The prominent Durban businessman seldom misses a racemeeting and his colourful dress sense and vibrant personality led to him being named the inaugural recipient of the Roy Eckstein floating trophy for the KwaZulu-Natal Racing Personality of the Year in 2012.

On Sunday Viva La Var, who was having his first run for Naidoo after been bought in training, kept his unbeaten record when winning the first race over 1000m under Anton Marcus for the Charles Laird yard. Later Naidoo, Laird and Marcus combined to win with the classy filly Admiral’s Eye, but not before Naidoo had won another race with a horse he part-owns, the Dennis Drier-trained Ho’Oponopono.

Then on Monday at Flamingo Park the Bill Human-trained Random Al won under Juliuis Mariba to give Naidoo the magic century of winners. Naidoo’s familiar racing colours of light blue and red are registered under the name The Fire Racing Trust  and he sounded a warning yesterday, “The public must follow my horses, because I’m on fire at the moment!”

Naidoo’s first ever winner was with the Michael Airey-trained Taste Of Trouble, who won a maiden on March 4, 2001 and followed up by winning a Novice Plate. His love for the game grew of his own accord without family influence. However, today his family are the staunchest supporters of his horses.

Naidoo has won one Gr 1 race to date with Love Struck, a Kahal gelding who won the SA Classic for trainer Paul Lafferty last year. However, about 70% of his horses today are trained by Charles Laird and he feels indebted to both Laird and many-times champion jockey Anton Marcus, who has had a long association with Laird, for his current success.

Naidoo has the distinction of being the owner of the only ever filly in South African history to have won the same Oaks race twice. The Betting World Oaks was opened to older horses last season and his Australian-bred Laird-trained filly Dylan’s Promise duly retained her crown in June this year at Clairwood under Marcus. Naidoo has a lot to look forward to in the future.

Among his two-year-olds are a full-sister to the reigning Equus Horse Of The Year, Legislate, a three-parts sister to the Gr 1 winner Futura, and a full-brother to the highly promising Eventual Angel, who has won four out of five starts to date including a Gr 3. All three of these two-year-olds will be trained by Laird.

Possibly his most exciting horse already in training is the ever improving Laird-trained Bold Inspiration, a four-year-old gelding by Horse Chestnut who has won five out of seven starts, including the last three in ever so easy fashion. Bold Inspiration is only merit rated 96 at present but is just outside the top twenty of the first Sansui Summer Cup log and the bookmakers have priced him up as third favourite. The Summer Cup, Johannesburg’s biggest race, will be run at Turffontein on November 29 and the distance of 2000m should be ideal for Bold Inspiration.

Viva La Var will be a candidate for the Gr 1 Computaform Sprint over 1000m next Autumn. His next outing will be in the Listed Golden Loom Handicap over 1000m at Turffontein on November 1.

Naidoo will have a lively candidate that same day in the hitherto richest race in South African turf history, the R3,85 million Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Cup over 1400m, in the form of the Laird-trained Nisa’s Machine, who ran two feature race third places last season before winning her maiden over 1400m on the Greyville polytrack early this season.

Naidoo’s attraction to the game is based on the thrill of having a winner and he has meticulously recorded every one of these victories during his ownership career. He also has a special room dedicated to racing at both his home and his business office.