THE SAD STATE OF STAMINA IN SOUTH AFRICAN RACING

On Saturday I watched the Met meeting. Although I did not have a bet on any of the races and am no longer bothered to own horses, I quite enjoyed the meeting itself despite the endless smoke blowing and brown nosing that South African racing somehow seems to believe is essential at these events.That Grand Old Lady called Kenilworth racecourse seems to have been successfully transformed into a modern, professional looking venue. Perhaps they could remember next time to adjust the clock above the winners’ enclosure to something approaching the correct time. It was about 7 minutes behind ‘real time’ at the LKP meeting yet still reflected the same inaccuracy at the Met.

Sadly, the preference for breeding sprinter/milers continues to impact negatively on the number of horses that will realistically be capable of contesting our 3 premier races in the years ahead. This reality has been gaining momentum in recent years and became very apparent to me in 2025 at the highest level. Only Gauteng appears to offer slightly more than the absolute minimum number of races for horses competing in distances further than 2000 metres. This is a great pity as distance races often offer excellent spectacles, a great test of both the horse and rider tactics and a welcome break from the endless ‘point and squirt’ events that pollute the calendar.

The 2025 July, by way of an example, was run at a pedestrian pace. The absence of a pacemaker probably cost The Snaith favourite the winner’s ribbon. The last-mentioned trainer wisely put Okavango into the Met for the express purpose of ensuring something approaching a true run event and got the result he was seeking; so at least he avoided a repeat of the massive tactical blunder he perpetrated in the July.

I am open to correction but a number of famous stayer’s races have been truncated in recent years. The PE event over 3600m has been shortened to 3,000(?) metres, the Chairman’s Handicap from 3,200 metres to 2,500 metres and the J&B Stayer’s Reserve (which recently produced a subsequent easy July winner) was missing on Saturday altogether unless it has been moved to another date. As far back as the 1970’s the Cape Derby was shortened from 2400 metres to 2000 metres and other feature events have suffered similar fates.

When one considers that industry leaders are continually beating their chests and pronouncing how wonderful South African horses are (and that they should be given every opportunity at international level) it is rather strange to see that nothing is being done to even try and breed a horse that might compete in some really iconic international classics at a mile and a half or further let alone the Melbourne Cup. Even 2000 metres appears a stretch for the majority. If South African rugby were to adopt the same strategy the only World Cup we could win would be at 7’s.

Clearly, we are unlikely to ever see another Aquanaut!

The problem with long distance races in this country is the pace....so you can run the race ten times and get a different result every time instead of the best stayer winning the race.
How often do you see upsets in long distance races here?
Maybe because 80% of the horses running aren't bred to see out the distance so the jocks are told go to the front and slow the pace down to a canter to give your horse a chance.
So if we not breeding long distance horses then this will continue to happen.So nobody wants to buy a long distance horse and rely on luck in running every time it runs and get beaten cause the pace of the race made it seem like a 2000m race not a 3000m race.

10-15 years ago we had the best sprinters in the world, not sure what happed to our fast horses either

Although I am no guru on breeding and there are others that could shed better insights. The problem I see with breeding with less stout lines is the stout Sire lines produced good sprinters, great middle distance horses and good stayers. The sprinting Sires have produced great sprinters and good middle distance horses which really limits the potential.

Another problem is the popularity of Sprinting Sires based on the 2yr old incentives and "quick" returns. The reality is that most fast early 2yr olds do not train on. Maybe the incentive program and deals at spelling farms with babies that need time should be looked at. Dynasty & Silvano have produced progeny of international quality, neither of which were Sprinters. Most international races of value and interest by en large are from  1600m to 2400m.

Just my opinion.....