South African Work Riders
In winning the Vodacom Durban July, the 28-year-old Zulu became the first black jockey in history to win South Africa’s most famous race. The timing could not have been better. As the 20 runners headed down towards the ten-furlong start, the minds of the 55,000-strong Greyville crowd were far from a last-minute flutter on this prestigious Group 1 contest.
Wesley Ward Trainer Profile
Trainer Wesley Ward didn’t invent “thinking outside the box,” but he sure is living it—joyfully and successfully: racing fillies vs. colts in graded stakes, running an America-maiden claiming winner in a stakes race at Ascot, giving a 10-pound apprentice his first mount at prestigious Saratoga, and skipping the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita to watch his son in a cross country meet a couple thousand miles away in Florida.
Is there a place for medication in racing?
The single biggest area of debate currently in the Thoroughbred racing industry is the issue of racehorse medication. Medication is often characterized by the media and by people within and outside the industry as a black and white issue where one side of the argument is framed in terms of “hay, oats and water,” and anything else is considered permissive medication.