Outgoing national champion trainer Justin Snaith was crowned Western Cape Champion Trainer again for the 2014/2015 season, having finished third on the national log, and he and his Cape Town colleagues had many memorable moments during the season.

Snaith is competitive but has always been magnanimous in defeat and he was the first to congratulate the new National Champion trainer Sean Tarry at the Equus Awards ceremony. Snaith, whose season’s earning were R16,234,988, started the Cape Summer Of Champions Seasons well when Legislate broke the Kenilworth Old Course 1600m record in the Gr 2 Lanzerac le General Green Point Stakes.

However, the superstar colt then ran a shock last in Gr 1 L’Ormarin’s Queen’s Plate and was found to be suffering from a serious lung infection. Instead it was the Brett Crawford-trained Futura who won both the Queen’s Plate and the Gr 1 J&B Met. Futura later joined the Snaith yard after a share in him was sold to Drakenstein Stud.

Legislate’s eventual comeback was in the Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge and his victory there earned him the Equus Champion Miler award. He later finished third in both the Gr 1 Mercury Sprint and Gr 1 Champions Cup. Futura, fourth in the Gold Challenge, went on to finish fourth with topweight in the Vodacom Durban July before retaining his Champions Cup crown, although the latter event did officially fall in the new season. Futura was named both Equus and Western Cape Horse Of The Year.

On top of those two Gr 1 wins, the Snaith yard won five Gr 2s, seven Gr 3s and nine Listed races.

Mike Bass earned stakes of R12,136,938 for fourth place on the national log. His yard had the highest earnings (over R10 million) in races held in the Western Cape region. The yard’s mare Hammie’s Hooker retained her Gr 2 Tibouchina crown, having earlier won a Gr 3, and she was named Equus Champion Older Female.

However, her stablemate Fly By Night was named Western Cape Champion Older Female, as well as Champion Sprinter. The latter won the Gr 2 Tony Taberer Southern Cross Stakes and had a Gr 1 third and fourth and a Gr 2 third. However, the stable star for the season was the three-year-old filly Inara, who won both the Gr 1 Maine Chance Farms Paddock Stakes and the Gr 1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes, having finished runner up in the Gr 1 Avontuur Estate Cape Fillies Guineas. She had a disappointing Champions Season, but was named Western Cape Champion three-year-old filly. Bass overall won two Gr 1s, four Gr 2s, three Gr 3s and five Listed races (although one of the latter was at the postponed Super Saturday meeting).

Joey Ramsden finished fifth on the national with earnings of R10,825,900. His charges Act Of War and Coltrane were named Western Cape Three-Year-Old Male and Champion Stayer Of The Year respectively. Act Of War won his first three races of the season, the Gr 3 Cape Classic over 1400m, the Gr 2 Selangor Cup and the Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas. His defeat in the Gr 1 Investec Cape Derby, when below par and possibly not staying the 2000m trip, probably cost him an Equus Award. He later won the Gr 3 Tekkie Town Winter Guineas. Coltrane won four races during the season including two Gr 3 staying events in Cape Town.

He was given the award ahead of his stablemate Disco Al, who won a Gr 2 over 2400m as well as a Gr 3 over 2000m. Ramsden’s crack three-year-old filly Cold As Ice unfortunately broke through the stalls and bolted before the Cape Fillies Guineas having previously won the Gr 2 Choice Carriers Championship impressively. She went on to win the Listed Laisserfaire Stakes and the Gr 2 Sceptre Stakes before being touched off in the Majorca. Another Ramsden three-year-old, The Conglomerate, won the Gr 3 Politician Stakes, the Gr 2 KRA Guineas and then finished third in the Gr 1 Daily News 2000 before being unlucky in the July. Overall Ramsden won one Gr 1, six Gr 2s (including one on Super Saturday), nine Gr 3s, three Listed races and one Non-Black Type event.

Dean Kannemeyer finished ninth on the national log with earnings of R7,175,088. The highlight was Power King’s July victory, Kannemeyer’s third win of the country’s premier race. Kannmeyer, whose reopened KZN satellite yard had a tremendous strike rate, also won one a Gr 3, a Listed race and two Non-Black Type events.

Brett Crawford finished tenth on the national log and has cemented himself as a top tier trainer just five seasons after going on his own. Futura provided the highlight by winning Cape Town’s two biggest races, the Queen’s Plate and the Met. Crawford took the subsequent decision by the connections to move Futura in his stride. The yard also won the Gr 1 HF Oppenheimer Horse Chestnut Stakes with Captain America and in KZN Alexis won the Gr 2 KRA Fillies Guineas, while Gulf Storm won a Listed race before finishing runner up in the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint.

Glen Kotzen finished 15^th on the log with earnings of R6,375,050 and won three G 3s, three Listed races and two Non-Black Type events. His filly Princess Royal was named Western Cape Two-year-old filly Of The Year.

Vaughan Marshall finished in 22^nd position on the national log with earnings of R4,584,338 and won two Listed races and a Non-Black Type event.

Stan Elley ended his 41 year career as a trainer on a high note, finishing first and third in the Gr 2 Betting World 1900 with Dynastic Power and Punta Arenas, and the latter then went on to win the Gr 3 Cup Trial before finishing a possibly unlucky second in the July. Elley also won a Listed race.

Adam Marcus won a Gr 3 and a Listed race, Glen Puller and Ronnie Sheehan each won a Gr 3, Daryl Hodgson won two Listed races and Eric Sands, Neil Bruss and Paddy Kruyer each won a Listed event apiece.

By David Thiselton

Mike Bass is seriously ill in a Cape Town hospital where he is in an induced coma.

What was first diagnosed as ‘flu – he began to feel unwell at the Cape Racing & Breeding Awards Dinner ten days ago – developed into severe pneumonia and he was rushed to hospital by ambulance early last Wednesday. He was put into intensive care.

However his condition worsened during the day and he went into septic shock. The doctors put him into an induced coma.

A statement on the Mike Bass Racing website said: “At this stage the prognosis remains serious. The family and medical team are taking things hour by hour.”

Son Mark told the Sporting Post: “We are in such awe and are overwhelmed by the support from friends, family and the entire racing industry who have really come together in trying to keep us so positive through this difficult time. He is so loved. We would like to thank everyone for their amazing support.”

A spokesperson for the family said yesterday: “At the moment all that we can tell you is that Mike is still in a very critical condition but he is fighting hard and the family will try to put out something more detailed when they have more information.”

Bass, 70, has won the Durban July three times and the J & B Met five times during his near 40-year training career with four of those victories coming from the legendary Pocket Power.

By Michael Clower  

Picture: Mike Bass (Nkosi Hlophe)

Bela-Bela looks classic material after lighting up a rain-soaked Kenilworth on Saturday with an impressive performance that had potential written all over it.

Despite treating the start as if she was out for an afternoon stroll and racing as green as the grass under her feet, the newcomer was able to lead 50m from home without Bernard Fayd’Herbe having to resort to much more than hands and heels. She beat the pace-setting Sandton Rocker by a length and a quarter with the third five lengths back.

The Dynasty filly is a daughter of broodmare extraordinaire Mystic Spring, the Royal Academy mare who has already produced Rabiya, All Is Secret’s dam Secret Of Victoria and Spring Lilac. Her latest Cheveley-bred winner was bought by Varsfontein for R1.4 million at last year’s National Two-Year-Old Sale.

Justin Snaith said: “Whatever she cost, she is worth double and maybe more. I am going to bring her along nicely and wait for the right races when she is ready for them.”

Snaith, who went on to land a treble, reckons there is also more to come from Bianzino who made all under Xavier Carstens in the Giggling Gourmet Handicap.

Seemingly the reason is the bit that the member of the South African polo team put on the colt for the first time in a race – “He was fighting for his head in Durban so I rode him myself in a special polo bit that gives the horse more room for his tongue.”

Another that should prove worth following is Captain Sam who took his score to four out of six in the Betting World Handicap and Vaughan Marshall, who has now had eight winners from the last four Cape Town meetings, confirmed that there is more improvement in the gelding – “He is not a horse that will win by five or six lengths, he just does what he has to.”

Handicappers don’t like horses that keep defying them and so Captain Sam can expect rather more than the kilo that his three-quarter win would indicate. But Greg Cheyne skilfully asked for no more than necessary and that should produce a dividend that is worth backing.

That Cowboy Kid is going to be penalised even more harshly as he ran the opposition ragged under Corne Orffer in the Samara Private Game Reserve Handicap to make it three in a row even though he is fitted with blinkers and a tongue tie.

Brett Crawford explained: “He makes a bit of a noise and gets his tongue over the bit while the blinkers help him to concentrate.”

The Philippi trainer then revealed the reason for the five-year-old’s improvement: “He had soundness issues as a young horse but now he is sound again and I also think that keeping him to a mile helps.”

Crawford promptly followed up with Sea Glass – thanks in no small part to Orffer conjuring up some impossible-looking reserves from the filly to turn what looked certain defeat into last-gasp victory.

Crawford was fighting off ‘flu but had yet more reason to help his recovery when he heard that the Jay Peg filly he is to train made R360 000 when her racing career was auctioned in aid of the Sunflower Fund charity.

By Michael Clower

Picture: Justin Snaith 

The most interesting race at Scottsville yesterday was the seventh, a strongly contested Pinnacle Stakes event over 1200m, and it was the Joey Ramsden-trained Brutal Force who justified his good pedigree and expensive sales prices by getting up late to beat one of the most talked about horses of the meeting, the Dennis Drier-trained Triptique.

Brutal Force, who is by Western Winter and is a full-brother to Red Ray, is a huge horse who has benefitted from gelding and he used his early speed to overcome his high draw before being delivered with a perfectly timed challenge under Anthony Delpech.

He is likely to be a factor in the big sprint races this season, considering Captain Of All and Alboran Sea are now retired.

The first race, a Maiden Plate for three-year-olds over 1200m, provided much interest for the purist due to a plethora of well-bred first-timers taking part. The Mike Miller-trained Warm White Night colt Executive Power was backed in from 9/1 to odds-on.

He has an elastic-like action and duly won impressively under Delpech by 3,5 lengths from the Dennis Drier-trained Dynasty colt New Hampshire, who improved from debut. Another of the eyecatchers in the race was the Sean Tarry-trained Liege, a Dynasty colt who is a half-brother to the useful sons of Jet Master, Lance and Lockheed Jetstar. Liege was unplaced but was staying on nicely from a high draw and is one to follow over further.

Ian Sturgeon was the other jockey on the day to ride a double.

By David Thiselton

Picture: Brutal Force (Liesl King)

The legendary Michael Roberts was an 11-time South African Champion jockey and one of the few foreigners to ever win the British championship. He revealed his philosophies on race riding to the Racegoer a few years ago and they still hold true.

Roberts said, “What the public see as bad riding is often because of instructions. If nobody gave instructions nine out of 10 rides would be better ones.”

He went on to explain that the “pace is what it’s all about and the first 50 metres of a race are in fact the most important.” It is in this narrow window that the jockey must make the split second decision to be up near the front or to drop in behind.

Roberts has never liked stereotype jockeys who lie handy in every race, as he feels this indicates a lack of pace judgement. However, he added that some top jockeys in South Africa were being gifted races by being allowed to dictate the pace without being taken on.

“The easiest races to win are the ones from the front unless you are taken on because horses can cut each other’s throats if vying for the lead.”

He acknowledged the like of Piere Strydom as an excellent judge of pace, but rated Lester Piggott by far the best tactician of all time. Roberts continued, “I would rather drop back three lengths and get on to the fence than race three wide.”

Roberts explained that horses were able to sense a jockey’s mood and this is why some hot horses would relax under certain riders. He added that while it was easier to control a horse on a short rein, a horse would tend to be more relaxed on a long rein. A nervous rider might snatch up the rein for more control and the horse, sensing the panic, would begin fighting.

He cited the late Johnny McCreedy as an absolute master of long-rein riding together with Lester Piggott and Ireland’s Pat Eddery. Jeff Lloyd was also able to control a fighting horse on a long rein, something that would normally tire a jockey out.

Some modern jockeys have begun wrapping the rein around all four fingers, rather than the traditional stronger hold with the first three, because the more sensitive small finger then takes the weight and this gives more feel overall.

Roberts said the best analogy to use in explaining race riding was to compare it to traffic. Some drivers are prepared to sit and wait whilst others will spot a nice run down the inside lane – except that there is a bus 100m further on.

“You often have to gamble,” he says, “but the best jockeys make qualified gambles.”

His judge of a good jockey “is one who is in the right place at the right time and wins races he shouldn’t have won.”

He emphasised that bad luck in a race was often due to nothing more than the jockey having not done his/her homework.

“If you are on the favourite and sit behind a horse that is unlikely to be going forward under pressure, any jockey worth his salt will simply shut the door on you.”

Roberts explained the importance of the final blow-out on the training track. The jockey should judge how clean the horse’s breathing was in the first 50 yards and if it was not slow, deep and regular he/she should give the horse a rigorous workout in order to clear the air passages. If a horse stood dead-still without fidgeting at the end of a workout, it was a sign of extreme fitness.

Roberts considered it important to walk the course before races in Britain and Ireland, as the courses are often undulating and the irrigation methods were sometimes outdated.

He recalled winning a Gr 2 with ease on an outsider at Leopardstown after finding some superior going on the far rail, which was usually too far away to tack over too, but in the large field that day he was able to reach it from his draw of one.

Recently he spoke of his hopes that the temperature of the Greyville polytrack would be made public before meetings, as anecdotal evidence around the world has suggested this has a bearing on results. According to Roberts’s observations frontrunners appear to have more chance of winning in daytime meetings on the Greyville poly and the chances of off-the-pace runners increase at night.

The start of any race is all important and Roberts said good jockeys were often able to anticipate the gates opening as most starters go through a certain routine before pressing the button. A smack on the shoulder helped a horse get going but rousting it could be risky because the horse’s head would have been in the ‘V’ of the gates a split-second earlier and it might bounce back at you. Steve Cauthen was the best exponent of a fast start that Roberts knew. He used to grab the bars and shift the horse from side to side to wake it up before the off. However, Roberts pointed out that a slow start was sometimes advantageous, especially in a distance race, as this usually meant a horse would settle immediately. “You need to find a happy medium between a good break and settling.”

In order to miss the break by half-a-length or so a jockey should just sit very quietly or, in the case of a problematically quick starter, its head can be positioned slightly to one side.

The whip is an important part of the finish. Roberts usually gave a horse a few light taps to test the response and if it was positive he would whip more freely but would otherwise use it sparingly or not at all. Fillies often don’t take kindly to the whip.

The whip hand should be changed if a horse begins hanging or floundering. In the latter case a horse will often change legs and find another gear.

In a tight finish, the jockey should attempt to have the horse’s head down on the line, and jockeys have different styles in achieving this.

Roberts said in summing up that it should be imagined that a horse was given X amount of petrol to get from A to B and it was the jockey job’s to use it in the most economical way so there would be some left for the all-important final burst.

By David Thiselton