Geoff Woodruff
Racing can be a bit of an odd animal. It’s often like a grand, extended family – with all the ups and downs that that entails. There’s always the eccentric aunt or the slightly weird uncle that one has to seat at the end of a table so that they only have to be endured by one long-suffering relative, or introduce to friends with a whispered disclaimer once they’re out of earshot.
Well one person who needs no caveats or excuses is Geoff Woodruff, who I can say without reservation is one of the nicest racing people one can hope to meet. With Terrance Millard having trained the first three past the July Handicap post twice (1986 and 1990), it could be said that big race whitewashes are something of a family speciality, but four out of five in the Summer Cup is a bit special and I thought it was appropriate to make a bit of a fuss.
How it all started
Geoffrey Vaughen Woodruff was born and raised on a dairy farm in Epsom. He’s makes up one of six children and when you ask where he fits in, he says ‘bang in the middle!’ He has an older brother and sister, he’s the eldest of a set of twins, and another younger brother and sister round off the set. So where did the affinity for horses come from?
“Oh we can all ride, but I’m the only one that took a shine to racing. I can’t even remember when it started – it may have been Red Rum winning the National, but I’m not sure. We used to belt around the field on our ponies and one day Peter Skinner was visiting one of our neighbours.
They pointed me out to Peter and said ‘Oh that’s Geoff, he’s into racing.’ Peter said ‘Well if he ever wants a job, tell him to give me a call.’ So I had a job offer at 14!”. Geoff took up the offer and ended up working for Skinner for 9 years. Aged 19 he had his first race ‘over the sticks’, and was named point to point junior champion in 1978.
“When you’re young, you’re indestructible and you just go for it. The best was going to the bigger tracks and seeing the professionals do it and learning to up your game.” He competed for 7 years, but the scales started finding him out.
“I was 10 stone 2. I couldn’t get any lighter without starving and that’s no existence. A mate had a brother in Joburg, so I decided to take a sabbatical, with the intention of getting “a proper job” as my dad had always wanted when I got home.”
That was October 1982. Three weeks into his holiday, his funds were running low and Mary Kirkpatrick (widow of Gordon Kirkpatrick) suggested contacting Lavinia de Klerk in Cape Town. Lavinia arranged an introduction with Ralph Rixon and Geoff started a few days later. He stayed for 6 years, working his way up from stable employee to assistant at Rixon’s Philippi yard.
On his own
He met and married the boss’s niece Carol Millard in January 1988 and went out on his own on 1 October 1988. “We started out at Milnerton with 12 horses” he reminisces. “Timothy was born on the 19th which was a Wednesday and we had our first runner that Saturday.
It was a horse called Third Admiral and he won over 1800m at Milnerton with Felix Coetzee on board, beating Anton Marcus on a Stanley Amos horse. We had about 1 runner a week for the first month and the first four we sent out were all winners – Third Admiral, Blazing Days, Avawinna and then Third Admiral again.”
Also in that original string was that grand old stayer Hawkins, given to Carol when he retired from racing. “They had some nice hurdle races in the Cape at the time and she wanted to have a go.” There was a race called the Protea Assurance National Hurdle Stakes at Kenilworth that he won twice in succession. “It had a terrific stake of R25k – that kind of money was unheard of back then – we were earning R10k for a maiden! Anyway, Carol won on him that first year.
I was on Brubaker and I fell and ended up in hospital. But Hawkins paid a lot of our expenses that first year. I won on him the following year and he paid off my overdraft. He was sore after that so we retired him. He’d have made a great jump racer in England.”
But things were going well on the flat too. Some of their early successes will still be remembered vividly by local racing fans – Alnwick won 5 stakes races, Pas de Quoi six of his first seven starts and Simonside clocked up their first Grade 1 when he romped home in the Cape Flying in 1990. Also in that early group was Star Effort. “Probably the best I’ve ever had,” says Geoff. “If I’d been slightly more mature as a trainer, she’d probably have been even better.”
Another standout filly was Marie Galante and Geoff recalls the 1992 South Easter Sprint. The race was at Durbanville that year and it was expected to be fought out by Marie Galante and Taban. Coming up the straight they were going head to head and as they drifted off the hedge (there wasn’t even an inside rail back then) a filly snuck up their inside and drilled both of them!
It was Empress Club. She was coming off a break and the instructions were that she was not to be hit and only to let her run if she wanted to. She broke the course record!” he chuckles.
Star String
Other names that will bring back memories are Crown Estate, Rip Curl, Sapieha, Resfa, Igreja, Faralmond, El Picha and of course, Jet Master. The El Picha story has become racing folklore now, but the little horse purchased as an afterthought to fill a berth on the plane proved a revelation, winning, well, quite a lot really, but probably remains most famous for his two successive July wins.
I spotted him in the Woodruff garden a few months ago and comment how nice it is for the old campaigner to still be with them. “We tried him as a riding horse, but he was so useless at anything else that we decided to just retire him for good. He’s sound and he’s doing great, but he’s so lazy, so he eats and sleeps and that’s all he does now.”
And as incredible as it was to have a horse of that calibre in the yard, Woodruff had Jet Master at the same time. The 1999/00 National Racing Award panel had little option but to make a joint award for Horse of the Year, only the second time in their history after London News and Flobayou shared the honours in 1994/95. Geoff received his first Trainer’s Championship and it was also the first time Anton Marcus was named Champion Jockey. It was also the year Geoff set the record for most wins in a season at 136, a tally which he improved on over the years, until it settled at 174 in the 2002/3 season where it stayed until the Snaiths’ record-breaking 198 wins last season.
It’s hard to pick career highlights, but to date he’s achieved 2 Queen’s Plates (Jet Master in 2000, Yard-Arm in 2004), 1 Met (Yard-Arm in 2004), 2 Julys (El Picha – 1999 and again in 2000 after a sale to the USA fell through) and 3 Summer Cups (El Picha in 1999, Eventuail in 2002 & now Yorker in 2013).
On the up
Geoff has been named champion trainer 5 times in total and says “2008 was the last time. We’ve had a lean four years since then, but the move to Randjes has really turned things around. Championships are the result of a good season. You only have a good season if things go right and you have the stock. It’s a numbers game, no matter what anyone says. Our current string is 75.
We would like to buy our way up to 100, but with hand-picked horses. We pride ourselves that we try not to burgle horses from other trainers. If an owner wants to come to us I prefer it if they come with a yearling or a 2yo.”
“For the last 3 years, we’ve been buying in Australia. Here you have to stretch to between R1-2million for a decent sort and there are only be a handful of that quality available. In Australia you have your pick of about a hundred for that price.
The exchange rate has changed, but Killua Castle landed here for around R500k. For R750 – R1million you can land a darn nice horse and you know some of them will put their hands up.” The strategy is paying dividends, as is the move to Randjes. “The air is cleaner and we’re extremely happy there,” says Geoff.
Summer Cup 2013
“It was a lovely day. It had such a good feel about it, even before race 1, so it’s not like you’re on cloud 9. It was a jolly nice meeting and the girls dressed up beautifully. It was very good. I must congratulate Sansui – they did a great job, a really great job.
“Twelve races makes for a long day, but I was pretty pleased with how we went. Tee Jay Ar won the first, Arcetri Pink was only half a length third in the Magnolia and Miss October was 5th in the Merchants.”
“In the main race I had one eye on each and thought ‘one of them is going to be there’. It was terrific. I was particularly thrilled with Yorker. He’s been a bit of a talking horse, probably because of his ownership, the price tag and because he’s so good looking. The November handicap threw us a bit, because we were expecting better and inexplicably for me, he emptied out and finished 5th. But we learnt a lot. I believe that the majority of Jet Masters are better at 4 than they are at 3 and he was a much better horse going into the Summer Cup.”
“With Tellina, I was particularly thrilled. He was starting to haemoconcentrate, but I think we’ve remedied that now.” I mention the SA Classic result and he shrugs philosophically “rub of the green”.
“Killua Castle has been gelded. He won those 2 races on the Vaal sand, was 3rd on November Handicap day and 5th in the Summer Cup itself. We weren’t sure he’d stay, but now I’d say he does.”
“Then we still had Do You Remember coming up. It was her first run back, she was interfered with on the turn and finished 3rd behind Espumante in the Ipi Tombe.”
“Big race days are pretty exhausting as you’re feeling the nerves all day. Saturday was great, but it’s already back to business. I was up at 5:30 again on Sunday morning, but it was a pleasure to see the boys.”
What’s next?
“We’re putting four horses on the float to Cape Town on Tuesday. Carol drives down on Wednesday and will spend most of the next 2 months down there. I’ll be up and down. We always stay with Harold who is wonderful and keeps me in the loop when I’m not there. We’ve also got really good grooms who have been with me for going on 15 years now, so I’ve got no worries from that side.”
“Our main targets will be the Queen’s Plate and Paddock Stakes, plus an 1800m for Master Sabina. We’ll race Killua and Tellina here again and possibly raid for the Met if they look like they have a chance of a decent run. That’s the plan. We’d love to put all of them into the Met, of course. I don’t know if we can win, but it will add some interest.” Please leave a few places for the rest of us!
– Robyn Louw
