Racing legend Brian Cherry dies
DURBAN July-winning trainer Brian Cherry (pictured) died on Sunday night having never recovered from a recent stroke. One of the great characters of the game, Cherry leaves his wife of 64 years, June, as well as six children, 17 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Cherry never had a big string, but was seldom short of good horses. As well as being a fine horseman, he was renowned for being a shrewd placer of horses.
He started at the old Newmarket stables near the Blue Lagoon. However, his most successful years were out of Summerveld, where he relocated to upon the centre's opening in the 1966/1967 season.
One of the first big horses he trained was Chimboraa, who won the 1968 Durban July under David Payne at odds of 33-1, defeating horses like William Penn and the great Hawaii, although the latter pair did have to concede a lot of weight to the five-year-old.
Among other top horses Cherry trained were Ted's Ambition, a top class sprinter who was virtually unbeatable at Greyville (winning the Gr 1 Chairman's Stakes, the Gr 2 Concord Stakes three times and the Gr 3 Durban Merchants twice, among other races); Row To Rio, who won the Gr 1 National Sprint at Gosforth Park and the Gr 1 Gilbeys Sprint (Tsogo Sun Sprint); All Heart, who was one of his favourites and won the Gr 1 Clairwood Winter Handicap and the Gr 1 Kronenbrau 1308 Stakes at Turffontein; Be Noble, a New Zealand-bred winner of the Gr 1 Adminstrator's Champion Juvenile Stakes and the Gr 1 SA Derby; Kentford, who gave Felix Coetzee, as an apprentice, his first Gr 1 winner in the 1976 Clairwood Winter Handicap; the twice Gr 1 Natal Fillies Sprint winner Mildenhall; the Australian-bred Gr 1 Garden Province Stakes winner Just McKenna; the New Zealand-bred Zamit, who won the Gr 2 John Skeaping Trophy and went close in all of the Gr 2 Dingaans, Gr 1 Administrators Classic, Gr 1 SA Derby and Gr 1 Holiday Inns; the fourteen-time winner Trocadero, who later sired the Champion Three-year-old colt Port Pegasus and the Gr 1-winning Craftsman as well as the like of the useful Cherrytrained Astronaut; Cherry also trained the like of Jungle Palm, Vivorata and Mighty Mandarin.
Outstanding eye
Cherry had an outstanding eye and despite training so many good horses was never a big spender at the sales.
He also ventured to overseas sales and had success with both New Zealand and Australian-breds. He was always associated with top jockeys, including Payne, Johnny McCreedy and in the 1980s the great Michael “Muis’’ Roberts.
Cherry loved to recant stories from the old days and one of his favourites was about McCreedy, who was told in the parade ring on one occasion by an owner to have the horse in front. Upon returning to the parade ring, with the horse not having shown throughout the race, the owner asked the jockey why he had not followed the instruction to which McCreedy replied, “I wanted to go to the front but I had to stay with the horse.’’
Cherry offered Roberts a position after the latter had lost his job as stable jockey to Fred Rickaby and together they became a formidable partnership. Roberts described Cherry above all as a man who became a very loyal friend and as one of the characters of the game, "an enigma on his own’’
Fair
“We had some lovely times and he was a great man to ride for. He was very fair too and would let me off if I had the possibility of a better ride.’’
On one such occasion in 1981 Roberts opted to ride English Statesman in the Gold Cup in preference to Brave Persian, who had been sent to Cherry's yard for the Winter Season by Highveld trainer Ormond Ferraris, who is described by the Cherry family as probably Brian’s “best friend’’. Cherry told Roberts he believed he was making a mistake and Brave Persian duly won with Roberts'’ mount unplaced.
Roberts said, “He demanded a good work ethic and we worked as a team. We had a great relationship. He was a natural as a trainer, was very astute and clever. He knew when horses were right and seldom made a mistake.’’
One such example happened when Cherry inherited a horse called Royal Play after it had previously had only one start in a sprint. Roberts thought Cherry had gone “off his rocker’’ when after having had the horse for only about three weeks he told him he was backing it to win a maiden over 1800m at Clairwood. “I won the race hard held,’’ recalled Roberts.
Roberts was advised by Cherry on another occasion when riding the Harry Hotspur first-timer Ulterior Motive that he could leave his goggles in the parade ring because he would never be behind any other horses in the race. Ulterior Motive duly won easily from pillar to post.
Some of Cherry's biggest owners were Mary Liley, Lou Burnstein, Roy and Gladys Meaker, Aubrey Wicks, Costa Livanos and Ted Hook, who bred his own horses and always began their names with “Ted’s’’.
Gladys Meaker recalled, “He was a fabulous trainer, very shrewd. He was an absolutely wonderful father to his six children, had a wonderful marriage and we became great family friends.’’
Chimboraa will possibly be the horse most associated with Cherry due to his win in the big one and was the subject of a couple of interesting stories in Jean Jaffee’s book “They Race To Win’’.
Chimboraa
The gelding was bought at the 1964 Rand Yearling Sales by Michael Carey and John McKay for their respective wives and Lou Bernstein then bought out a third share for his wife. He won the JG Hollis Memorial Plate as a two-year-old, which was run at 2:30 p.m., but after an objection the stewards deliberated throughout the afternoon and eventually announced at 5p.m. that they had awarded the race to the objecting horse, Reel Cap. Chimboraa became unsound at the end of his two-year-old season and was sent to the farm.
Trainer Willie Kleb sympathising with Cherry and apparently said, "Don't worry the rest will do him good. You never know he may win the July Handicap." Chimboraa later beat the Kleb-trained William Pen by half-a-length when winning the July. The Carey's and McKay’s had also decided to sell their shares to the Burnsteins after Chimboraa had returned from his farm rest for his three-year-old campaign, because they lived in Johannesburg and were not getting enough fun out of the horse, so they thereby missed out on leading in a July winner.
Accolades poured in for Cherry throughout yesterday.
His memorial service will be held at the Makaranga Lodge, 1 Igwababa Road Kloof at 11am today.