James Crawford Shoots Big With Petite And Petit
James Crawford has two exciting fillies to go to war with on King’s Plate Day at Kenilworth this Saturday, and victory for Reet Petite in the Paddock Stakes would bag a first Group 1 win since he took full control of Crawford Racing’s South African operation following his father Brett’s move to Hong Kong.
The three-year-old Reet Petite has made rapid progress with a hat-trick of wins followed by second in the G1 Cape Fillies’ Guineas since she debuted in September, while her stablemate, the year older sprinter-miler Mon Petit Cherie, heads to the G2 Sceptre Stakes instead of taking on the boys in the G1 King’s Plate itself.
Crawford has had 37 winners so far this term and sits sixth in South Africa’s trainer standings, and, as he told Idol Horse, he’s ambitious to build on the elite platform established by his multiple Group 1-winning father.
“There’s a high benchmark of what dad’s left behind,” he said, “I think you have to chase goals and a big goal of mine is to try and win a (Trainers) Championship one day, and I’d like to break a few of his records if I can. It won’t be easy, but aim for the sky, reach for the stars. And I would like to achieve two Group 1 wins a season.”
He is hoping Reet Petite will deliver the first for this term when she faces off against last year’s Paddock Stakes winner Double Grand Slam in the 1800m feature. The latter warmed up with a first-up win at the course and distance in late November.
“I think Reet Petite is going to give Double Grand Slam a run for her money,” Crawford said. “She’s had a really good prep going into the Paddock. And she’s got a little bit of a vengeance now that she’s run second. She’s not quite happy that she ran second in her last start, she’s got a bit of quirk about her now. But she is really flying at the minute.
“She’s a beautiful beast of a filly – she’s probably around 16 hands and in her last start she weighed 523 kilos. I think she’s still got a lot of maturing to do but she’s a really classy sort. And I think as she starts to step over more ground, I think you’re just going to see better.”
Mon Petit Cherie will use Saturday’s G2 Sceptre Stakes as a step towards the G1 Majorca Stakes later this month, having side-stepped the King’s Plate after running 12th behind Dave The King in the 1600m G2 Green Point last month.
“She’s improved a lot since she’s turned four, we’ve had a really flawless prep with her in terms of her fitness, soundness-wise, just how she’s been progressing at home,” Crawford said.
“I don’t think the 1200 metres is going to be too sharp for her, personally. I think she’s actually going to run hard home at them. And I really think she’s very capable of winning this race.
“Both these fillies, I see better work from the pair of them when they’re in company, but you know they’re just really smart individuals.”
Crawford cut his teeth running the Johannesburg side of Crawford Racing, with his father overseeing the main operation in Cape Town before he moved to Olympic Stables at Sha Tin last year. He has his own ideas to go with his own ambitions, but “once a week or so” he and his father share their expanding knowledge and their experiences.
“With the stage that dad is competing at, it’s at such a high level that every stone is turned,” he says. “I really get a different insight with the way he trains in Hong Kong and how they go about their business; it’s been good in terms of keeping you mentally sharp, fresh, aware, just always looking at ways you can improve the yard and take it to that next level.”
That level could be expanding his own international profile, “if we can get the quarantine time down a fraction more,” he said. “It’s definitely a big possibility and an opening that we could be looking at if the right horse presents itself.”
And if the right horse for Hong Kong were to present itself, the route to Sha Tin is very much open too.
“Let’s send it to dad and see what we can do,” he added.
This Week In Horse Racing History
North America’s champion three-year-old of 1979 Spectacular Bid kicked off his four-year-old campaign on January 5 1980 with a five-length victory in the Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita. The grey colt would go through the campaign undefeated in nine races and claim the Horse of the Year title.
Tamamo Cross kicked off his Horse of the Year season at Kyoto on January 5 1988 with victory in the Kyoto Kimpai. The Isami Obara-trained four-year-old would win five races in a row that season, including an elite-level hat-trick in the Tenno Sho Spring, Takarazuka Kinen and Tenno Sho Autumn, before placing second in the Japan Cup and the Arima Kinen.
On January 6 1989, the Uruguayan Triple Crown winner Amodeo made it a historic ‘Quadruple Crown’ with his victory in the centenary running of the Gran Premio Jose Pedro Ramirez.
The U.S. racing Hall of Famer and ‘Golden Jubilee’ Kentucky Derby winner of 1924 Black Gold made his racetrack debut with a win at Fairgrounds on January 8, 1923. He won nine of 18 starts in his juvenile campaign.
Idol Horse Reads Of The Week
Michael Cox spoke to nonagenarian former trainer Neville Begg about his life and career: growing up in working-class war-time Newcastle, NSW, his great mare Emancipation, his time in Hong Kong, and his expanding broodmare band.
Callan Murray was a precocious, Group 1-winning talent with the world at his feet when he first went to Hong Kong at age 20, but through the next few years things didn’t pan out as he might have envisaged. The South African jockey talks to David Morgan about being back in South Africa and back in the Group 1 groove after a long stint in South Australia.
Shane Dye offers his shrewd insights into how Zac Purton will be establishing his many options around the Hong Kong Derby candidates, as well as sharing his best and his most memorable Golden Slipper wins.
Adam Pengilly’s feature about Joe Pride reveals an astute trainer who trusts his instincts and his eye over data, and whose self-belief has enabled him to follow in the footsteps of his one-time boss, John Size.
Racing Photo Of The Week
Photographer Jeremy Ng’s low-angle shot captured more than the closing stages of the fifth race at Randwick on Saturday January 3, with a magpie swooping perfectly into frame right at the moment Zac Lloyd won the contest aboard the Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained Alabama Fox.
Date
3 January, 2026
Photographer
Jeremy Ng
Location
Randwick
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Photographer Jeremy Ng’s low-angle shot captured more than the closing stages of the fifth race at Randwick on Saturday January 3, with a magpie swooping perfectly into frame right at the moment Zac Lloyd won the contest aboard the Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained Alabama Fox.
Global Blackbook
Michael Freedman’s three-year-old Ninja showed that he’s a horse with Group 1 potential when winning the G3 Vo Rogue Plate at Eagle Farm last weekend by almost five lengths. The style of victory was impressive and puts the Farnan gelding well on track for the Magic Millions Three-Year-Old Guineas on January 17, and likely more big days beyond that.
Four of the last eight Magic Millions Guineas winners also won the Vo Rogue en route and two of those, Pierata and Alligator Blood, went on to Group 1 success. Ninja could follow suit: his record so far reads three wins from five races and includes an 11 and a half-length maiden win at Kembla Grange at his second start.
NINJA, MY GOODNESS 🥷
— 7HorseRacing 🐎 (@7horseracing) January 3, 2026
The win of 2026! Missed the start, rounded them up and spanked them in the Vo Rogue Plate 🤯@TommyBerry21 @MFreedmanRacing @MyRacehorseANZ pic.twitter.com/GK2yysYjQ8
World Horse Racing Calendar: What’s Coming Up
King’s Plate
Kenilworth, South Africa, January 10
Eight On Eighteen, Jan Van Goyen and Dave The King head a star-studded line-up for the G1 King’s Plate, a weight-for-age mile championship contest that has Breeders’ Cup ‘win and you’re in’ status. The G1 Cape Guineas hero Jan Van Goyen is the only three-year-old in the field, while Eight On Eighteen, winner of the G1 Cape Town Met, G1 Cape Derby and G1 Daily News 2000 last year, will have Britain’s champion jockey Oisin Murphy in the saddle. The day also features the G1 Paddock Stakes, which pitches the exciting three-year-old Reet Petite against the star mare Double Grand Slam, while the day’s big sprint is the G1 Cape Flying Championship.
Al Maktoum Challenge
Meydan, Dubai, January 23
The G1 Maktoum Challenge is a well-trodden lead-in to the G1 Dubai World Cup at the end of March but since the inception of the G1 Saudi Cup, it has also become a natural lead-in to that February feature in Riyadh. Trainer Jamie Osborne’s Heart Of Honour is expected to take in the Maktoum Challenge en route to those tests. Last year’s UAE Derby second has won his last two starts, both at Meydan late last year. Electrocutionist in 2006 is the last horse to win the Maktoum Challenge and the Dubai World Cup in the same year.
Jebel Hatta
Meydan, Dubai, January 23
The roll of honour features the likes of South African champion mare Ipi Tombe, Touch Of Land, Presvis, Vercingetorix, Barney Roy and the best of all, Hong Kong’s superstar Romantic Warrior. The last-named won the 2025 contest before running second behind Forever Young in an epic edition of the G1 Saudi Cup, and second by a nose in the G1 Dubai Turf.
Railway Stakes
Ellerslie, New Zealand, January 24
Australian raider Arkansaw Kid is a possible runner in New Zealand’s big summer sprint. Others being aimed at the 1200m contest are the 2024 winner Waitak, last year’s first and second, Crocetti and Alabama Lass, and the New Zealand 1,000 Guineas winner Captured By Love.
Stewards’ Cup
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, January 25
The decision by Romantic Warrior’s connection to keep him at home rather than attempt more riches in the Middle East this year means that the Sha Tin faithful will get to see the four-time G1 Hong Kong Cup winner clash with the two-time G1 Hong Kong Mile winner Voyage Bubble in the first leg of Hong Kong’s Triple Crown. Last May, Voyage Bubble became the first horse since River Verdon to win the Triple Crown.
Centenary Sprint Cup
Sha Tin, Hong Kong, January 25
Ka Ying Rising will aim to match the great Silent Witness’s Hong Kong record of 17 consecutive wins when he lines up in the G1 Centenary Sprint Cup. He won the race last year and the dominant manner of his recent win in the G1 Hong Kong Sprint at Sha Tin means the expectation is that he will only enhance his incredible career record. ∎
