Champing at the bit at a gallop
DAY AT THE RACES: FEEL THE RUSH AS YOU BACK A WINNER Each week Marie-Lais looks out for the unusual, the unique, the downright quirky or just something or someone we might have had no idea about, even though we live here. We like to travel our own cities
ehind glass in the carpeted Furious Room it’s quite hushed, the screens and live commentaries slightly removed. We bring our Sunday lunch plates from the buffet to our table. The men at a table behind us have toppling wads of betting slips on their table.
I catch the name S’manga in the commentary. S’manga Khumalo, SA’s hero jockey, is right here today. He’s won the second and third race. We go down to the enclosure, people shouting the names and a little girl, as excited, shouting, “Horsey, Horsey!” S’manga’s won. The PR, Nick Gordon, asks what I’m betting on the main race and I say Lions Emblem. It’s just a name that jumped out. Heather reckons hers will be Smart Mart. I wonder if I should rather bet on the horse S’manga will ride but Nick suggests we’re making good choices.
Before the fifth race, we’re on the Turffontein tour bus to the start, way down the track. The horses are ridden up to the start. All 16 starting stalls will be filled. Already I have goosebumps.
“You smell like beer so they’ll come and bite you”, says a guy to his girlfriend. The horses are mostly in the stalls. One jockey calls, “Wait!” It’s all muscle, sinew, potential and some panic in there.
A second after, it explodes with a steel soundflash, thunder hooves, releasing dizzying energy and a climax of sensation, all at once. I burst into tears. The horses are already way down the track.
We go to see the main race’s horses, readying at the back, and spot our bets. Out front, at the Parade Ring, Nick introduces me to Khumalo. He’s shaking my hand but looking for his mount. I can read his mind and on it is written “Horse!” I now understand the highly charged emotions about.
A man tells me he’s lost everything, ruefully, like one who might do it again.
From the Furious Room we watch our horses on track and screen. Both Lions Emblem and Smart Mart are middlers. It hardly matters. My thrill alongside the stalls is what did it for me.
The July in Jozi