Greg Ennion

Greg Ennion is one of a small, but select band of existing trainers to have graduated through the Cape Hunt ranks.  A rider turned owner-trainer, turned professional trainer, he has a remarkable eye for a horse and in an era of cheap speed, still appreciates a good staying type.  Despite training off a small base and a small budget, Greg has enjoyed remarkable success – and all the while he has done it his way.

Greg is from Johannesburg, “South Joburg, born and bred,” he confirms.  “The accent seems to confuse people – I’m often asked whether I”m from the UK.”  His grandfather, George Ennion was a trainer and a farrier sometime in the early 1900’s and his father started out as an apprentice jockey, but didn’t go through with it.  “He always said the the weight got him, but I don’t think he liked getting up too early,” he deadpans.  Either way, his father went into the commercial world, becoming the South African rep for Black & White Whiskey, “which is where my colours come from.”

Interestingly, Greg was a journalist for the first half of his professional life, working firstly for a motoring magazine, Motoring Mirror, later moving to SA Associated Newspapers.  “I was supposed to be the first Ennion NOT to go into racing,” he quips.  But life had other ideas.  He was sent to the Cape Town office on a temporary assignment after the office head had a heart attack and went on sick leave.  “He never came back, so I stayed,” Greg states matter of factly.

Racing

“I’d brought my two Thoroughbred jumpers down with me – a nice C-grade horse and a young, up and coming horse and we stabled at Milnerton Riding Club.  It was actually built by the Milnerton Municipality for the Government, did you know that?  My first wife and I ended up running it for a while.”

As there was a lot of cross-over between the competitive and racing worlds back then, Greg got involved in Cape Hunt racing. “Lionel Witkowsky taught me to ride short on a sack of oats with a pair of reins tied to a chaff cutter,” he reminisces.

“I became the leading rider in the Cape Hunt.  In fact, the rest of the guys signed a petition against me for being too professional.  I used to get up at 4am and go and ride work for guys like Lionel Witkowsky, Johnny Cawcutt, Lesley Cawcutt, Terence D’Arcy, Baby Killa – all those guys.  I rode 6 winners on a card once,” he says proudly.

“A guy who was involved in the Hunt Club approached me and said he’d like to train one of my horses.  I said OK, on one condition – I wanted to play an active part.  A few months down the line, my horse had lost weight and his temperament wasn’t what it used to be.  When I commented on it to the trainer he said, ‘if you think you can do better, why don’t you do it yourself?’  So I did.  After being banned from Cape Hunt racing I took out an owner-trainer’s license which you could still do in those days, and that was my start into racing.”

An eye for a horse

“My first horse was a horse called Galilee that I bought for R500 as a 1-time winner.  He was a full brother to Ocean City and I won 8 races over ground with him.  I had another good horse called Symbolize that I bought as a 5yo for R3k.  He was by Brer Rabbit and had been campaigning over sprint distances.  I put him over 2000m and won 9 features with him.  He won the Ralph Price Handicap over 2000m at Milnerton and broke the course record.  He won the Syd Garrett and broke Occult’s unbeaten streak when downing him in the Appeal Court Handicap.  He also ran 5th in the Met.  He was drawn wide and raced wide and was only 3 lengths off Wild West at the finish – it was only the draw that beat him.  His next start after the Met, he won the Milnerton Administrator’s Trophy beating Shu Shine Boy and then went to Joburg for the Sun International.  Gary Alexander helped me and he dead-heated for 5th with Mauritzfontein.  Freddie Macaskill rode him for me that day.”

The speedy grey, Karthala was another good early horse.

“Dolfie Maeder bred him, but he got turned away from all the sales because he had splayed legs.  I went to see Dolfie and said R8k was all I had and that was that.  He was Russian Fox’s first winner and his first graded winner.  He broke the Kenilworth course record over 800m.  He was a beautiful horse and looked exactly like his sire.  He went for a holiday to Riverton and stood in a paddock on one side of the road and Russian Fox was in a paddock on the other and you couldn’t tell them apart.”

“Golden Riviera who cost a mere R20k won the Equimark Stakes Race, which was the first sales race to be run in South Africa.  And I’ve got to mention Sangria Girl, who was owned by my very good friend, the late John Harrison of Table Mountain cable station fame.  She won the Sun Classique and the Gr2 J&B Met Stayers two years running.  What makes this sequence of wins more remarkable is that the two staying races are only 2 weeks apart.”

“Nocturnal Affair was a horse I bought at the sales and then the clients let me down.  Fortunately Hassen Adams rescued me.  After his first start I said to the owner that he would be a punting proposition, but the only way we could do it would be to run him in a feature or against winners as a maiden.  So we ran him in the Gr3 Cape Nursery as a maiden and he won easily at 10-1.  He placed in the Langerman and Matchem and won the Gr3 Byerley Turk over 1400m up in Durban before being sold to Dubai to race for Herman Brown jnr.  He ended up winning in 4 different countries – here, Dubai, England and Ireland.  I was a bit surprised that once he went abroad, they only raced him over 1000m.  I thought he was a 2000m horse,” he shrugs.

There are so many winning photos that his office walls are full and one has to walk down the passage to the kitchen for some of the earlier ones.

Greg is particularly known for doing well with value horses.  “I’ve been lucky, I guess.  I’ve done well with a lot of horses that didn’t cost a great deal.  La Mancha cost R24k, Premium Rate cost R30k, Gangleader was R30k and Sangria Girl also only cost R50k.  There was a R50k minimum bid at Nationals, I made one bid and I got her!”

“A couple of my good horses I got for nothing.  Fortunates was one – Lionel Cohen of Odessa Stud fame rang me up one day and said the horse was so useless it couldn’t even trot and gave it to me for free.   He won 9, breaking 2 course records in the process.  Cool Crisis was another freebie and he won 7 from 8 starts.”

Clients

“Early clients were the likes of Giuseppe Mercorio, Wouter Brink and Fred and Mariaane Ilze who owned Model School.  She won the Gr1 Paddock Stakes and was Model Man’s first Gr1 winner.  Unfortunately she broke down in the race and chipped a fetlock.  They operated and she carried on racing, but there was no keyhole surgery in those days and she ended up with this huge joint and lost quite a lot of the mobility.  I trained her 3-parts brother too – Dramdor.  He was a good stayer and I won 8 races with him, including the Gr3 Abe Bloomberg Handicap.”

Greg is also responsible for both Marsh Shirtliff and John Harrison’s involvement in racing.  “On separate occasions a few years apart, both just walked in here one day and said ‘I want to buy a couple of horse and I think you’re the right guy.’”

The first time Marsh and I went to the sales we bought two – one was La Mancha who won the Gr3 Matchem Stakes and the other was Premium Rate, who became an 8-time winner.”

Are there any up and coming sires he has his eye on?  “What A Winter I think is going to be outstanding.  His progeny look great and I’ve got one that I’m quite possessive over,” he grins.  “Crusade looks exciting and I bought a lovely colt at Nationals earlier this year.”

Thoughts on local racing

After all this time at the coalface is he still enjoying the job?  “It’s not a job, it’s more like a disease,” he exclaims, but then smiles to soften the statement.  “Once you’ve got the disease, it never leaves you, but it’s a wonderful way to spend your life.  It’s just become very tough for the smaller yards and I don’t think the clubs realise what an integral part we play in the industry.  It’s also pity we are not adequately consulted regarding the racing programme as there are many horses that stand in their box week in and week out as there are no races for them – especially staying horses.  It’s a crying shame.”

“I was one of about 2 trainers who was in favour of a polytrack at Durbanville.  I feel Cape Town racing is in need of rejuvenation and I think a polytrack could have been the answer.  It seems to be a very fair surface and the horses win from anywhere.  A lot of horses that struggle in Cape Town go to PE or Durban and win multiple times – how many more are stuck here and are not getting that same opportunity?  I wish we had something like that down here, but the other trainers petitioned against it,” he shrugs.

“I love Durbanville and I think it’s got a great atmosphere, but the track is unkind to horses.  Most come back with niggles after a run at Durbanville – the bigger horses especially – whereas if they run at Kenilworth, they come home fine.  To fix Durbanville, they will need to camber the turn correctly and change the angle into the straight, but if they can improve those two things and get rid of the undulations I think it will be great.  They start work late October and I’m looking forward to seeing the changes made.”

Cape season

“It’s been a bit quiet because our yard has just done AHS, but I have four in the Settler’s Trophy.  I love staying horses and think it’s tragic that our programme doesn’t cater for them.  I’ve got a few that I think might run well this season – Jeremy is a decent up and coming sort.  Roman Discent has perhaps started a bit slowly, but I think he’s starting to strengthen up.  And then there’s Chrome Blue.  He’s the stable darling and has the movie star looks.”  Chrome Blue is a flashy dark bay with a broad blaze and a rather striking blue eye.  “They used him as the model for the J&B Met posters, but they photoshopped out the blue eye.  We have a waiting list of people begging for him when he comes off the track.”

Behind every man

Greg married long-standing girlfriend Nazley Heuvel on 28 July.  “I’m so happy,” he beams.  “She worked for the club and used to do the cheques after races – that’s how we met.  We’ve been together a long time and she’s a wonderful person, so it was time.”