Pocket Power and Robert Fayd’herbe (photo: Mike Bass Racing)
There is obviously no foolproof recipe, but they say that the best marriages are made by people who complement one another, rather than simply having matching tastes, ideas and outlooks on life.
Well, for anyone who is of the opinion that two heads are better than one and that an intelligent match can combine to produce a total that is more than the sum of the individual parts, the first of November was an auspicious day, for Neil Bruss and Robert Fayd’herbe have joined forces and will be running a joint venture from their Milnerton base.
Neil
Neither gentleman really needs much introducing, but Neil is one of the ‘Bruss-pack’ and older brother to Robin. The family hail from Zimbabwe and Bruss snr started training in 1943 and continued for nearly 30 years, handing the mantel (and his license) over to his son Neil in 1972.
Neil rode a lot of work and was very active on the amateur racing scene, winning (among others) the Zimbabwean Grand National as part of his riding exploits. The very first runner he sent out was a winner and he quickly developed a name for himself, winning everything on offer and eventually being crowned champion trainer 9 times in his Zimbabwean career.
Then the great open road beckoned and he spent a year travelling the world. He was just settling back in Durban when he heard that Madagascar wanted to set up racing on the island, so Neil headed over.
He set up a joint venture with a consortium of businessmen (including a certain Chris Fayd’herbe de Maudave) and helped get the Madagascan racing industry on its feet. It was during his time in Madagascar that Neil was introduced to Chris’s two nephews – Bernard and Robert Fayd’herbe de Maudave and the two boys became regular fixtures on the work gallops. When the Madagascan government revoked the betting license, it all collapsed and Neil returned to Durban, but the seeds of a life-long association had been sown.
Neil was instrumental in encouraging the boys to join the South African Jockey Academy and has remained a close family friend ever since. Once the Madagascan venture collapsed, he did a bit more globe-trotting, first returning to KZN before heading off to Harare, Saudi Arabia and finally back to Durban, from which base he trained Zebra Crossing to his 2006 J&B Metropolitan win.
After a stint in the UK, Neil ventured back to Saudi Arabia, where he clocked up the highest number of group races for the season, including having two of his charges (Muller and Paris Perfect) finishing first and second respectively in Saudi’s most prestigious race, the King’s Cup.
There is an interesting back story to Muller – when Neil found him, he was already an 11 time winner and had been pensioned off as a lead horse. Neil looked at his stats and decided to give the horse another try. Neil and his two Kings Cup finishers were then invited to the 2009 Dubai World Cup.
They went to post extreme long shots, but came home in 3rd and 4th spot behind Well Armed and Gloria de Campeao. Not too bad for an old lead horse ! Neil returned to South Africa, originally settling in KZN where he conditioned horses like August Rush, Changingoftheguard, but then making the move to the Cape about 2 years ago.
On first meeting, Neil is one of those gruff, no-nonsense old school trainers. Having held a training license for something over 4 decades and needing 2 hands to count all the countries he’s trained in, Neil is a seasoned racing veteran.
He is not interested in wasting people’s time and says if a horse is not making the grade, or he feels it has done as much as it can in its current centre, he tells the client straight.
“A lot of people don’t like that, and quite often they will move their horse to another trainer which is obviously their prerogative, but I’ve had quite a few come back to me later and say ‘you were right’ ”. He shrugs philosophically, but then gives a wry smile to acknowledge the great truism that “that’s racing”.
Like a lot of people who have seen and experienced a lot of what life has to offer, Neil listens more than he talks, but it is well worth while investing in a G&T or two as the gruff demeanour hides a wicked sense of humour and he has some wonderful stories to tell. Despite his list of Gr1’s and international exploits, he still reckons Hachiman was the best horse he ever had through his hands and a portrait of the beautiful chestnut still has pride of place in his office.
I tease him a little about the cowboy saddle next to his desk and he grins broadly. “When you’re young, you’ll ride anything. These days, I’m a little more careful. If you go down in that thing, you go down together!” When I ask whether he’s looking forward to the new partnership, he says “After 40 years in the game, you’ve seen a lot. Things have changed, obviously, and I’m not as young as I used to be, so it will be nice to have someone to share things with.”
Robert
Boy Boy Jevu, Pocket Power & Robert Fayd’herbe (photo: Mike Bass Racing)
Robert is probably best known as Pocket Power’s 2IC, but there is quite a lot more to the quiet young man with the blue eyes and shy smile. Robert and older brother Bernard were born and bred in Pietermaritzburg.
Grandson of the great Harold “Tiger” Wright, he says his favourite memory of the great man was their regular weekend visits when granddad used to give the boys ginger beer! The family moved to Madagascar when the boys were 6 and 8. With the Wright blood flowing in their veins, a racing career seemed a fait accompli and when Neil Bruss arrived to help get racing going on the island, the die was cast.
With some help from Neil, Bernard was the first to make his way through the Jockey Academy and Robert followed hot on his heels. Robert relates that although “Tiger” passed away the day of Bernard’s second Academy interview, he was very proud that both his grandsons were following in his racing footsteps.
I ask about their double-barrel last name and why they’re listed simply as Fayd’herbe. “It doesn’t fit in the racecard. The clubs gave us the choice of either Fayd’herbe or De Maudave. We went with Fayd’herbe.”
Robert’s race riding career spanned Zimbabwe (where he rode for Neil), Port Elizabeth (where he was most successfully associated with “Oom Nic” Claassen) and Cape Town, but eventually the battle with the scale became too much and he hung up his jockey boots to become a professional work rider. After a few years of chasing the Dubai and then KZN seasons, Robert took up an offer to work for Mike Bass full time,
Like his mentor, Robert prefers to watch and listen, rather than talk, but his admiration for the multiple Cape champion is warm and genuine. “Mr Bass was wonderful. He doesn’t like to call a vet for minor things and so I learned to watch for and treat a lot of things myself. “I learnt a huge amount from Trevor Taylor about stable management and general horsemanship skills. If I had any advice for young apprentices coming through the ranks it would be to spend time in the yards in the afternoons.
“You learn so much. It was very good of Mr Bass to trust me enough to leave me on my own to train Gr1 horses. If I rang him up for advice he’d just say ‘You know what the horse looks like, Robert!’.” He lists English Garden’s win in the SA Classic as one of his proudest achievements and of course the recent Gold Cup win with Jeppe’s Reef. “But Pocket Power probably taught me the most.”
When I ask about the highlights of his riding career, there is a mischievous grin on his face when he says “Bernard has never beaten me in a finish!” He acknowledges that having race riding experience gives him a unique advantage in understanding different tracks and different surfaces as well as insights into reading a race.
It’s a big step up to full time training with all the worries and responsibilities that that carries. Why now? “Mr Bass always said one day he’d make a trainer out of me,” he says shyly. “Neil’s been trying to talk me into it for years, but it’s tough trying to make it on your own and boxes are scarce, so this seemed like a good way to start. And I guess if you don’t try you’ll never know.”
As Robert isn’t one to blow his own trumpet, I’ll have to do it for him. He passed his trainer’s exam with 91% and has already started getting to grips with the Bruss string. There is an interesting and cosmopolitan core of owners and the string is an interesting mix of bloodlines – some big, commercial names and then the odd one that Neil just liked the look of and snapped up for a good price, plus a particularly good looking colt that caught my eye.
There are still a few shares available in some of the younger draft if anyone is interested in supporting the new venture. The team send out their first joint runner, Goddess Faustina, on Wednesday, 6 November and I will certainly be keeping an eye on this interesting team in the future.
– Robyn Louw
