Suzette Viljoen has made a big splash in the three years since becoming an owner of racehorses. From a modest seven winners in 2018/19, to 23 victories in 2019/20, and now surging to the top of the SA Owners ranks with 70 wins (including two coveted Grade 1’s) it has been a meteoric rise
One of the best aspects of horseracing is how the game constantly renews itself. Every year, the cast of characters change with young horses beginning their careers and old stagers bowing out. It’s an exciting time for connections who have laid out capital in buying new stock based on pedigrees and athletic conformation. Hopes
The pinnacle of South African equine performances for the past season were recognised at the Equus Awards ceremony on Tuesday evening. The verdicts of a judging panel comprising Graeme Hawkins, race-caller Alistair Cohen, vastly experienced print media scribes Andrew Harrison and Jack Milner together with retired trainer and TV presenter Stan Elley were announced “virtually”
Rainbow Bridge, a six-year-old gelding by Ideal World out of the prolific producer, Halfway to Heaven has been named Equus Horse of the Year for 2021. Trained in Cape Town by Eric Sands, he has run 24 times for 11 victories (including 9 Stakes wins) and 11 places (including ten at Stakes level). His
Complex problem solving is what handicapping is all about. Take this recent race for proven sprinters: If you’d bet on the horse with the best last start speed figure, you’d have lost because the horse is being prepped for an upcoming target and duly ran below best. If you’d picked the most consistent horse,
A compacted program sees an extraordinary 20 feature races staged around the country this weekend, setting up a buffet where horseplayers can gorge themselves on top quality fare. At Turffontein on Saturday, Hawwaam (speed score 116) and Queen Supreme (s/s 107 +) look much the best and are iron-clad picks to take out the
Jan and Kate Peskens live on Spring Meadow Stud, an idyllic rural property outside Port Elizabeth surrounded by indigenous milkwood trees and a verdant ridge sheltering them from the Indian Ocean’s brisk winds. Bushbuck stray down through the thickets into the back garden, whilst, upfront stands former Eastern Cape Horse of the Year, Blaze
By his own admission a neurotic gambler who suffered from the jitters at the betting windows, Len Ragozin, founder of The Sheets, is nevertheless one of the most pioneering and influential handicappers in America. A maverick denizen of New York’s bohemian Greenwich Village, he built up a reputable turf advisory business, ran his own racing
This cryptic sequence of descending numbers, 33 – 21 – 15 – 11 – 8 came out of a study done years ago by Barry Meadow, a successful pro gambler and author of handicapping books. What do these figures signify? Well, they’re the winning percentages of public choices across a huge sample of horse races,
All successful punters have an “edge” – defined as an advantage in the game. That edge may be slim or large, applying to one specific situation or across a broader range of scenarios. In the New Year’s spirit of making resolutions, all horseplayers should try uncover their special “edge”, whatever it may be, and