Watson went on to point out that the average racehorse causes more heart ache than it causes joy. “Horses are fragile things, they drop dead, they break down, need long spells and the majority of them are just too slow. So why do we persist? “ Yet there has to be a reason why so many people own racehorses and keep on acquiring them.

According to Watson the answer lies in the horse and in the age old relationship that has existed between man and horse. “We are wired to the beasts”, he explained . They have exercised and inspired our imagination for centuries. An animal that just happens to have a gap between its molars where a bit would fit and with a finely tuned flight instinct honed in age when they were easy prey for sabre tooth tigers. “Of course”, Watson added with a twinkle in his eye, “that’s probably why we have to put blinkers on them, as there is bound to be a sabre tooth tiger lurking in that car park adjacent to the home straight.”

Jokes aside, Watson has probably owned thirty odd horses during his lifetime and he has certainly heard every excuse in the book as to why a particular horse could not win a particular race. “Besides the physical limitations of the horse, you have the added influences of the state of the track, the vigor of the jockey or lack thereof and the trainer, farrier or vet’s ability to keep it fit, sound and healthy. Then there is a gene that kicks in to remind the horse that it is a leader and should fight to the end or that it belongs back in the herd.”

Yet people still want to own horses. Watson points out much of his childhood was spent dreaming of an ordinary horse belonging to his father’s friend, before he switched the focus of his attention to a magnificent chestnut sprinter called Vain. Vain was a champion, but as Watson pointed out, you need to own ordinary horses to understand how freakish the champions are. So are we any closer to figuring out why people would even want to own a horse or follow horseracing?

According to Watson, the one thing that connects racing to the popular culture is a charismatic horse, a champion that is the face of racing. The ones that write themselves into the history books and fire the imagination of ordinary people. Yet racing does very little with is champions, treating them almost as an accessory, he adds and therein lies the cause of some of the disconnect between racing and popular culture.

To conclude, Watson ends with another question, one he came across in a questionnaire once: “What would make owning a racehorse more attractive to you?” The simple answer, according to Watson? Owning a better horse of course!

Bill Barich, lead writer for the TV series Luck agreed, pointing out that when he spent ten weeks on the backstretch of a racetrack, the stories people told him always involved a horse. Racing may be a confined universe, where people’s lives are completely enmeshed, but it is a great leveller, a great democracy and at its centre is the horse. The horse provides that spark of life, the excitement and the noise as it thunders down the home straight. For Barich, who seldom speaks in public, the answer is simple. Make racing more about the horse and you will reconnect with the popular culture.

In closing, Chris Luoni and Gerald Fell, explained why they set up a NZ Hall Of Fame. For Luoni it was very straightforward. “I loved the stories. We had the opportunity to use the digital media to tell the stories of the heroes and their histories to the young people. Phar Lap’s skeleton is on display, but it is a bare sterile bunch of bones. So we put his story on film and it was an instant success .”

These DVD’s have certainly gone some way towards making the horse the centre of the story of racing again as Gerald explains. “We have gone back and made DVD’s of our great horses such as Carbine, Phar Lap and Sunline, and these are regularly used as fillers by our local racing channel.” And enabling people to reconnect with the stars of the past, will hopefully fire their imagination to follow the stars of the future.
– Hong Kong Jockey Club[/expand]

Log as at May 6, 2014

# Horse Trainer MR
1 YORKER Geoff Woodruff 118
2 HILL FIFTY FOUR Vaughan Marshall 112
3 LOUIS THE KING Geoff Woodruff 109
4 LEGISLATE Justin Snaith 109
5 CAPETOWN NOIR Dean Kannemeyer 112
6 ATHINA Joe Soma 101
7 BEACH BEAUTY Dennis Drier 112
8 TELLINA Geoff Woodruff 110
9 POMODORO Sean Tarry 109
10 WYLIE HALL Weiho Marwing 109
11 PUNTA ARENAS Stan Elley 108
12 JET EXPLORER Justin Snaith 109
13 AS YOU LIKE Alec Laird 100
14 CAPTAIN AMERICA Brett Crawford 106
15 WHITELINE FEVER Sean Tarry 110
16 IN THE FAST LANE Justin Snaith 105

17 HALVE THE DEFICIT Sean Tarry 104
18 ROYAL ZULU WARRIOR Kumaran Naidoo 110
19 ESPUMANTI Mike de Kock 105
20 NO WORRIES Gavin van Zyl 107

NEXT 10 IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER
ASTRO NEWS Charles Laird 109
BEZANOVA Alec Laird 102
CAGIVA Sean Tarry 103
HOT TICKET Dean Kannemeyer 108
ICE MACHINE Dean Kannemeyer 108
JET BELLE Glen Kotzen 103
RIO CARNIVAL Charles Laird 112
RUN FOR IT Justin Snaith 109
SHOGUNNAR Gavin van Zyl 104
TRIBAL DANCE Vaughan Marshall 107

Important Dates:
– Tuesday, 13 May 2014: First Supplementary Entries
– Tuesday, 13 May 2014: First Declarations
– Monday, 2 June 2014: Second Declarations
– Monday, 9 June 2014: Final Supplementary Entries
– Tuesday, 10 June 2014: Weights Published
– Monday, 23 June 2014: Declarations close
– Tuesday, 24 June 2014: Final Field and Barrier Draw
– Thursday, 26 June 2014: Gallops at Greyville

Betting: 5-1 Legislate, Louis The King, 9-1 Yorker, 10-1 Beach Beauty, Futura, 16-1 Captain America, 20-1 As You Like, Capetown Noir, Hill Fifty Four, 25-1 Rio Carnival, Tellina, 33-1 Jet Explorer, King Of Pain, Pomodoro, Readytogorightnow, Run For It, Whistle Stop, Whiteline Fever, 40-1 Cagiva, Punta Arenas, 50-1 Athina, Halve The Deficit, Hot Ticket, Jet Belle, Rake`s Chestnut, Silvano`s Jet, Wylie Hall, 66-1 upwards others.[/expand]

Yet London News travelled to Hong Kong directly from Cape Town, after 40 days of quarantine, while Variety Club had to complete five months of quarantine in three countries, highlighting the fact that South Africa now faces greater constraints than it did seventeen years ago.

Hence, Variety Club’s victory could not have come at a better moment as it took place in front of the 800 delegates of the 35th Asian Racing Conference, firmly placing the spotlight on the difficult quarantine demands placed on South African racehorses.

“I think if there is not already an incentive for the Asian Racing Conference to facilitate a better travel situation for South African horses to the great races of the world, then we saw one today,” said Hong Kong Jockey Club CEO Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges at the conclusion of the Champions Mile.

Engelbrecht-Bresges has taken it upon himself to pursue an improvement to the current restrictions. “One of the tasks that is in my area as Deputy Vice-Chairman of the International Horse Racing Federation is the issue of horses travelling and we will definitely have a look at putting it on the agenda to take forward.”

Already on the agenda of the current Asian Racing Conference, currently underway in Hong Kong,was the Plenary Session ‘Movement of Horses’, with Racing South Africa’s Peter Gibson as one of the speakers.

The main topic under discussion was the development of a ‘high health, high performance’ (HHP) concept in order to address the challenges of irregular and excessive health requirements forhorses travelling internationally.

The World Organisation for Animal Health(OIE) project leader, Dr Susanne Münstermann, explained how the OIE is working towards developing international standards for the movement of competition horses, travellingfor the sole purpose of participating in racing or FEI competitions.

Dr Münstermann pointed out that competition horses are closely scrutinised, highly identifiable and traceable and as such pose a low health risk.

Consequently they are a unique subgroup of the global population, which the project has labelled the ‘High Health, High Performance’ subgroup.

Gibson followed on from this, pointing out that not only do the South African racehorses fall in this high performance, high health subgroup, but that African horse sickness is a seasonal disease and hence competition horses can be safely exported during the winter months, from what is arguably the best vector protected quarantine station in the world.

“If the importing countries are willing to consider the true risk of African Horse Sickness, within the current shortcomings of our current system, there is a means of exporting horses from South Africa in a completely safe and professional manner during the winter months,” Gibson explained.

“What is required is a reliable, safe and regular delivery system of South African horses, in order to compete on the International stage.”

Gibson pointed out that possible export solutions could include the upgrading of the current quarantine facilities to provide continuous vector protection, enhanced surveillance of the AHS control area and significant advances in diagnostic testing.[/expand]

The Gold Challenge is one of the championship events of the year as it is run on weight for age terms and attracts the best milers from all corners of the country.

Beach Beauty is probably the best female miler in the country at present and will face the likely best male racehorse in the land, the Geoff Woodruff-trained Yorker, a giant of a horse, who was awesome when winning the Gr 1 President’s Champion Challenge over 2 000m at Turffontein last time out.

The Dean Kannemeyer-trained Capetown Noir was unlucky to be beaten by Yorker in the Gr 1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes over 1 600m at Turffontein on March 29 and should also be a big player.

He was beaten 2,5 lengths by Beach Beauty in the Drill Hall Stakes over 1 400m on Saturday at weight for age terms, but was cleverly kept in a pocket by Sean Cormack, which forced him to run through traffic down the inside in the straight. He would never have beaten the little “pocket rocket”, but might have got a bit closer and he will also relish the return to a course with a left-hand turn and a longer straight.

Drier was intending to run his leading two-year-olds, the colt Guiness and the filly Balkan, over 1 100m at Clairwood on Sunday and decide from there whether they would run at the Festival Of Speed meeting. However, only three runners stood their ground in the race that Guiness was entered for and it has been scrapped.

Drier has won two out of the last three runnings of the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Medallion over 1 200m. Guiness will give him a chance of repeating his Medallion win last year with Captain Of All, as he was impressive when winning his debut over 1 000m at Clairwood by a comfortable two lengths with the rest of the field strung out like the washing.

Guiness’ sire Seventh Rock won the Medallion in 2007, beating the subsequent two-time Gr 1 winner Argonaut, who was also accepted into the breeding shed. Guiness’ dam, Tinder Box, by Strike Smartly has also produced the useful Justin Snaith-trained eight-time winning sprinter November Rain.

Drier’s Horse Chestnut filly Balkan was beaten 0,75 lengths by the promising Glen Kotzen-trained Garden Treasure on debut over 1 000m at Scottsville, before winning second time out over 1 200m at Clairwood by six lengths. The runner up in the latter race, Tapaway, franked the form to some extent by finishing a narrow second to the well-bred and well-backed Mike de Kock-trained first timer Alborean Sea next time out. Balkan faces six other promising sorts in a Maiden Juvenile Plate for Fillies over 1 100m on Sunday, including Garden Treasure.

Captain Of All has also been doing well and will be heading for the Gr 1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint over 1 200m at the Festival Of Speed meeting. His last run was a win in a Graduation Plate over 1 200m at Kenilworth on November 6 last year, but he was subsequently laid off with a joint sprain.

The consistent sprinter Barbosa will also be heading for the Golden Horse Casino Sprint. He finished second over 1 100m last time out in the Listed In Full Flight Handicap, beaten only 0,75 lengths by the Clairwood specialist Normanz.

Barbosa was raised four points to 102 for that race, which should allow him to qualify for the Golden Horse and he should come in with a nice galloping weight. Chave De Oura, who was last seen in the Gr 1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate, will not be ready in time for the Golden Horse.

The yard’s smart Var filly Schiffer is on track for the Gr 1 SA Fillies Sprint. She played up behind the pens in the Computaform Sprint and was also squeezed in the running. She is better than her unplaced run there and will be a threat if she bounces back. Drier won the SA Fillies Sprint in 2011 with the brilliant Val De Ra.

The yard’s four-year-old Jet Master filly Jet Aglow, who was a touch unlucky when tie third in the Gr 1 Laurie Jaffe Empress Club Stakes after being forced into going for home a bit early, will likely go for the Gr 2 Tibouchina Stakes over 1450 on June 7, a course and distance that will suit her well.

Captain On The Run will attempt to make it a hat-trick at Scottsville next Wednesday, but there are no big plans for him yet.

Neither are their big plans for the yard’s promising three-year-old sprinter Darkness, who has won three out of four.

Two to watch from the yard are the quick three-year-old Argonaut filly Clear Sailing, for whom they are looking for a suitable 1 000m event, and the promising three-year-old Act One gelding Crescendo, who should be just about ideally suited to the 1 300m trip of the Graduation Plate he is entered in at Greyville next Friday.

Meanwhile, Eventual Angel, who had to be scratched from the KRA Fillies Guineas last week after injuring herself in her box, will “be okay”, but is unlikely to run again in the Champions Season.[/expand]

The first seven places, Yorker, Hill Fifty Four, Louis The King, Legislate, Capetown Noir, Athina and Beach Beauty, have been filled by horses whose recent Gr1 wins make them virtual automatic qualifiers.

Tellina was a controversial omission last year, but looks secure this year in eighth place thanks to his consistent big race performances, as he has finished in the top three in three Highveld Gr 1s this season and also won a Gr 3 event. He has earned his merit rating of 110.

Pomodoro, a former SA Derby and VDJ winner, finished third in the Gr 1 President’s Champions Challenge, signalling that he retains his ability after returning from a life threatening illness, and he is in ninth spot.

Last year’s SA Derby winner Wylie Hall was just behind Pomodoro in the Champions Challenge, but gave him 2,5kg in that race, so deserves his tenth position.

Punta Arenas ran a fantastic third in the J&B Met and Jet Explorer was as impressive when an unlucky third in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate. They are the next two.

As You Like finished in the top three in all three legs of the Triple Crown, so deserves his spot.

Whiteline Fever was fourth in the Met, won the Gr 2 Hawaii Stakes an is the proverbial hard knocker. The final position in the top 16 was taken by Gr 1 Cape Guineas winner In The Fast Lane.

Gr 2 Colorado King Stakes winner Halve The Deficit, who is seventeenth on the log, is coming into his own and perhaps gives Sean Tarry and Chris van Niekerk their best chance of landing the July for the third year in succession.

Espumanti proved she can stay further than a mile last time out when just touched off by Cherry On The Top in the Gr 2 Gerald Rosenberg over 2000m at Turffontein.

Royal Zulu Warrior put in the best performance of all at the weights in the Sansui Summer Cup, so also deserves to be in the top 20. July and Queen’s Plate fourth-placed No Worries takes the final position in the top 20 and if he can be held up with the blinkers on in the Betting World 1900, tactics that suit him best, he could enhance his chances of making the final field.

The next ten as well as the current July joint third favourite Futura will have to feature prominently in the traditional qualifying races to make it into the race. The latter faces a problem being merit rated only 85 as he might not even make the cut for races like the Betting World 1900, although the latter will have a consolation race worth R150,000 attached to it if there are too many entries, which will at least give him a run.

Furthermore, the merit ratings are not the only factor that are taken into account when the powers that be choose the final fields for the big qualifying races and an exciting horse like him might get in before a higher rated one.[/expand]