David Thiselton

Two horses and their connections a thousand odd miles apart benefited from the patience of their trainers over the weekend, Dyce at Turffontein and Economics at Leopardstown in Ireland.

The Lucky Houdalakis-trained six-year-old William Longsword gelding Dyce came from off the pace in a Pinnacle Stakes race over 1000m after showing the good cruising speed he is known for under Piere Strydom and he then produced the strong finish he is also known for to win by a comfortable 0,75 lengths despite carrying 62kg.

Dyce was in line to be the Equus Champion Sprinter after winning the Gr 1 World Pool Cape Flying Championship.

However, after two below par runs back on the Highveld and another below par run in the Gr 1 Golden Horse Sprint, Houdalakis decided to back off him and put him away instead of having a tilt at the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint.

He said last week, “He is a sound horse, there is nothing wrong with him, I just think he was run down. When he came back from Cape Town he began to haemoconcentrate, so he was under pressure already. Then we gelded him and he didn’t have time to get over it before going into the Computaform and Scottsville. I sat down with David (Shawe – the owner and breeder) and said he’s had three unplaced runs and there’s no way this horse can run unplaced – it’s impossible – he’s telling us he’s not happy, there’s something wrong, so we just have to back off him. Enough is enough.”

Dyce demonstrated on Saturday he has his zest for racing back, so it was a wise move by the connections to back off him and let him fight for the big prizes this season instead.

He is still lightly raced and in fact his eight career wins, including a Gr 1, a Gr 2, a Gr 3 and a Listed race, have come from only 18 starts.

He should still be able to produce his best, despite being a six-year-old, and an interesting season lies in store.

In the UK the Willam Haggas-trained Economics might well have produced the world’s best performance of the year in winning the Gr 1 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes. When a horse is caught wide without cover it usually spells doom for his of her chances, but in Economics case he was not only able to overcome such a disadvantage but he also got the better of a great horse like Auguste Rodin in a duel for the line. Economics beat the six-time Group 1 winner by a neck to make it four wins in a row, including two Group 2s and Saturday’s Group 1.

When Economics won one of the Epsom Derby traditional pointer races, the Dante, in highly impressive fashion at York most expected him to appear in the Derby. However, Haggas had withdrawn him from the Derby before that win at York and said, “I didn’t think it was the right track and the right race for him at this stage of his career.” When calls came to supplement him into the Derby for £75,000 he stuck to his guns, saying, “”We want to give him more time, he’s a big lovely, scopey horse. It’s a shame these races come up so quickly and he just needs some more time, that’s my view.”

He was vindicated when Economics won the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano over a mile and two furlongs last month, but the bigger vindication came on Saturday.

Economics looks to now have the world at his feet. 

However, Haggas has ruled out a tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and is instead set to round off his season in the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot. 

Meanwhile in England on Saturday the great Galileo had his last chance to land a British Classic and did so through his Aidan O’Brien-trained son Jan Brueghel, who started 11/4 joint favourite and became Galilo’s 21^st British classic winner. Galileo and O’Brien got the exacta as the other joint favourite Illinois finished a neck second.  Sean Levey rode the winner to give O’Brien his 8^th St. Leger and Galilo his 101^st individual Group 1 winner.

Local Quartet pools with fractional betting on selected UK race meetings will return to the TabGold betting menu from this Thursday following a mixed reception from customers to the introduction of commingled Quartet pools on all UK and Irish race meetings last month.

Such commingled Quartet pools have been welcomed in some quarters, but many TabGold customers have complained that this has resulted in them being unable to play fractional Quartet bets on UK races.

TabGold have taken note of the complaints and from this Thursday 12 September customers can enjoy the best of both worlds. As before local Quartet pools with fractional betting will be offered on two UK meetings most days with commingled Quartet pools on all other UK and Irish meetings.

Whether an Irish or UK meeting has local or commingled pools will be displayed clearly on Tab sheet race cards in store and online.

Unfortunately for several reasons, including vast differences in exchange rates, it is not technically possible to offer fractional bets on pools commingled internationally.

The minimum unit for commingled bets is R1 (more in the case of countries like the USA) and this is itself a fractional bet in international tote pools.

As an example, the unit of a UK Tote Quartet is one Pound and a customer playing a R1-unit Quartet with TabGold on a UK race is buying about 1/24th of the bet, depending on the exchange rate on the day. And if that bet is the only winning ticket, the customer will get 1/24th of the pool and the remainder will be carried over. To get the full UK Tote payout on a commingled Quartet requires playing the bet to a R24 unit.

That aside, the introduction of commingled Quartet bets has given TabGold customers many more opportunities to play Quartets on UK and Irish races, and access to bigger pools and payouts.

David Thiselton

“The Flying Springboks”, as the eleven South Africa horses who departed for the USA in March were dubbed, have started off their campaign over there in fine style with a second place finish for Beach Bomb, giving weight all around in a Black Type event, followed by Isivunguvungu’s magnificent win in the Da Hoss Stakes at Colonial Downs on Saturday.

It is not surprising that SA breeding is standing up to the international test as the bloodstock out here keeps on being bolstered by high quality stock from overseas.

This was illustrated again this weekend.

The Klawervlei Stud-based Twice Over hails from a fine European family and they are having more success at present through the unbeaten colt Ombudsman. 

The John and Thady Gosen-trained Night Of Thunder (Dubawi) colt made it four wins from four starts when victorious in Sunday’s G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange at ParisLongchamp.

He looks a very exciting prospect.

Ombudsman was impressive on good ground in the Listed Prix Nureyev at Deauville last month.

On Sunday he started 3-5 favourite and raced in the box seat behind the leader First Look and was gifted a clear run up the rail as that G1 Prix du Jockey Club runner-up drifted left passing the two-furlong marker. Green and errant for William Buick on the run to the line, the Gosdens’ upwardly mobile colt veered off a true line twice to interfere with the similarly progressive Henri-Francois Devin trainee Start Of Day close to home, but was allowed to keep the race after an inquiry. Start Of Day was half a length behind at the line.

Godolphin Managing Director for UK and Dubai Hugh Anderson said, “William said that Ombudsman is a very good horse who is a little bit green and perhaps that is what we saw in the final stages. I am really delighted and John and Thady have campaigned him superbly, with the win at Deauville and now here. The expectation is that he is going to be a very good four-year-old and he’s definitely coming back next year–I’m not sure about whether he will race again this year.”

Ombudsman is out of the Dansili mare Syndicate, a great-granddaughter of G1 Emirates Prix Du Moulin De Longchamp winner All At Sea. The latter is a half-sister to Twice Over’s granddam Quandary.

Twice Over’s lengthy list of high-class performers includes 2023 G1 SplashOut Cape Derby/G1 Daily News 2000 winner See It Again, a three-part brother to the Twice Over sired dual Durban July-winning legend Do It Again.

Recently gelded, See It Again is being aimed at a tilt at the R6 million G1 Betway Summer Cup.

Twice Over is also sire of Double Superlative, who won the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas and the Gr 1 WSB Met.

Another South African-based sire whose family did well over the weekend was the Maine Chance Farms-based Querari.

His top class Stuart Williams-trained three-part brother Quinault captured the Listed Starman At Tally Ho Stud Garrowby Stakes at York.

In the process, the Gestut Fahrhof bred four-year-old made it a hat-trick of Listed wins. Past notable winners of the Garrowby Stakes included such G1 winners as Limato and Starman.

The classy gelding took his win tally into double figures when making all to land Sunday’s Listed feature.

Quinault scored seven times last season and arrived at the Knavesmire chasing a Listed-class hat-trick this term following August strikes at Chester and Newmarket. 

Marco Ghiani pushed 6-4 favourite Quinault into an early lead and worked his way across to grab the favoured stands rail, from where he controlled the race and kept on well enough to see off Purosangue and Oisin Murphy by a neck.

Williams could even set his sights on the top sprinters, adding: “Vadream finished fourth yesterday (in the Betfair Sprint Cup) and she was third behind us at Newmarket, beaten about the same distance, so there’s not a lot in it. But we’ve still got next year with him, he hasn’t got a lot of miles on the clock and he’s a big, strong horse.”

Winner of the Listed Liverpool Airport Easier, Faster, Friendlier Queensferry Stakes and Listed Jenningsbet Hopeful Stakes in his two previous outings, Quinault has now won ten times and he holds an entry for the G2 Betfred Park Stakes.

Like Querari, Quinault is a son of outstanding sire Oasis Dream and he is out of the Dansili mare Queimada, who is a half-sister to three group/graded stakes winners including Querari.

South Africa’s Leading Sire of 2YOs in 2018-2019, Querari has sired 43 stakes winners including retired sprint champion Rio Querari and last season’s G3 World Pool Gold Cup winner Master Redoute.

Oasis Dream also features in another European horse with South African ties. The best runner to date of Expert Eye, who stands at SA’s newest stud farm, Paardeberg Stud, is the Tom Clover-trained Witness Stand, who is out of an Oasis Dream mare. This three-year-old gelding won a handicap over seven furlongs at Goodwood by three lengths in early August, earning over £30,000, and at the end of August went close over the same course and distance off a 105 official rating. He has won two from ten starts and ended his two-year-old career with a runner up finish in the Gr 3 Horris Hill Stakes over seven furlongs on the Newmarket Rowley Mile course.

David Thiselton

The familiar yellow and purple silks of the Hollywood Syndicate were not the only colours that flew the South African flag high overseas this weekend, because big Johannesburg-based owner Larry Nestadt’s had Gr 2 success in Australia with an exciting prospect called Royal Patronage, who was making his Australian debut at Randwick.

Nestadt’s all royal blue colours are well known in South Africa and have been associated with a lot of big race success. He has owned at least two horses of the year as he has shares in current Equus Horse Of The Year Dave The King and the 2010 Equus Horse Of The Year Irish Flame ran in his colours. In Australia his colours are also royal blue but with yellow epaulettes.

On Saturday the Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Royal Patronage won at Randwick under Tim Clark and it was was described by Racenet.com.au as a “stunning” performance. 

In the Gr 2 Au$300,000 Tramway Stakes over 1400m Royal Patronage sat handy behind a strong pace before quickening in fine style and winning by 1,25 lengths despite coming off a 462 day layoff.

Nestadt is the chief owner in the Wootton Bassett five-year-old French-bred entire, who was purchased at a Tattersalls horses in training sale. 

As a two-year-old Royal Patronage won the Gr 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes over seven furlongs at York and the Gr 2 Juddmonte Royal Lodge Stakes over a mile at Newmarket. In the latter race he beat ill-fated Dubawi colt Caroebus. who went on to win the Gr 1 2000 Guineas and the Gr 1 St. James Palace Stakes.  

As a three-year-old Royal Patronage was disappointing with a second place finish in the Gr 2 Dante over a mile-and-two-and-a-half furlongs at York and a fifth place finish in the Gr 1 Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes over a mile and two furlongs on the turf in the USA being his best finishes.

He stayed in the USA after the latter race, leaving the Mark and Charlie Johnston yard for the yard of Isivunguvungu’s trainer, Graham Motion.

He had four runs for Motion, two as a three-year-old and two as a four-year-old, and his best result was winning an Allowance race at Keeneland over a mile-and-a-half.

However, Gai Waterhouse’s expert eye spotted something in the colt, whose sire Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) commands a fee of 200,000 Euros. Wootton Bassett was a high class racehorse, whose career unfortunately coincided with the same crop as Frankel’s, meaning he was limited to one Gr 1 victory. However, his stud record features 80 stakes performers and from that number 31 of his sons and daughters have won in Group/Graded company, with nine being successful at Gr 1 level. 

Royal Patronage is a Melbourne Cup entry.

He is an excitimg prospect as can be seen from the comments about him after the race.

“We were really confident with what we’d seen from him at home,” Bott said.

“He worked up quite sharply during the week, which was encouraging going into today.

“In fairness, Europeans having their first start in Australia and traditionally showing form over further and also the conditions today, we were just a bit mindful he may find the 1400m a bit too sharp for him.

“But the way the race panned out was excellent. There was good pressure on from the outset. He really put himself in the race from the gates.”

Top jockey Tim Clark said Royal Patronage will only “continue to improve” the deeper he goes into his spring campaign.

“He’s been going well at home, working fantastic, and his trials were good,” Clark said.

“When he was able to bounce and adjust to that 1400m speed so comfortably, I thought he would be hard to beat.

Nestadt has had extraordinary success in Australia recently.

 Last year he had a Gr 1 win as well as multiple other Gr race victories and also a Melbourne Cup tenth place finish.

This year beside Royal Patronage he has three other Melbourne Cup entries, Just Fine, Miliitary Mission and New Endeavour.

The Irish-bred Just Fine (Sea The Stars) won the Gr 1 Metropolitan Handicap over a mile and four furlongs at Randwick last September and was made the ante-post second favourite for the Melbourne Cup, but he was scratched after running flat in his next start as they decided to wait for this year instead. He ran in a Gr 2 over a mile on Saturday at Randwick and was beaten just 1,75 lengths into fifth, so should be peaking at the right time for The Cup.

Military Mission, who ran tenth in last year’s Melbourne Cup, is an Irish-bred by Mastercraftsman. He ran in the same race as Just Fine on Saturday and was beaten 5,75 lengths into ninth.

New Endeavour is also an Irish-bred by New Bay.

He finished second in the Gr 2 Hungerford Stakes over seven furlongs at Newbury last August and in Australia he has had a Gr 3 second and a Gr 1 seccond, both over a mile and two furlongs at Doomben, among other runs.

Nestadt’s Melbourne Cup entries are all trained by Waterhouse and Bott.

Waterhouse has won the Melbourne Cup once, in 2013, but has had 145 Gr 1 wins and has won the Sydney Trainers Premiership seven times.

She has been described as “the first lady of Australian racing” and is in the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame along with her legendary father Tommy J. Smith. 

David Thiselton

The KZN Racing awards will be held on 30 August in the Classic Room at Hollywoodbets Greyville and there is going to be a quandary this year about the KZN Horse Of The Season just as there was last year.

The Horse Of The Year award, unlike the other awards, are open to horses from the yards of trainers who are not domiciled in KZN as long as the subject horse has had three or more runs in KZN. It can thus be won by an out of province horse who has excelled in KZN during the season. The other awards can only be won by horses from KZN  yards, although Glen Kotzen and Dean Kannemeyer count as KZN yards because they have had satellite yards in KZN for many years.

The Horse Of The Year exclusion was probably made due to there not being a suitable candidate for some seasons in recent times. However, should not genuine KZN-trained horses like the Michael Roberts-trained See It Again last year and the Nathan Kotzen-trained Royal Victory this year be acknowledged in some way? Everybody in the industry would have viewed the former as the best horse from KZN in the 2022/2023 season, although the Peter Muscutt-trained Isivunguvungu could also have laid a claim, and this season Royal Victory is viewed by all and sundry as the best horse from KZN, although the Gareth van Zyl-trained Flag Man could also lay a claim having performed better on paper than Royal Victory in both the Gr 1 Hollywoodbets Durban July and Gr 1 wfa HKJC Champions Cup.

The Highveld racing awards could also potentially lead to an out of province horse being named Horse Of The Season. They are actually called the Highveld Feature Season awards as they go on performances of horses on the Highveld in features races during the season. Royal Victory was thus named the Champion Middle Distance Horse and Champion Older Male in the Highveld feature Season awards this year and he was only ousted in the Horse Of The Season award by the outstanding Mike de Kock-trained Gimme A Nother.

However, the big difference is that the Highveld features only have a sprinkling of out of province horses competing in them. The Horse Of The Season award will virtually always be won by a Highveld horse and was this year it went to the outstanding Mike de Kock-trained Gimme A Nother, even though Royal Victory became the first out of province horse in history to win both of the Highveld’s biggest races, the Gr 1 Betway Summer Cup and the Gr 1 World Pool Premier’s Champions Challenge.

The KZN horses, on the other hand, have to compete with every champion from every province, because all champions from around the country descend on KZN for the three month long world famous racing festival, The Champions Season.

Last year the Horse Of The Season was won by the Sean Tarry-trained Princess Calla, who won three Gr 1s in KZN during the season.

This year the favourite must be the Mike de Kock-trained Dave The King. He qualifies because he ran in KZN three times in the season and he won two open weight for age Gr 1s in KZN. He was in fact the only horse in the country to have won two open wfa Gr 1s last season.

However, Royal Victory is a history-making KZN horse. On top of being the first out of province horse to do the Highveld double of the Summer Cup and Premier’s Champions Challenge, he is in fact the first out of province horse to have ever won the Premier’s Champions Challenge and the second out of province horse this millennium to have won the Summer Cup.

He could well go home empty-handed on KZN Awards night. If Dave The King is to be named Horse Of The Season then he must also surely be named Champion Older Male. Furthermore, the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Green With Envy ran three times in KZN during the season, so qualifies for awards as explained earlier by Kannemeyer’s KZN status, and like Royal Victory he won two middle distance Gr 1s during the season and one of them was in KZN, so he must be in pole position to win the Middle Distance award.

So the widely acknowledged best horse in KZN, Royal Victory, might be completely unacknowledged in his home province.

There are special awards occasionally put on at racing award ceremonies and this might be a case in point of creating one.

However, what would probably be better considering the realities of racing in KZN during any given season, would be to create a new permanent award to acknowledge KZN’s best horse of the season. The award should only be open to horses from KZN yards.