A man we are privileged to have known as a loyal friend of this great game and of the Sporting Post, a personal mate, and one of South African horseracing’s great characters, Shaheen Shaw, a husband, loving Dad and Grandad, passed away suddenly at the age of 55 at his home in Cape Town on Wednesday.
Cheers Shaheen (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Shaheen’s best friend Rouvaun Smit was devastated to hear the news and labelled the legendary former Tellytrack betting turnover booster ‘a man amongst men’ and somebody he’d battle to replace.
“We spoke every day. I didn’t hear from him today. I have no words and my heart grieves for Rasheeda and Zaid. Horseracing has lost a part of its soul. He loved the game. He loved punters. He wanted everybody to be a winner. Which is what racing should be about. I am so sad today,” added an emotional Smit, who has faced his own challenges since a devastating life-changing accident in 2023.
Shaheen was our Sporting Post podcaster.
We spoke regularly. He didn’t suffer fools and had opinions on everything from Donald Trump to the Third Reich and the polytrack.
We know that Shaheen would not have wanted us to labour on history, or wax lyrical in predictable eulogical fashion, heaping praise and spewing forth adjectives. We are not going to do that. Safe to say, he will be sorely missed by an industry craving heroes.
We wrote years ago that Sunshine, as he was popularly known, was a natural larger-than-life infectious presence on the small screen and he built a cult following amongst punters and Tellytrack viewers over many years with his no-nonsense passion for finding the winners. His crazy scribbling in the formbook and his keen intellect and photographic memory for formlines, saw him providing information and entertainment, that has never been equalled. After him studio presenters went extinct.
Shaheen with Shane (right) and a punter from Hollywoodbets Bluff branch – July 2024
Shaheen provided his final splash of entertainment via the Hollywoodbets-sponsored A Shaw Thing podcast for what was to be his final racemeeting at Hollywoodbets Greyville on Wednesday 23 October 2024 – a largely unheralded seven race affair and the final flickering of the flame of passion that first saw the light of day almost a half century ago.
Shane Shaw was born in the Cape seaside town of Muizenberg on 19 June 1969 and, like many of us, was sick for the game from an age when we should probably have been focused on apples for our teachers and writing properly in those lined exercise books.
Just 30 odd days after he was born, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon when the Apollo 11 landed and the legend took his first giant step for mankind. In many ways Shaheen was a groundbreaker in his own irreverent way.
Some eight years ago, he made a shift from the inside rail box-seat of a high-profile life in the fast lane as South African horseracing’s most popular and recognisable face to an angel of mercy on the Cape Flats. That was the geographical and emotional transition of Shaheen Shaw, who looked up into the glare of the Rivonia studio lights one day and decided that enough is enough.
He opted out to do something really meaningful with his life via the Gertrada Malgas Foundation.
Rasheeda and Shaheen Shaw at the Highveld Awards some years back (Pic – Supplied)
His wife of 33 years, Rasheeda Shaw told the Sporting Post on Wednesday evening that she had become concerned when she had not heard from him on Wednesday morning.
“The gardener and I went to investigate. We found him. I am shattered. He was not perfect. Who is perfect? We are shattered. He lived for his family. He lived for horseracing. There was no middle ground with Shaheen. I want to say thank you to Devin Heffer and the Hollywoodbets team. They gave him a reason to dream when starting the A Shaw Thing podcast. It gave Shaheen a sense of being, of dignity, and sense of contribution to a sport he loved. Shaheen will be buried in terms of Muslim rites. Thank you to everybody for the care and compassion and for allowing us to grieve privately,” Rasheeda told the Sporting Post on Wednesday evening.
The man who left the high-profile side of the game he loved for a variety of reasons found peace and fulfilment in sacrificing his ‘perks’ in life for the benefit of the multitude of the needy around him and with his podcast.
In November 2016 Shaheen and Rasheeda relocated from Johannesburg to Cape Town. Superior care and facilities for their youngest child, Zaid, adopted at birth and suffering from chronic Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), was their chief motivation.
Shaheen and Zaid
Grassy Park became their life and Hollywoodbets Kenilworth and Hollywoodbets Durbanville his attractions and entertainment over the weekends.
Hollywoodbets Brand & Communications Manager Devin Heffer said that he didn’t quite know how to comprehend Shaheen’s passing.
“I remember following him and always enjoying his energy, and all the incredible stuff him and Rasheeda did with the Gertrada Malgas Foundation. That was when I first met him in person at Grassy Park. I felt privileged having been able to work with him for the last couple of years, when we had almost lost him to racing. Yes, he could be eccentric, and sometimes rub people the wrong way. And he sometimes he could have a chip on his shoulder. But jeepers he loved the game. He loved the thrill of a punt. He loved the hard luck stories and battle scars that came with hitting them hard. He certainly lived life to the fullest, and he will be missed by his friends, family and of course his fans. As Elton Jon said, ‘Don’t let the Sun go down on me’. RIP Shaheen.”
Shaheen giving back to the community via the Gertrada Malgas Foundation
Highveld commentator Nico Kritsiotis said that it was with great sadness that he conveyed his deepest sympathies to Shaheen’s family on his passing.
“To Rasheeda, Nooran, Aisha, Ebrahim and his beloved Zaydie, I send my heartfelt sorrow at the passing of Shaheen. Shaheen was a great friend and contemporary that I met in 1996 when I started presenting in Johannesburg. We had some wonderful years together and it was quite an event today as Neil Andrews, Alistair Cohen and myself were having lunch together for the first time in absolute ages when we heard the news. A great character of racing that will be missed. Sorry not to have been as close now as we were then, but his death signals the end of a great era. Rest peacefully good man. You were a pleasure to know and to work with for many years. You always stood out. I will always remember you.”
Racing media personality Andrew Bon suggested that ‘the Lord above get ready’.
“Hit them hard Sunshine. You will never ever be forgotten. Peace and strength to the family. A terrible loss to our land and our sport.”
Shaheen was the unofficial SP eye in the sky on racedays. Our whatsapp group was a source of infinite alternative insight – most of it unprintable – but raw and stark in reality!
We haven’t done justice in this restricted space and time to his multitude of punting and racing stories. But what do we say from here, other than there’s racing at the Vaal on Thursday and let’s hit them hard, Sunshines!
Condolences to Rasheeda and the family. And to SA horseracing. We are all poorer today.
MHDSRIP.
