The great former KZN-based Durban July-winning trainer Brian Cherry died on Sunday night having never recovered from a recent stroke.

One of the great characters of the game, Cherry leaves his wife of 64 years, June, as well as six children, 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

Cherry never had a big string, but was never without good horses.

As well as being a fine horseman, he was renowned for being a shrewd placer of horses.

He started at the old Newmarket stables near the Blue Lagoon.

However, his most successful years were out of Summerveld, which he moved to upon its opening in the 1966/1967 season.

One of the first big horses he trained was Chimboraa, who won the 1968 Durban July under David Payne at odds of 33/1, defeating horses of the like of William Penn and the great Hawaii, although the latter pair did have to concede a lot of weight to the five-year-old Chimboraa.

Among other top horses Cherry trained were Ted’s Ambition, a top class sprinter who was virtually unbeatable at Greyville (winning the Gr 1 Chairman’s Stakes, the Gr 2 Concord Stakes three times and the Gr 3 Durban Merchants twice, among other races); Row To Rio, who won the Gr 1 National Sprint at Gosforth Park and the Gr 1 Gilbeys Sprint (Tsogo Sun Sprint); All Heart, who was one of his favourites and won the Gr 1 Clairwood Winter Handicap and the Gr 1 Kronenbrau 1308 Stakes at Turffontein; Be Noble, a New Zealand-bred winner of the Gr 1 Adminstrator’s Champion Juvenile Stakes and the Gr 1 SA Derby; Kentford, who gave Felix Coetzee, as an apprentice, his first Gr 1 winner in the 1976 Clairwood Winter Handicap; the twice Gr 1 Natal Fillies Sprint winner Mildenhall; the Australian-bred Gr 1 Garden Province Stakes winner Just McKenna; the New Zealand-bred Zamit, who won the Gr 2 John Skeaping Trophy and went close in all of the Gr 2 Dingaans, Gr 1 Administrators Classic, Gr 1 SA Derby and Gr 1 Holiday Inns; the fourteen-time winner Trocadero, who later sired the Champion Three-year-old colt Port Pegasus and the Gr 1-winning Craftsman as well as the like of the useful Cherry-trained Astronaut; Cherry also trained the like of Jungle Palm, Vivorata, Mighty Mandarin, Royal Play, Dougal and Ulterior Motive.

Cherry had an outstanding eye and despite training so many good horses was never a big spender at the sales.

He also ventured to overseas sales and had success with both New Zealand and Australian-breds.

He was always associated with top jockeys, including Payne, Johnny McCreedy and in the 1980s the great Michael “Muis” Roberts.

Cherry loved to recount stories from the old days and one of his favourites was about McCreedy, who was told in the parade ring on one occasion by an owner to have the horse in front. Upon returning to the parade ring, with the horse not having shown throughout the race, the owner asked the jockey why he had not followed the instruction to which McCreedy replied, “I wanted to go to the front but I had to stay with the horse.”

Cherry offered Roberts a position after the latter had lost his job as stable jockey to Fred Rickaby and together they became a formidable partnership.

Roberts described Cherry above all as a man who became a very loyal friend and as one of the characters of the game, “an enigma on his own”.

“We had some lovely times and he was a great man to ride for. He was very fair too and would let me off if I had the possibility of a better ride.”

On one such occasion in 1981 Roberts opted to ride English Statesman in the Gold Cup in preference to Brave Persian, who had been sent to Cherry’s yard for the Winter Season by Highveld trainer Ormond Ferraris, who is described by the Cherry family as probably Brian’s “best friend”. Cherry told Roberts he believed he was making a mistake and Brave Persian duly won with Roberts’ mount unplaced.

Roberts said, “He demanded a good work ethic and we worked as a team, we had a great relationship. He was a natural as a trainer, was very astute and clever, he knew when horses were right and seldom made a mistake.”

One such example happened when Cherry inherited a horse called Royal Play after it had previously had only one start in a sprint. Roberts thought Cherry had gone “off his rocker” when after having had the horse for only about three weeks he told him he was backing it to win a maiden over 1800m at Clairwood. Roberts was aboard and recalled, “He won the race hard held.”

Roberts was advised by Cherry on another occasion when riding the Harry Hotspur first-timer Ulterior Motive to leave his goggles in the parade ring because he would never be behind any horses in the race. Ulterior Motive duly won easily from pillar to post.

Some of Cherry’s biggest owners were Mary Liley, Lou Burnstein, Roy and Gladys Meaker, Aubrey Wicks, Costa Livanos and Ted Hook, who bred his own horses and always began their names with “Ted’s”.

Gladys Meaker recalled, “He was a fabulous trainer, very shrewd. He was an absolutely wonderful father to his six children, had a wonderful marriage and we became great family friends.”

Chimboraa will possibly be the horse most associated with Cherry due to his win in the big one and was the subject of a couple of interesting stories in Jean Jaffee’s book “They Race To Win”. This horse was bought at the 1964 Rand Yearling Sales by Michael Carey and John McKay for their respective wives and Lou Bernstein then bought out a third share for his wife. He won the JG Hollis Memorial Plate as a two-year-old, which was run at 2:30 p.m., but after an objection the stewards deliberated throughout the afternoon and eventually announced at 5 p.m. that they had awarded the race to the objecting horse, Reel Cap.

Chimboraa became unsound at the end of his two-year-old season and was sent to the farm. Trainer Willie Kleb sympathising with Cherry apparently said, “Don’t worry the rest will do him good. You never know he may win the July Handicap.” Chimboraa later beat the Kleb-trained William Pen by half-a-length when winning the July. The Careys and McKays had also decided to sell their shares to the Burnsteins after Chimboraa had returned from his farm rest for his three-year-old campaign, because they lived in Johannesburg and were not getting enough fun out of the horse, so they thereby missed out on leading in a July winner.

Accolades poured in for Cherry throughout yesterday.

His funeral will be held at the Makaranga Lodge, 1 Igwababa Road Kloof at 11 a.m. today (Tuesday).

By David Thiselton

Picture: Brian Cherry

Hayley Turner, Frenchman Christophe Lemaire and Panamian Eduardo Pedroza are among the stars who will take part in the international Jockeys match against the South Africans in November.

But the big surprise this time is that Kenilworth has been dropped from the list of venues which are now restricted to Turffontein and Fairview.

The organisers have had trouble attracting enough runners in Cape Town in the past but Racing Association chairman Larry Wainstein said yesterday: “We wanted to give the series a different spin this time and so Port Elizabeth has been given the opportunity. The idea is also to have some races on polytrack.”

Durban was dropped previously, at the request of Gold Circle, but the latest change will be a disappointment to Cape Town racegoers who enjoyed seeing the big names in action.

Wainstein, the driving force behind the event, hopes to have the remaining three international riders firmed up shortly but he confirmed that there will be no-one from Turkey. That country’s representative last year, Yasin Pilavcilar, attracted a lot of criticism and was described by Joey Ramsden as “absolutely appalling.”

Wainstein added: “We will ensure that we have a decent team this year.”  The Fairview fixture is on Friday November 13 (hopefully not an inauspicious choice!) and the Turffontein one the following day.

Turner, who rode here in 2010, has been the most successful female Flat jockey in Britain and she retires at the end of the year. Lemaire’s major triumphs include the 2011 Melbourne Cup and Pedroza has been four times champion in Germany.

Gavin Lerena will captain the home team which is also expected to comprise S’Manga Khumalo, Greg Cheyne and Anthony Delpech plus two still-to-be-selected wild cards.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Hayley Turner

The classy Craig Eudey-trained six-year-old Kahal gelding Flyfirstclass defied a 91 day layoff to win the main race at Scottsville on Sunday, a MR 100 Handicap over 1200m, under Alec Forbes.

The big bay showed pace throughout before finding another gear to pull clear of the nine-year-old veteran Royal Zulu Warrior and the hot favourite De Kock to win by 1,75 lengths, returning odds of 12/1.

The first race, a Maiden for fillies and mares over 1200m, saw Kumaran Naidoo clinching a weekend double. His first-timer three-year-old by Rebel King, Deep Down Rebel, emerged from the pack to chase down the pacemaker Kingsview before going on to beat her in good style under 4kg claimer Tristan Godden.

In the second, a MR 87 Handicap for fillies and mares over 1200m, the lack of pace in the small seven horse race played into the hands of topweight LittleBlacknumber, who still had enough in the tank to find a kick under a rider she gets on well with, Brandon Lerena. The Duncan Howells yard ran one-two-three in this race as the fancied Tiptol was second ahead of the favourite Miss Argentina.

Dean Kannemeyer then made it a weekend double and both wins were with newly arrived horses to his Summerveld satellite yard from his Cape Milnerton base. His Fort Wood gelding, In Your Dreams, rallied to win an average Maiden for three-year-olds over 1400m under Forbes from the favourite The Deacon.

The hard-knocking Glen Kotzen-trained Cyclone Sassy enjoyed the step up to 1400m in the next, a Maiden for three-year-old fillies, and won cosily under Anton Marcus. The fifth was a maiden over 2400m and the Gary Rich-trained Musuchelalomissus got the better of the favourite Scot’s Party, who once again found little after traveling well throughout.

In the seventh, a MR 80 Handicap over 1200m, Puller made it a double as his three-year-old Antonius Pius gelding St Marco, merit rated 79, remained unbeaten in two starts when just getting up under Athandiwe Mgudlwa to deny Hip Hop Dancer with the favourite Monte Cristo in third.

In the last, a MR 72 Handicap over 1200m, the Paddy Lunn-trained three-year-old Var filly Timeous proved herself a decent sort by winning comfortably first time out the maidens off a merit rating of 81 and the win gave Godden a double.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Flyfirstclass (Anita Akal)

Treve is special. Obviously, she’s special – that electric turn of foot, those two magical Arc wins, her perfect record either side of those three runs in 2014 when she was suffering from foot and back problems. She’s special.

But the Motivator filly is special in the unique sense of the word too, as on October 4 (Sunday) she will make history, one way or another, when she sets hoof on the Parisian turf with all eyes of the racing world upon her.

For no horse has ever before lined up at Longchamp carrying the unique weight of expectation that will come with going for a third success in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Six other horses have won Europe’s most prestigious race twice, but none of that sextet went for a third. Ksar retired at four, Motrico at five after his second win, the filly Corrida was the same, Tantieme retired at four as did Ribot and Alleged.

But Treve, the Arc angel, stayed in training following her second triumph in the great race and since then she hasn’t put a foot wrong.

Bookmakers all over Europe have been scurrying for cover as Criquette Head-Maarek has orchestrated a perfect five-year-old campaign that has seen Treve take in victories in the Prix Corrida, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and, most spectacularly, in the Prix Vermeille.

That latest win has set things up perfectly for the 2015 Arc. All her good traits were there; she travelled like a demon, burst clear once unleashed by Thierry Jarnet and then kept going until her pilot decided to, reluctantly presumably, apply the brakes.

If there was a chink of light for her rivals she did slightly hang right towards the rail, but that’s being extremely picky. She simply looks in fantastic shape and her physical problems from last year are a fading memory, hence the general odds-on quotes.

Her credentials are rock solid. But, while she’s the first horse to go for a third Arc win, she’s the fifth horse in the last 25 years that will go off as odds-on favourite, should she maintain her market dominance.

Here’s how the others fared:

1990 – Salsabil 3/5 favourite. Finished 10th.

1991 – Generous 9/10 favourite. Finished 8th.

2000 – Montjeu 4/5 favourite. Finished 4th.

2009 – Sea The Stars 4/6 favourite. Finished 1st.

2015 – Treve odds-on favourite? Finished ?

Those beaten favourites mentioned above had some things in common. All of them had a wide draw, although it should be remembered that was no barrier to success for Treve in 2013 when she won from stall 15. A more likely reason for defeat is the weight she has to give to some classy three-year-old colts, namely New Bay, and possibly Jack Hobbs and/or Golden Horn. But Treve has lit up Longchamp several times before and an expectant crowd will be hoping to see that trademark turn of foot again. It’s all very exciting. Treve is special.

• Ben Lightfoot for Sportinglife.com

Picture: Treve winning the 2014 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Independent.co.uk)

Brett Crawford and Eric Sands are to have a conference call with Phumelela racing executive Clyde Basel early this week about how to respond to the demand for more runners at Cape Town meetings.

Cape trainers’ committee member Crawford said: “We are going to put to Clyde a few suggestions that the trainers have and then we will discuss the matter again among ourselves.”

There now seems more of a determination than there was initially to take measures to increase the average runners per race from ten to 12 and so avoid the stakes cut threatened by Phumelela.

> Andre Nel, who had his first runner five days ago and three more on Saturday, has a team of 60 to go to war with in his new role as private trainer to Sabine Plattner. Thirteen of them are two-year-olds who are not expected to race until next season.

> Shadlee Fortune, nephew of Andrew, has moved from Port Elizabeth to Cape Town. The 19-year-old has ridden 13 winners.

– Michael Clower