Sea Cottage and Secretariat do it for the ‘good old days’

That’s the message from two “virtual” contests last week – a popularity poll for South Africa’s “greatest of all time” (GOAT) racehorse and a computer-generated race between the US’s 13 Triple Crown winners. The latter was held on the scheduled day of the 2020 Kentucky Derby, which has been postponed to September due to coronavirus lockdown.

The SA vote was won by 1960s superstar Sea Cottage, who held off the challenge of millennium marvel Horse Chestnut.

The US showdown went the way of Secretariat, who conquered the world in the early 1970s, with 1948 Triple Crown champion Citation in second. Recent heroes American Pharoah (2015) and Justify (2018) came fifth and eighth respectively.

There was no betting on the outcomes of these imaginary clashes but, had there been, no punter would have taken a hefty profit wedge. Neither result was a surprise – as was the case in the UK a few weeks earlier, in a similar virtual Grand National of famous past winners, with the immortal Red Rum galloping to victory.

(An amusing aside from the latter event has been legendary jockey AP McCoy taking to Twitter to defend his virtual self for a lousy ride on Don’t Push It. Tongue-in-cheek, McCoy protested he’d never have gone to the front as early as artificial intelligence had him do.)

In addition to the Grand National of historic winners, the computer geeks staged a virtual 2020 race, with likely runners. Here, refreshingly, the trend of favourites was broken, with hot-pot Tiger Roll, going for a hat-trick of wins in the steeplechase epic, getting rolled by 18-1 shot Potters Corner.

SA’s GOAT – hosted by Snaith Racing’s Twitter site – attracted many thousands of votes and much lively comment from people of all ages. Sea Cottage and Horse Chestnut were clear favourites in the pre-race punditry and a two-horse race it turned out to be.

In the end, fabled Sea Cottage clinched it – as he did in 16 races from 20 starts over three seasons. Horse Chestnut put up a good fight but, in the end, a truncated career probably counted against him.

Perhaps a surprise to some was Mowgli in third place in the GOAT vote. This horse of the 1950s will not have been seen by many people alive today – if any – but his legend is carved deeply into racing’s collective imagination.

Mowgli had a major breathing problem and, as a top juvenile, used to race while holding his breath – on one famous occasion blacking out and collapsing in the Greyville finishing stretch.

After undergoing an early, experimental version of the Hobday operation and being off the track for 18 months, Mowgli blitzed the 1952 Natal winter season, winning six Grade 1 contests – including the Durban July – in 12 weeks, over distances from 1200m to 2100m.

Two punter favourites, Politician, a massive beast who ruled the roost in the late-1970s, and “The Grey Ghost” of the ’80s, Wolf Power, came in fourth and fifth in the GOAT poll.

It’s outrageous that such mighty horses as Hawaii, Colorado King and Empress Club should bring up the rear but, as anyone who knows anything about the gee-gees, it would probably have been very different in an actual race.

Among the scraps of live racing in the world at the weekend was a two-day meeting in Japan, where South Africa’s champion jockey Lyle Hewitson polished his international credentials with five winners, including a Grade 2 triumph.

Hewitson’s Japanese riding licence has now expired and news reports say he’ll be heading back to SA. Those reports ignore the stark reality of no passenger airline flights into OR Tambo for some time to come – so we are unlikely to see our champ swing a leg over a pony when and if racing does resume here.

After his highly successful brief stint in the Land of the Rising Sun, the odds are fairly short on the twenty-something fellow being offered a juicy gig somewhere in the world.

Yes, he did have a 140-ride losing streak in Hong Kong earlier this year, but that was down to a phenomenal run of poor luck and his bounce-back in Japan will have exorcised a few demons.

• Yesterday’s scheduled race meeting at the Vaal is the fifth in five days to be abandoned due to government procrastination over a decision to resume behind-closed-doors action.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.