A former owner-trainer, racing administrator, published author and a deep thinker on a wide range of issues relating to horseracing, Ian Jayes passed away peacefully at his Johannesburg home at the age of 79 on Thursday evening.
His son Dickon told the Sporting Post that his Dad had been very ill for some months.
A regular and deeply insightful contributor on the Sporting Post readers platform, Ian Jayes was an old school racing man who loved the game and once said that corporatisation had been an unmitigated disaster for the sport.
He was an unyielding pursuer of the truth from stakes agreements to the sale of racecourses, and suggested that ‘before the advent of Phumelela the sport of kings in South Africa flourished because it was owned by collectives’.
One of his last comments from October this year, summed up his frustration with the new racing order:
The officers serving in the old The Owners’ and Trainer’s Association of the Transvaal Limited did so without remuneration. Likewise the officers elected to serve its successor The Gauteng Racehorse Owners Association also did not get any numeration. It was with the founding of the Racing Association that the officers serving this Association were paid. They have taken their money and provided their services and the only beneficiaries have been the shareholders in Phumelela so enjoy the pain.
Starting out in the printing field, Ian Jayes moved into the carpet business and took an active interest in local and national party politics.
His formal association with horse racing began through his wife Merle, the daughter of jockey -turned-trainer Jack Sparks, and whose main patron was Len Oates, owner of the July winner Brookhill, amongst others.
Ian Jayes was also a family man and politician and documented his memoirs which he published as “Footsteps, Heartbeats and Hoofbeats”.
This was an amusing and interesting account of his life, an interesting slice of South African history, as well as a bird’s eye view of some of the highs, lows and controversies of the South African racing scene. The latter subject kept him fired up in his later years.
Ian Jayes is survived by his wife Merle, sons Wayne and Dickon, and his daughter Anne, as well as five Grandchildren.
- A funeral service will be held at 11h00 on Tuesday 31 December at St Michael and All Angels Anglican Church, Weltevreden Park, Johannesburg.
