Frances Ethel – Mission Summer Cup

Frances Ethel is an outstanding equine athlete, arguably one of the best of her generation. Her mazy journey to the Summer Cup has been adventurous, with ownership changes coupled to plans to move her to another country which was put on hold, and now having a tilt at the richest horserace on the African Continent having all been interwoven into her career on the track.

She started her career in a Maiden 1400M on the Turffontein Standside course, running second to Mizzen Sail in December 2023. In the three-month period from January to March 2024, she reeled off a hat trick of wins which saw her rating rise to a level to be entered into the Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks, a Grade 2 race for three-year-old fillies in April 2024. As she had done in previous three wins, she once again rose to the occasion under a balanced yet forceful ride from Kabelo Matsunyane drawing clear in the final strides to win impressively.

Frances Ethel Wins the G2 Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks

Frances Ethel is very well related being out of the sire Rafeef by champion sire Redoute’s Choice, who is by the record-breaking Danehill. Refeef is out of a National Assembly racehorse and broodmare sensation National Colour, whose grandson Celestial Legend was declared by Australian Les Bridges as the best horse he has ever trained in his sixty-year career as a trainer.

Just before her win in the SA Oaks, she changed ownership and was bought during the week before the race by Team Valor International’s Barry Irwin together with Anant Singh and Australian owner Perry Sambor. The original owners, Dylan Chinsammy and Grant Knowles, retained an initial ownership, but has since relinquished their ownership completely.

After her win in the SA Oaks, the plan was to run her in the Tabgold Woolavington which would be her first run at Greyville, and then on to the July. However, even the best laid plans have kinks in them, and after she ran a creditable fourth in the Woolavington at the end of May, she developed a case of colic. One of the owners was heard saying that her chances of running in the July were now dead (due to the missed preparation) which quickly morphed into mainstream media reporting that she had passed.

https://www.sportingpost.co.za/frances-ethels-passing-greatly-exaggerated/ 

The matter was quickly rectified, but due to the colic Frances Ethel did not run in the July. She instead was rested, recovered from her bout of colic, and remained on local shores. The brains trust of Crawford Racing in conjunction with the owners had put another plan in place for now four-year-old filly, and that was Mission Summer Cup.

It had been five months of recouperation for the Rafeef filly who was gently brought back into work by James. Two races had been mapped for Frances Ethel leading into the Summer Cup, a Pinnacle Stakes race (which if the handicapper looked at the calibre of horses it attracted could have been a graded race) at the beginning of October, and the Allied Steelrod – Onamission Charity Mile, a Grade 2 race to be run on Saturday 02 November 2024 on the Turffontein Standside track.

Considering she had a five-month layoff, Frances Ethel’s comeback run was brilliant. Jumping from a favourable two draw on the Turffontein Inside track, she turned for home about four to five lengths off the leader. With the winner Beating Wings making her run down the inside of the straight, Frances Ethel was steadily making ground down the centre of the track under the Kabelo drive, passing the finish just under a length off the winner.

Frances Ethel – brilliant comeback run in Pinnacle Stakes

She wound up her preparation for the Charity Mile this week, when she galloped at the Randjesfontein training track stretching away beautifully from her working companion at the end of her gallop.

Frances Ethel – final gallop before the Charity Mile

The horse that won four in a row including a Grade Two, had an ownership change, was pronounced having passed when she had a bout of colic, now has her sights firmly set on Mission Summer Cup. Multiple British Champion Jockey and Group One winner Osin Murphy has been booked to ride her in the Summer Cup, a coup for the owners Team Valor International’s Barry Irwin (together with Anant Singh and Perry Sambor) and Crawford Racing.

One more preparation in the Charity Mile and then on to the big one at the end of November. The Breeders Cup this weekend, the Summer Cup at the end of November and then the Cape Summer Season of Champions shifts into overdrive. The Racing fraternity awaits expectantly, having the opportunity to see the top equine athletes in the flesh over the next three to four months, with Frances Ethel striving to prove that she can be classed as one of the best of the best.

Ride of the Month – Richard Joins the Dots…Again

Durbanville Racecourse is one of the most aesthetically pleasing racecourses in South Africa. The parade ring is close to the amenities, the amenities are close to the racecourse, the commentator is visible from the grass embankments which overlook the winning post.

Interestingly though, this season of racing at Durbanville for the last three months has seen an anomaly. There have been some race meetings where jockeys have taken the bend before spinning into the stretch and just continued straight down the middle of the course.

Other days have seen jockeys darting to the inside running rail, and other days the entire field has made a beeline for the outside running rail, with many a winner coming from a horse who sits on the pace and has the speed to reach the outside rail first as they round the bend.

Messrs R Chung and M Gujadhur owned, and Crawford Racing trained Join The Dots, is a horse that takes a bit of riding. The son of Vercingetorix, that had cost R550 000 as a yearling at the Bloodstock SA 2022 Yearling Sales, stepped up winning at his second time at the racecourse in impressive fashion at Kenilworth Racecourse over 1600M, beating the then highly touted Foudre from the Candice Bass Robinson stable.

Winning his second start earned Join The Dots a merit rating of 86. He ran two more races where he finished an average of 7 lengths off the winners, and was then rested for four months. Since his comback, in his second last run he was stepped up to 2000M, a race where he was partnered with Richard Fourie.

No dawdling in the gates as he was out in a flash from his five draw, settling six lengths off the leader as they started rounding the turn. As they moved into the straight with Eternal Optimist setting a decent pace, Richard moved him to the inside rail to make his run.

Join The Dots wins under a great ride from Richard Fourie

His second win this month was even more impressive. Back over the Durbanville 2000M, this time from a wider draw of ten and having been bumped up in the ratings from a 73 to a 79, he had it all to do to make it two wins in succession.

He jumped and was slotted in at the back of the field and he immediately settled. As the field moved through the back straight Join the Dots was more than double digit lengths off the leaders but with plenty of running in him. Richard started becoming a touch more urgent as the field spun into the stretch, and as he said in the post race interview, the horse kept pulling him to the centre of the course.

He then decided to allow him to move onto the outside rail, where the Richard Fourie drive moved into overdrive. The more he asked, the more the son of Vercingetorix was giving him, and as the horses on the inside rail started tiring slightly, Join the Dots was flying down that outside rail to put his nose down on the line to conclude a brilliant two in a row.

Join The Dots wins two in a row under a brilliant driving ride

Join The Dots seems to have matured since the layoff, has lost the tardiness out of the gates, and showed a good turn of pace on the tight Durbanville track to catch the leaders in both his wins. He does need a little bit of persuading, but back to Kenilworth over the 2000M and the long run in, could see good days at the races for Reynolds Chung & Mukund Gujadhur.

Osin Murphy, Frances Ethel & the Summer Cup

In 2019, Osin Murphy won his first Champion Flat Jockey title by finishing sixty winners ahead of his nearest challenger. He won his next two jockeys titles in 2020 and 2021, after being crowned champion apprentice jockey in 2014. He has ridden across the globe, winning races in all the major horseracing countries, on all the major racecourses.

On the 30th of November 2024, he will be riding Frances Ethel for owners Team Valor International’s Barry Irwin together with Anant Singh and Perry Sambor. The 29-year-old Irish born multiple champion jockey of the United Kingdom will be partnering the filly for the first time and will be hoping to win the 2024 running of Africa’s richest horse race.

However, after admitting to breaching coronavirus protocols and receiving a 14-month ban, he has turned his life around, admitting he has made many errors but now rides and lives his life with a different mindset. Undoubtedly the talent has not diminished, and come the 30th of November, Frances Ethel will be the beneficiary of all that talent and expertise from the saddle.

She will be ready, having had her two runs after the layoff, the second one being this Saturday. She will be rested and ready to the run the race of her life and will be receiving the assistance from the saddle of one of the world’s best jockeys. All the factors are trending in the right direction and Mission Summer Cup is almost upon us.

Stable Profile – Robert Barrett

Robert Barrett is a snazzy dresser. If you are not sure who he is, just look for one of the best dressed males in the parade ring, and there is a good chance you would have found him. When you are born in Manchester in the United Kingdom and did not grow up supporting Manchester United (on current form), you know that lady luck has smiled on you.

Rob spent his formative years of growing up in Manchester supporting Manchester City, playing golf and accompanying his Dad to watch flat racing at Pontefract Racecourse. At 18, Rob had the choice of either jetting off to the USA to play collegiate golf whilst studying accounting, or come to Cape Town, enjoy the sunshine great food and excellent horseracing.

The choice was simple (so he says). And that is how this young man arrived on our shores, finishing his matric at Fish Hoek High, working for Mike Stewart for a few years, and thereafter joining Crawford Racing. An added advantage was the addition of a semi professional golfer in Brett’s fourball the next time he teed up at Erinvale.

His day begins at 4am arriving at Futura Park at 5am, finishes between 1.30pm and 2pm, before going to the gym and then preparing for the next day. He says he’s life is simple, in that he gets to do the things he loves (horseracing, football and golf in that order) and that is enough to keep him happy.

When he is not in work mode for Crawford Racing on a Saturday or Sunday at Kenilworth or Durbanville racecourses, I’m sure he will make himself available for your fourballs if the remuneration is sufficient to entice him away from watching Manchester City win again. Just look for the snazzy dresser.