BOYS AND GIRLS IN BLUE

Anant and Vanashree Singh, Gary Player, Cheryl and Mick Goss, and Barry Irwin
(Photo : Diane Nagle)

“L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate 2011…
all decked out in a touch of the
sponsor’s colours.”

The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate is the fashion statement of the racing year. It also attracts some of racing’s most illustrious personalities, all decked out in a touch of the sponsor’s colours. From the camera of celebrated Irish breeder, Diane Nagle, we have this pic of a gathering quite late at night (note that some are still wearing dark glasses, if that’s any indication of what was going on behind them!).

Left to right : Movie mogul, Anant Singh and his gorgeous wife Vanashree, South Africa’s greatest sporting ambassador, Gary Player, Cheryl and Mick Goss of Summerhill, and Team Valor’s Barry Irwin.

In the background between Gary and Cheryl Goss, one of South African history’s most successful businessmen, Johann Rupert, one of the sponsors.

For more information
please visit :

L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate

HORSE CHESTNUT TO PARADE AT L'ORMARINS QUEEN'S PLATE

Horse Chestnut
(Photo : Drakenstein Stud)

HORSE CHESTNUT
(FORT WOOD - LONDON WALL) 

David Thiselton
Gold CircleHorse Chestnut, whom many consider the greatest thoroughbred racehorse to ever set foot on the South African turf, will parade between races 5 and 6 on L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate day on January 8.

It will be the first time he has returned to the scene of his finest hour, Kenilworth racecourse, where he not only performed the rare feat of winning the J&B Met as a three-year-old, but passed the post a record eight lengths clear.

It is fitting that he will be present for the probable most intriguing race the course has seen since that heady day in January 1999, for this year’s Queen’s Plate sees another turf legend, Pocket Power, make an attempt at world history.

But in his path will be the three-year-old filly, Ebony Flyer, who is causing almost as big a stir as Horse Chestnut did when he was the same age.

Horse Chestnut, a chestnut son of Fort Wood, was bred by Harry and Bridgett Oppenheimer’s Mauritzfontein Stud. Mike de Kock, the current South African Champion trainer, selected him off the farm to join his Randjesfontein yard in 1997.

One of the details De Kock remembered was that, most unusually, he could fit almost two fists in the throat area between Horse Chestnut’s jowls, a test he always does to check the potential breathing capacity.

Horse Chestnut immediately made his mark, winning his debut in a Maiden Juvenile Plate over 1000m at Turffontein on 20 December 1997 by a facile 5,75 lengths. His only defeat came in his second start on 10 March 1998, when finishing third in a Grade 3 race over 1000m at Newmarket.

However, he was not himself that day and it proved to be only a temporary blip.

As a three-year-old he swept all before him and besides his J&B Met win he became the only horse to ever win the Triple Crown, which consisted of the Grade 1 Cape Guineas, the Grade 1 SA Classic and the Grade 1 SA Derby.

The Derby was his final appearance in South Africa and few will forget how he sauntered clear of the field without appearing to come out of an exercise-like gait, winning by just under ten lengths while jockey Weichong Marwing stood in his saddle and blew a kiss to the rapturous crowd.

De Kock then targeted the Dubai World Cup and sent him to America to prepare.

His first overseas start was in the Grade 3 Broward Handicap over 1700m on the dirt with Mike Smith aboard and, as the commentator said, Horse Chestnut proved himself “everything they said he was”, scooting clear to win by 5,5 lengths.

Tragically, he suffered a leg injury in training shortly thereafter and had to be retired.

His American caretaker trainer spoke of Horse Chestnut’s astonishing performances in training, whereby he appeared to be cantering but was recording phenomenal times, a description that would also have fitted his SA Derby win.

It is a factor that weighs heavily when trying to envisage what this great horse might have achieved.

After his retirement, having won nine out of ten starts, the Oppenheimers sold the majority of shares in Horse Chestnut to America’s most famous stud, Seth Hancock’s Claiborne Farm in Kentucky, which has been home to legends such as Bold Ruler, Mr Prospector, Nasrullah, Nijinsky, Secretariat, Danzig and many more.

Horse Chestnut sired 61% winners in four crops in the USA, among them 28 stakes horses, including Grade 1, 2 and 3 winners. His progeny has earned in excess of $10 million.

In 2009 he returned to South Africa, having been secured by Johan and Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud. Horse Chestnut settled into his beautiful new surrounds immediately and his happiness was epitomised by the rare friendship he struck up with his sire colleague, Trippi. Stallions often have to be separated by metal bars, but this pair nuzzle each other when leaving their stables together and if one leaves alone the other will call for him.

Horse Chestnut was accorded 80 mares in his first season and got 72 of them in foal. He stands at a fee of R35,000.

For more information
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L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate

TRIPPI : AN EXPLANATION

Charley Trippi - Second from right
(Photo : Nate Fine/NFL)

LEGENDS : CHARLEY TRIPPI

Replying to our article. Johann Rupert responds :

“The name Trippi also confused me - I said to Gaynor that it sounded like a ballet dancer. Having Googled it some years ago I found the source, a combination of Bakkies Botha and Bryan Habana!”

“Extract from The Georgia Bulldogs by Shane Hannon”

Still regarded by many as the greatest all-around athlete ever to don the red and black, Charley Trippi almost spent his life as a coal miner in a small town of Pittston, Pennsylvania.

That was the destiny Trippi, the son of a coal miner, faced before he was spotted by the late Harold “War Eagle” Ketron, who had played for the Bulldogs in the early 1900’s. After graduation, Ketron ran Coca-Cola bottling plants in Western Pennsylvania, where he always kept an eye out for athletic prospects.

At Pittston High School, nobody thought much of the skinny 160-pound kid with wavy black hair, but Ketron had a gut instinct about Trippi’s potential as a prize halfback and he offered the 19-year-old a scholarship to Georgia. Boosters could do that in those days.

“I owe a lot to ‘War Eagle’ Ketron,” said Trippi, who is retired but still resides in Athens. ‘“He watched me play high school and took a great interest in my welfare. I was very fortunate to get a scholarship offer - I wanted to get out of that area. I couldn’t visualize mining coal eight hours a day for the rest of my life.”

“I had dozens of offers and a lot of pressure to go to other schools,” he said. “But I’m a man of my word, and I had told Mr. Ketron that I was going to Georgia, and I was not changing my mind.”

One trip to California was like a dream for Trippi and for most of the Bulldogs, who had never been out West. The team dined with some of Hollywood’s biggest celebrities, including Bob Hope, Rita Hayworth and Errol Flynn.

“Each player sat between two stars,” Trippi said. “I drew Susan Hayward and Barbara Britton.”

Days later, Trippi got chills when he took the field on game day. It wasn’t surprising considering the Rose Bowl crowd of 90,000 was more than four times the population of his hometown.

Trippi was a major factor against UCLA. With Sinkwich nursing two badly sprained ankles, No. 62 carried the rushing load and gained 130 yards and was named the game’s outstanding player.

World War II interrupted the playing career of many college athletes, including Trippi, who served close to three years in the Air Force before being discharged. He returned to Sanford Stadium for the final six games in 1945.

“Of course, you’re disappointed because the war destroyed what you planned to do in your career,” Trippi said. “But everyone else was in same situation. You just had to recover after it was over and pursue again what you had started.”

The transition wasn’t as easy for Trippi because coach Butts had implemented a new offensive system while he was away - switching from the single wing to a T-formation. It took Trippi a while to get the feel of the new offense, but he learned to like it because it gave him more opportunities to throw the ball, something he did well.

In the season finale against Georgia Tech in 1945, Trippi set an SEC record for passing yards in a single game at the time (323) and also gained 61 yards rushing for a total of 384 yards total offense, which was another SEC record at the time.

The junior capped his war-shortened season by helping the Bulldogs to a 20-6 win over Tulsa in the Oil Bowl. Trippi completed a 47-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter and then ran back a punt for a touchdown. The 68-yarder is still considered one of the most spectacular plays in Bulldog history as Trippi “practically touched both sidelines,” completely reversed his field at one point and ran over two Tulsa tacklers who had him trapped.

“I ran on instinct,” Trippi said of his style. “Occasionally, I would reverse my field or go against the grain because it came natural to me.”

Trippi has been honored many times over the years. He was selected to the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame and the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame. He is also one of only four Bulldog players to have his jersey retired.

“Life has been good to me because of sports,” Trippi said. “I feel very fortunate that my dreams came true.”

Who Attends These Ibandla's?

No sooner were our notes on this weekend’s gathering of the Moneyweb “Ibandla” posted, than we were getting enquiries from the incurably curious as to who attends, and how you get to be invited.

Well, we don’t know the answer to the latter, but judging by those that were there, it seems you’d need to be the head of one of the nation’s biggest corporations at the very least, or a major domo in government (aside from our man in Khakis and veldskoens!) and to betray the names of those there would be to break the first rule of the Chatham House convention.

Alec Hogg (Photo Gregor Rohrig)With their permission though, we can mention just a few from the racing world: George Papadakis, head of the investigative team in the Fidentia disaster and a 3^rd generation racehorse owner; Paul Harris, CEO, among many other things, of FNB and who’s connection to Wolf Whistle, winner of Africa’s richest horserace made his attendance with wife Mitzi, affordable; Alec Hogg himself, who’s love of horses is greater than money, and rivals that of even his latest “honey”; Laurie Dippenaar, co-founder of Rand Merchant Bank, Momentum Life, Discovery and FNB (as we know it) and who, together with his mates G.T. Ferreira, Johann Rupert and Pat Goss, have been Summerhill “victims” since the day the gates first opened; and lastly, but by no stretch least, Jannie Mouton, Chairman of PSG and many others, who just got to spend the most expensive weekend of his life when he told Markus Jooste he wanted to own a July winner!!