Paul Lafferty
Paul Lafferty managed five winners from just 19 starters last month at a strike rate of 26%, four of those winner’s coming for owner John Finlayson. John has been a staunch supporter of the sport for many years, mainly in Gauteng, but has thrown his lot in with Lafferty who has done him proud. All four of his winners were at Hollywoodbets Scottsville.
Paul is Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for February
Wendy Whitehead
Tony Rivalland’s winners came at an impressive strike rate of 38%, five of his 13 runners finding the winner’s enclosure. However, Wendy Whitehead was leading trainer by number of winners, five of Wendy’s seven winners coming in one afternoon, a feat just good enough to edge out Tony for Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for January.
Wendy is Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for January.
Carl Hewitson
There were a few trainers in good form over the festive season. Kom Naidoo led the charge with six winners closely followed by Garth Puller on five with Mike Miller and Carl Hewitson tied on four. However, given the relative size of his string, being one of the smaller yards in Summerveld, Carl’s strike rate was far superior to any of his rivals with a 22% winning percentage and 44% of his runners in the money from just 18 runners. Also, a R1 winning bet on each of his runners will have yielded a R9 profit.
Carl Hewitson is Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for December.
GARTH PULLER
Garth Puller was streets ahead of his rivals last month as his horses visited the winner’s enclosure on 14 occasions with Alyson Wright his nearest rival with eight winners. Puller’s winners came at a 22% strike-rate and yielded a profit of R5 for a R1 win bet, a fine return considering that he sent out 63 runners. Puller also mentors Gold Circle’s Jockey of the Month, apprentice Siphesihle Hlengwa.
Garth Puller is Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for November.
Peter Muscutt has been awarded trainer of the month for October. He runs a tight ship with a very experienced team. He is very transparent with the media and the public. His over-all statistics are consistent. Well done Peter.
Andrew Harrison
GAVIN VAN ZYL splashed out buying the top lot at this week’s BSA 2-Year-Old Sale and ended his week on a high as he saddled a treble at Hollywoodbets Greyville today.
In the gelding Donald McDonald he looks to have a particularly promising stayer as the son of Ideal World showed plenty of resolution to land the Conditional Progress plate from Karoo Lark and Run To Denmark.
Stable rider Warren Kennedy was particularly bullish about his mount’s chances after an emphatic win aboard State Of Mind in the second, but he may have been having second thoughts halfway up the home straight as Karoo Lark refused to go away.
At one point it looked as if it would be a case of heads up and heads down but 150m out Karoo Lark snapped under pressure leaving Donald McDonald to surge clear of his rival.
This was 1800m but Kennedy’s mount stayed the trip well and he is definitely one for the notebook in any races over ground.
Frank Lloyd Wright came with a six figure price tag as a yearling, a number that he is never going to recoup on the track, but that said he has not been a complete failure as he notched the sixth win of his career with an end-to-end victory in the opening leg of the Pick 6.
Serino Moodley had no hesitation in going to the front on Justin Snaith’s runner. “There was no pace in the race and he does take a bit of a hold so I just left him where he was comfortable,” he explained. It proved to be the right tactic as Frank Lloyd Wright was never in danger of being caught. Baby Shooz, returning from a lengthy break, rattled home for second while Mount Anderson and Born To Perform were never in the hunt.
Snaith was up from Cape Town touching base with his Summerveld operation and the trip was made worth while as Sweetscentedgreen kept going long enough to hold the debutant Calulo, Michael Roberts’s filly finish like a rocket under apprentice Mfanelo Zuma.
State Of Mind, making her poly debut, simply destroyed the opposition in the second putting five lengths of daylight between herself and Backstop.
Sea Venture rounded off the Van Zyl treble as Kennedy rode a super confident race in the seventh. Content to sit well back in the early exchanges, Sea Venture had a lot of ground to make up at the top of the straight, but once Kennedy asked for an effort she responded gamely to his urgings, gradually reeling in the opposition and eventually drawing off to win comfortably.
Jabu Jacobs is one of the more promising apprentices and produced a copybook ride on the favourite Kayson for Peter Muscutt in the seventh, timing his run to perfection to win going away.
He was not so lucky in the next riding favourite Hugs Accepted. She blew the start badly, and from there on was never in the hunt. The race produced a blanket finish as Serino Moodley timed his finish to perfection, producing Glitter And Gold with a telling late run to nab the luckless Wildly In Love close home with little more than a neck separating the next four home.
Precious Love rounded off the meeting as apprentice Jeffery Syster produced the Tienie Prinsloo-trained gelding with a telling late effort to catch long-time pacemaker and favourite Iron Henry close home.
Gold Circle’s award for Trainer of the Month goes to Dean Kannemeyer.
Dean has recently been recognised as a resident KZN trainer and while flying the flag in the Western Cape over the summer, his assistant Nicolet Roscoe has been holding the fort. The stable had seven winners at a 25% strike rate in February and were in the black as far as a R1 wager was concerned. With South Africa’s Champion Season on the horizon, Dean looks well poised for a successful end to the racing season.
Well done Dean and Nicolet.
Louis Goosen is Gold Circle’s trainer of the month for January.
Goosen currently sits in 12th place on the KZN trainer’s log but has a more than useful strike rate of 18% winners to runners. More importantly, for a R1 stake on all of his runners you would have a R40 return. Louis relocated to Summerveld from Ashburton at the beginning of the season and now that he has got the measure of his new surroundings, Goosen, the ultimate professional, is surely a stable to follow.
Well done Louis.
Tight at the top of the trainer’s table for December as far as total number of winners were Paul Lafferty, Garth Puller, Dean Kannemeyer and Johan Janse van Vuuren, all saddling five. Lafferty had a winning strike rate of 50% and a plus R24 win bet ratio for a R1 stake. If you had placed R1 on each of Garth Pullers winners the return was R46. But Lafferty’s better winning strike rate and total earns for the month has him top of the pile and he is Gold Circle’s Trainer of the Month for December.
Well done Laff.
The Gold Circle Trainer Award for the month has been awarded to father and son team of Robbie and Shannon Hill.
Dedication and full commitment to one’s chosen path in life often becomes a passion and that is what brought about Robbie and Shannon opening the Hill Racing Stable in 2012. Their persistence through the difficult early days of its establishment has paid dividends and is recognized as a formidable competitive force in racing.
Robbie retired from a very successful 40-year jockey career after a back operation during which Shannon honed his talent as a trainer working in a number of top stables in the province. With Robbie’s passion for racing and his love of the thoroughbred, it seemed inevitable that father and son would join forces.
The combination has been a story of success and was perfectly illustrated in the month when they scored one of the best performances with almost a 50% win strike rate of four wins and a second from just nine runners. For Robbie and Shannon the passion has paid dividends – well done guys.
