The inaugural Investec Day Of Dreams at Kenilworth on Saturday 23 January promises a day of horseracing action previously unequalled on the African continent. With the bar being raised in terms of record breaking stakes, and two historic Gr1 features being contested, it doesn’t get much better than this.

The day marks the inaugural event of a unique  three year partnership between Investec and Cape Thoroughbred Sales.The global specialist bank and asset manager Investec, sponsors of the world renowned Derby Festival at Epsom Downs, will treat their clients and guests from around the globe to high class South African racing and local enthusiasts will be going along for the ride of a lifetime.

Both the Gr1 R1 million Klawervlei Majorca Stakes and the Gr1 R1 million Investec Cape Derby have been moved a week forward from their usual berths on J&B Met day, and in line with expectations, have attracted capacity fields of great depth.

INVESTEC CAPE DERBY (Grade 1)

(For 3-year-olds) Left-Hand Turn

1st: R625,000 2nd: R200,000 3rd: R100,000 4th: R50,000 5th: R25,000

KLAWERVLEI MAJORCA STAKES (WFA) (Grade 1)

(For Fillies and Mares at weight for age) Left-Hand Turn

1st: R625,000 2nd: R200,000 3rd: R100,000 4th: R50,000 5th: R25,000

2016 CTS Million Dollar

(For 3-year-old Horses) Left-Hand

1st: $625,000 2nd: $200,000 3rd: $100,000 4th: $50,000 5th: $25,000

In a world first, Twenty-20 racing comes to Greyville racecourse this Friday evening. A quick-fire succession of eight races will be run at 20-minute intervals – and, like its cricketing equivalent, the action will be fast and furious.

Normally, racemeetings allow 35 minutes between each race. This gives jockeys time to weigh in after a race, and then don new silks for their next ride. Meanwhile, trainers and their assistants are busy saddling up and walking their horses into the parade ring. Jockeys then weigh out, mount up, and canter down to the start of the next race.

This Friday, the 20-minute interval between races requires a brand new plan.

To ensure a fast turnaround and no delays between races, there will be two ‘teams’ of jockeys: while team ‘A’ is out racing, team ‘B’ will be mounting up.

Eyes on the clock! Looking forward to Friday’s first-ever ‘quick-fire’ racemeeting are South African Jockey Academy apprentices (L to R) Luyolo Mxothwa, Tristan Godden, Nicholas Patel, Divan Neethling, and Akshay Balloo.

Pro’s and Apprentices

Of additional public interest is that one team will be made of professional jockeys, while the other will all be apprentices. There will be four races for each team, racing alternately to complete Friday’s eight-race programme. But, while the riders will have it easy, trainers and their assistants will need to scurry if they have runners to saddle in consecutive races. The action in the paddock and saddling enclosures should make for entertaining viewing!

“Trainers will be under pressure to ensure the meeting goes off as planned,” says Hawkins. “But with their full support, we’re looking forward to a racemeeting designed to keep everyone – including the fans! – on their toes.”

Experimental format

Cricket has success-fully embraced new formats of the game and, taking a leaf out of cricket’s book – as an experiment – this Friday’s ‘quick-fire’ meeting was planned.

The KZN cricket union has also bought into the Twenty-20 racing idea, and members of the Sunfoil Dolphins team will be on hand this Friday night at Greyville to sign autographs in the Kidzone during a mini-cricket coaching session.

Jay Naidoo of the KZN cricket union comments: “When T20 cricket was first introduced, many followers of the game were skeptical. Now it’s an established format. It’s interesting that the first 20-20 provincial cricket competition took place in Durban – and now the first Twenty-20 racemeeting is also happening here.”

Autograph-signing by Sunfoil Dolphins players

A highlight for young cricket fans at Greyville Racecourse this Friday will be their moment to meet Sunfoil Dolphins players Cameron Delport and Divan van Wyk. This will all be part of a KFC mini-cricket activation, taking place on the lawns alongside the Kidzone. Activities will include professional coaching, an autograph-signing session from 18h00 – 19h00, and the chance for kids to sign up as members of the Dolphins cricket club.

Phumelela have reacted positively to the occurrences, which understandably left the connections of the horses and more than a few punters unhappy.

Same Jurisdiction was declared a non-runner after the running of the Gr 1 Laurie Jaffee Empress Club Stakes, as the starting stall incident had clearly affected her performance, although jockey Piere Strydom admitted that he did not believe she could have beaten the mighty Mike de Kock-trained Majmu.

Same Jurisdiction’s head went down just before the off. The handler then pulled her head up and as he was doing so the gates opened. The handler was still holding on to her and was adjudged by the stipendiary stewards to have impeded her. Furthermore, as the filly jumped, the gate to her left swung back and slammed her in the face. It was later found that a suction cup on the gate had failed to perform its function. The suction cups are supposed to stick the adjoining gates together after they have opened and thereby prevent them from swinging back. The same problem had occurred in an earlier race, despite the starting stall bank not having been the same one that was later used in the Empress Club Stakes. In the first incident in race 3 on the card, Trip Tease had also been struck in the face by the gate swinging back.

The stipendiary stewards believed that the second incident had cost Same Jurisdiction two or three lengths. Furthermore, jockey Strydom apparently reported after the race that the filly had not acted in the running due to the incident.

Strydom was also the rider aboard Trip Tease and said yesterday (Monday), “This is not looking good as it is happening too often and is costing the operator money, so it is great to hear that they will be looking into budgeting for new starting stalls, which will benefit all of us. Same Jurisdiction took quite a knock. The gate hit her full in the face. It doesn’t look severe on the replays, losing just a bit of ground, but at the same time I hesitated as I was not sure what to expect. Was it a false start and was she injured? It all happens in two or three seconds, but in that time you have already gone 20 metres or so. It became an issue trying to get her back into the race, while still thinking about how she had taken the knock. She made up some ground, but was never in a position where it felt comfortable that she would do well. It was my duty to persevere until something obvious was wrong. I had said in my column before the race that the only way in my opinion that we could have beaten Majmu was in the case where she was not fit and we were super fit, but I think she could have run second.” As it happened she ran unplaced, which allowed the stipendiary stewards to declare her a non-runner.

On the other hand one of Same Jurisdictions owners, Larry Vermaak, was angered by the turn of events and felt the stalls should have been checked more thoroughly before the prestigious Gr 1 race. Vermaak did not wish to detract from Majmu’s superb performance, but added that in the event that Same Jurisdiction had beaten her, it would have added R5 million to her paddock value and she had now missed the opportunity to do so. Furthermore, he believed that the incident could possibly have an effect on her future behaviour at the stalls.

Same Jurisdiction

Strydom said that Trip Tease had not been as badly affected by the gate as Same Jurisdiction had been. He pointed out that Trip Tease had been handicapped to win comfortably and felt he could have won by another length or two. He also spoke of the effect a bad memory at the start could have on a horse’s future behaviour, especially in the light of Trip Tease having stumbled at the start of his previous race on the Vaal sand, which led to the bottom of his hoof being cut.

However, Phumelela’s General Manager of Racing Operations Stan Diesel confirmed that the starting stalls are checked both regularly and meticulously. He also pointed out that a horse hitting the gate a millisecond before the off could affect its motion and therefore the ability of the suction cups to hold it. Trip Tease certainly appeared to pe-empt the start and hit the gate before the off, while Same Jurisdiction might have nudged it when her head was being brought back up.

Diesel confirmed that the gates are checked meticulously every Friday in the presence of the company’s mechanic and any suction cups that are even suspected of not being up to scratch are replaced. Furthermore, the gates are tested before each and every race and a report is written.

A few suction cups had actually been replaced in the three weeks before Turffontein’s big meeting on Saturday. However, Phumelela will not be taking any chances after the two unfortunate occurrences and are in the process of replacing every single one of the suction cups.

The current starting stalls at Turffontein have been in use since 1996. They are driven by a hydraulic system and this model generally has a good record around the world. However, Diesel said that Phumelela would be looking into budgeting for new starting stalls, although he added that this decision could not be taken lightly as they cost millions of rands.

Pictures by Nkosi Hlophe