Spring Spree in Joburg; winter of discontent in Kentucky

There won’t be the usual 150,000 racegoers singing My Old Kentucky Home together at Churchill Downs on Saturday 6 September, as the almost-empty racecourse stages the famous Kentucky Derby.

But there will be a song in the heart of racing fans in South Africa as Turffontein heralds the arrival of the season of renewal with the Spring Spree Stakes. The local good mood is much boosted by the week’s news that a rescue plan for local racing has been accepted and the industry is looking to a spring-like future.

The US’s biggest race is not only clouded over by pandemic but by a doping scandal that has the grievance crowd up in arms. In fact, reports suggest that there will be more people outside Churchill Downs in Louisville, protesting loudly about cruelty to animals, than there will be inside quietly staging the race meeting.

After 2019’s shame, when Maximum Security became the first Kentucky Derby winner to be disqualified for doping, American racing has been fighting a tough public relations battle. Prominent trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro are among more than two dozen individuals indicted on doping and race-fixing charges, but that hasn’t stopped animal rights activists from mobilising to get racing abolished.

The Kentucky Derby is usually the first instalment of the US Triple Crown, but this year a lockdown delay sees it follow the Belmont Stakes. That race was won by a horse called Tiz The Law, trained by 82-year-old Barclay Tagg.

Tiz The Law is the odds-on favourite to follow up, which would make Tagg the oldest trainer to win the Derby. This would have made for a happy news story, but unhappy noises outside might grab the headlines.

Tagg, whose charge Funny Cide was a popular Derby champion in 2003, was philosophical about drawing stall 17 of 18: “I like it being on the outside… He seems to handle everything that gets thrown at him, so we have to leave it up to him.”

In Joburg, well-fancied Bohica has drawn wide in the Spring Spree Stakes – 10 out of 10 at the 1,200m start on the bend of the Turffontein Inside track.

That’s not ideal, but the Mike and Adam Azzie-trained four-year-old is a smart performer, in hot form on a hat-trick, and is likely to start as favourite. In his favour is assistance from the saddle of S’Manga Khumalo, fresh from his stunning victory in the Gold Cup at Greyville.

Challengers come from the Paul Peter stable in the shape of Rebel’s Champ and American Hustle. The former is a nine-time winner who has done well in top company but carries a big lump of weight in this Listed event, while the latter looks handily in.

Racing fans in Hong Kong, battered and bruised by coronavirus and government bullying, will also be cheering this weekend – as a brand-new racing season gets underway at Sha Tin on Sunday.

The action is always fiercely competitive in the racing-mad city, not least in the annual race for the jockey championship. Will Aussie Zac Purton and Brazilian Joao Moreira hold off charging SA-trained Mauritian Karis Teetan?

Another bright note is the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s announcement that crowds might be allowed back on course in October.

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