LONG LIVE THE KING
The little horse that thought it could
HORSE racing has a new hero, a bay colt with a fairy-tale story who has given the racing industry in South Africa a much-needed boost.
Louis The King became the first horse since the great Horse Chestnut, in 1999, to claim the coveted Triple Crown when he won the South African Derby at Turffontein last weekend — completing a tough treble of classic victories.
Bought for just R70 000 after being rejected as substandard for South Africa’s two top yearling sales, and failing to be sold at a third sale, the three-yearold has swept the racing world off its feet with six victories in seven starts.
In six months he has amassed R5.34-million in prize money for his owner, Tiaan van der Vyver. Such figures attract new owners to the racing game and give it the glamour that pulls in fans and punters, say the experts.
Pretoria businessman Van der Vyver bought the colt when he was still unnamed, and named him after his adult son
His lovely temperament sets him apart from other horses
Louis, who is also a racing enthusiast and was at Turffontein to lead his namesake into the winner’s circle to the cheers of 12 000 racegoers.
Van der Vyver snr said this week he had received “very high offers” from people wanting to buy his superstar, including interest from overseas. “But I’ll never sell him. I love him too much and he means too much to my family,” he said. “We might consider racing him overseas, but we’ll do it ourselves and then we’ll bring him home again.”
Well-performed young South African racehorses are regularly sold abroad for millions of rands.
The excitement of the historymaking feat has left Louis The King himself unmoved. His trainer, Geoff Woodruff, said that last Sunday, the day after the Derby, “Louis was tired and sleepy, but not grumpy” — as many horses are after a hard race. “He came over to the stable door with his amiable walk to say hello and put his head on my shoulder.”
Former champion trainer Woodruff has handled thousands of horses in a long career — including brilliant runners such as Jet Master, Star Effort and Yard-Arm — but Louis The King has a special place in his heart.
“His lovely temperament sets him apart from other horses. As, of course, do his amazingly brave performances. If he was human, he’d be a lovely, humble, likeable guy,” said Woodruff.
Another who loves Louis The King is jockey Robbie Fradd, who teamed up with him for the Triple Crown.
Fradd emigrated to Australia between the second and third legs of the series, but travelled back to South Africa specially to ride the horse in the Derby — after earlier declaring that he was prepared to “swim back here” to renew the partnership one last time.
Louis The King will be given a short rest after his efforts in the Sascoc Triple Crown, made up of victories in the Gauteng Guineas, the SA Classic and the Derby — all in the space of three months and rising in distance from 1 600m to 2 450m.
The colt is likely to have a short campaign in the coming KwaZulu-Natal winter season, with outings in the Daily News 2 000 and the Vodacom Durban July pencilled in.
However, Woodruff is adamant he will not compromise the horse’s wellbeing and
I always look at where a horse is going to grow to. My motto in looking at young horses is ’use your imagination’
record if conditions are not right at Durban’s Greyville racecourse. The venue has undergone construction work to install an all-weather track alongside the turf course, drawing complaints about the condition of the racing surface.
“We’ll only race if the course is in good shape and if we get a decent barrier draw,” he said. “We don’t want to take the shine off Louis at this early stage of his career.”
Woodruff believes Louis is still “a little immature” and says his four-year-old career “will be even more interesting”.
Louis The King was bred at The Alchemy stud near Robertson in the Western Cape. His dam, Pamushana, was in foal with him— to the stallion Black Minnaloushe — when she was bought for R20 000 by the farm’s owners, the Kahan family. The mare was not much to look at, but the purchase was considered a good deal as a covering by Black Minnaloushe was commercially valued at R80 000 at the time.
The foal promised little when born in August 2010.
He was adjudged too small for the Cape Premier Yearling Sale and was also rejected for the National Yearling Sale in Germiston. He ended up at the KwaZulu-Natal sale, but failed to find a buyer. Then fate intervened. Woodruff dropped in at the KwaZulu-Natal sale, not to buy horses but to deliver tickets to a client. In the car park he bumped into Phillip Kahan, a trusted breeding industry contact, who asked him to at least take a look at the unwanted young horse.
Woodruff was in a hurry. He glanced at the pedigree in the catalogue, liked the appearance of sire Rich Man’s Gold on the dam’s side, asked about the price, and promptly agreed to buy the yearling for R60 000 — sight unseen.
“I trust Phillip, the way he raises horses and his assessment of them. For R60 000, what a pleasure,” said Woodruff this week.
As he left the venue, the trainer had a quick look into the colt’s stable, and liked what he saw.
“People say he was very small, but I didn’t think so at the time. Immature, yes. But his confirmation was good and I always look at where a horse is going to grow to. My motto in looking at young horses is ‘use your imagination’.”
Woodruff called up a prospective new client, Van der Vyver, and offered him the horse for R70 000. Again a deal was done sight unseen.
“It was the biggest bargain ever!” said Van der Vyver, who has owned racehorses for about 30 years and has had about 50 winners. His best before now was Without A Doubt, an eighttime winner who ran in the Durban July in 1998.
Both owner and trainer fancied the prospects of Louis The King from the outset, but neither could have predicted quite how he would repay them for their faith.
After matching the achievement of Horse Chestnut, comparisons between Louis The King and the only other Triple Crown winner are inevitable. However, racing experts say such a comparison is pointless as Louis has so far only raced against horses his own age — and Horse Chestnut was probably the best horse ever to race in South Africa.
Louis The King still has lots to aim for.