A proud Duncan Howells receives his award (Nkosi Hlophe)
Ashburton conditioner Duncan Howells fulfilled what he correctly suggests is a lifelong ambition for any trainer, when he was crowned Champion trainer at the KZN Racing Awards at a glittering function in Durban last Thursday evening. In the face of stiff opposition from some of the best trainers in the country, it is an achievement that the 48 year old horseman will justly savour for a long time.
The Winning Form-sponsored Howells lifted both the provincial award as well as the Ashburton championship.
And on a wonderful evening he had the satisfaction of watching his owners going up on stage to collect awards for two outstanding racehorses, that he had brought on so professionally in the past season.
The Mambo In Seattle filly Same Jurisdiction was crowned Champion 2yo filly, while Var’s champion daughter Via Africa added to her Equus success by being awarded the Champion Sprinter accolade.
The modest and self effacing Howells was quick to point out the quality of trainers in the province, including past champions Mike De Kock and Dennis Drier, whom he said had powerful and quality strings.
“Things didn’t look too bright for us two months before the end of the season when we saw that we were just two winners ahead of Mike De Kock. They have some big guns but we got lucky and kept plugging away applying the basics,” he said.
Howells said that his team had set the goal of winning the championship four months into the season.
One of the fastest growing yards in the country, he has built a powerful string of 100 horses since taking out his open licence in 1999, and employs four Assistants.
“I have one Assistant for every 25 horses. That gives every horse the opportunity to enjoy personal supervision and attention, and I oversee the operation. It works well for me and I run what I like to believe is a tight ship,’ he said.
Trainer Duncan Howells and his beautiful speed machine, Via Africa, who has gone overseas
When quizzed on the season ahead and his Gauteng feature race aspirations, he confirmed that he would definitely be aiming his Mambo In Seattle colt, Saratoga Dancer at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup on 1 November.
The Gary Player Stud-bred colt won a cracker in the final race on Sunday, a maiden plate over a mile.
The R140 000 Ready To Run Sale graduate had caught the eye on debut when running on strongly for fourth on the polytrack.
“That first run was a really good effort. And then he had not even seen Scottsville before Sunday but ran on strongly to win very smartly. We will go to Johannesburg with him next month,” he said.
He said that he would rather wait for the KZN turf tracks to get back into normal use before he attempted raids on Group features in Gauteng:
“I don’t believe it’s fair on the horses to prep them for Gr1 features off the polytrack. I will wait for 2015 and then we can reassess our options.”
We asked him what he would be doing differently this season.
“I will be doing absolutely nothing differently at all! I will be up in office early tomorrow morning, as I was on Friday morning after the function, and then we will continue to try and build on the past season. We are also not a punting yard and that means that we can always do what is best for our horses,” he said.
Has he got any good horses in the wings?
“The lovely thing about this game is that we never really know when our next good horse will turn up until they have shown us on the racecourse. Some work – some don’t. But we are always trying!” he said with a smile.
We asked whether he thought he could do it again?
“We don’t have overly expensive horses and it is not easy competing against the quality stock and good horses of some of the other top yards. But we won the championship on number of winners, which makes the achievement all the more meritorious,” he said proudly.
