A collection of opinions and thoughts on all aspects of horse racing from around the world.
The 2011 Vodacom Durban July turned into a celebration for Mike De kock and Anthony Delpech for the second year running. Their star filly Igugu silenced her detractors and left a trail of broken dreams and dented egos in her wake…
Arlington on Friday 1 July resembled something of a war zone with the betting public dashing for cover as their July Day budgets took an advance hammering with awful results. But Punters have enjoyed quite a fortnight with Saftote commendably introducing a few innovative touches…
Cape racing in winter is a little like the Monaco Royal Wedding. One can’t be quite sure that it is actually going to happen. And
He has trained the winner of every Group race in South Africa and has five runners, including the favourite Igugu, in Saturday’s Vodacom Durban July.
A minefield for punters at Kimberley on Monday 27 June. Do trainers do punters any favours when chasing horses all over the countryside? Beaten favourite Arctic Jet is a case in point.
Group races should be decided on the track and not the Stipes boardroom. The Gr2 Gold Circle Derby has seen its stake plummet from R1 million in the nineties to a third of that today and it lost a lot more fizz with a bitter decision on Sunday 26 June. Hard luck to the Scotts, Keith Steinberg and Dynasty!
A first Cape winner for an up-n-coming PE trainer at Kenilworth and a great Winter Derby success for Greg Ennion. Then there was that little matter of Uncle Tommy at the start of the fifth. Plenty of action!
July Gallops – Timekeeping is an art and a science. A couple of officials casually waving flags at the 800m and 400m marker, while the timekeeper sits with a stop-watch at a distance means that the published times could well be a second or two out.
The Marcus Delpech duel got tighter at the top of the jockey log with Marcus getting another one back – the scores now 184 – 175 with Delpech holding the edge!
The day didn’t start well for Anton Marcus or the backers of favourites, when the 5-10 shot Charro Negro somehow conspired to get himself beaten by drifting from the inside to the outside rail on Monday 20 June at Scottsville.
There are plenty of injustices and imbalances in this industry but this statistical anomaly takes the cake. A wise man once said that one should never invest in anything that eats while you sleep, and the punch-drunk Capetonians must be…
The R1 million Gr1 Douglas Whyte Stakes Grade is the opening leg of the projected R15 million Pick 6 pool at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Sunday
Cape Racing’s ongoing tussle with Mother Nature in what has been a wet July to beat all July’s, produced a fairytale at a sunny, but very chilly, Hollywoodbets Durbanville on Thursday
A Cape jockey has told of the enormous relief and the burden lifted from his shoulders on Friday after two well-known racing men took the cudgels up on his behalf some months ago to defend the father of four against an NHRA charge
A Pick 6 carryover of R2 million is set to take the exotic pool to R15 million, while the World Pool Gr3 Gold Cup sees a Quartet carryover of R1 million and a likely pool of R5 million
