Glen Hatt

There can be few jockeys as genuinely popular as Glen Hatt. Always smiling and ready with a quip, he was a favourite among the owner and trainer ranks and with his consistently high strike rate, was also a punter’s friend.

Despite being rather unassuming about his achievements, Glen has been associated with many of South Africa’s top horses during his riding career, with just a few highlights including Marie Galante, Wainui, Winter Solstice, River Jetez and Futura and even once rode a winner for Lester Piggott! While he hung up his boots in 2015, Glen will be continuing his association with South African track stars in his new role as Maine Chance Farms’ racing manager.

Glen Hatt joined the SA Jockey Academy alongside the likes of Piere Strydom and Robbie Fradd in 1980. His first winner came aboard a horse named Ombarium for Vaughan Marshall at Scottsville on 22 September 1982 and his last race meeting as a jockey was at Greyville on Saturday, 26 July 2014, when he closed off the season with a Gr1 double, winning the eLan Property Gold Cup on Wavin’ Flag and the Beach Beauty Champions Cup on Futura. He’d ridden 82 winners from 597 rides, giving him a 13% strike rate for the season.

After his triumphant Gold Cup day, Glen took a break from riding to undergo surgery to his right wrist, which had at that stage been troubling him for some time and would ultimately force his retirement.

Life after racing

“I actually had two ops – one in August which wasn’t successful and that was when I realised I was not going to ride again and then I had to have another one. When I realised I wasn’t going to ride again, I had to really think about where I was going to go and what I was going to do.”

Glen reluctantly announced his retirement in February 2015. “It was quite stressful not knowing whether they were going to pay me out, but touch wood I ended up getting paid out, so at least I had something to keep me going. It was something I never really thought about and in hindsight it’s something you wish you could teach some of the kids coming through to think about what they’re going to do after racing and to invest wisely.” Although he has still kept in touch with racing, Glen has used the enforced break to spend some quality time with his family. “It’s been great to have been able to spend a bit more time with my kids for the last two years. When you’re racing, you don’t stop, you just carry on going, but it’s the first time I didn’t have to go to races or be away all the time. After 30 years of racing it’s been a real luxury to have weekends at home.”

Retirement? Not so much!

However like most jockeys of his generation, Glen is not someone who can sit still for long and was never going to opt for a quiet retirement. “It’s been nice to have that little break, but it’s amazing how fast it goes by. It will be 3 years in August since I last rode a horse. I’ve kept myself involved in that I’ve been watching racing all the time. I’ve kept in touch and did go to the odd meeting, but I’d only go for a few races and then leave. I didn’t have any interest in sitting and watching because I had no riding goals, so I had nothing to look forward to.”

When racing is all you’ve known, starting fresh can be a daunting prospect. “I was looking at lots of different things and all my friends kept saying something will come up, but nothing was. It wasn’t that I wasn’t looking, but I wanted something that I enjoy and want to do,” Glen explains. “I didn’t want to become a trainer and wasn’t keen on becoming a tipster on TV. I’m not really a gambler and don’t believe I could sit there and tell people to have a bet because I think it looks good – it’s just not in my nature. So I couldn’t see myself going that route, even though I did a few guest appearances on Supersport and Tellytrack the year Futura won the Met. So I was doing the odd thing here and there, but as the months went by I started thinking I’ve really got to put racing away and start fresh.”

Of course, sometimes opportunities find you. “Thankfully there wasn’t a lot of pressure that I had to find a job and then out of the blue Justin Vermaak phoned me up on Queen’s Plate day and said could we have a chat. He explained that he was moving on to focus on his bloodstock business and asked whether I’d be interested in doing what he’s been doing as he thought I would make a suitable replacement. Maine Chance is one of the top studs in the Cape and Dr Andreas Jacobs is a big owner and I just thought wow, sure I’d be interested. Andreas is obviously very busy and only in South Africa for about a month of the year, but we arranged to meet at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale.”

“I’d never really thought about being a racing manager, but the more I thought about it and the closer it got to the interview, the more excited I was getting. I met with Andreas and had a nice long chat on the Friday evening. He was very warm and came across like a top man which he is. I sat with him during the sales and watched what was going on. He was very happy with me and the rest is history.”

“I’m just thrilled to be back involved in racing, which I’ve missed. It will be great going to racing and still chatting with owners, although it will now be in a different way – not as a rider, but as a person that is going to be involved in yearlings and sires and watching horses as an owner would.”

What will the job entail?

“It’s basically managing the horses and keeping a finger on what’s going on. I’ll be keeping in contact with all the trainers and getting reports on the wellbeing of the horses and getting an idea of how they’re progressing and what the plans are for them. At the same time, I’m not there to interfere or tell people what to do – the trainers were given those horses because they are good at what they’re doing. My job is to get all the information on how the horses are performing, what we think before and after the race and report back. Andreas is very select in terms of his horses and only has 40 in racing, but he has a passion for the horses and obviously the main thing is the stud farm and building a great broodmare base and seeing the progeny win. He keeps some for racing, but he also buys horses and he bought some nice yearlings at Premier Sale with Sheikh Fahad.”

New challenge

The stud farm and bloodstock angle will be a new challenge though. “I‘ll have to get a lot more involved in the stud farm and following the bloodstock side. Andreas has a massive team behind him, including the stud manager Tim Bootsma, the admin staff and so on, so I’ve got to get to the farm now and spend a couple of days getting to know everybody and get into the rhythm of things. That is something I’m going to have to get my head around and work on as that will be a whole new role for me, but it’s exciting to buy the race card or read the Sporting Post and think ‘wow, there’s a Silvano or a Querari or one of our foals’. You see things in a whole new light.”

“It is a bit daunting, but the more I’m getting involved, the more I’m enjoying it. It’s not a hard job and the nice thing is that it’s part time, so I’ve still got time for myself and my family and if I have time and want to explore other things, Andreas has given me full permission to branch out. I’ll mostly be working from home which is great as I’ve worked out in the open all my life, so I don’t want to wake up and go to an office! I’ll still do a bit of travelling to represent Maine Chance at sales or any of the big races if Andreas can’t be there.”

“I’ve got a lot to learn, but Justin’s been very helpful in that regard and I wish him huge success going forward. He’s a youngster and he’s got go in him and is looking to broaden his horizons with his Green Street Bloodstock business and good luck to him.”

“I officially started on 1 February, but straight after the announcement was made, I already had trainers sms’ing me and telling me race results and it’s lovely to be able to communicate with them like that. I’ve had quite a few people ringing up to say best of luck and that they’re looking forward to dealing with me and it’s nice to have been accepted like that. It was so great to be at the course on Met day. I got comments from a lot of trainers and owners and respected people in the industry, boosting me and giving me a lot of confidence and all happy to know that I’m back in the game and working for a top farm like Maine Chance.”

“It’s exciting times, but I’ve got a goal to go for now and that’s the exciting thing.”