We will know late on Wednesday evening whether the star mare Princess Calla will become the seventh fairer sex galloper and the second Maine Chance-bred product of the 21st century to be crowned SA Horse Of The Year.
The Equus Awards dinner will be held at Emperor’s Palace on Wednesday and, as is tradition, the final award of the evening will be the Horse Of The Year trophy.
Magic mare Princess Calla (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
The 2022/23 season honour has come down to a straight clash between the Sean Tarry-trained Flower Alley daughter Princess Calla and Candice Bass-Robinson’s chestnut flyer Charles Dickens, a son of Trippi.
Tarry has three previous Horse Of The Year titles on his trophy cabinet – that was joint victress National Colour back in 2005/6 and then Legal Eagle’s double.
Candice Bass-Robinson is yet to win the award, but her legendary Dad Mike took it back to Milnerton for three consecutive seasons with Pocket Power from 2006/7 to 2008/9.
The 2013/14 Horse Of The Year Legislate Team at Equus (JC Photos)
To cap the season of her life, Princess Calla won the final Super Grade 1 of the season on Sunday 30 June. She beat the males in the Gr1 HKJC Champions Cup, to finish on top of the 2022/23 Equus Horse of The Year table.
Charles Dickens did not run again after registering his second Gr1 success when beating Al Muthana in the Hollywoodbets Gold Challenge on 10 June.
Top-class colt Charles Dickens (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
In terms of the Equus points scoring, Princess Calla chalked up 174 points while Charles Dickens was in second place on the table with 144 points. The final decision lies with the Equus selection panel and also the public vote, which closed on 5 August.
If Princess Calla were to lift the trophy she would join Captain’s Ransom (2021/22), Summer Pudding (2019/2), Oh Susanna (2017/18), Igugu (2010/11) and Ilha da Vitoria and National Colour, who shared the award in the 2005/6 season.
The last-mentioned was frowned upon in some quarters as a half-baked cop-out by the panel of the time, and clearly sharing is definitely not considered caring in racing! Let’s hope the 2023 panel have the courage to stand up and name one winner.
The previous shared Horse Of The Year awards were Jet Master and El Picha (1999/2000), and London News and Flobayou (1995/96).
Free My Heart lifted the title in 2001/2
If the Princess lifts the title on Wednesday evening, she will be Maine Chance’ first Horse Of The Year recipient since Jallad’s son Free My Heart in 2001/2.
Drakenstein, who will be rooting for Charles Dickens, bred and raced Oh Susanna, who lifted the trophy in 2017/18.
With both past winners Captain’s Ransom 2021/22) and Do It Again (2018/19) out of the reckoning and retired last season, we won’t see a multiple Horse Of The Year winner this time round but we have had a number this century.
Pocket Power after his 2008 Gr1 Vodacom Durban July victory (Pic – Gold Circle)-
That multiple-winner list includes the Avontuur-bred Legal Eagle (2015/16 and 2016/17), the Beaumont Stud bred Variety Club (2011/12 and 2012/13) and the Zandvliet flagbearer Pocket Power (2006/7, 2007/8 and 2008/9).
Watch this space for all the Equus winners around 22h00 on Wednesday evening.
