In celebration of our 30th birthday, the Sporting Post asked our readers to submit personal anecdotes of a magic memory, or the best or worst moment of their racing life.
The competition closed on Tuesday 22 October at 12h00.
Surfing Home wins the 1995 Gr1 J&B Met (Pic – Supplied)
We were inundated with entries, and to be fair to each and every entrant, we are holding over the announcement of the winners until we have had the opportunity to read and properly consider very single one.
One entrant graciously accepted disqualification, as he had exceeded our word count guide by 300%. But we felt that his story is worth publishing!
Karel Miedema writes that SP’s ‘memories’ competition set the bar at 250 words, but I cannot possibly do it that quickly. My story is about the joys real, proper handicapping brings. It was first published in my Racing Record Annual of 1994.
This is it, verbatim.
The third volume of Racing Record Annual, which dealt with Surfing Home’s 3yo career in 1992, made the following observation about the American-bred’s fourth place in the 1992 Rothmans July:
What made the performance so remarkable was that US-import Surfing Home was born in April ’89, and had only just turned three in real terms – unlike the South African three-year-olds whose birthday falls somewhere near October, some seven months earlier.
In terms of weight-for-age, Surfing Home’s performance was some four or five kilos better than that of a South African 3yo would have been. Given normal weight-for-age progress, this means that Surfing Home can be rated 110 in the season to come, and probably more if we take into account that he only made his debut in February, less than five months before his run in the Rothmans July”.
It was about a year-and-a-half before Surfing Home was to see the track again, as he spent that time on the Cohen’s Odessa farm near Ceres to recuperate from a tendon injury. Gelded as well during his time off, Surfing Home reappeared in April ’94, now just about 5 years old.
He was beaten 8 lengths in an Open (old style race-figure!) Handicap at Scottsville, after showing his customary pace early in the race. He ran to a rating of 94, and a month later to 97 in the competitive Gr2 Greyville 1900, again making the pace, to finish 8th beaten less than three lengths. Clearly he was sound, hadn’t lost his ability and it was on the cards that he’d return to form soon.
Imagine our surprise, therefore, when the opening betting for the Rothmans July listed Surfing Home amongst the 100/1 bar’s. If he’d run to his former rating of 110 he’d be on top of our race ratings. Clearly, here was an opportunity no to be missed – and we didn’t.
Not since Take A Walk had opened in the Cape Guineas betting at 33/1 a year ago had there been such value around.
Surfing Home set our pulses racing with his next run three weeks later. That was in the Gr3 Mainstay Trial over 1800m at Clairwood.
He had to put up a bold showing in that race to make the final twenty for the Rothmans July, and did so in no uncertain terms. Making the pace as usual he simply kept finding more and more when under pressure, a hallmark of all his subsequent runs. If ever there was a motto to suit Surfing Home it would be ‘Never Give Up’. He won the Trial by over a length, going away, from Making Mischief.
There was no shortage of money in the betting for Surfing Home after that. Our 100/1 voucher was beginning to look positively obscene, when in the end Surfing Home started at 7/1 for the big race.
As usual, he made all the running, to win by a short head from Space Walk, with Flaming Rock half a length back in third. Surfing Home showed his customary rally after he’d looked to be caught a 100m from the post.
Unfortunately Surfing Home got there by foul means rather than fair. With just over 200m to go the big gelding started to hang, first to the inside rail, then out again, giving the impression that his jockey simply couldn’t control him.
In the process Surfing Home hampered Pas de Quoi twice and there was no doubt that he’d lose the race – even though Pas de Quoi might still not have beaten him had he kept a straight course.
Karel’s post script: Surfing Home lost the race in the boardroom. Interestingly, had the 2024 interference Rules applied he would have kept the race and we’d have got the money.
Still, the moral of the story is that real handicapping makes all the difference and gets all the fun. After more than fifty years of doing the work I still get big thrills.
Check out www.raceform.co.za and see why!
