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The sprinting star aims to emulate ‘JJ’ and Shea Shea in Dubai.
Horses in action during the 2023 Al Quoz Sprint race in Dubai. Picture: Karim Sahib/AFP
Isivunguvungu “couldn’t be doing better”, said trainer Graham Motion when he arrived in Dubai this week ahead of the South African speedster’s run in the Al Quoz Sprint on World Cup night.
The American-based conditioner’s keen anticipation of Saturday’s $1-million (R19-million) Group 1 1200m dash at Meydan is clear from his posts on social media.
On X he posted a video of Isivunguvungu joyfully rolling in sand after a workout, with the comment: “He’s just happy to be here!”
On Instagram, a picture of the South African six-year-old residing in the stable once occupied by 2008 Dubai World Cup champ Curlin, was captioned: “Hopefully this guy rubs off a little this week.”
Talking to the esteemed US racing journal Paulick Report, Motion said: “He’s probably one of the best work horses I’ve had. He’s really rapid in the morning. Not in a crazy, running-off type way, he’s just a very fast horse, but a very kind horse to be around.”
Motion is no stranger to champion horses – or to Dubai – having saddled the 2013 World Cup winner Animal Kingdom.
And a South African racing presence in Dubai is nothing new, either. But it has been a while since Mike de Kock spearheaded the annual Saffer invasion of the world’s erstwhile richest race meeting.
You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone, is the saying, and local racing fans have been pining for the glory years that were brought to a sad end by draconian equine export protocols. The return to Meydan – even if it’s just with one horse – is therefore a notable event.
The country’s links to the Al Quoz Sprint are strong, with the mighty JJ The Jet Plane having won it twice, in 2009 and 2011 – for De Kock and Lucky Houdalakis respectively. De Kock also won it with Shea Shea in 2013.
Shea Shea’s winning rider, Belgian Christophe Soumillon, has been booked for Isivunguvungu.
Serendipity is in the air.
Isivunguvungu, named for a storm, is owned by Durban-based syndicate Hollywood Racing, which is managed by former champion jockey Anthony Delpech – also a Dubai familiar, who triumphed in the Dubai Sheema Classic in 2007 on the great Hong Kong horse Vengeance Of Rain.
By a champion sire, What A Winter, out of Miss Tweedy by Tiger Ridge, Isivunguvungu was bred by Narrow Creek Stud in the Western Cape town of Wolseley. KwaZulu-Natal trainer Peter Muscutt trained him two Grade 1 victories before he was exported to the US.
After a 245-day layoff, the gelding won his first outing Stateside for Motion in the Da Hoss Stakes. He then ran commendably, but unplaced, in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Del Mar in November 2024.
He needed his comeback – and his prep for the Al Quoz Sprint – when a close third in the Turf Dash Stakes, over a too-short 1000m, at Tampa Bay Downs in late February.
Since then, his work at home and at Meydan has been exceptional. Muscutt has watched the preparations closely and says his favourite horse’s action is better than ever, “and he’s got the heart of a lion”.
All South African hearts will be with their lionheart when he goes to post on Saturday evening.
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