Avontuur have been hosting the Fillies Guineas day since 2006. Each year is a little different… More →

Being mistaken for a talented good looking colleague is an occupational hazard for Joey Ramsden More →

When making a list of outstanding stallions, it is easy to focus on a few big horses, rather than an individual stallion’s overall stud record. More →

One person who needs no caveats is Summer Cup hero Geoff Woodruff More →

Shocking attack at training complex highlights poor security More →

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. More →

October 31 – November 6 Stakes in the Western Cape return to “normal”, after they had been decreased earlier in the year when the local raceclubs found themselves under extreme financial pressure. PE’s “official racecard” Computaform joins the disgraceful confusion of the missing Grooms Race (see diary entry of August 8-14), when the winning formline is… More →

October 3 – 9 At Longchamps, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is the last one run under the sponsorship of the floundering Ciga Hotel group. Irish champion jockey Michael Kinane sets an all-time record for winners in a season in Ireland, with 114 winners. Kinane will be riding in Hong Kong for the new… More →

September 5 – 11 Empress Club leaves South African shores for the USA. The filly is to be trained by Charlie Whittingham on the West-coast, provided she comes through a lengthy 2-month period of quarantine in New York, the only place where South African horses are allowed to enter the country. Empress Club won 15… More →

August 1 – 7 All horses turn a year older. Transvaal TAB posts a record turnover of R95.3 million for the month of July. Turnover for the first seven months of 1993 is five percent ahead of the same period last year. To celebrate, the Transvaal TAB launches a national TV campaign. In a 30… More →

JUNE 27 – JULY 3 Hidden Fortune secures a bonus cheque of R300.000 when he wins the SA St Leger, third leg of the Newmarket Triple Crown. Hidden Fortune had foregone the opportunity to duel with White Tie Affair and Chief Advocate in the Natal Derby, as that race was run only ten days earlier.… More →

A look back at horse racing history from South Africa and abroad, going back 20 years ago to June 1993 More →