4Racing continues its Championships journey on Saturday, 4 April, offering a bumper card of nine feature races for Day 3. There is additional gloss for this year’s event with the Corne Spies-trained Hazy Dazy being a lively contender for the Wilgerbosdrift Bridget Oppenheimer SA Oaks, Triple Tiara honours and that attractive R1 million bonus.
While the Triple Crown saw Mr P Murugasa’s Splittheeights take the TAB Gauteng Guineas for the Mike & Mathew de Kock stable under Raymond Danielson and Mrs Heinrich Kuhn’s Grand Empire (Sean Tarry / Craig Zackey) take the World Pool HKJC SA Classic in a tussle, there will be no series winner this year, but nevertheless, an intriguing field has assembled for the 2026 World Pool HKJC SA Derby. Mr M Havenga’s Diogenes has thrived since moving to the Highveld and the care of Weichong Marwing and the 3yo son of Hawwaam announced himself as a Derby contender when he ran out a fitting winner of the WSB Hawwaam Stakes on 14 March.
There are three entries from KZN – Salani Khale (Gareth van Zyl / Sean Veale), Sword Speed (Alyson Wright / Keagan de Melo) and Reign On Impact (Frikkie Greyling / Athandiwe Mgudlwa). While Gavin van Zyl won the race with Seal in 2011, the horse had been based at his Highveld satellite yard under the care of son Chesney and one has to go all the way back to 1986 when Terrance Millard raided with Potomac to find the last winning raider.
This year has one filly in the race, Hollywood Racing’s Curious Girl from the Mike & Mathew de Kock stable, who will be partnered by Gavin Lerena. While the Derby has been won by fillies in the past, the feat has not been achieved since Noble Lady in 1917.
The SA Derby originates in Port Elizabeth, with the inaugural event, run for a stake of 400 sovereigns, dating back to Saturday, 17 October 1885, when it was won by Mr Hilton Barber’s Oxygen (Plunger). By the turn of the century, Johannesburg had become the racing centre of South Africa in the wake of the gold rush and the race relocated to Turffontein where it has remained ever since and with its rich history and illustrious honour roll, the SA Derby remains one of South Africa’s oldest and most prestigious racing events.
WILGERBOSDRIFT BRIDGET OPPENHEIMER SA OAKS
The South African Oaks over 2450m is the oldest and most demanding classic race for three-year-old fillies in the country and dates back to 1914 when it was won by a filly named Pendant (by Sidus), trained by Fred Murray and ridden by William Watson. Murray was a trainer of some repute – the only one so far to have won four successive Durban July Handicaps (1910-1913).
Like its counterpart, the race has a rich and colourful history, with the 1916 running a particular stand-out. The winner was Opera Cloak, a filly bred by AE Passmore by St Maurice out of Pellerine. The same mating had produced Passmore’s 1912 SA Derby winner, Van Raalte. Opera Cloak was a diminutive individual. So much so that she was eligible for Galloway races. Accordingly, ‘AE’ chose to keep and race her for his own account and trained her himself. After a good win in a Flying Handicap at the Johannesburg Turf Club on 23 December 1916, ‘AE’ entered her for the Oaks, to be run over a mile and a half on 30 December. While it is fairly remarkable for a mare to produce full siblings who both go on to be classic winners, the story gets more remarkable still. ‘AE’, who was in his fifties by now, held a gentleman rider’s license and is down in the history books as the breeder, owner, trainer AND rider of the 1916 Oaks winner, beating in the process, Ike Strydom, the champion jockey of his day.
The late Mrs Bridget Oppenheimer accumulated a phenomenal SA Oaks record, having won it a total of 14 times, so it is fitting that the race carries her name.
With impressive wins in the first two legs, the connections of fairytale filly Hazy Dazy are confident of another good effort and she will be partnered by her regular jockey, apprentice Trent Mayhew.
There have been 5 winners of the SA Triple Tiara to date (Igugu in 2011, Cherry On The Top in 2013, Summer Pudding in 2020, War Of Athena in 2021 and Rain In Holland in 2022) and there will be a R1 million bonus if Hazy Dazy can add her name to the list on Saturday.
There are three Group 1’s on the day’s card, the TAB Empress Club Stakes, the World Pool HKJC Premier’s Champions Challenge and the TAB Computaform Sprint.
TAB Computaform Sprint
The TAB Computaform Sprint is one of only two Group 1 contests on the SA calendar. It was first run as the Castrol National Sprint in 1970, a race which virtually overnight became SA’s premier test of speed and its honour roll is a true embarrassment des riches, littered with the names of SA turf greats such as Sentinel, Senor Santa, Taban, Tommy Hotspur, dual winner Golden Loom, National Colour, J J The Jet Plane and recent winners Shea Shea and Isivunguvungu. Comptutaform added its name to the race and it has stayed there ever since.
Corne Spies ward, 7yo William Robertson, teams up with jockey Ryan Munger to defend their 2025 title, but there will be plenty trying to deny them the double, including Buffalo Storm Cody, one of the highest rated horses in the country, and East Cape raider Kingdundee, who is currently on a four race winning streak.
TAB Empress Club Stakes
The Empress Club Stakes, previously run as the Turffontein Fillies and Mares Stakes, was renamed for one of the greatest female talents to grace the South African turf. Bred in Argentina by Haras Abolengo, Empress Club was foaled in 1988. She was a daughter of Farnesio out of the El Gran Capitan mare Elysee, making her a half-sister to Gr1 fillies, Ecurie and Epoque. Empress Club raced in the interests of Laurie and Jean Jaffee and was trained in South Africa first by Terrance Millard and from her 3yo career onwards by his son, Tony.
Nicknamed ‘The Galloping Goldmine’, she was nothing short of a phenom on the track, concluding her career with 16 wins – which included a staggering nine Gr1s – from 26 starts in South Africa and the USA. She was ARCSA Champion 3yo Filly as well as SA Horse Of The Year for 1992 and ARCSA Champion Older Female in 1993, retiring with record earnings of R3.1 million.
The 2026 renewal of the TAB Empress Club Stakes has attracted a high quality 10 horse field representing some of the best distaff talent from around the country. There is a dual threat from the Western Cape comprising SA Champion Trainer Justin Snaith’s recent Majorca Stakes winning charge Double Grand Slam and Candice Bass’s narrow Majorca Stakes bridesmaid, Rainbow Lorikeet. From the Eastern Cape, Alan Greeff returns his Equus Champion 2YO filly Golden Palm, while Gareth van Zyl represents KZN with Past Is Prologue. The Highveld is represented by big race heavyweight Sean Tarry who saddles stablemates Callmegetrix and Rodeo Drive, the Candice and Tammy Dawson training team with Minogue, Tony Peter saddles Kisshoten, David Nieuwenhuizen fields Famous Lady and Fanie Bronkhorst completes the field with Scarlett Heart.
World Pool HKJC Premier’s Champions Challenge
The Premier’s Champions Challenge is something of a melting pot, having evolved from remnants of the ‘old’ Summer Handicap. It has been run as a conditions race and latterly at WFA plus penalties, has moved around the calendar and even alternated venues between Turffontein and the old Gosforth Park before disappearing from the calendar completely for a number of years. When the calendar was restructured in the late 1990’s, the race was reimagined as the Champion Stakes (WFA) and included as part of the newly launched Champions Day line-up. It underwent a few more changes before finally settling as the Premier’s Champions Challenge.
This year’s event promises a clash for the ages and features defending champion Fire Attack (Alec Laird / Calvin Habib), 2025 Premier’s Champions Challenge runner up Royal Victory who will be aiming to go one better for his new conditioner Weichong Marwing, 2026 WSB Cape Town Met hero See It Again (Justin Snaith / Craig Zackey), 2024 Betway Summer Cup victor Atticus Finch (Alec Laird / Gavin Lerena), 2025 Betway Summer Cup runner up Olivia’s Way (Roy Magner / Marco van Rensburg) and Sean Tarry’s 2026 TAB SA Classic winner Grand Empire (Ryan Munger) among others.
And it doesn’t end there. The card also offers the Gr2 Hawaii Stakes (named for George Azzie’s globetrotting champion – read more about him in last week’s edition of Off The Record – https://news.4racing.com/off-the-record-115), the Gr2 SA Nursery, Gr2 SA Fillies Nursery and 2850m Caradoc Gold Cup (Listed), named for another George Azzie star whose big race wins included the 1966 Summer Cup and 1968 Gold Cup. He retired to become a lead horse at Turffontein and was fittingly laid to rest in the Champions Graveyard in the Turrfontein infield.
