Corrie Lensley

Trainers to saddle 6 winners on a day in South Africa include Theo de Klerk, Terrance Millard, Andy Smith, Gavin Smith and Gary Alexander.  The latest addition is Corrie Lensley who joins Gary Alexander in saddling 6 winners on two separate occasions after bringing home 6 winners on 13 February 2017 and again on 3 April 2017.

We caught up with the Kimberley conditioner in his hospital bed, where Corrie had spent 3 days undergoing tests for high blood pressure.  We ring off to let the doctors do their thing and when we call back later, Corrie is back at the yard.  “I’ve been in hospital for 4 days.  I have to see what my horses look like!”

About Corrie

Corrie hails from a farming community in Ellisras and got into racing via his uncle, Boet Horn, a farrier and small-time trainer.  His uncle introduced him to Pat Shaw’s father, Bernie and Charl du Toit who trained for Frik Kroon.  “My love for race horses comes from guys like Willie de Beer and Nick Joubert who were old school trainers.  We lived a few kilometres away and used to hike or go by bike to see the horses.”

After his national service, Corrie served an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner on the mines.   A keen rugby player, who played at provincial level for Stellaland before a knee injury put paid to dreams of a professional career, Corrie maintains that “horses were always my first priority.”

He joined Bill Human, first as a stable employee and then as an assistant.  “I was a bush trainer.  I went bush racing a lot, but the perception people have of bush racing is what goes on in the Transkei and places like that.  This is something completely different.  A lot of our trainers came through bush racing – even some of the top Cape trainers came through the Cape Hunt which is basically bush racing,” he explains.

Corrie spent a few years in the private sector before rejoining the racing fold and being granted his license in 2003.  He initially trained from Bloemfontein before moving to a private facility in Potgietersrus, raiding to Bloemfontein and Kimberley.  “I used to drive my own truck.  It was 780km there and 780km back, but I wouldn’t have done it unless I enjoyed it.”  He finally relocated to Kimberley 8 years ago.

Life in Kimberley

Corrie is fiercely proud of his horses, his team and his racing centre.  “I’ve got 78 stables and they’re full – I haven’t got space for a mouse!” he says proudly.  Managing that many isn’t easy and former trainer of Goldmark, Johan de Bruin, came on board as an assistant three months ago.  “You don’t train a horse like Goldmark without being a horseman!”

The feed room is managed by two women and Corrie explains, “If you look at a family, who does the feeding?  The women!  I’ve got a list and one horse gets this much and another something different and they do it to the letter.  It’s like feeding their children.”

Having multiple runners on race days requires a lot of coordination and it does take a lot out of him.  “Some horses are not the easiest to saddle, but you get through it.  At the end of the day, it’s management.  I sit down and make a list of every horse.  My wife, Emmie, prints 5 or 6 copies and I’ve got 2 guys who get the horses ready at the stables.  Emmie packs my colours and each set goes into its own bag with the jockey’s name and the race he’s in.  When the guys get to the races, they just take the colours out of the bag and they can see ‘Muzi Yeni, race 4’.  The same applies in reverse.  “We don’t have valets here – the jockeys take things off and drop it on the floor and colours often disappear.”  After replacing four or five sets, Corrie had had enough.  “Now we have one of our feed-room ladies who collects the colours and puts them back into those plastic bags and then they all get washed at home.  It works.”

The other mainstay is his youngest daughter, Lizanna.  My son and eldest daughter are studying, but I can always call on Lizanna who lives with us and is in matric.  While I was in hospital, we needed feed and Lizanna went and got a bakkie load for me.  Without Emmie and Lizanna I couldn’t manage.”

Corrie has struck up a very successful partnership with Muzi Yeni and says, “Muzi started riding for me when I was a battler and he was a 4kg claimer.  We had this love-hate relationship, but along the line we’ve developed a good understanding.  I tell him what a horse likes or doesn’t like, but I leave him to ride.  I’m very loyalty orientated and I will walk through fire for someone who is loyal to me.  I’m also using Matthew Thackeray and Jarryd Penny – they’re likeable guys.”

Kimberley

 Flamingo Park comes in for a lot of criticism and it is a sore point for Corrie.  “People say our horses aren’t looked after and that Kimberly is a **** hole etc.  Kimberley is not as bad as people make us out to be, he says emphatically.”

“On Facebook someone said Kimberley should be closed down. My wife replied to them and asked if that guy realises that there’s 110 guys working as grooms.  Of those 110 guys, most are married and have a family.  Make no mistake – we pay the same keep and wages as Joburg.  I’m feeding MDK Speed Max and Millard cubes which costs us R60 more per bag than in Joburg.  In fact, if I went to Joburg, I’d be able to train a horse cheaper feed-wise than we do here, so we’re not training for the sake of training, we do it for the love of the game.”

“The biggest problem is that we haven’t got enough racing and stabling for our horse population,” he continues.  “Except for the visitors’ boxes, every box at Flamingo is full and we only race 2 – 4 times a month and have 34-38 meetings a year.  Look at the nominations and acceptances – our fields are almost always full!  I went to Australia a few years ago.  They have many more racetracks than we do and the guys in the backwaters are treated just the same as us.  We don’t get much coverage for our race cards or write-ups after our races.  It’s sad.”

Horses for courses

Flamingo Park is our last remaining sand track and Corrie says, “The late Peter Miller did a very good job and now we have Jaap Visser who works very hard to maintain it.  Remember our race track is also our work track.  We have around 450 horses on it every day, so it gets a lot of wear and tear and the sand gets milled naturally by the horses, but the surface is very nice. There’s not a lot of kickback and if managed correctly, it’s a very even surface.  Every horse has a chance from wherever they run.  If they had this at the Vaal, that track never would have closed.”

Corrie feels strongly that Kimberley has an important role to play in local racing.   “I’m not saying people send R2 or R3 million horses here, but some of these trainers do a helluva good job keeping owners in the game.  Some horses are putrid on grass, but here they can earn a living for their owners.  Even in a weak field of maidens, someone has to come first and there’s prize money to be won.  Rock A Bye Baby ran in Durban and then came to Kimberley and won 5 in a row.  Jaguar ran once on grass, then came here, won 8 and ran so many places he’s earned over R500 000 for his owner.  There are a lot of horses in Durban and Cape Town that haven’t made that kind of money.”

“Nick Shearer and Lyle Anderson inspect our horses before racing like at any other course in South Africa.  If horses are not looking good and sound, they take them out.  I got fined R40 000 for something very silly about 4 or 5 months ago – we get the same fines and fall under the same rules as any other trainer in SA – we just don’t have the same horses. A battling horse that wins a maiden in Kimberley has already given its owner joy.  If I’ve made an owner happy, he might get another horse.  He’ll maybe give it to another trainer,” he acknowledges good-naturedly, “but it might get to me eventually.”

The Big 6

Corrie’s first set of 6 came on 13 February 2017, 10 days before his 53rd birthday and regular rider Muzi Yeni piloted home 5 of them.  His second six came on 3 April and again Muzi was on the lion’s share.

Was six something he planned for?  “At the final gallops, Johan said ‘you know Corrie, I can see 7 winners the way the horses worked’ and I agreed.  The same happened with the second 6. It was the way the horses worked at that moment.  It wasn’t an expectation – I thought maybe 4 or 5 would be nice, but I never thought 6. The horses were just well enough on the day.  I had 3 seconds that day and a few exactas as well.  All the stars lined up, the horses were ready on that day and that was it.”

“I won the 2012 SA Fillies Nursery with a first timer called King’s Temptress.  She’d never seen the grass or been to a racecourse except the one she trained on, but she won at 150-1.  You can Google it – there were lots of articles!” he laughs.  “Winning a graded race is a major thing in a trainer’s life.  It’s something I never thought I’d realise, but when I did it was over-the-moon sh*t.  The photos are hanging in my house and will go to my son when I die one day.  It’s something no-one can take away from me.  I think winning 6 ranks up there with that,” he reflects.

However he remains philosophical.  “You have to look at what’s happening today.  You talk about it and enjoy the glory, but tomorrow what’s behind you is behind you and you start work all over again.  On every race day there are 110 horses, 9 races and only 9 winners.   If you take a horse to a 1000m race with 14 runners, there are 13 other guys doing the same as you.  To win, everything must line up in those 60 seconds and be 100%.  That’s what makes racing so interesting and why even one winner is special.

Looking ahead

Are there designs on a championship title?  “To win something like that would be the biggest achievement in my life because it would mean that for a whole year I was on top and doing everything right.  It would definitely be the best thing that’s ever happened to me.  It does take a toll  – you start early and leave late – but I’m definitely going to try for it.”