NATIONALISE DE KOCK!

Mike de Kock
(Image : Thoroughbred News/PTTextures)

“Any day now I expect to hear the cry “Nationalise De Kock!”

Mike Moon
The TimesDe Kock is a strategic resource, a wellspring of revenue and a maker of legend. What self-respecting member of the political gang can resist the temptation to grab a bit of that action? Or indeed all of it?

The glorious revolution demands De Kock be put in the service of the pals, uh sorry, the people.

Why is such a valuable commodity the preserve of the rich? Even worse, De Kock is used by the despicable likes of farmers, bankers and foreigners to build their fortunes. It’s imperialist pillage, colonial rape and cultural hegemony all over again.

If the government owned and ran De Kock, the entire country could share in the bounteous benefits of the phenomenon - as it does with Telkom, South African Airways, the Limpopo education department… oh wait…

If anyone hasn’t twigged, I’m talking of Mike de Kock, world-renowned racehorse trainer extraordinaire who has exhausted every superlative and cliché.

Seriously, come to think of it, our feeble government could well do with a bit of Old Mike Magic; with a wave of the wand, he turns horses into winged wonders. Imagine the clots in the cabinet under the De Kock spell; there’d be a dangerous speed wobble.

Last Saturday at Turffontein, in a line-up of 16 horses in the Charity Mile, five contenders came from the De Kock stable.

One of them won the race - Mujaarib, owned by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai. As if he needs the cash. It could have gone a long way towards building a nice comfy bunker for the people in a compound somewhere.

The other De Kock runners finished in third, fourth, fifth and 14th positions. So, four of the five prize cheques went to the trainer’s connections.

Oh, and he had two other winners on Saturday’s card.

It was the first major meeting of spring and the champ simply picked up where he left off winning in the last Highveld season, and in the Natal winter season, the Cape summer season, the Dubai Carnival.

Mike holds 20 of the 60 early nominations for the Sansui Summer Cup, to be run on December 1, and one wouldn’t bet against his taking the lion’s share of that R2million stake.

There are scores of racehorse trainers in the country, so for one of them to have a full third of the top runners in Johannesburg’s premier race is astonishing.

It tells the story of a compelling winning record and of owners clamouring to have a wizard prepare their nags.

Racing might be an elitist, bourgeois, running-dog capitalist evil to our vapid class warriors, but no one can say De Kock’s success isn’t a product of honest ambition, hard work and talent.

There was no family silver spoon or BEE ladle involved in the rise of the national treasure from Alberton.

Extract from The Times

THE TRAINERS CHAMPIONSHIP : CUT AND DRIED

Irish Flame - Daily News 2000 (Grade 1)
(Photo : Gold Circle) 

MIKE DE KOCK
“THE MAN EVERYONE WANTS TO KNOW”

Many things have been written about Mike de Kock, so when he boots home first and second in a Group One, we take it rather matter-of-factly. This was the case in the Daily News 2000 on Saturday, it hardly warranted a mention. Nor did it dawn on too many, that in that instant, de Kock had pretty much sewn up the Trainers title for 2010.

Considering that many of his best are campaigning abroad, the achievement is magnified, and credence is given to those who say he is the best at his profession in the world. When the crowd pressed on the Greyville Winners Box as Irish Flame and Bold Silvano returned to scale, one tough cookie yells in a Benoni accent “If ever I get a good one, this man has to train it”. You wonder what de Kock ever did to deserve this!

He’s the man everyone wants to know. He seems to have become the idol of the social set to which he never belonged, and to which, you suspect, he would never want to belong. He doesn’t conform. He can’t; he wasn’t born like the rest of us.

SOUTH AFRICAN TRAINERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 August 2009 - 6 June 2010

Trainer	Stakes (ZAR)	Runs	Wins	Win %	Stks/Runs (ZAR)
MIKE DE KOCK	16,061,837	618	129	21%	25,990
SEAN TARRY	11,379,525	801	113	14%	14,207
CHARLES LAIRD	10,672,037	531	111	21%	20,098
MIKE BASS	9,891,974	732	82	11%	13,514
JUSTIN SNAITH	8,082,850	1001	116	12%	8,075
GARY ALEXANDER	6,390,750	426	38	9%	15,002
GLEN KOTZEN	6,257,900	676	76	11%	9,257
JOEY RAMSDEN	5,840,324	773	82	11%	7,555
GAVIN SMITH	5,825,549	1085	111	10%	5,369
ALAN GREEFF	5,565,200	881	97	11%	6,317

ORMOND FERRARIS : Doyen of South African Trainers

Ormond Ferraris
(Photo : Heather Morkel)

“Millionaire’s Row”

It’s a well documented fact that Summerhill was the last of the big farms in South Africa to register it’s first million Rand deal at the sales. Whether that’s a reflection of a lack of marketing finesse, or a sense of treating the market with respect, will forever be a matter of debate. But what is so, is that all of a sudden it’s “raining” millionaires at Summerhill.

We kicked off at the Ready to Run Sale in November, with a ROCK OF GIBRALTAR colt registering R2.2million, a GALILEO filly R1.5million, and a MUHTAFAL colt at R1million, and coupled with Sunday’s R2.4million and R1.5million respectively, that’s five in the space of as many months.

Whether he read our adverts, proclaiming the Summerhill racehorse the Toyota of the South African industry, is difficult to say, but it seems the doyen of our trainers, Ormond Ferraris, must have at least cast his eyes over the ad. A man who, in common with the best of his countrymen, respects excellent quality, unparalleled dependability and outstanding value, as much as any, the attributes for which Toyota has become famous, are exactly what Ormond must have seen in this draft. Signing as he did on Sunday for no fewer than four (25%) of the horses put through the ring. So for us the consolation lies not only in the value he got, but also in where they’re going.

MICHAEL "MUIS" ROBERTS HONOURED

Michael “Muis” Roberts - South Africa Team Manager
(TAB/Summerhill Stud)

A long overdue honour has been bestowed upon arguably South Africa’s greatest former jockey, Michael “Muis” Roberts.

In Johannesburg last week, Michael Roberts was named manager of the South African team that will line up against the cream of the world’s top jockeys for Saturday’s International Jockeys’ Challenge at Turffontein. He was awarded his South African national colours along with the nation’s best jockey talent.

Michael Roberts,  the 11 time Champion jockey of South Africa and 1992 Champion jockey of Britain, is now a racehorse trainer in the Karkloof Kwa-Zulu Natal where he trains 65 horses for owners, including Fieldspring Racing and Sydney Cassell.

Michael Roberts has himself competed in a number of international jockey “Tests” staged in South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s. He has also managed international jockey teams in Royal Ascot’s Shergar Cup competition.

Frankie Dettori of Italy, captain of the international team is an old friend of Michael Roberts.

“When I was riding in the UK he was an apprentice, and too young to drive, so I often gave him a lift to the races,” recalls Michael Roberts. “He used to chow sweets in the back of the car with my daughters and practise his English on them.”

A neck injury resulting from a fall in the UK in 2001 led Michael Roberts to retire from riding at the age of 48. “I was still enjoying racing; if I hadn’t been injured I’d probably still be riding.” he said.

Summerhill wishes Michael Roberts and Team South Africa every success this weekend.