July reflections
SARAH WHITELAW: One thing seems to have been clearly established following the running of the July – it is difficult to see any horse other than Variety Club (Var) being named Horse of the Year.
SARAH WHITELAW: One thing seems to have been clearly established following the running of the July – it is difficult to see any horse other than Variety Club (Var) being named Horse of the Year.
ROBYN LOUW: The great and good that lit up the turf of yesteryear had been painstakingly brought back to life
SARAH WHITELAW: The subject of racehorses who have achieved long winning streaks has been much in the media of late
ROBYN LOUW: Every ‘July’ is an event and this year an unusually interesting and interconnected group of runners in this Durban July
SARAH WHITELAW: A view of interesting performing sire lines and mares around the world.
ROBYN LOUW: It’s supposed to be fun. It’s supposed to be frivolous. And entertaining and escapist. And all about the power and beauty of the horse.
SARAH WHITELAW: So how many other mares in history have produced as many as eight stakes winners? The small number of famous broodmares to produce as many as five stakes winners really puts into perspective the remarkable achievement
LANCE BENSON: The potential devastating implications for a trainer of horses being ‘got at’, particularly on the eve of major races, makes it astonishing that apparently so little attention is paid to the securing of stables. Are we sitting on a potential time-bomb?
ROBYN LOUW: The US industry is still reeling from the damning expose by the New York Times (Breakdown, Death & Disarray at America’s Racetracks)
SARAH WHITELAW: Ill-fated sire’s lasting legacy. There is a well accepted “fact” that when a sire dies, his progeny take off.
SARAH WHITELAW: William Bambiso is one of the Cape’s finest work riders, who is a talent to watch for the future.
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
At the age of 93, Mr Ferraris is still active in racing as a training consultant, and he takes great joy in following the career of his grandson, Luke Ferraris, a successful jockey in Hong Kong
The starting stalls stuck on the Fairview polytrack capped a mostly forgettable week for South African horseracing when the Nelson Mandela Bay Racing fixture ground to a dismal halt on Friday