The Ramsden name has become synonomous with the leafy shadows of the unpretentious Durbanville winner’s enclosure in recent years. The flamboyant former Cape and country course Champion trainer has started the new season in low-key fashion but upped his game with a dazzling win in the Gr3 Matchem Stakes on Sunday.
Call it style. Call it the x-factor. Even call it charisma. Some guys probably get to watch a bit of Fashion TV at best, but they could just never carry off wearing the unorthodox- in- Africa, but classy European taste colours. Not that I spend too much time thinking about it but Tellytrack’s on-course presenter Grant Knowles probably doesn’t have a single item of pink outer-wear in his cupboard. One thus detected a gentle hint of envy in his voice as he chirped the eloquent Joey Ramsden about his natty outfit in the Matchem post-race presentation on a milky warm early summer’s afternoon at a fairly well patronised Durbanville.
It was all in good fun and Joey looked as pleased as punch as he received his trophies from WPOTA Chairman Rodney Dunn after his Langerman winner had doddled in and signalled his Guineas aspirations. And In the old days us kids would have hung around the parade ring for the formalities to be dispensed with and then asked both Joey and winning jockey Glen Hatt to autograph our prized race-card. Remember the race-card? Instilling an interest in the sport happens naturally through an interest in the horse, and sentimental tradition and history are important role-players in building the relationship of passion. I shudder to think of the impersonal current official programme! And never mind the likes of student beauty pageants and cheesy gambling orientated marketing strategies. We have gone backwards. No question about that.
The Matchem race-card once upon a time had a picture on the cover of the racehorse of the same name . Along with Eclipse and Herod, the trio was the earliest of the 18th century stallions that produced the thoroughbred sire-lines of today. Matchem was, interestingly, the leading sire in Great Britain and Ireland in 1773 and 1774. The glossy covered official programme would have also published a list of course record holders and the honour role of previous winners of this race, together with a short history of the race. Surely a prerequisite to attract new interest from the likes of potential enthusiasts, prospective sponsors and wannabe gamblers? The racecard also somehow added an innate touch of class and credibility to the proceedings, amongst the paper tiger of a mass of losing tote tickets.
The R200 000 Gr3 Matchem Stakes was always married to Kenilworth but was run for the second consecutive year at Durbanville this year. And it certainly boasted one of its better quality fields of recent times. While it was a triumph for an obviously top quality sort in Variety Club, the question remains whether it makes any real sense in running a race of this nature at a track like Durbanville?
The cream always rises to the top though and good horses overcome adversity to show their class and ability. But this race is run over 1400m and the draw is undoubtedly a factor. Add to this the undulating surface and tight turns of the country course, and one realises that a greater element of luck than average might play a hand – although there is little doubt that justice prevailed on Sunday and it was won by a genuinely classy son of Var with serious Guineas aspirations.
How good is Variety Club? To borrow a phrase from the Molly dictionary, the ‘dogs have been barking about this one’ for some time now. Rumoured late last year already to be the best boy baby in the distinguished Good Hope Racing nursery, he made his debut two days before Valentine’s Day 2011 and scorched home over the Kenilworth 1200m in good time. He was introduced to Durbanville three weeks later and coasted in over 1000m.
Joey then stepped him out in a five horse field in the Somerset 1200 and he ran third behind the brilliant Snaith horse Gimmethegreenlight and just behind Depardieu – whom he comprehensively whacked on Sunday at level weights. He then ran a disappointing fifth behind Depardieu in the Cape Nursery after running quite freely throughout. In June he beat his highly rated stablemate Master Mascus in the Langerman. He then travelled to PE for the Champion Juvenile over 1400m in mid-July and was downed in a contentious finish by the local Champion juvenile colt, In A Rush. An objection followed, but the Gavin Smith colt kept the race- probably fairly in the end.
In his first run as a three year old on Sunday, the Beaumont Stud bred Variety Club showed the benefit of racing experience and maturity by settling during the race. He charged to the front 250m out to beat some really good sorts-and was even eased up at the line by an elated Glen Hatt. Both the top-class Run For It and Depardieu were running on but beaten without apparent excuses. The list of casualties includes the Gold Medallion runner-up Sports Coach, who was well placed from his ten draw but blew in the betting and ran accordingly
Should we be getting excited about a Matchem winner? The honour role of the past five years suggests a measure of caution! Basil Marcus trained the 2006 winner Majestic Sun for Keith Steinberg. He amazingly raced for a further four seasons without ever winning another race. The 2007 shock winner winner Joshua’s Dream beat the current Riverton Stud stallion Blue Tiger in a rousing finish and went on to only ever win a MR 96 Handicap over 1000m a year later.
The 2008 winner Thundering Jet never won another race but did run a gallant fourth to Big City Life in the 2009 Vodacom Durban July. Rushing Wind, who won the race in 2009, only won a moderate Allowance Plate at Scottsville ten months later. Bucking this mediocre trend by contrast, last year’s victor Tales Of Bravery, another son of top Summerhill stallion Kahal- who also sired 2006 winner Majestic Sun- had the distinction of beating Pocket Power at his very next start in a Pinnacle Stakes over 1500m at Kenilworth. He then ran a great second in the 2011 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and fourth in the J&B Met, before a diabolical Gauteng campaign. He hasn’t been sighted for six months though but is still young enough to make his presence felt this season.
Ramsden will be catching this monkey slowly and hyping racehorses is anyway not in his outgoing social nature. He has also no doubt put the relative disappointment of the 2010 Gr1 Investec Cape Derby winner Bravura, behind him. This talented injury-plagued horse picked up just a solitary Pinnacle Stakes win, after his dazzling Derby triumph over current Gary Player stallion Noordhoek Flyer – even though he did beat a horse called The Mousketeer by three lengths in that race! Variety Club carries the Jooste silks worn by Bravura and looks like he may just get the mile. He certainly has a turn of foot on him and won’t be out of place in that classic line-up.
Ramsden appears to have one of his better three year old crops of recent times this year. The media have expressed much the same sentiment about the current Dean Kannemeyer crop too, so the scene looks set for a helluva Cape Sizzling Summer season. Lest we forget that Mike De Kock, Mike Azzie and Dennis Drier will no doubt be here too. The real talking won’t be done in the media though.
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Sheer Sherbert
The NHRA have advised that an enquiry has been opened into the running of the horse Sheer Courage in the Vaal third race on Thursday 6 October.
From a punter’s perspective, I can record that:
1.The horse won the Pick 6 first leg and was reflected in all racing publications as a first-timer.
2.It was apparently backed from 14-1 to 8-1.
3.If memory serves me correctly, the horse was described in the Tellytrack preview by Molly and as obtained from trainer Paul Matchett, as a ‘nice horse who may need a little further.’
4.It has subsequently transpired that Sheer Courage is hardly a greenhorn. He has run a few times and even won a race overseas.
5.In terms of The Pick 6 rules, he was treated as a first-timer, and the second horse thus also qualified.
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A few questions:
1.Surely the connections, including at the very least the trainer and owner , knew he had run previously?
2.Who got the money?
3.The winning Pick6 punters who left out the coupling of the second horse have been done out in terms of a reduced dividend. Who will compensate them?
4.The NHRA is the governing and administrative body who appear to have been party to the administrative cock-up here. Should they really be conducting the enquiry?
5. Should punters be Googling all ‘first-timers’ in future, just to make sure nobody is pulling the wool over their eyes?
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The Racing Operators’ conditions make for interesting reading though:
9. Official Racing Publication
9.1 It is the responsibility of Trainers to ensure that all details pertaining to their horses as published in the Official Racing Publication are correct. The Trainer is obliged to point out any amendments to the Chairman of the Stipendiary Board or the Racing Executive by 09:00 on the day of the race meeting. Failure to comply with this Condition shall constitute an offence and the Trainer may be liable to a fine in terms of the Rules.
