Latest News
29/01/2026
Recovery And Redemption: Andrew Fortune’s Unlikely Comeback
The South African jockey is 19 years into addiction recovery and a year on from his incredible return to the saddle at age 57, he talks to Idol Horse about his journey back to race-riding and the connection he has with horses.
David Morgan
04/07/2025
Eight On Eighteen Poised For Durban July Test: “This Is Pretty Rare”
Eight On Eighteen is on the edge of history and trainer Justin Snaith believes his star three-year-old has had the “perfect prep” ahead of Saturday’s G1 Durban July.
Jack Dawling
23/01/2025
True To His Roots, Champion Trainer Justin Snaith Is Committed To The Cause
South African racing is in a healthier spot than it has been for decades and Snaith is fully engaged with helping the sport catch up on its lost years.
David Morgan
21/01/2025
Eight On Eighteen Leads Snaith’s Cape Town Met Hat-Trick Bid
South Africa’s champion trainer looks to his Cape Guineas runner-up as his prime contender in the ‘big one’ at Kenilworth on Saturday, while confidence is high for his crack filly Double Grand Slam on the Group 1 undercard.
David Morgan
South Africa’s champion trainer Justin Snaith is confident last year’s G1 Cape Town Met winner Eight On Eighteen will find enough from his belated first-up run earlier this month to be vying for the winner’s cheque when the colt bids for a repeat win in Saturday’s 2000m feature at Kenilworth.
The four-year-old followed his win in this race last year with victories in the G1 Cape Derby and G1 Daily News 2000 to earn Horse of the Year honours. But sickness last summer, caused by a tick bite, delayed his return, and that resulted in a first-up eighth in the G1 King’s Plate over a mile just three weeks ago.
“He contracted a virus called biliary, it’s a tick bite that attacks the red cells a bit and the horse becomes anaemic,” Snaith told Idol Horse. “It’s not life-threatening but it certainly needs a bit of time off and he took quite a while to recover from that, so we were late into the season and he just needed that first comeback run.
“But he’s got the most incredible temperament, there isn’t an easier horse in my yard than him,” he continued. “He’s a Lancaster Bomber and their temperaments are phenomenal. A nicer horse you just cannot deal with, he’s an amazing individual.”
Eight On Eighteen had never been out of the first three until he was beaten four and a quarter lengths in the King’s Plate on his return, but the champion trainer is not concerned by that as he seeks his fifth Cape Town Met and fourth in a row.
“I do think he should find the four lengths, especially now he’s running over a distance that he’s better at,” Snaith said.” He’s come on, he just needed that race, unfortunately. There’s nothing you can do. We don’t have barrier trials in South Africa.
“He just needed a run to bring him on so he’s going to run them all close, it’s going to be a very close one, but he is extremely well at the moment.”
Oisin Murphy took the ride last time but regular partner Richard Fourie is back in the plate. Fourie has two Met wins to his name after last year and Snaith’s Jet Dark in 2023. The pair have drawn gate two of 11.
“I think it’ll be the easiest job Richard’s been asked to do in placing him, because I think it’s all going to work in his favour a little bit,” Snaith said. “Normally we’ve had one or two instances where he’s either drawn badly or something like that. This is one of those races where I do think he could get the run of the race.”
The Cape Town trainer will send out six horses in his attempt to maintain his grip on the race, including the third and fourth from the King’s Plate, See It Again and Sail The Seas.
“Sail The Seas would have to come into play because he almost won the King’s Plate,” Snaith said. It went to almost like a heads up, heads down, so you have to respect them.
“A lot of the shrewd punters here in South Africa, they’re tipping two horses in the race, they’re tipping See It Again and Sail The Seas. In their opinions those two horses have had the best prep into this race.”
Andrew Fortune will ride See It Again as he seeks a first Cape Town Met at age 58, having returned to race riding a year ago.
“It does sound like I’m quite bullish about all of them, but they do have their reasons, and it’s very hard to not fancy See It Again on the races that he’s run over a mile,” Snaith said.
“I can tell you he is way better over 2000 metres, so he’s literally almost winning these races over a mile but his best is further, so he gets that opportunity here. He is the favourite and to be honest, I think whatever beats him will win the race.”
Snaith’s other runners are Legal Counsel, Native Ruler and Okavango, while the non-Snaith contenders include King’s Plate winner The Real Prince from the Dean Kannemeyer stable and G1 Champions Cup winner Gladatorian, trained by Stuart Ferrie.
“Myself, my team, we’ve gone as far as we can to make sure that these horses arrive in a condition that they’re ready for whatever’s thrown at them,” he added.
“When we arrive there on Saturday, I know that I haven’t left a stone unturned.”
This Week In Horse Racing History
The great Citation’s winning streak ended at 16 on January 26, 1950 in the La Sorpresa Handicap at Santa Anita when he attempted to give 16 pounds to the winner Miche but was second by a neck.
Jockey Julie Krone, the first woman to win a Triple Crown race, had her first race ride on January 30, 1981 in a six-furlong claimer at Tampa Bay Downs. She was second, beaten three lengths on the 22-1 chance Tiny Star.
The Indian Derby at Mumbai was first contested on January 30, 1943. The winner was a filly named Princess Beautiful, ridden by the Australian Edgar Britt, who rode in Britain, initially for the Maharaja of Baroda for whom he won the St Leger and the Irish Derby on Sayajirao
Paul Mellon, the owner-breeder and philanthropist whose European silks of black with gold cross were carried by the legendary Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Mill Reef, died in Virginia on February 1, 1999 at age 91. Mellon also won the Kentucky Derby in 1993 with Sea Hero, but that colt wore his Rokeby Stables silks of grey with yellow sleeves, braid and cap.
Idol Horse Reads Of The Week
Andrew Fortune is confident his mount See It Again can win this weekend’s G1 Cape Town Met and he spoke to David Morgan about his incredible return to race-riding in his late 50s, which is all part of the journey he has taken through 19 years of addiction recovery.
Shane Dye looks at two of Hong Kong’s greatest champions, Golden Sixty and Romantic Warrior and considers the question sports fans of all descriptions often ponder: Who is the best? The Hong Kong racing expert and former top jockey also gives his thoughts on Ka Ying Rising’s latest performance.
Romantic Warrior’s trainer Danny Shum spoke to Michael Cox about the pressures of training the world-renowned Hong Kong champion, the close bond he has with the horse, and how his wife and son talked him down from resigning when the gelding required surgery last year.
Michael Cox
‘If You Retire, I Retire’: Danny Shum, Romantic Warrior, And The Bond That Almost Broke Him
Racing Photo Of The Week
Florida native Tyler Gaffalione can barely believe it’s happened as longshot Skippylongstocking wins the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at odds of $21.60, defeating his stablemate, the $3.40 third pick White Abarrio, by a length and three quarters in the Gulfstream Park feature. The US$2.9 million race went to trainer Saffie Joseph for the second time in as many years. This was seven-year-old Skippylongstocking’s fourth attempt at winning the Pegasus World Cup having finished seventh in 2023, tailed off and pulled-up in 2024, and third behind White Abbario in 2025.
Date
24 January, 2026
Photographer
@GulfstreamPark
Location
Gulfstream Park
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Florida native Tyler Gaffalione can barely believe it’s happened as longshot Skippylongstocking wins the G1 Pegasus World Cup Invitational at odds of $21.60, defeating his stablemate, the $3.40 third pick White Abarrio, by a length and three quarters in the Gulfstream Park feature. The US$2.9 million race went to trainer Saffie Joseph for the second time in as many years. This was seven-year-old Skippylongstocking’s fourth attempt at winning the Pegasus World Cup having finished seventh in 2023, tailed off and pulled-up in 2024, and third behind White Abbario in 2025.
Global Blackbook
Last Sunday’s Wakatake Sho over 1800m on turf at Nakayama produced a couple of interesting three-year-old colts who showed enough potential to suggest they might make it into high-class company.
The race winner Blaenavon was the 2.5 favourite for master trainer Yasutoshi Ikee and owner Shadai Racing Club. The son of Indy Champ is out of a Group 2-winning half sister to the G1 Kentucky Derby winner Rich Strike and has shown improvement through five starts for two wins and three placed runs.
He ran into the well-regarded Lord Love All – unbeaten in two – when second on debut last year but broke his maiden third-up before a solid third in the Erica Sho behind Coronado Bridge and star mare Chrono Genesis’s son Bereshit.
This time he raced back in the field and was asked for an early, lung-testing surge, running wide on the turn to take the lead at the top of the home straight. Blaenavon quickened smartly to take command before understandably tiring close to home as he scored by a length.
Closing in second was Sunday Racing’s Newcomer winner Up Helly Aa and Christophe Lemaire. The colt is by Epiphanaeia and out of a daughter of the G1 winner Admire Groove, making his dam a half-sister to the G1 Tokyo Yushun winner Duramente, no less.
Lemaire was positioned inside Blaenavon when the winner made the decisive move, but was soon in arrears as his mount took time to balance up and find stride. Up Helly Aa closed from four lengths down and was doing his best work at the end, suggesting there’s more to come after this his second start.
World Horse Racing Calendar: What’s Coming Up
Lightning Stakes
Flemington, Australian, February 14
The day’s feature is the G1 Black Caviar Lightning Stakes over 1000m, which the great mare whose name the race now carries won three times in a row. An injury to Mark Zahra means Damian Lane has picked up the ride on ante-post favourite Tentyris, winner of the G1 Coolmore Stud Stakes back in November. The Godolphin-owned three-year-old could clash with this season’s G1 Champions Sprint winner Giga Kick as well as last year’s winner Skybird.
Saudi Cup Day
King Abduaziz, Saudi Arabia, February 14
A big night in Riyadh features the world’s richest race, the G1 Saudi Cup on dirt over 1800m. Last year’s winner Forever Young is aiming for a repeat win following his historic victory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar last November that earned him Japan’s Horse of the Year title and the Eclipse crown as North America’s champion older dirt male. The card also features the newly-upgraded G1 Neom Turf Cup over 2100m.
Queen’s Silver Jubilee Cup
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, February 22
Ka Ying Rising equalled Silent Witness’s record of 17 consecutive wins in the Centenary Sprint Cup and he steps up to 1400m to attempt to beat that record and win this race for the second year in a row. Given his superiority over the rivals that will reoppose, anything but victory would be a shock.
Chipping Norton Stakes
Randwick, Australia, February 28
Mares have had the upper hand in the mile contest in recent times. The great Winx won the Chipping Norton Stakes – which dates back to 1925 – four years on the bounce between 2016 and 2019, and another, albeit lesser, champion mare Verry Elleegant won it back to back in 2021 and 2022. Renamed the Verry Elleegant Stakes, last year the recently retired star mare Via Sistina was successful.
Australian Guineas
Flemington, Australia, February 28
The Australian Guineas is a mile race for three-year-olds and this year’s contest could feature the Saxon Warrior filly Sheza Alibi whose four wins from seven includes the G2 Sandown Guineas last time. The field could also feature the Caulfield Guineas winner Autumn Boy.
Dubai Super Saturday
Meydan, UAE, February 28
Super Saturday is the big trial event for the Dubai World Cup fixture at the end of March and its feature races include the G2 Dubai City Of Gold, G2 Al Maktoum Classic, and G2 Singspiel Stakes. Recent G1 Al Maktoum Challenge winner Imperial Emperor could be in action, as could the 2024 Dubai World Cup winner Laurel River. ∎
