Crawford succeeds on racing’s merry go round
JACKSON AND CAPTAIN AMERICA WERE HIS LIFELINES
If there was a Season’s Success Story category at the Equus awards, the favourite would surely be Brett James Crawford. OK, Sean Tarry has enjoyed another phenomenal season, but the Highveld trainer has become a bit like Real Madrid. We expect him to do well in the major events.
Brett is a different kettle of fish although - unlike Leicester City in the Premier League - you can bet your last rand he’s going to be a regular in our top echelon consisting of Sean, Justin Snaith and Candice Bass-Robinson.
Nearly every trainer has a story about their rollercoaster ride in racing and Harare-born Brett is no different.
He learnt the trade as a result of spells with Mike de Kock, Dennis Drier and Eric Sands - it doesn’t get much better than that when you’re learning the ropes.
When the chance came to train for one of the country’s wealthiest owners, Sabine Plattner, Brett jumped at it and did pretty well with the largely homebred stock in his care. His notable big race win came with Angus in the J&B Met.
Yet - as happened in the UK last week with Godolphin sacking John Ferguson - there are always tensions and problems. These must have surfaced between Plattner and Brett for her to show him the door.
So, now, basically it was back to square one for Brett, with very few horses and only a handful of “buddy” owners. In racing, if you’re on the way down, those offering a helping hand are few and far between.
But Brett - a guy who likes a drink, likes a punt and wishes nothing more than his owners to do well - was determined to get back on the racing merry-goround.
A top horse can change a trainer’s life and - when he looks back - perhaps the exploits of Jackson (now making a name for himself at stud) and Captain America were his lifeline in choppy waters.
It was in January this year - at the CTS Premier Sale at the Cape Town Convention Centre - that it really dawned on me that 45-yearold Brett had actually become the “flavour of the Cape season”.
A magnum of champagne arrived at the table we were sitting at and Brett’s immediate quip was “some people take these big bottles home. I suggest we give it a go, Molly”.
Then the sales ladies started arriving with their slips for Brett to sign. “This one’s for Diane Nagle, this one’s for Fiona Carmichael”, and so it went on, meaning numerous choicely bred youngsters were heading his way in the near future.
At that same sale, Brett told anyone who cared to listen that his Aussie import Whisky Baron would win the Sun Met. That was usually greeted by the response “have you forgotten Legal Eagle is running?” He would counter by saying, “Yes, but he got beat 12 months ago - and by a filly. I’ve got a strong gelding.”
Brett was hopeful - rather than confident - that Edict Of Nantes would win the Investec Cape Derby and when Anton Marcus got off the three year-old, he was friendless in the market, despite the booking of Frankie Dettori.
Now - after winning that Kenilworth race and the recent Daily News 2000 - we find Edict Of Nantes at the top of the July betting boards. Do I think the three-year-old can win? In a word, no!
I believe there’s a similarity between the current crop of European three-year-olds (as proved by the result of the Investec Derby) and our own horses of the same age group - nothing stands head and shoulders above the rest.
Yes, both Edict Of Nantes and Al Sahem are talented but I feel the winner will be one of the older horses.
If I’m wrong (and it wouldn’t be the first time) and Edict Of Nantes wins on 1 July, it would be the cherry on top of Brett’s most successful season. If - at those Cape sales - you had suggested he’d saddle the Met-July double, he’d have suggested you’d better go easy on the champers. * * * It’s likely to be sooner rather than later that SA’s leading owner Markus Jooste proudly leads in his first winner of the Investec Derby.
The reason for this statement is Markus’ tie-up with the allconquering Coolmore operation, which made history when 40-1 shot Wings Of Eagles won the Epsom classic.
It meant that owner John Magnier - head of Coolmore - equaled Lester Piggott’s record of nine wins in the Derby in any category jockey, trainer, owner or breeder.
Between 1954 and 1983, Piggott won on Never Say Die, Crepello, St Paddy, Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Roberto, Empery, The Minstrel and Teenoso.
Magnier has now won the race nine times as the driving force behind the Robert Sangster and Coolmore partnerships.
Since 2001 the colours of Magnier’s wife Sue have been carried to victory by Galileo, Pour Moi and Ruler Of The World. Michael Tabor won with High Chaparral and Derrick Smith with Camelot, Australia and Wings Of Eagles.
Everyone at Epsom was thrilled by the performance of Douglas Macarthur who - although eventually unplaced - looks a serious racehorse capable of holding his own in the highest company.
He carried Markus’ famous black and green colours with gold stars but runner-up Cliffs Of Moher - in which he has a quarter share with Coolmore - did not.
Markus explained what happens to determine which horses race in different colours. “We meet in Barbados usually around Christmas and they spin a golden ball which lands on a horse they have bought at auction or bred themselves. Wherever it lands that horse carries your colours.”
So that’s something for the Steinhoff boss to look forward to. Not to mention the Derby prizemoney, which this year was £931,000.