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South Africa has a number of flat thoroughbred horse races steeped in tradition and some of them are world famous not only as contests, but as spectacular social events on the world’s busy horseracing calendar.
Here are what will be widely considered as South Africa’s top five horse races:
The Durban July
The history of the Durban July spans three centuries, having first been run in 1897. Horseracing’s elite and hordes of racing fanatics have gathered at Greyville Racecourse on the first Saturday in July ever since, without interruption, as the country’s finest flat racers battle it out for a gross stakes prize that has reached up to R5-milion in recent years.
About 3 000 people attended the first meeting and it has grown to a point where a crowd of 50 000 plus was the norm, excluding the Covid-19 years. On one occasion the gates had to be closed for security reasons after full capacity has been reached.
The Durban July is a handicap with capped top and bottom weights which allows star three-year-olds their first opportunity to take on the best older horses in the country at Grade One level and always makes for tremendous excitement in the build-up and top viewing on the race day itself.
The honour roll of the Durban July reflects some of the most famous runners in SA racing history including Sea Cottage, Politician, Bush Telegraph, El Picha, London News, Ipi Tombe, Dynasty and Do It Again.
To non-racing fans and casual observers, the Durban July is the only horse race regarded as a part of the fabric of South African society, like the Melbourne Cup and the Epsom Derby.
The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate
A race first run in 1861 with a prize of a five hundred sovereigns and a silver plate donated by Queen Victoria, the Queen’s Plate has seen one hundred and fifty-nine winners to date.
The race was taken over in 2012 by the Rupert family’s L’Ormarins Wine Estate, who has developed the Queen’s Plate as an elegant two-day racing and fashion festival early each January. The Festival starts with racing on a Friday and culminates with the running of the G1 Weight-For-Age topliner on Saturday, which has found its way to the top of the lists of racing enthusiasts, fashionistas and socialites alike.
The Queen’s Plate Honour Roll contains many formidable names including Sledgehammer, Foveros, Wolf Power, Jet Master, Pocket Power and Gimmethegreenlight.
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The Cape Town Met
Known first as the Metropolitan Stakes, the ‘Met’ was first sponsored through the 1970s and into the mid 2000s by J&B and then by Sun International before reverting to the ‘Cape Town Met’ in recent renewals. It’s a proper Cape Town tradition, a hugely popular racing and social event that takes place annually at Kenilworth Racecourse. A spectacle of glossy vibrance and exhilaration, it attracts a predominantly youthful crowd.
First staged in 1883, the Met was initially run as a handicap, but was soon promoted to Grade 1 status when its popularity began to grow. Photos of its famous winners are mounted on a wall underneath the Kenilworth grandstand and has Mark Anthony, Wolf Power, Empress Club, London News Horse Chestnut and Igugu among them.
The Cape Guineas
A yardstick for every classic generation, the G1 Cape Guineas, always on the short-list of major contests, has grown in stature in the last decade due to the prominence of Cape-based trainers with top horses in their care, with the likes of Justin Snaith, Vaughan Marshall, Candice Bass-Robinson and Dean Kannemeyer spearheading Cape excellence much like in the Terrance Millard era. This has ensured quality-packed fields of three-year-olds and exciting contests, staged at the end of December. The Cape Guineas is a pointer to the KZN Champions Season, a stallion-making event with an illustrious honour roll that includes Jay Peg, William Longsword, Soqrat, Act Of War and Capetown Noir. A number of its winners, including Jay Peg and Variety Club, participated successfully internationally.
South African Derby
The G1 SA Derby is Africa’s equivalent of one of the world’s most recognisable sporting events, the Epsom Derby. While it does not carry exactly the same clout and stud book value of the British Derby, the SA Derby is the crucial last leg of South Africa’s Triple Crown, which also comprises the Gauteng Guineas and the South African Classic. The SA Derby boasts a storied history of its own, having been created in the late 1800s. Another stallion-making event, the Derby boasts Horse Chestnut, Grey’s Inn, Elusive Fort, Pomodoro, Wylie Hall, Louis The King and Malmoos among its winners in recent decades.
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