De Kock earns his place in South African Hall Of Fame

As Mathew De Kock did his Lewis Hamilton interpretation spraying champagne on the Turffontein podium, the country’s champion trainer, Sean Tarry, acknowledged the achievement of 3,000 winners by his 53-year-old rival.

“After reaching this milestone, Mike deserves to be inducted into South African Hall Of Fame,” said Sean.

“In terms of racing, no-one comes near him. He has set the bar very high for all of us to aim at.”

“I was fortunate to spend a lot of time with Mike while still forming my ideas about the sport,” added the guy whose runners have already amassed over R17 million in stake earnings this season.

Sean’s mention of the Hall Of Fame is a great call because it was in November last year – just three months ago – that Sun City announced they had established a new one at their famous resort.

At the opening, Sun City’s general manager, Raul de Lima, said “the primary objective of the Hall of Fame is to acknowledge and preserve South Africa’s rich and diverse sporting heritage by creating a permanent home for the legacy to our ‘sporting greats’ honouring their achievements atthe South African Hall Of Fame at Sun City.”

Those already inducted include the late Joost van der Westhuizen, Hugh Bladen and the 1995 rugby World Cup squad. Racing fans will have been fascinated following Mike de Kock’s journey over the last three decades and Janoobi’s win in the Betting World Gauteng Guineas put the cherry on top of an outstanding career.

Fathers always like their sons to follow in their footsteps and Mike’s son, Mathew, after a hesitant start with the media, has grown in confidence year by year in this tough sport.

On Saturday he acknowledged his father’s achievement adding, “Piere (Strydom) is the man to have on board in times like this.”

“Striker” replied: “I am so pleased to have been aboard this big win for Mike de Kock.” The reality is that Piere has been mainly shunned by the eight-times champion trainer, but our most famous jockey since Muis Roberts has done well with the bones he’s been thrown.

There’s enough in the De Kock story for a good book. Born on Valentine’s Day 1964, Mike was nothing more than a hopeful youngster as he had a stint with the hugely knowledgeable Ormond Ferraris before joining Ricky Howard- Ginsberg as an assistant in 1987.

Following Ricky’s sad passing from a heart-attack, some of the stable’s owners decided to back Mike and he soon saddled his first winner – Evening Mist in the Gerald Rosenberg Handicap.

Winners from that era included Record Edge, Golden Hoard and ill-fated Spook Express (she was put down in America) and when Bridget Oppenheimer asked him to train some horses in 1995, his star was in the ascendancy.

It is the Oppenheimer-owned, Horse Chestnut, who really shot Mike into the headlines and he has said many times how this particular thoroughbred took things to another level. Sent to America, Horse Chestnut put another win on the board and we wondered how he would fare in that country’s biggest races. We were denied an answer to that question when he broke down in training and was retired to stud.

In 2002 he won the Durban July with Ipi Tombe – probably the first time, but to the delight of photographers, that a winning trainer had climbed aboard the victor and ridden into the number one box.

Then in 2003, Mike announced his arrival in Dubai in no uncertain fashion sending out Victory Moon to win the UAE Derby and Ipi Tombe the Duty Free on World Cup Night.

His association with Dubai and now his successful partnership with Janoobi’s owner, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum means Mike will never be phoning his bank manager for a loan.

In 2005, fellow journo Charl Pretorius and I were lucky enough to make the trip to Australia to see Mike saddle Grey’s Inn for that country’s most famous race, the Melbourne Cup. He was prominent turning for home, but ran out of gas behind the legendary Makybe Diva.

I was on my travels again in 2006 when – under a never-saydie ride from Weichong Marwing – Mike took the QEII Cup with Irridescence beating some highlyrated European raiders including Ouija Board. We were back two years later to witness Archipenko win the same race.

More recently, Variety Club’s victory in the Hong Kong Mile in 2014 struck another blow for South African-breds and international racing finally accepted the fact we’re a serious racing nation. Like any good horseman, Mike’s major concern is the welfare of his stable inmates which is why – on the very day he reached the 3,000 milestone – he had cruel luck in Dubai losing his talented five year-old, Ertijaal.

The Jebel Hatta has been a jinx race for the stable as – just two years ago – Vercingetorix broke down in the same event and was immediately retired.

In a recent interview, Mike said “I’m not one to look back – I prefer to look forward” so we must keep our fingers crossed for a Dubai World Cup win (unlikely this year with Arrogate in the field) or a Group 1 success in England.

An elevation to the UK’s Hall Of Fame is probably too big an ask, but one feels nothing is impossible for a trainer now as revered as Syd Laird and Terrance Millard in their heydays.