The Breeders’ Cup can actually declare its title as a World Championship occasion this 12 months with 19 entries from Japan and its ordinary slew of contenders from Europe. To not be ignored within the worldwide forged are a pair of runners carrying the hopes and goals of South African racing on their backs.
“There’s loads of pleasure,” mentioned Odwa Ndungane, who named Prevagen Breeders’ Cup Turf Dash contender Isivunguvungu. “The horse racing fan base in South Africa is small however is rising at a fast pace. The game is changing into highly regarded.”
Hollywood Syndicate’s Isivunguvungu and Cayton Park Stud’s Seaside Bomb, who races within the Maker’s Mark Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, are each twin Group 1 winners of their house nation. After exhibiting their flashes of expertise, each homeowners needed to take a shot on the Breeders’ Cup and imported them to the US this spring.
Upon arrival, and previous to becoming a member of coach Graham Movement, they needed to endure a strenuous two-month lengthy quarantine.
“The one factor we have been in a position to regulate was what they ate,” Movement mentioned. “Even that was arduous as a result of they didn’t wish to feed them an excessive amount of as a result of their setting was so managed, they couldn’t do a lot.”
Solely strolling the shedrow for a few minutes every day, each horses arrived in Movement’s care in want of their health being constructed again up “from scratch.”
“They’ve each been very elegant people to coach,” Movement mentioned. “They’ve made it simple, they tailored very effectively.”
Fortunately, each horses have a peaceful and pleasant nature that helped with their adjustment. Each of their trainers in South Africa, Isivunguvungu’s Peter Muscutt and Seaside Bomb’s Candice Bass-Robinson, arrived at Del Mar Oct. 31 to see their pupils for the primary time since they left house. They each, with just a few tears of their eyes upon being reunited with an outdated buddy, have been impressed with how they regarded.
“She appears effectively, she appears blissful,” mentioned Bass-Robinson, who educated the now-4-year-old Seaside Bomb throughout her juvenile and sophomore seasons. “She’s a tiny little factor, however she’s obtained an enormous coronary heart and a beautiful motion. She was a pleasure to coach; I miss having her.”
Though they have been upset to lose certainly one of their secure stars, each Muscutt and Bass-Robinson understood the significance of permitting their trainees a possibility to showcase South African breeding on a world stage.
“It’s an enormous knock if you [lose] a champion horse in your care. However for the betterment of South African racing, it’s nice to see him [at the Breeders’ Cup],” Muscutt mentioned. “It’s an excellent credit score to South African horses that he’s certified to run on the worldwide stage. Let’s hope he does us proud.”
His identify alone created a big following in South Africa. Isivunguvungu means “storm” in Zulu, a reputation that Ndungane felt was an ideal match for the son of What a Winter.
“The identify got here to my thoughts as a result of everyone knows what a storm does,” Ndungane mentioned. “It hits arduous and it leaves a large number. I felt like he can be the type of horse that, when he runs, can be dominant and robust and I simply felt like that identify would go well with him.”
“He’s obtained an enormous fanbase again in South Africa,” Muscutt mentioned. “All people’s effectively behind us again house. His identify alone has attracted a large number of ethnicities to assist him. That’s principally what he does when he goes to the racecourse, he’s a storm.”
A local of Zimbabwe, Muscutt comes from a household of jockeys as each his father and brother rode and his son, Daniel, presently rides in England.
Muscutt educated in South Africa years in the past however left to pursue alternatives in Singapore and as an assistant to Australian coach Chris Waller through the years during which Winx turned a racing legend.
“I do know a superb horse after I see it,” Muscutt mentioned.
Isivunguvungu met that mildew from the very begin.
“He was a pure athlete from day one,” Muscutt mentioned. “All of your higher horses present you straight away, which he did. He was very aggressive as a younger horse when he was a colt. He solely had two speeds: cease and flat out. As soon as we gelded him, his racing manners improved.”
Movement has seen those self same two speeds throughout his coaching, making it troublesome to evaluate how his South African success would translate to America provided that he at all times needed to breeze and not using a workmate.
He answered the decision Sept. 7 when entered at Colonial Downs for the 5 ½-furlong Da Hoss Stakes, profitable by a neck.
Movement said that early on, primarily based off the timing of the quarantine, he knew he solely needed to race the 6-year-old as soon as in preparation for the Turf Dash, and that the way in which he gained off the layoff provides him confidence shifting ahead.
“He’s obtained to maneuver ahead off his race, which he ought to,” Movement mentioned. “Having had that race underneath his belt is necessary. He’s going to have to enhance — there’s little doubt about it — it’s a really aggressive group. However he’s a two-time Grade 1 winner, so he’s no slouch.”
“He usually makes a big enchancment from his first begin to his second,” Muscutt mentioned. “I feel he’s going to do South Africa proud. It’s an absolute honor and a privilege to be right here witnessing him taking up the world within the Breeders’ Cup.”
In the meantime, Movement felt that Seaside Bomb was going to wish just a few efforts to spherical into kind. After the quarantine, she spent an extra two weeks at a farm earlier than beginning her coaching.
In two races designed to progress her to her Nov. 2 aim at Del Mar, she completed second within the 1 1/16-mile Violet Stakes at Monmouth Park Aug. 31 and third within the 1 1/4-mile Rodeo Drive Stakes at Santa Anita Park. She’s going to journey 1 3/8 miles within the Breeders’ Cup.
“I knew [1 1/16 miles] was too quick, however I knew I needed to get her began then in an effort to get right here,” Movement mentioned. “The Rodeo Drive match rather well with the development. She’s going to maneuver ahead, however I feel the additional furlong goes to assist her.”
Bass-Robinson has been working full-time within the business for over twenty years. She began as an assistant coach to her father, Mike, and took over the operation in 2016 upon his retirement.
She took two massive hits to her string this winter as Seaside Bomb left for the US across the identical time that her 2023 South African champion miler and 3-year-old colt Charles Dickens was retired.
“It left fairly a spot in my yard after they left,” Bass-Robinson mentioned. “It’s at all times good to see them compete on a world stage. I simply want that we in South Africa may journey over simpler and do it ourselves. It might make issues so much higher for us.”
Transport horses from South Africa has lengthy been troublesome. Earlier this 12 months, the European Union authorized direct cargo of South African horses. Since 2011, they wanted to cease in Mauritius throughout a protracted quarantine interval.
In the US, horses touring from Japan or Europe to the Breeders’ Cup or Kentucky Derby often clear quarantine in a matter of days, not the 2 months it took the South African horses.
“We’ve been restricted in our worldwide competitors for years and years now,” Muscutt mentioned. “Simply to have the ability to carry out on the worldwide stage is a big attribute to our Thoroughbred business. Actually, if we have been to win, I feel the social gathering in South Africa will go on for weeks and weeks.”
In line with Bass-Robinson, again house is 9 hours forward of Del Mar, putting the Turf Dash at 9:41 p.m. and Filly and Mare Turf simply after midnight. Nonetheless, she mentioned many will possible keep as much as watch the occasion, together with the filly’s former groom.
That worldwide intrigue is precisely what units the Breeders’ Cup other than some other racing contest in America.
“I’m an enormous fan of the Breeders’ Cup. This for me is the icing on the cake yearly,” Movement mentioned. “It’s in regards to the worldwide competitors. That is what makes it so particular. That’s what it’s all about.”
