother to Special Preview, should attract plenty of attention when he enters the ring at the August 2yo Sale.

Winners of the two other Gr1 races on Smirnoff Day are less easy to find. Tracy’s Element is backed as if defeat is out of the question in the Gr1 R150.000 SA Fillies Sprint. But the Australian import fades out of the picture in the final furlong, leaving the Full Colour mare Sound Of Rhum to pass the post first, at 10/1, from Super Sheila and Gay Follies. The winner sets a new race record and runs the 1200m in over half a second faster than Special Preview does half an hour later.

The R250.000 Gr1 SA Fillies Guineas produces a desperate finish, with Argosy filly Vistula just hanging on from a flying Outstanding Star, with Discover Diamonds and Star Award two lengths further back in third and fourth. Star Award collects the R50.000 Fillies Triple bonus for the filly that scores the most points from running in the Cape Fillies Guineas, Gosforth Park Bloodline Guineas and the Natal Guineas. The winner, who starts at 20/1, holds up family tradition as she is a half sister to last year’s Gr1 Bloodline Fillies winner Muscovy.

May 22 – 28

US trainer D Wayne Lucas ends a two and a half year Gr1 drought when Tabasco Cat wins the Preakness Stakes, second leg of the Triple Crown, by three quarters from Kentucky Derby winner Go For Gin.

Dancing Champ gelding Golden Taipan makes hacks of a useful field of sprinters in the Gilbeys Trial, quickening impressively when jockey Jeff Lloyd asks the question. Easy to back at 5/2, he wins by two lengths from HMS Pinafore, Foverflo and Best of the Best.

PE trainer Stanley Greeff completes a century of winners with a treble at Arlington. But the R100.000 Dion EP Derby falls to visiting W-Cape trainer John “Big Mac” MacDonald, whose Rhode Island lasts just long enough to hold off the late challenge of Coastal Rula and Noble Gem, who dead-heat. Wreford runs a close fourth.

Lightly raced At The Savoy strengthens his Rothmans July credentials with a nice win in the Gr2 Greyville 1900. It isn’t all plain sailing, though, as the Cape trained gelding only has a neck to spare at the line over Ravenous, after hitting the front perhaps a little too soon. Ravenous enjoys a 2.5 kilo pull with At The Savoy in the Rothmans, which should be enough for the son of Beldale Lustre to turn the tables on his grey adversary.

Kevin Shea becomes the second South African jockey in a month in Mauritius to get a three-month suspension (and a Rs40.000 fine) for not giving a horse every chance to win.