‘It was incredible to be around at that time to witness what a great trainer Colin Hayes was’
Who could have predicted 30 years ago that four young men residing in a Lindsay Park share house at Angaston in South Australia would go on to make an impact on domestic and international racing?
Between the quartet – South African Justin Snaith (55 Group 1 wins), Troy Corstens (two Group 1s), Mark Walker (36 Group 1s) and Tom Dabernig (four Group 1s) – they have all tasted the ultimate success on multiple occasions either outright or in partnership.
Prominent Cape Town-based trainer Snaith, whose father Chris began training in 1972, recalled his stint working for David Hayes in 1994 and his own role in Lindsay Park’s Melbourne Cup success with Jeune (Kalaglow).
Snaith, who works closely with his younger brother Jonathan, described his time at Lindsay Park as “incredible”.
“I was 19 years old and I went to work for David Hayes and I was very fortunate that, at that time, Colin Hayes was still alive and he used to come and pick me up at about 10am and take me for a drive around Lindsay Park and I had to fill him in on what David was doing. I was the snitch,” Snaith told us with a laugh at the Summerveld Training Complex near Durban in the lead-up to Africa’s best-known race, the Durban July (Gr 1, 2200m).
“It was incredible to be around at that time to witness what a great trainer Colin Hayes was. I used to look after Blevic and I rode Jeune on the slower days and, when he moved to Melbourne, I went over with him [for his Melbourne Cup campaign].”
Snaith, who has been linked to training in Hong Kong on multiple occasions in recent years, also recalled living with Dabernig, Corstens and Walker.
“I tell you we got up to no good – it was such fun,” he said, before acknowledging his housemates’s training successes.
“It is unbelievable and it’s been in all different countries. It is fitting that they have turned out to be as good as they all are. It was an amazing trip.”
Snaith pays more than a passing interest in Australian racing and touched on Asfoora’s King Charles III (Gr 1, 5f) win at Royal Ascot last month for Ballarat-based trainer Henry Dwyer.
“They [Australian racing] are on the right path … just to see how passionate the racing public are,” he said.
“We’ve got friends who lived in South Africa and have emigrated to Australia. They never went to a racetrack in South Africa, but I see every weekend that they are dolled up with a beer in their hand at the races. I go, ‘why couldn’t we have got that right here?’ I am so impressed with the way it’s gone.”
***
Devin Heffer, the face of South Africa’s corporate and retail bookmaker Hollywoodbets which was founded by his father Owen, admits racing’s market share for the wagering dollar is shrinking as punters choose to spend more of their discretionary spending on sports betting and casino gambling.
It’s no different to what Australian bookmakers have been experiencing for many years, nor the Hong Kong Jockey Club which at the close of its season last Sunday confirmed more turnover was on soccer than on racing.
However, Heffer says Hollywoodbets is committed to racing. The company is in the process of acquiring Gold Circle, the body that runs racing in the province of KwaZulu-Natal where the Durban July is held.
“The thing is, for us, the Hollywoodbets Durban July is more than just a racing event itself. It’s the biggest social event in South Africa when you take into account the hospitality, the entertainment, the live music and fashion, so a lot of people come for that,” Heffer told us.
“They want to be seen on social media, on TikTok and Instagram, but from a racing perspective we as sponsors … horseracing is so dear to us and we’ve tried to make that the main thing. You have to keep it as the main thing.
“Where we’re hosting people, we’re making sure racing is part of that, not only just to learn to have a bet, but also to appreciate what they are seeing. The July is a bit like the Melbourne Cup, it’s the one day of the year where everyone stops to watch that two minutes and everyone has a punt.”
Gold Circle’s marketing executive Stephen Marshall says punters’ migration towards fixed odds betting and away from parimutuel wagering was occurring in South Africa, just as it is increasingly so in Australia.
“With fixed odds betting, there’s a lot more options and a lot more flexibility,” Marshall told this column.
“We are working on ways to make the tote more attractive to the betting public, but the [Durban July] meeting tends to buck that trend.”
Corporate bookie Hollywoodbets’ branding was plastered all over Durban, from the moment I entered the airport, to cars, buses and, of course, Greyville racecourse, home to the Durban July. You could not know that the race was on.
“Yes, horseracing in South Africa’s had its problems, but the whole purpose of what we’re trying to do is reinvigorate it and keep it relevant and keep it significant,” Heffer said.
“We invest in racing across all [areas]. It’s not just sponsorship … it’s so multifaceted and, for us, it’s all about reinvesting back into racing. We’ve got horses and they’re with 31 different trainers.
“You go to the sales and we’re supporting a huge number of breeders and it has a [positive] knock-on effect.”
There are also some positive signs in South African racing with trainers suggesting, despite the exchange rate not being in their favour, about returning to Australasia to source horses.
*This columnist was a guest of Gold Circle at the Durban July meeting.
***
The Hong Kong Jockey Club is aiming to boost its horse population, some suggesting up to a total of 1,800, and with that it is likely to provide opportunities for the bloodstock agents who service the Asian market.
Tommy Inglis is one such person who may be a beneficiary but he revealed this week that there was more competition among bloodstock agents than ever before.
“Because Macau’s closed down and no one’s sending horses up to Singapore, agents that were doing those jurisdictions have shifted to Hong Kong, so the marketplace is saturated with agents trying to do deals,” Inglis says.
“That’s just the nature of the beast. I think a lot of the time competition is a good thing whereas five or six years ago, I might have been the only one calling about a horse, but now there’s always going to be three or four others that are chasing the same prospect.”