Mike Bass

Mike Bass took out his trainer’s licence in 1976 and the ensuing years have seen Mike Bass Racing become a force to be reckoned with on South African tracks. He is probably best remembered for his long and successful association with the mighty Pocket Power, but the past 4 decades have seen him lift every major trophy in SA racing, including no less than five J&B Mets, four of which were won consecutively. Mr Bass saddles two runners for the 2015 J&B Met and the Sporting Post spent a few minutes catching up with the doyen of the Cape.

Mike William Bass was born in Leicester, England in 1945. When he was three, his family moved to South Africa and he grew up in Bergvliet. The horse gene has been firmly instilled for several generations: “My grandfather was a master of hounds in England and my mother grew up as a farmer’s daughter, so when we were young she always got us a pony if she could.” Mike attended Wynberg Boys High and studied Agricultural Technology at Stellenbosch University, before starting up a garden landscape business. “After college I bought a riding horse and kept it at the Wetton Road stables – Terrance Millard’s father’s old place. Lawrence and Pat van der Merwe were running it at the time and Joyce Waring had her horse there. I always used to help around the stables and one day Mrs Waring said that there was a riding yard with a house attached that was standing vacant in Muizenberg and she talked me into taking it on.

“It was called the Western Province Riding School out on Prince George drive and when we started, it was just her horse and my horse, but eventually we got filled up. Between the beach and the riding stables, we had a racing stable and I was an amateur trainer for about six years. I was entirely self-taught. Chris Snaith was a bank clerk back in those days, but he used to ride for us quite a lot and eventually moved in.”

“After about 6 years, I got married and they asked me to come and work as a Stipe, so I handed the yard over to Chris. I did my three month probation, but I didn’t really enjoy it, so I went to work for the Hon. Pat O’Neill at Broadlands as a stud manager. I was there for two years, but realised I preferred training, so when Russell Laird’s stable came available, I took it. It was called Sungari Lodge and was roughly where the Medi-clinic is now. I was based next to Boughton, Soteriadis and Peter Kannemeyer. I started out with 3 horses – a couple of leased fillies mainly owned by family – I think I had 6 names and 3 horses! But it didn’t take long before we got going.” That was back in 1976 and the rest, as the old saying goes, is history.”

“I eventually bought the premises with a client. A few years later the club bought us out and built the new stables and barns, so we moved to the current yard in around 1986.”

Have things improved much? “Back then we had the old cinder track and Baby Killa used to bring in the topping from his quarry. But no, the tracks are still archaic. We still have the two sand tracks, but they’re a little lighter these days. The cinders has also been filled with sand, so it’s now just a longer sand track really. But you make do with what you’ve got. I used to train my hurdlers on Muizenberg beach. It’s a matter of getting horses fit, making sure they don’t hurt themselves and trying to keep them in one piece. The most difficult thing is not having a grass track since they sold Milnerton. I send horses to gallop at Durbanville every fortnight, but I often have to run my horses without having had a grass gallop. I prefer to bring them on that way, but it does affect the stats.”

You’ve currently got a few high value horses in the string – how much pressure does that add? “I always bought cheap horses – I had to really. Mr Patel bought me Counter Action, but until Marsh (Shirtliff) came along, I didn’t have much buying power. Marsh had been racing for 10/12 years at the time, but I didn’t know him. He approached me at Durbanville and said ‘I want to have a horse with you’. I think it was his girlfriend’s idea, to be honest. There was a horse he wanted me to look at, but I didn’t like it and said that one was not for me. I ended up buying a different horse and Marsh came over and asked who it was for. I said I’d bought it on spec, but that he could have it. His advisor apparently didn’t like the horse’s hocks, so Marsh came back and asked me to check. I went and looked again and the hocks were fine, so Marsh took him. It was Tobe Or Nottobe.”

“Marsh asked me to look at another horse one day. He liked the pedigree, but it was mainly the name he was after. The horse was called Floatyourboat and his girlfriend at the time liked to say ‘whatever floats your boat’. I had a look at him and apart from having a bit of a suitcase head, he was a nice, big strong horse and he did very well for us. He’s now retired out in Stellenbosch as a hunt horse.”

“Lately we’ve been buying the heavy stuff and that puts me under pressure. I try to find the value horses and am trying to get my clients back to that. I don’t like buying the expensive ones unless I really think they’re worth it. Clients don’t always stop when I say stop, but having an expensive horse doesn’t help me if it’s no good!”

But you’ve just bought the CTS Sales topper for R5,2 million? “Things change, you know? I’ve got quite an expensive horse in the yard already – we’ve been calling him ‘Three Bar’. I guess we’ll just call him Zud Wes from now on as he’s not that special anymore!”

Is it hard having a bigger string? “I have lots of help now. Candice takes a lot of the strain. I still work the horses in the morning, but in the last 5 or 6 years I’ve not worked on a Sunday and on Tuesdays and Fridays I go and play golf. Then we’ve got the PE yard and Robert up in Joburg. We have two horses to a groom, so I’ve got a large staff complement.”

How do you pick yearlings? “It’s difficult to explain. There are a lot of things that you can’t learn in a book. You do look for conformation, but a good horse often has a certain presence. You can see sometimes if a horse is going to be slow! Pocket Power was a little weak behind, but he was so good in front that one forgave him the fault and he matured out of it. The ability to see that quality or presence can be acquired, but I look at horses all day every day.”

Winning the Met
“I’m a purist and feel the Queen’s Plate is probably the best race in the country from a trainer’s point of view. The July is probably the best one from an owner’s point of view. The July IS a big race, but it’s a handicap, so it can be won on weight. The Met is a conditions race and believe me, you don’t fluke the Met.”

Five Met wins
“The first win was Bunter Barlow who belonged to Jimmy Rentzke. He wanted to sell a half share, and as it happened, Carole had a good night at the casino, so we paid for him in cash! It was about 6 months before the Met, so that worked out quite well. Trademark was supposed to win that day, but Bunter Barlow got up on the line and won by a short head, so we ended up first and second. That wasn’t too bad. Vanessa Williams came out here to buy horses for jump racing – she bought two from Joburg and then Bunter Barlow. I don’t think he did too well as a hurdle horse and eventually retired to a nice home.”

Pocket Power’s first win

“Jeff Lloyd rode him for me that day. I rate Jeff the best jockey that ever rode for me. He was such a pleasure to work with. He would probably still be here if he didn’t go to Australia. He knew his horses, he always did the right thing and he won on horses that I thought couldn’t win. That day he won the Majorca on Sun Classique and then the Met on Pocket Power. We ended up having five wins that day including Penfold Park, Secure and Wonder Gold. That was a pretty good day I guess – probably my best Met ever.”

“Then Pocket won two more (2008, 2009) and we won it again with River Jetez in 2010. We bought River Jetez because we had Pocket really. She was a tall, light filly. She was light for a long time and wasn’t that well-furnished early on. We thought she was good, but she didn’t finish well in her early races and we realised she wasn’t quite strong enough and needed more time. When she went off to Dubai with Mike de Kock, I think he thought she’d done her racing, but he ended up taking her all over the world. She got better the older she got.”

Chances for 2015

“I’m optimistic about our chances of finishing in the money. Helderberg Blue is very well bred, but he’s had a temperament problem from the start. I knew the mother from Joey’s and she was a dill. Then I saw the sister and that was also a stone dill. We went to see him on the farm and when they brought him in, the first thing he did was throw himself over backwards. So we knew what we were letting ourselves in for, but we bought him anyway. If I’m honest, I don’t think I did the best job with Helderberg Blue last year. I think I was a bit soft on him. Things didn’t go his way and because of the way they raced he got caught out in the last 100m. But he’s been gelded and Malan and Belinda in particular have done a lot of work to get him settled. He’s a lot better now.”

“Paterfamilias has got more ability than his form shows, but it’s not his fault. He was very unfortunate to lose a year’s racing because of a slight tendon. His Met prep has been difficult because there just haven’t been races for him. Ideally I’d have liked to run him in a 1400m Pinnacle, but there wasn’t one, so his comeback run was in the Premium Stakes over 1800m and his second run back was the Queen’s Plate. But, he needed two runs before the Met and that’s what we got. I’d understood that Aldo was going to ride him, but when I went to do scratchings, they said Aldo had confirmed on Punta Arenas. Corne was the next best available, so we’ll take our chances.”

Do you get nervous on big days?
“I think you always do, you know? When I get uptight is when you’re expected to win – when there’s big money down or big expectations like when Pocket Power was hot pot favourite – that’s a lot of pressure. I can imagine how Justin Snaith felt after the Queen’s Plate. But I don’t have any of that pressure this year, so I’ll just go and enjoy it and hope my horses run well.”