Zimbabwe’s major sprint, the Gold Cup (GR3), will take place over 1200m on Saturday 15th December – and, sadly, HRIB is no longer the sponsor of this event after supporting Borrowdale Park, so well, for so many years.
However – onwards and upwards – the runners won’t know that, and it should be a good race.
The size of a field doesn’t matter if there are a couple of good horses prepared to take each other on. At Borrowdale Park last Saturday, we saw Coachella and Fareeq give it their all in the 1100m MR 100 Handicap.
This was quite an interesting field in view of the approaching Gold Cup – and a learning curve for me as before the race I didn’t believe Fareeq had a hope in hell over that distance. If you look back Fareeq has hardly ever run in a sprint but has distinguished himself regularly over more ground.
Coachella was carrying top weight of 61.5 kgs but has done that previously and won. In 2017 Coachella won the HRIB Gold Cup carrying 61kgs. In 2018 the race was won by Saturday’s runner Twilight Trip (unplaced), Coachella, carrying 63 kgs was third, and Butchie Boy (third last Saturday) was fourth in the 2018 Gold Cup.
All that is history but if Fareeq is among the 2019 Gold Cup nominations I won’t dismiss him quite so easily. The extra 100m might suit him better. In addition, I doubt whether Coachella and Fareeq would go head to head quite so soon if they were to meet again in the big one.
Coachella proved his supremacy in this last outing. Fareeq put up a good fight but Coachella drew clear when it counted and won by two lengths. Fareeq was receiving 7kgs.
Bred by Professor I M Sanne and owned by John Koumides, Coachella has now won 9 races. He is trained by Bridget Stidolph and Keanen Steyn piloted the six-year-old son of Alado (GB).
So, the Cat appeared through the kitchen door cat flap and seemed to have something in its mouth – ah yes, a mouse, a live mouse! It wandered off to the corner of the kitchen and dropped the mouse on the floor but covered its escape routes.
Have you ever heard a mouse squeal in terror of its life? Not nice – it was a torturous episode where the cat pawed the mouse over and over again, claws out. The little rodent was terrified. After about five minutes of all this, the cat pounced and bit the mouse in half and gobbled it up. Yummy. There are eleven million such cruel beasts in the UK alone, 600 million worldwide.
Just then my nephew walked in with rod in hand – plus three trout – supper was secure. We chatted about the sport and I learnt that there were almost three million anglers in the UK – one in every three households – it seems they all go out with their rods and a tin of fresh live maggots. They find a nice spot by the riverbank and prepare for their fishing session. First they impale an unsuspecting live maggot on a barbed hook and are always pleased to see it wriggle in agony as it’s dropped into the river as such writhing is likely to attract a hungry fish.
In due course the baiting exercise is repeated – several times – more impaled maggots – until eventually there is a tug on the line – a fish is caught – the barbed hook has entered the mouth of the fish and the tug has seen the hook pierce the fish’s lip. The catch then begins to battle in agony and fear until eventually it is landed, the hook is roughly removed (without anaesthetic) and the fish popped into the keep net – until the catch is complete and it is supper time. All the fish are then taken from the keep net and die on the way home.
Then there are racehorses. Five hundred kilos of majesty, grace, power and muscle. They can be bought for a few hundred pounds Sterling to a few million pounds, and sent to trainers to be pampered and prepared for the sport of kings. No expense is spared in caring for these equine athletes – the best stables, the best food, the best health care, the kindest grooms and no natural or unnatural predators – except maybe a spider.
In terms of love and attention, horses must be the best loved and cared for animal after your own children (but not always your own children!) – and way ahead of cats and dogs.
Then it comes to race day, the horses are fit and well and trained to the tee. Down to the start, gates fly open, the runners are away and speed into the finishing straight – it’s a close run thing. Jockeys get the flat bottomed whips out and apply them no more than seven times in a flat race to the rump of their mounts.
I don’t know if the public is generally aware that horses live in fields and prairies as natural habitats, like sheep and cattle. People might not also know that as basically wild animals tamed by humans, they tend not to wear woolly jumpers in winter or pyjamas at bedtime – nor are they provided with hot water bottles and central heating.
That is because
they are animals, they have thick leather hides and a covering of coarse hair.
They are not humans.
And in the
finishing straight, horses need to be urged to give of their best and travel in
a straight line when doing so. The modern day whip produces no welts on a horse’s
arse and yet provides enough stimulation to trigger the natural “flight”
response in the animal’s psyche, and enough help to steer the beast in the
right direction. Some horses are natural competitors and need little
encouragement, others are less so. It is up to the jockey to assess his needs
in a race.
I have no
problem whatsoever with the current rules associated with whip use and would
strongly oppose any steps to further restrict or ban them. And to all the limp
wrists who campaign otherwise, I would counsel that they get their priorities
right and direct their efforts to the far bigger issue which is the banning of
fishing, and maybe the fitting of mouth grills on cats which can only be
removed at formal feeding times – and by so doing protect all those poor rodents
and birds from hideous torture and torment.
Love To Bluff, trained by Bridget Stidolph and with Keanen Steyn in the irons, defied top weight and won the 1200m Zimoco Jacaranda Free Handicap at Borrowdale Park on Saturday.
Wantage, second, was receiving 7 kgs from his stable companion.
By Judpot (USA) and bred by Millstream Farm, the three-year-old gelding has now won four of his seven starts.
Love To Bluff is owned by Messrs R S Dyer, S N Buchan, N Evans, M K Chant, G de Jong, A Dixon, R Morgan, R Sherwood, G Carter, and Mrs P Lewis. Congratulations everyone.
The Stidolph yard won four of the seven races on the card.
THE CENTAURIAN is a columnist covering international racing on a Facebook page. However this time Borrowdale Park gets one of the few bouquets he has been handing out recently.
Followers of my column on Facebook (@zimracing) will know that I hold American horse racing in very low esteem and they may even believe my views are ill founded and too emotive. These are fair assumptions but are wholly wrong. It is opportune to illustrate my feelings now as we have just seen the running of two well publicised race meetings – the Breeders Cup at Santa Anita and the Melbourne Cup at Flemington in Australia.
The meetings could not have been more different.
We could talk about many aspects of the race meeting – the publicity and hype for both was high, the quality of horses was just OK for both meetings, jockey quality was very good – Frankie did both meetings for example, the purses were excellent – circa US$ 6 million for both top races and then there was the attendance levels.
I think attendance might say much about the product. Interestingly both meetings attracted about the same number of racegoers – about 41,000 on each day – but this is down on past peaks at both meetings of 60,000 – saying something about the image of racing. This aspect is the subject of another article – where I will be castigating the media and the limp-wrists! But it’s the courses I want to talk about – they could not be more different. Flemington is a big, sweeping turf, galloping track with a circumference of over 2,100 metres and a straight of over three furlongs – this is proper racing. One fairly tight turn at about the 2000 metre post – but nowhere near a hazard being so far from home when horses are not flat out.
The Melbourne Cup was won by Vow And Declare ridden by Craig Williams for Aussie trainer Danny O’Brien at 10/1 – Master of Reality with Frankie aboard ran a close second before being demoted to fourth by the stewards. Interestingly for me, this horse is by Frankel who never raced beyond 2000 metres – but look at its dam – L’Ancresse – a Darshaan mare – this is where the stamina must have come from to see out two miles (3200 metres)
Can you believe that after such a race the first 23 home were covered by just 10 lengths – Rostropovich spoilt the stat by cracking a pelvic bone and basically pulled up. The first nine home were covered by just two lengths – again this is proper, heart pumping, exciting racing of the highest order – and I don’t often say such things about Australian sport – but this was a terrific race.
Now consider Santa Anita. To me it would be better if they raced whippets there – it’s a toy by comparison to Flemington or Borrowdale Park. The dirt track is just 1600 in circumference and the straight is about a furlong and a half – or 350 metres. Madness. The grass track is actually inside the dirt track and has commensurately diminutive distances – what nonsense is this?
The track is a tight one with two sharp bends at either end of 400 metre straights with horses travelling flat out whilst running on the second bend before the short finishing straight. The lateral forces on these horse’s legs must be severe and injury inducing – and clearly are.
Vino Rosso beat MacKinzie because the latter could not stay the 2000 metre Classic distance – and jockey, Irad Ortiz put four lengths between to two – so there were no “also rans” within two lengths of the winner and only two within 10 lengths of the winner!
Despite the size of the purse there were only 11 runners competing. (Mongolian Groom broke down and had to be put down)It was pretty clear as the horses turned into the straight there were only two horses going to contest the finish and that was about as exciting as watching Jeremy Corbyn trying to make a point in Parliament. This is dire, dire racing indeed and is typical of what can be seen in America.
For me, it can’t be about anything other than the tracks because the bloodlines, the jockeys, the trainers, the purses are fine – it’s these pitiful, dangerous, badly thought out tracks of dirt – I haven’t researched them all yet I can say they are pretty much the same. Rubbish.
In my view, American horse racing does not have what it takes to survive, let alone prosper in its current format – and certainly not when the element of gambling is added back in against all else on the internet. Finally, with the issues of Lasix, whip use and horse fatalities, I guess the nails are already in the coffin lid of US racing – it won’t take much to close that lid, hammer in the nails and bury the whole thing – and what a tragedy that would be over the next few decades.
The answer has to be about revamping the concept completely – the wheel doesn’t need reinventing – the examples are there in abundance – across Europe, Southern Africa and the Antipodes. Make American racing great again Donald!
See what I mean about tracks in the pics included here.
From time to time it is probably kind to give one’s detractors further evidence that one is seriously deranged.
October in Zimbabwe has been described as suicide month and this year the heat has exceeded expectations. Main topics of conversation, in some cases the only topics, cover rising prices and lack of water and electricity. If you are into racing add in the shortage of horses, rising costs and so forth and so on.
So, I was thinking this would be a good time to set up an impregnable trust/account and start raising money towards a sanctuary for needy ex-racehorses. I am only sorry we didn’t do this years ago when the industry was flourishing but better late than never.
This year horse racing has attracted serious flak, worldwide, and it is easy to understand why people with no insider knowledge would like it to be banned. Racing needs heroes not horror stories and there have been plenty of those emanating most recently from the United States and Australia. The media has been blamed for circulating these tales, but that is what the media is meant to do. Animal welfare is important and when cruelty in various forms exists it should be exposed.
Most racehorse owners care about their horses and if they can’t provide for them after racing, they make sure they are suitably re-homed or move on to other disciplines. However, horses change hands, the original owners lose track, and that’s where many of the horror stories begin.
Fortunately, in Zimbabwe, we are not big enough to have instituted claiming races. Many former racehorses are absorbed into dressage, show-jumping etc, and there are pleasant places where horses can be retired if owners can afford the fees. But let’s not kid ourselves…there is always a dark side if we had the guts to investigate…and I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to behaving like an ostrich.
Good things can start from small beginnings. I wouldn’t dare suggest a 1% levy on all racing stakes at this stage of our game, but what about a small voluntary donation when your horse earns something? (I can almost hear howls of anguish reverberating across the land).
In some other countries government and related institutions contribute to similar causes (one day we might get there); someone, someday, might donate or share land; perhaps a person with undeserving relatives will leave a legacy for horses.
Let’s make a start. Please, financial geniuses out there, put your thinking caps on.
I know life in Zimbabwe is depressing at the moment but just imagine what you could do with some unexpected millions – that will cheer you up – and while you’re waiting to win the Lotto, or something, please consider what you could do, right now, in a small way, to help.
THE commendable, but difficult, decision to hold off on this meeting was made by the MTC stewards today (Monday). They have put the horses first which is the right thing to do.
The decision was reached because of unsuitable going. Soaring temperatures in Harare have undermined attempts to irrigate and improve the going. The penetrometer reading at the October 20 meeting was 15 – firm to hard – and conditions during this week are unlikely to change for the better.
At this stage it is not clear whether this race meeting has been cancelled or postponed. More details later.
Top weight White Winter (Greyling) finished three lengths clear Enter The Dragon (D. Habib) in the 1100m MR Handicap at Borrowdale on Sunday. Supa Memories was third, followed by Midnight Rambler.
Saddled by Assistant Trainer Vanessa Birketoft, White Winter
was the first of three winners from the Gokhan Terzi yard. The five-year-old
mare by Warm White Night, bred by Zandvlei Stud, has now won three races and is
owned by Genghiz Goksel.
Other winners from the yard were newcomer to Borrowdale, It
Takes Two, owned by Dave Rosser and Mr Goksel, and Hillah The Hun, owned by
Genghiz and Mike Eaton. Hennie Greyling was aboard both horses.
It Takes Two, by Twice Over (GB), won the 1200m MR 65 Handicap, and Hillah The Hun scored in the 1600m MR 55 Handicap for fillies and mares. This daughter of Visionaire (USA) (below) is now a four-time winner.
Lily Blue, owned by Robyn MacLeod and the Gin ‘Ill Fix It Syndicate (Nominee Kirsty Stidolph), won the Breeders Fillies Mile (L) at Borrowdale Park on Sunday. Wes Marwing was in the irons.
By Black Minnaloushe (USA) out of a Kitalpha (USA) mare, Lily Blue has now won three and was bred by Geoff Armitage. She is trained by Bridget Stidolph.
Wijdaan, a first-timer at Borrowdale, reared up at the start and dislodged jockey Hennie Greyling, thereafter bolted, and was caught, examined by the Course Veterinarian and passed fit to race. She still managed to come second.
Prescott and Gimmethegreenlight finished third and fourth.
Congratulations everyone. Ash Dixon did the presentation.
Photographs by Gavin MacLeod and Zimbabwe Equine News.
Lily Blue with Calvin Habib up. Wes Marwing rides on Sunday.Photograph by Zimbabwe Equine News
Lily Blue, a two-time winner so far, takes on her stable companions Prescott and Gimmethegreenback in the 1600m Breeders Fillies Mile (L) at Borrowdale Park on Sunday.
When the daughter of Black Minnaloushe (USA) won the 1200m Champion Juvenile Stakes on July 27 she was involved in a tight finish with Prescott, and Gimmethegreenback was close behind. Once again, they meet at level weights here. This will be the first time Bridget Stidolph’s trio runs further than 1200m.
Lily Blue looks the pick on the strength of her two wins and a close second to Christofle, when receiving 6.5 kgs, in her last outing. That day Cool Solution and Kimberley Kid finished behind her.
However, Sunday’s race is not so simple.
The Gokhan Terzi yard sends out Wijdaan, ex Mike de Kock and by What A Winter. Although still a maiden Wijdaan was placed in the last two of her four starts in Gauteng, over 1500m and 1600m. It is generally accepted that Turffontein and Vaal form is superior to Borrowdale’s so this will be interesting.
The first race on the Borrowdale Park card is the 1600m Podcast Maiden Plate to be run at Greyville at 12.30 pm. This is the first leg of the Borrowdale Park Place Accumulator with 13 runners so good luck with that.
In the past it was quite common for a race from another centre to be included as part of the Borrowdale card, but later in the afternoon and involving a major feature, which meant keen punters were familiar with most of the runners. If I recall correctly Trifectas and Quartets on these external events went down well.
The Fillies Mile, last race of the day at Borrowdale, is due off at 16.10.
THE HISTORY OF THE CENTAUR SYNDICATE (From a very proud member) Jackie Cocksedge
It is a well-known phenomenon that sometimes people have a vision that is alien to those around them and the idea founders for lack of support, but other times the seed falls on fertile ground and flourishes.
Such a time occurred in 1977 when two very young, but enthusiastic young men were fired by the idea of encouraging greater participation in racehorse ownership at Borrowdale Park Racecourse and took it upon themselves to do so.
Peter Lovemore and Robin Bruss of the Rhodesia Bloodstock Agency, placed an advertisement in the local daily paper The Rhodesia Herald on February 9th, inviting interested people to attend a presentation at a local hotel to hear about the benefits of forming a racing syndicate. The event was fairly well supported and curiosity got the better of some of the attendees, and thus the first racing Syndicate evolved in this country.
Amongst the interested were Frank Gaby, Arthur Ainscow and John Smith. The net was cast further and it was considered important that within the Syndicate, someone with a knowledge of racing be included to guide the Syndicate in the right direction so successful racehorse owner Raymond Schur was brought on board. After many get social together’s and lots of debate the syndicate was named The Centaur Syndicate, after the mythical half-man and half-beast.
Founding members were Raymond Schur the nominee, Arthur Ainscow, Philip Whaley, Jack Rickards, Jim McDermott, Joan Callaghan, Frank Gaby and John Smith. And thus these excited 8, armed with sales catalogues and full of enthusiasm converged at the Harare Showgrounds to purchase their first champion racehorse. Sadly this did not come to pass, as Lunilla did not set the world on fire achieving a rather paltry 1 win and 3 places from 13 career starts. Ah well, back to the well for the intrepid and undaunted syndicate.
Their next purchase hit pay dirt and the racing “bug” was firmly entrenched. Quite early on the 1976 National Yearling Sale, a very good looking son of Quintipor (Ire) was consigned by leading breeder Geoff Armitage. Probably because he was early in the Sale, he did not command top dollar and a disappointed Geoff let him be sold for $6400.00. Named The Toff, he took every member of that Syndicate to experience the most amazing thrills and euphoria that only owning a good racehorse can evoke.
Trained by Roy Magner, The Toff was victorious in 14 races, reeling off triumph after triumph, conquering all who stood in his path. He raced until he was an eight-year-old, then retired to stud. No big race escaped him, but perhaps for his owners, their greatest thrill must have been when he won the 1981 Castle Tankard, Zimbabwe’s premier race. It is doubtful any racehorse has a poem written for him, but The Toff did, penned by Arthur “Ginger” Ainscow after The Toff’s Triple Crown campaign. (The poem appears at the end of this article.)
Sadly of the founding Syndicate, only three are still in the land of the living. Fortunately, John Smith is as enthusiastic today as he was way back then. John is the glue that keeps enthusiasm high and runners still gracing the green, green grass at Borrowdale Park.
The Syndicate has been exceptionally lucky. Horses campaigned in the famous Orange colours with the Black Maltese cross are notably Bolero Beat, Poem, Walter Wolf, Glen Monarch, Earl Of Surrey and Perfect Grace. Plus many more minor winners.
On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Centaur Syndicate, a lunch party was held to honour the occasion.
Now in its 43rd year, a world record, the Syndicate is still going strong. We are represented by Bugatti Blue doing us proud on the course and we have exciting times ahead with an about to race 3-year-old Divine Jet colt named Globe Master, and a Jackson two-year-old acquisition from the recent BSA Two-Year-Old Sale which has been named Magnus Maximus.
Robin Bruss recounts the formation of The Centaur Syndicate at the 40th Anniversary celebration.
The Toff (Son of Quintipor)
I’ll tell you a racing story Of an ‘orse that won honour and fame At Borrowdale Park in Salisbury town The Toff – that’s ‘is name. You’ve heard of famous owners Who have horses by the string Well t’ Toff has several owners A most unusual thing There’s Joan and John and Jim and Jack Just for alliteration While Phil and Ray and Frank and Ack Complete the Syndication The trainer, named Roy Magner Is a man of some renown Said “Look ‘ere lads That ‘orse of yours is good for‘t triple crown Eee at this great news They were all agog So‘t horse was trained To tackle the job The trainer got down to business He really did his stuff The Toff hadn’t been on the course for a month And his ear ‘oles were bunged up with fluff But the colt and t’ trainer were undismayed And settled their programme just grandly They’d show everybody of what he was made And was in fact quite handy
First leg of‘t crown was‘t Guineas And proudly the horse did his ton He passed every horse on that bloomin’ course Except for the blighter that won! But next time round was this Quintipor’s son, A dark horse who made no mistakes He showed up the best and flayed all the rest In‘t coveted Spey Bridge Stakes By now as you may guess The Syndicate was all a flutter But trainer Magner – clever sage Some wise advice was ‘eard to utter “Ah knows this horse ‘as done quite well But don’t you get all cocky In this ‘ere game you’ve heard it tell A lot depends on ‘t jockey” The Benson & Hedges Stakes tha’ knows Is greatest jewel in‘t Crown And country-wide all‘t three-year-olds Will try to get him down So‘t great day came for Benson Stakes With jockey Reid upon his metal The man and horse were a handsome pair The Toff himself – in finest fettle And when at last the gates flew open And t’ announcer cried “They‘re off Eight pair of eyes, you rightly guessed Were glued upon The Toff Around the course the pace was set By three-year-olds a plenty And Reid and t’ Toff just eased their way Through field of just on twenty Down the straight the runners came The winner still in doubt Eight pairs of eyes in frenzy strained Till “It’s The Toff, came t’mighty shout” Eight pairs of arms led winner in To most important place So full of praise for Reid and Toff For that momentous race And when the day was ended And all the praise was said Eight pairs of feet they staggered down And tucked ‘in up in bed
It was no race once Fareeq got down to business in the 1800m AFZ Charity Handicap and won going away from stable companion Yarraman.
Heir Line was third and Wolves Among Sheep, who went onto the pace, ran fourth.
This was the fifth winner of the afternoon for Gokhan Terzi’s Borrowdale Park satellite yard. Deon Sampson scored with Fareeq, and Rebellious Queen, while Brendon McNaughton won with Queen Of The Ring and Master ‘n Commander. And Apprentice Omeara Rusike had her first win on Lunar Dancer.
All Terzi’s winners are owned by Gengiz Goksel.
Congratulations to the winning connections. Well done.
Local jockeys and apprentices filled all the saddles in the first race, a 1100m MR 70 Handicap, at Borrowdale Park today. The apprentices came to the fore with Lunar Dancer (Rusike), and Mill Creek (Satombo) being involved in a hard-fought finish.
After a race review Lunar Dancer got the nod. Nicky Sibanda on Western Shamrock came third and White Winter (McNaughton) fourth.
Well done Omeara.
Lunar Dancer, a five-year-old Philanthropist (USA) mare, is from the Gokhan Terzi yard and owned by Gengiz Goksel. She was bred by Klavervlei Stud and has now won three races.
Racing at Borrowdale Park in Harare - Zimbabwe 