THE JOYS OF BEING A RACEHORSE OWNER

Nico Kritsiotis
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

Click the play button to listen to Nico Kritsiotis calling home Water Nymph

That you can be as battle-hardened as you like, and still melt when you get a winner, was never more in evidence than at Turffontein on Saturday, when seasoned race-caller, Nico Kritsiotis, registered his first winner after more than thirty years as a player in the game. How many thousand times has Nico called home in his inimitable style, the winner of a race, yet his emotion was palpable, not only as his Michael Azzie-trained filly, Water Nymph emerged as the likely heroine at the 500m pole, but then again as he took television viewers through the race in the “post-match” interview. Nico is no softy in his daily walk, but this was something beyond the ordinary, stopping him in his emotional tracks.

Well done, old pal; we know what it means.

As one of the game’s great veterans remarked a few years ago “It’s the best sensation known to man”. That says something for the sensation of winning, coming as it does from Graham Beck, as worldly a gentleman as you’ll ever know.