Farewell To The Iron Lady
One of South Africa’s great lady trainers of the 20th century, the no-nonsense champion Jean Barnard Heming passed away at her home in England on Friday evening
20th October 2018
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One of South Africa’s great lady trainers of the 20th century, the no-nonsense champion Jean Barnard Heming passed away at her home in England on Friday evening
The racing world I knew and wrote about is no longer there. Racing is turning into a brand new thing. It’s becoming a niche industry geared to the big breeders, the big owners and the big trainers.
1993 blows out with Volume 4 of the Racing Record, a new chairman for Durban Turf Club and a proposal to merge Milnerton and Kenilworth approved unopposed. A Little Ballerina wins the Cape Guineas, Marla causes an upset in the Sceptre Stakes and Jean Heming is shot in a vicious attack. TAB Transvaal introduces the Superfecta and Take A Walk wins the Queen’s Plate for David Payne, pushing him R1 million ahead of his nearest rival on the trainers’ log.
Abroad, absent-minded jockey Desormeaux costs Kotashaan the Japan Cup, Basil Marcus extends his lead on the Hong Kong jockey table by winning the first leg of the Hong Kong Triple Crown aboard River Verdon, while Robbie Fradd is crowned Mauritius champion jockey. Coolmore announce that Sadler’s Wells stud fee has increased to IR100.000 guineas. The British Jockey Association launches the first Jockey Championship and Wolverhampton stages the first race meeting under lights.
The premature loss of Lancaster Bomber (War Front) was a sad setback to the South African thoroughbred industry
The highest-rated horses in all but one race – Parisian Walkway, who achieved his highest performance figure over 1600m – claimed the top four positions in each of this past weekend’s Grade 1 and Grade 2 races (excluding the two-year-old races).This provides strong validation regarding the effectiveness of the rating system!
In one of the most high-profile in-race incidents of the past five years, former SA champion jockey Gavin Lerena was found guilty of four charges, while Jason Gates didn’t escape punishment
Glistian Events’ Joao da Mata chats to Cape Racing Chairman Greg Bortz about the path ahead for SA horseracing
