Steyn makes a plea
PIET STEYN issued a heartfelt plea for more support for small trainers after Waiting For Rain registered his seventh success in the Interbet Handicap at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Steyn said: “In a year or two’s time we are going to end up with only four or five trainers in Cape Town, and racing can’t survive on that. They have got to start to support the smaller trainers.
“I know you can’t tell people where to put their horses but come and look at Milnerton and see how many empty stables there are.
“It’s a disaster and it comes from agents, breeders and the whole clique. It doesn’t matter how good you are - if you are not in that flow you can forget about it.”
Steyn wasn’t just speaking for himself: “I am no sponger. I put my money where my mouth is and I go quarter and half shares in many of my horses.”
There are several Cape Town trainers far closer to the breadline than he is but sadly there is nothing new about this.
Perilous business
Training racehorses is a financially perilous business unless you have the working capital to carry debts and a continual flow of winners to attract new patrons.
Owning horses is expensive and owners want to be with the fashionable trainers, those who are frequently on TV and whose names are constantly in the papers and websites.
Maybe the most knowledgeable will seek out the lesser-known trainers with the good strike rates while others may feel that the small man gives them better value for money but for the most part it’s winners that attract.
Nobody knows this better than Joey Ramsden who has been battling through his own mid-life crisis ever since the Steinhoff saga emptied his yard 14 months ago.
Even with salesmanship – from partner Steph as well as himself – his number of two-year-olds (19) is barely half what it used to be yet Minnesota Dream became his second juvenile winner of the campaign from just four runners when overcoming a disastrously slow start.
Four races later the Khumalo magic enabled him to follow up with Apollo Ace in the 1 000m handicap.
It would be a big help to punters if the racecard noted horses that are running for the first time since being gelded.
Apollo Ace
Apollo Ace was just such a horse and so was Swift Surprise in the previous race with Richard Fourie saying: “Gelding has done the trick. There was a lot of horse there and he will go on improving.”
First time blinkers are easier to spot and they worked the oracle for John Mitchell’s Crusade’s Promise in the Tabonline Maiden, with M.J. Byleveld getting up close home on the Vaughan Marshall-trained 12-1 shot.
But even being fashionable is no guarantee of success and Dean Kannemeyer, with three Durban July winners in demand for most of his near 19-year training career, had the sort of afternoon he would prefer to forget.
He ran three and, while nothing much was expected from Greek Sword, the other two started favourite.
Salt
Salt was pipped on the post by a cunning Fayd’Herbe ride on the Glen Kotzen-trained Inertia, and Do Or Dare – backed from 13-2 to 2210 for the two-year-old race - never got out of last place.
“He was very difficult to get the saddle on, he was rearing up in the pens and then he got left,” said Kannemeyer who intends speaking to Mike Rattray about gelding the horse.
Seemingly he has plenty of ability so keep an eye out for his post-operation run.