Covid has been a trying time for trainers and horse racing in general. The sport was shut down with the advent of the dreaded lurgy with many owners pleading poverty and jumping ship when the pandemic was at its peak and the country in limbo.
Andrew Harrison writes that this left many, if not the majority of trainers, in a quandary. How do you finance your operation without paying owners and horses to feed?
Garth Puller and Siphesihle Hlengwa celebrate the icebreaker (Pic – Candiese Lenferna)
Unscrupulous owners can just pick up the phone and say ‘I’m out’ but trainers can’t get rid of horses on an owner’s whim.
Most trainers bit the bullet, one of them being Garth Puller – and he is far from alone – who admitted after the first race win by Guy Fox at Hollywoodbets Greyville yesterday, that he owns shares in most of the horses in his yard.
Guy Fox, in which Puller is the majority shareholder, shed his maiden at 21 st time of asking and took his stake earnings to over R100 000, but as Puller alluded to, it would have been better for his bank balance had Guy Fox finished another close-up second.
Training fees average around R9k a month plus extras.
Guy Fox is obviously limited and stepping up in company could well see him struggling to earn another cheque to supplement his keep.
The scratching of hot-pot ante-post favourite Nkalanzinzi and the first timer, River Club, cleared the decks for Winter’s Destiny in the second. Dean Kannemeyer’s filly had three big duck-eggs in her form line with stable rider Keagan de Melo indicating post-race that his mount had some issues with her back, but she went down to the start well and came back accordingly.
Nicknamed ‘slender’ because of her diminutive physique.
The expected boat-race between Cashew and Fearless Kitty didn’t quite live up to its billing as a tight contest although the result did live up to expectations.
Muzi Yeni rode a confident front-running race aboard the Wayne Badenhorst and Barbara Kennedy-trained filly and she kept rolling determinedly to the line. Victory Vision challenged briefly in the straight and it was left to the connections of Fearless Kitty to collect the second-placed stake as she kept grinding away but never a threat.
Puller was one of the best riders to ever grace a pigskin (jockey’s saddle of yore for the uninitiated) and he is fully aware of what it takes for a young inexperienced apprentice to get going.
He gives instructions at home and chances on the racecourse and Siphesihle Hlengwa will never forget him or his first winner as Etiquette outlasted favourite Victory Twist in the fourth.
Watch the race here:
Leading apprentice Rachel Venniker will now have experienced the pressures of being a top rider – Anton Marcus an example although she’s not yet in the same league – as her record goes along with the majority of favourites in apprentices’ races.
‘Spare’, as he is affectionately known by his peers, tracked Venniker and turned it on when it counted. It was untidy but he’s off the mark.
From zero to hero. Some words in his ear from Puller, Hlengwa was a lot more polished as he trimmed his jib on Blue Sails in the sixth. Off the pace early,
‘Spare’ slipped up the inside rail with the main focus on Green Dream and Hatta up the outside. Back-to-back wins is not a bad way to get you off the mark.
There were few complimentary comments proffered about Herecomestherain in the fifth, a ‘morning glory’ particularly derogatory, but it was a double for Kannemeyer and De Melo as he kept the Mike and Norma Rattray owned gelding together before letting him off the bit to a comfortable win to deny recently licensed Lorenzo Kariem his first winner as a fully fledged trainer – Princekresh chasing home the winner.
Seventh race. Eight starters – all in with a chance – and a cavalry charge to the line. Captain Seager came out on top for Paul Lafferty, Muzi Yeni banging home his second of the day.
Wiseman Njokwe was denied a final hurrah before he takes up a work rider’s job in the USA. He flies out on Thursday but another win under his belt will have helped. Venniker played all her apprentice colleagues on the brake in the last, opening up a big lead on Fiery Duke and holding on gamely to deny Njokwe and Camora.
