Lezeanne Forbes

Trying to make it in a man’s world is never easy, but as they say, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, except backwards and in high heels.

Training is a tough game in anyone’s book and Lezeanne Forbes was tested early in her career with some unexpected publicity. However, she proved her credentials by staying cool under pressure and having a good dose of humour to boot and the Summerveld lady trainer has gone from strength to strength.

About Lezeanne

Lezeanne had a fascination for horses for as long as she can remember. “A lot of people said it would just be a phase, but here we are.” Interestingly, Lezeanne’s racing career started via the movie industry, thanks to working on the film set of Racing Stripes. “I ended up working for Yvette Bremner so that I could learn to ride work for the movie and that’s where the first connection with racehorses started. After the movie, I went back and did more work with Yvette and it was through her that I developed a love not just for the horses, but for the sport.”

Lezeanne then spent 2 years working for Anthony Cummings at Royal Randwick in Australia. “It gave me the opportunity to work with some really smart horses. Anthony trained a lot of graded winners while I was there and I got to ride them and feel what a good horse feels like. They have the most beautiful tracks and facilities and a different class of horse to what I was used to working with here in PE. I learnt a lot.”

Back in South Africa, she re-joined the Bremner yard, while also running her own spelling farm. “It worked out well as a lot of Yvette’s overflow went there for little breaks. I also had a couple of mares that I bred and boarded a few mares that I foaled down. It was nice to experience all those aspects.” It was also during this stint that she met her husband, jockey Alec Forbes and eventually relocated to Durban to be with him.

Taking the plunge

Lezeanne joined Corinne Bestel as an assistant, moving on to Deon Visser and then Alyson Wright. “When I left Deon, I was already starting to get the idea that I might want to be a trainer, but it’s a very big leap. When you’re working for someone else you have the security of being employed. Going out and doing it on your own is tough. I was with the Wrights for 9 months, but then I felt it was time to take the leap, so I did and that’s how we started.”

Lezeanne took out her license in September 2013 and saddled her first runner on 19 January 2014.

Getting started

Lezeanne has received staunch support from her family, repaying her father, Chris Fenwick, in particular with a Father’s Day double (also the first double for the yard) in 2015. “My dad is a runner and does the Comrades, so he has a little bit of a soft spot for the racehorses because he’s an athlete himself. He’s a nice person to train for because he understands that the horses are not always on top of their game and can be sick, lame or flat for no particular reason, and other days just want to run run run.” “

John Jones and Linda van der Linde each got me a baby to start with and the breeder that I sold one of my mares, Hermana to when we left PE sent me one of Hermana’s daughters to lease. She’s called Peace Again and was one of the first horses to walk into the yard. She raced half and Dad had half and now I’ve got the little sister as well, which is fun.”

“I went to the Shongweni sale, bought a few horses for R5000 each and put those together with new people who’d never had horses with me. At that price, it was easier to get people to give me a chance. I also bought a package deal including Bermuda and Nitro Nori. Bermuda was the first winner I trained (1 February 2014) and we’ve been building from there slowly, but surely.”

Why training?

“You do it because it’s your passion and can’t ever imagine not doing it,” she says matter of factly. “You’ve got to make a living, so money does come into it, but making money is almost a good consequence of the work you do, not the reason you do it.”

“You need to be able to withstand all the heartache, stress and difficulties that come with it, but as they say, nothing worthwhile is ever easy. There are difficult hours and very early mornings, you’ve got the horses and all their problems, plus issues like managing grooms and looking after owners. There is a LOT you have to cope with and if you don’t have a passion for it, you’re not going to make it, so I know every trainer out there really loves what they do.”

“I absolutely love working with my horses and the one on one relationship you end up building with them. Riding them, feeding them, watching them go to races and try their hearts out – that’s the part that makes the job for me. We all love winning, but sometimes you run third and it can feel like winning because you know how much the horse put in and what it took to get there – that is why I get up in the morning – to do that part.”

What aspect does she find the hardest? “The most difficult part, or the part I hate the most? The hardest part is when horses get hurt. If a horse has to be put down, which something happens, that to me is the hardest part. The part I absolutely hate the most is the admin side – anything to do with computers and cell phones. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining, blazing sun, wind, put me on a horse and I’m happy – just don’t put me behind a desk, a computer or a phone!”

Are there challenges being a lady trainer? “I just see myself as a racehorse trainer. I don’t think being female gives you any advantage or disadvantage. There are a few basic guidelines, but every person has a style or something unique to them and we all bring our own elements to it anyway. We have female farriers and quite a few other lady trainers in Durban so it’s not such a novelty and I came from working for a lady trainer in PE. Yvette Bremner is always in the top 3 there, travels to Durban and runs very good races with PE horses, so it’s not something I worry about or feel has much effect.”

Being a jockey’s wife

Does being a trainer help or make it harder being a jockey’s wife? “I’m a rider as well, I ride a lot of work and have ridden in some of the work riders’ races, so I understand the dangers and difficulties. Initially I used to worry a lot about Alec, but you just can’t keep worrying. If there’s a horse he’s riding on the day that I know is particularly difficult, then I can get stressed, but the best way is to try not to think about it. It’s out of my control anyway.”

“As far as our working relationship is concerned, our jobs are very separate. Alec doesn’t interfere with my decisions, but he is a very experienced jockey and gives very good feedback – the same as he does for every other trainer he works for – and good feedback helps me make good decisions for that horse.”

In terms of the work-life balance, being half of a racing partnership does have its perks. “One of the biggest bonuses is that we are both getting up at 3 in the morning and are both absolutely exhausted come 11am. We both go night racing, so we understand exactly where the other person is and can support each other 100%. The working hours do make it difficult to have a family life though. Our son is one now and he’s had to fit in with our lifestyle and gets up with us at 3am, but he adjusts and gets to spend a lot of time with us. My job takes up 85% of my life, my child the other 15% and now and then I have to try and fit in my husband! It’s not easy, but you all adjust and you do what you have to do to make things work.”

No such thing as bad press

Early in her career, Lezeanne was famously singled out for a mention by fellow trainer, Joey Ramsden in his weekly column. “I was very impressed that I was important enough for him to mention me!” she laughs. “I met him while working for Yvette as a teenager and sat across the table from him at a function once, so thought it was quite flattering that he felt inspired to write about me 10 years down the line!” she quips. “But that article and the backward and forward between us gave me so much publicity that to this day I am grateful for it. Although people knew me in racing, it was either as an assistant or as Alec’s wife, but after that EVERYBODY knew who I was! So if nothing else, it was a good publicity stunt and we had a good laugh about it,” she says good-naturedly.

The Journey So Far

Lezeanne is based in the new section at Summerveld and after her little push-start, has progressed to having 38 boxes. “Our most fun horse at the moment and probably overall so far has to be Royal Armour. He was not an expensive buy. He went through the ring unsold and I bought him from the breeder afterwards and he’s done very well for us. He’s won 7 for me, plus the non black type Fever Tree in February and he’s just run second in the Gr3 King’s Cup. He’s enormously fun, has a divine temperament and has been a wonderful horse to work with.”

Ambitions

“We all have goals and I think we all dream big. If you don’t, you’re never going to get anywhere,” she says thoughtfully. “I set goals for myself every season, such as the number of winners I’m working towards. I don’t just look to see what I can do or a goal that I may accomplish – I try to shoot a little higher and push a little harder. We all want to win a Gr1 and then we don’t just want to win one, but I’m not thinking abroad yet, put it that way,” she laughs. “I’m happy in South Africa and we’re very spoilt in Durban to have a wonderful feature season filled with races for horses of all ages and distances. Every year I’ve got better quality horses coming through the yard and this season I might have one that will win a feature, but you can’t count your chickens. Especially with young horses, things can go pear-shaped, but I’ve got one that looks decent and if all goes well, we’ll run in the features this season and hope for the best.”