For Convenience
Goodwill and Glory
LANCE BENSON: Zimbabwe horseracing has opened its doors and hearts to South African owners and trainers. (more)
Space Invaders!
ROBYN LOUW: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. The book is described by its late author as a “thumping good detective-ghost-horror-whodunnit-time-travel-romantic-musical-comedy-epic”.All of which are highly entertaining, but not really relevant to racing. Or are they…. (more)
Here And Elsewhere
SARAH WHITELAW: Promising Takar belies beliefs about older mares (more)
Lord Of The Dance
ROBYN LOUW: There is a biblical expression that “A prophet is honoured everywhere except in his own hometown” and the South African racing fraternity is particularly prone to this particular foible. (more)
Champagne, Cheques And Challenges
LANCE BENSON: Champions Day punctuates the National Yearling Sale and reflects the glamorous, shiny and happy side of the sport of kings. But the sport also brings out the worst in mankind. (more)
The Yearling Pickers Convention
ROBYN LOUW: No compromise on quality at the National Yearling Sale (more)
Ain’t it Grand?
ROBYN LOUW: You can’t rationalise the Grand National and everyone who is involved with horses knows and accepts that it’s a dangerous occupation (more)
No Moans about the Fatty
LANCE BENSON: We have enough stodgy, starched fakes in action. Bring on the real people like Andrew Fortune and the public ratings can only go in the right direction. (more)
Easter Festival
ROBYN LOUW: What a great weekend’s racing . . . . . (more)
Meaker’s Magic Machine
For those fatalists preaching that horseracing is a dying game, some fuel would have been provided by the sponsors at Scottsville, where the Baker & Baker Undertakers Maiden Plate closed the eight race programme. (more)
Badgers Drift colt wins Kenya Derby
A son of South African stallion Badger’s Drift has recorded a dazzling victory in Kenya’s biggest race – the Kenya Derby (more)
Differing Fools Of Thought
A high quality day of horseracing on Saturday 31 March was tarnished somewhat by logistical gremlins. In a world where we are able to share a cloakroom with the most gorgeous jockey as she prepares to make history in the richest race on earth, we are still tripped up by nonsense. The outstanding feed into … (more)
Drier & Forbes Earn Their Stripes
We salute Dennis Drier and Alec Forbes! The coastal coupling overcame all the odds to clinch top honours in the R1 million Gr1 SA Fillies Classic run over the Turffontein 1800m this afternoon with the emerging talent of the Argentinian-bred Bambina Stripes. Nothing in moderation in racing. It is either brilliant or bad! The embarrassment … (more)
Lights, Camera-No Action
Faulty lifts, delayed planes, solar outages and absent false rails. An eventful Friday afternoon from Port Elizabeth to Singapore and a great way to celebrate April Fool’s eve. With the big weekend of racing that lies ahead at Meydan and Turffontein, we should probably also be thankful to the racing gods for dishing out the … (more)
The Big Sleep
The prodigious talent of Richard Fourie caught his fellow jocks fast asleep at Kenilworth today. A track running fast and a deceptively powerful tailwind are not rocket science and the young man took full advantage of the conditions. It is something of an irony that Fourie caught his colleagues napping over the same distance and … (more)
Lives In Their Hands
LANCE BENSON:The vast chasm between good and poor communication to the public was shown by two separate incidents on our Tellytrack screens last week. (more)
Do you feel lucky?
ROBYN LOUW: What does it feel like to have a winner? Amazing. Incredible. Indescribable. It is a feeling quite unlike any other. (more)
A “Classic” History
Sarah Whitelaw: The Gr1 SA Classic has a rich and storied past. Now a R2 million race, the Classic has long been one of South Africa’s most prestigious three year old races. (more)
Bond’s The Name- Gone’s the price!
Even winning has its drawbacks. Veteran trainer Doug Campbell suggested that the loss of a big price was ‘sore for the owners’ after his Greyville Night first race winner was backed from nowhere into single odds. Who pinched the price? Should long-suffering owners be entitled to the privilege of inside information and double digit odds? … (more)
Being A Sport
The changing landscape of betting in South Africa and a reflection of the mindset of the people who run horseracing, was reflected quite coarsely Sunday morning on the home page of the Tabgold website (more)
Hopeless
The National Horseracing Authority pose a bigger threat to horseracing than any casino. Got your attention? Radical thinking maybe, depending on who pays your salary. But their handling of the objection today at Fairview was downright amateurish in an industry that funds their very existence. The racing operators were beating the eradicate-the-jockey-club drum not even … (more)
Keep Dreaming
The best laid plans of mice and men. Or maybe a touch too much arrogant assumption? The Competition Commission’s silver bullet in the knee this week for Phumelela’s intended carnival of Cape capers appears to have caught the role-players off sides and a touch red-faced. Playing Devil’s Advocate on the side-lines, we can only question … (more)
African Horse Sickness export impact
South Africa finds itself in a state of nervous optimism as new veterinary regulations are being considered by the OIE, and a new diagnostic test for AHS which gives a “yes or no” answer in a couple of hours, is in the final stages of development (more)