It’s all in the Crawford family

Many people fall sick with love for horses, but if the infection happens in childhood it’s usually incurable.

One such is James Crawford, who grew up literally at the hooves of horses, in various stables, as his father Brett climbed the precarious career ladder of the racing trainer.

On Saturday, for the first time, James had his name printed alongside his illustrious father’s in the racecard at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth – a training partnership of the sort that is becoming more popular these days.

Yet few such partnerships start with the bang of “Team Crawford”. How about Grade 1 and Grade 2 victories on day one?

A trademark pillar-to-post gallop saw Oriental Charm land the WSB Green Point Stakes, a historic weight-for-age race. The current Durban July champion lined up alongside just five rivals at the mile post at the scarcely believable odds of 6-1.

The four-year-old colt had not seen a race meeting for six months and had barely started his summer season preparation.

In a post-race interview, James Crawford said the only thing that could better the success of the father-son debut fixture would be a Grade 1 triumph. Next race on the programme was the Grade 1 WSB Cape Fillies Guineas and, good to the fairytale script, B/J Crawford was inscribed in the history books alongside the filly Fatal Flaw.

A proud dad said, “All credit must go to James!” And he wasn’t exaggerating or being patronising.

Like father, like son

Fatal Flaw has been trained by James for all of her short career, at Randjesfontein, some 1,400km away from the Crawford home base in Cape Town. The three-year-old filly was only trucked down the N1 from Joburg to her Filles Guineas assignment early last week.

James Crawford, 25, has been running the Crawfords’ Highveld satellite yard for four years – not just adequately but phenomenally successfully.

Still wet behind the ears in racehorse training terms, he has been the magician putting the final touches to the preparations of the last two Durban July winners – Winchester Mansion and Oriental Charm. His July strategy and “secrets” have more than a few wizened old horsemen scratching their heads in puzzlement.

The young man, of course, gives his old man the credit. It’s daily phone calls that direct operations and make final calls, he says.

Brett Crawford learnt those moves over more than 40 years. Born in Zimbabwe in 1971, Brett was also a victim of the pre-teen horse bug, riding in amateur races and inevitably ending up mucking out racing stables in Harare.

After working for top conditioners at Borrowdale, Brett moved to South Africa for a job with Mike de Kock, no less. Then there were stints in Cape Town, Eastern Cape and Durban, gleaning pearls of wisdom from the likes of Peter Muscutt, Eric Sands and Dennis Drier, before he landed a plum job as private trainer to leading horse owner/breeder Sabine Plattner.

A highlight of seven Grade 1 victories for Plattner was the Cape Met with Angus. Then he went out on his own and the winners never stopped. Addition of a chip off the old block has only taken things up a notch.

James, who set up the Highveld satellite at the tender age of 21 – to provide a large string with a wider range of winning opportunities – will move back to Cape Town soon. The ground-breaking upcountry operation will continue its happy course.