HISTORY OF THE SUMMER CUP
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 12:11PM 
In pursuit of fortunes… Johannesburg, South Africa
(Photos : DVMinerals/ABDN/VinatgePC)
SANSUI SUMMER CUP
Saturday 28 November 2009 will witness the staging of Johannesburg’s most historical race, the Grade 1 R2,000,000 Sansui Summer Cup to be run over 2000m at Turffontein Racecourse.
The Summer Cup is almost as old as Johannesburg itself with the inaugural event taking place in 1887, a year after the dusty mining camp that would become Johannesburg sprang to life on a farm called Turffontein, following the discovery of gold on the Witwatersrand. It’s fitting then that the race is run at a venue that overlooks the city’s landmark mine dumps.
Nicci Garner writes on Tab Online that these dumps form an integral part of the Summer Cup history. Well into the 1880’s, news about the “discovery of gold” on the Witwatersrand resulted in an influx of fortune seekers who came from all walks of life in coaches and ox wagons, as well as on foot and horseback.
Johannesburg was then a bleak region dotted with the occasional marsh, but what the settlers had in common was that they were prepared to gamble their lives on the chance of making a quick fortune.
The first horserace in Joburg took place in December 1886 and the inaugural Summer Cup was run the following year as the Johannesburg Handicap. The race was won by outsider Haco, a five-year-old trained by Mr du Plessis and ridden by J Bundy, and no one could have imagined that from its humble beginnings, the Summer Cup would become one of South Africa’s most famous racing events.
In its heyday the Summer Cup was the highlight of the Johannesburg feature-race season and one of the city’s social events of the year, but following Cape challenger King’s Guard’s victory in 1971, the name of the race was changed to accommodate a new sponsor. As the years rolled by further changes were made to the event’s name, conditions and date which diminished the race’s glitter until it eventually became the Champion Stakes, run annually in April.
In 1999 horseracing and tote betting company Phumelela reintroduced the Summer Cup to the racing calendar in its traditional format.
Many famous horses have won through the years and they include Pamphlet (1917), Lenin (1940), Cuff Link (1963), Caradoc (1966) and Home Guard (1970).
One horse who really grabbed attention was the Jack Butler-trained four-year-old, Java, who pulled off a remarkable Summer Cup hat-trick from 1956 to 1958.
Elevation was to repeat those exploits almost 20 years later. Trained by the inimitable George Azzie, the chestnut landed his first victory in 1972 when the race was run as the Holiday Inns for the first time. He went on to score again in 1973 before completing a fantastic hat-trick under a big weight in 1974.
SUMMER CUP HONOURS ROLL 1999 - 2008
| YEAR | HORSE | OWNERS | TRAINER | JOCKEY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | EL PICHA | Messrs Brian B Roux, TM Millard, A Swersky | Geoff Woodruff | Robbie Hill |
| 2000 | DELTA FORM | Mr & Mrs MA Airey, Messrs WI Geary, OV Leibrandt, RJ Simpson, BB Sinclair | Mike de Kock | Guillermo Figueroa |
| 2001 | INGLESIDE | Mr B Kantor | Mike de Kock | Kevin Shea |
| 2002 | EVENTUAIL | Mr & Mrs L Jaffee | Geoff Woodruff | Piere Strydom |
| 2003 | WOLF WHISTLE | Mrs PM Sargent, MP Egan, HR Enderle, WW Fenner, PK Harris | Mike de Kock | Kevin Shea |
| 2004 | TYSON | Messrs MK Naidoo & R Pancham | Stuart Pettigrew | Piere Strydom |
| 2005 | ILHA DA VITORIA | Mrs M Slack | Mike de Kock | Weichong Marwing |
| 2006 | MALTEME | MC Gerber, J Gerber, GL Blank, DI Catterall, MA Currie, GC Chamberlain & PG Joubert | Alec Laird | Brett Smith |
| 2007 | STRATEGIC NEWS | Messrs CG Snyman, JJ Snyman, L Steyn, MG Gramenie, DL Cunha, LL Cunha | Dylan Cunha | Glyn Schofield |
| 2008 | RUDRA | Messrs Tony Moodley, P Bayvel, MF De Kock, MC Gerber & F Ladeira | Mike de Kock | Kevin Shea |
