Greyville racecourse in Durban was the scene of Alyson Wright's midweek success. Picture: Sydney Seshibedi/Gallo Images
Alyson Wright is a popular figure in KwaZulu-Natal racing, a hard-working trainer who punters are confident will strive to get horses putting forward their best hooves. And she is among a growing band of successful young female conditioners changing the look of the game.
So, there was lots of joy at Greyville racecourse on Wednesday when Wright and husband and assistant trainer Kevin registered five wins on an eight-race card. An uncommon feat.
Further celebrations were called for as stable jockey Athandiwe Mgudlwa also got five wins on the board – four for Gee Racing The Wright Choice and a fifth for the Wrights’ Summerveld neighbour Dennis Bosch.
Three winners for leading Wright patron Rikesh Sewgoolam stretched the grins as wide as they could go.
How many winners did she think she’d have on the day? “We sent a message to our group saying a few of our 10 runners had chances; but I wasn’t sure which one would win.”
It all started in Race 1, a Maiden Plate, with the rider they call ‘Mgugs’ expectedly steering home 15-10 favourite Professor Lupin.
Disappointment followed in Race 2 when Wright’s 28-10 chance Purple Powahouse finished downfield. Mgudlwa got compensation in the fifth, aboard 6-1 shot Intrepid; then again in the sixth on the filly Whatsupbuttacup at 10-1.
Championship title-chasing rider Richard Fourie did the job on favourite Imaginable in Race 7, with Mgudlwa managing third place on stablemate Wave Warrior.
Television presenter Warren Lenferna said “the parade ring erupted” when Mgudlwa and Miss Paget (12-1) flashed up on the outside of the field to clinch the eighth race.
Wright has been in racing all her life, with her mother Penny Fisher being a top trainer in Zimbabwe, and she started riding work at the age of 14.
Alyson met and married local champion jockey Kevin Wright, managed the Rumbavu Park Stud for the famous Peech family, spent time working in a stable in Singapore and was assistant to top Zim trainers Neil Bruss and Noelene Peech, before taking out her own training licence in South Africa in 2006.
Starting out with a couple of own-boughts, the Wrights steadily built up their stock and have in recent times become a principal flag bearer of KZN’s leading owner Hollywood Syndicate.
Their best horse has been Kochka, who won a juvenile Grade 1 on Gold Cup day in 2013.
Wright currently tops the KZN trainer log with R4,172,000 in accumulated prize money and 45 wins for the 2023/24 season. Last season, when she finished fifth in the provincial ranks, she notched up 49 wins.
Odds on she’ll crack the half-century this time around.
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