ROBYN LOUW: Life doesn’t come with an instruction manual. Which obviously adds enormously to the challenge and the mystique, but sometimes an instruction manual might not be all bad.
SARAH WHITELAW: Following on a year which saw exceptional performances on the racetrack, 2013 sees a number of horses worth following.
ROBYN LOUW: A horsey friend from Joburg joined me for the Guineas. Her last experience of racing was some 20 years ago when people dressed to the nines and you had to jostle for a good view. How things have changed.
SARAH WHITELAW: Capetown Noir’s win in the recent Gr1 Cape Guineas was the 20th Grade One winner for his sire Western Winter, who has topped the South African sires list three times, and has a plethora of sire sons at stud.
SARAH WHITELAW: There has been debates over the years as to who was the best horse ever bred in South Africa. However, the question of which was the best filly ever to race in this country has largely been overlooked.
ROBYN LOUW: As the year draws to a close, we examine where we went wrong, celebrate where we went right, and adjust our game plan for next year.
A top-class 3yo classic on the Saturday before Christmas and the presence of a legend of the turf is bound to have some of the old school heading down to Kenilworth this weekend.
ROBYN LOUW: Our youngest sales company’s debut on the ready to run market was announced with much fanfare, luncheons, country-wide road shows, attractive payment plans for vendors as well as buyers and of course that tantalising carrot, the R2 million CTS Ready To Run Stakes
SARAH WHITELAW: With the new season underway, and a new round of sales having begun, it would appear to be a good time to view South Africa’s leading active sires of G1 winners.
They say that every family in Ireland still has at least one member who is involved with horses in some way. It is horse country through and through!
SARAH WHITELAW: A look at the fillies guineas success down the years
The number of entries compares favourably in quantum with recent years, with 58 first entries received in 2024, 60 in 2023, 68 in 2022, 53 in 2021, 52 in 2020, 49 in 2019, and 69 in 2018
Ironically, it was a colt which provided Alan with a first Gr1 success, this being Alec and Gillian Foster’s homebred Cereus, who landed the 2001 Gold Cup at Hollywoodbets Greyville, his victory completing a momentous double on the day, with the Gr2 Golden Slipper having gone the way of juvenile filly Tatler, a great-great-great grandaughter of Sun Lass!
JP van der Merwe is not the only guilty party in the matter. In simple terms, he is the only rider to have exercised the NHA’s offer of an Acknowledgement Of Guilt and moved on with his life
Andrew Fortune made it three winners on the Family Day public holiday as Tenango breezed home to win the Gr3 feature
