Jehan Malherbe announced his retirement from commentating in 2023, having spent more than 40 years in as one of the principal commentators in Cape Town.
While he did enjoy a guest commentating stint in North America and has also covered other racing jurisdictions in South Africa on occasion, Jehan spent the majority of his commentating career in Cape Town.
Jehan’s favourite – The 2008 Met winner Pocket Power (Bernard Fayd’herbe) beats Our Giant (Richard Fourie), with Piere Strydom on fourth-placed Buy And Sell on the rail (Pic – Supplied)
He called home the winners of the Cape’s greatest races on numerous occasions and provided memorable coverage of the Met over much of the past four decades.
While he will long be remembered for his commentary on the 1999 Gr1 J&B Met won so memorably by Horse Chestnut, Jehan has plenty of other memorable Met commentaries to look back on.
Here’s a nice clip:
Along with Horse Chestnut, he says his most unforgettable Met memories came with Mark Anthony (1988), Empress Club (1993), and Pocket Power (2008).
One of six Met winners for his trainer Terrence Millard, Mark Anthony came into the 1988 J&B Metropolitan off a sparkling win, over his star stablemate Royal Chalice, in the Queen’s Plate, and he was duly well supported to complete the Queen’s Plate/Met double when dispatched a red-hot favourite.
Mark Anthony gets an honourable mention – this image is his 1987 Queen’s Plate performance (Pic – Supplied)
With just 52.5kgs on his back, the son of Royal Prerogative duly turned the race into a procession, sauntering home to score impressively by seven lengths while setting a new time to boot.
Unfortunately, he would later be sidelined for 18 months, before dying tragically in training -but the ease of his win in the 1988 Met will live long in the memories of Jehan and all others fortunate enough to witness it.
Empress Club, known to her legion of fans as the ‘Galloping Goldmine’, had proved all but unbeatable in her 15 starts leading up to the 1993 Met, winning all but two of them.
On her last start before the Met of 1993, Empress Club showed her wellbeing when thrashing champion Flaming Rock by more than three and a half lengths in the Queen’s Plate, and she would go on to complete the Queen’s Plate/Met double in fine style.
Despite drawn at 20 in the Met, Empress Club showed herself to be a class apart from her rivals, and all but cantered home to win as she liked by a length and three quarters.
A champion at two, three and four, Empress Club was one of the greatest fillies ever to grace the South African turf, and her triumph in the Met was one of the highlights of a superb career.
Empress Club winning the 1993 Met – another Jehan favourite (Pic – Supplied)
As imperious as Empress Club was in her Met win, outstanding three-year-old Horse Chestnut was, if anything, even more scintillating.
Winner of five of his six starts prior to the 1999 Met, Horse Chestnut, the very first runner and winner for his sire Fort Wood, had pulverized his field when landing the G1 Cape Guineas on his final start before the Met and proved even more impressive in his Met win.
Jehan Malherbe – 40 great years
Under Weichong Mawing, the colt was in front a long way from home and he pulled well clear in the final stages to win by eight lengths, leaving July winning champion Classic Flag well and truly vanquished in second place.
Perhaps Jehan described Horse Chestnut’s demolition job best when he called home, saying, “This is true greatness! Horse Chestnut is killing them in the J&B Met!”
The brilliant colt would never lose another race and wins in both the Gr1 SA Classic and Gr1 SA Derby would provide Horse Chestnut with a South Africa Triple Crown triumph. He would go on to win the Gr3 Broward Handicap on his only US start before retiring to stud at Claiborne Farm.
Jehan also singles out Pocket Power’s victory in the 2008 Met as one of the highlights of his career.
Bidding to defend his title, Pocket Power, who would go on to land the race again in 2009, turned for home seven lengths off the leaders before powering home close home to score by a length and a quarter.
Rightly described as a true champion in the race call, Pocket Power, one of the most popular horses of his generation, would retire from racing having won 20 of 43 races and won four Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plates to go with his trio of Met victories.
Ironically, his full-sister River Jetez would end Pocket Power’s winning Met run when she beat her older brother into third in the 2010 Met.
The 2024 Gr1 World Sports Betting Cape Town Met is set to be run at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday at 16h45.
