KZN trainers strike back
There was plenty of hot action at Greyville at the weekend. Picture: Gallo Images
Gold Cup day highlighted an interesting trend of the 2025 Champions Season in KwaZulu-Natal: a re-emergence into the spotlight of the host province's training yards.
Stuart Ferrie and Gareth van Zyl ended the season on a triumphant note at Greyville on Sunday, saddling Gladatorian and King Pelles to victory in two of South Africa's pre-eminent races – the HKJC Champions Cup and the World Pool Gold Cup respectively.
Ferrie, Van Zyl and their compatriots have given KwaZulu-Natal racing its best winter for ages – fighting back against the powerful Western Cape and Highveld stables who had been carrying off most of the season's abundant loot for decades.
An unlikely ally in the fightback has been from the Eastern Cape backwaters – Fairview ace trainer Alan Greeff, who landed three KZN features (two Grade 1s and a Grade 2) with his raiders.
When Peter Muscutt won the East Coast Cup (Listed) with a filly called Mascerina at a soggy Greyville on 3 May – the first day of the famed Champions Season – no-one saw it a harbinger of bigger things to come for his fellow local yokels.
Yet, in the next race on the card, Ferrie sent out his stable star Gladatorian to land the Drill Hall Stakes (Grade 2) – just ahead of Summerveld neighbours Michael Roberts and See It Again.
The following week, Selukwe won the WSB 1900 at Greyville. Though carded under Cape-based Andre Nel's name, Selukwe had been resident at Summerveld for some time and prepared there by satellite assistant conditioner Byron Foster.
It was business as usual as the Guineas, Daily News, Woolavington and Golden Horse trophies all shipped to Cape Town, but the hegemony was disrupted by the man from Gqeberha, Greeff, who won the Grade 1 Alan Robetson Championship with Direct Hit.
Then Durban's Frank Robinson won the Cup Trial with Madison Valley, Van Zyl the Tote Derby with King Pelles and Alyson Wright the Tote Oaks with She's A Bomber.
KZN Breeders' Day was almost a KZN clean sweep, with Ferrie, Doug Campbell, the Moores and the Hills leading in feature winners.
The biggest prize, the Hollywoodbets Durban July, eluded KZN yet again, but Ferrie and Van Zyl had feature success on the day with, respectively, I Am Giant in the Grade 2 Post Merchants and King Pelles in the Grade 3 Gold Vase – as did Greeff with Anotherdancefor me in the Grade 2 Golden Slipper.
Then it was Gold Cup day and the glories mentioned above. Also, Greeff snatched the Grade 1 Douglas Whyte Thekwini Stakes with shooting star Golden Palm.
To round things off, Muscutt, who had started the KZN run, won the Listed Darley Arabian with appropriately named I Salute You.
It's too soon to talk of an ongoing renaissance for KwaZulu-Natal training yards, but they certainly have had a major fillip in terms of big-race results.
The winning mood could be a result of optimism and positive thinking brought about by the financial salvation job by Hollywood in the province. An economic boost can do that.
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