Atyaab’s win has trainer ‘Ziets’ in tears

The sight of trainer Zietsman Oosthuizen in tears of joy as he beamed his way through a television interview at the Cape Town Met was perhaps the highlight of a good day for racing.

“Well done Attie!” said Oosthuizen, as if in private conversation with his horse, with a TV audience of hundreds of thousands worldwide feeling a bit like intruders.

He was referring to Atyaab, his stable’s five-year-old gelding who had just won Saturday’s 2 800m Grade 2 Western Cape Stayers at Kenilworth – giving a galloping lesson to a bunch of top endurance horses.

It wasn’t just the trainer who was emotional, the whole racing world felt a tug on the heartstrings.

It was the sort of small-guymakes-good, second-chance-redemption tale that racing is wont to deliver.

Oosthuizen, 41, has had a trainer’s licence for less than a year – and has had a rocky start to his career.

Owner Suzette Viljoen, a fellow plattelander, only bought her first racehorse about three years ago.

By contrast, Atyaab was an expensive Australian import who’d done well early in his career but had “gone wrong” and ended up as a big-stable reject.

From Ellisras farming stock, “Ziets” grew up with horses and got into racing as a dogsbody to Kimberley-based trainer Bill Human – driving floats around the country before graduating to full assistant.

After 11 years of grounding, he took out his own licence – only for Kimberley racing to be closed down in early 2020 as operator Phumelela collapsed.

Determined to make a go of it in the game, Oosthuizen moved to Fairview in Port Elizabeth with 11 moderate horses, some of which were owned by Viljoen.

It took a while, but eventually the partnership started turning out winners.