The people’s horse tackles aristo-colts

● In a Cape Flats fairy tale, an “ugly” horse bought for R55,000 has rescued the soul of horseracing from being captured by Markus Jooste and his cronies.

Five-year-old Kommetdieding, bought at a farm sale by little-known Grassy Park businessman Ashwin Reynolds, won its first four races and is the favourite for next weekend’s Cape Town Met — after winning last year’s Durban July.

In nine runs since the June 2020 sale, the colt has never been out of the money and has earned an estimated R2m in prize money.

The extraordinary success has turned Kommetdieding — Cape Flats slang for “bring it on” — into a symbol of renewal in an industry hollowed out by Covid and corporate greed.

If the so-called people’s horse wins Saturday’s Met it will become one of only a handful to win the July and the Met in succession.

“It’s a win that can only be good for the game,” said Lance Benson, editor of horseracing publication Sporting Post. “Horseracing needs heroes.”

Kommetdieding must beat 10 horses owned by some of SA’s richest people. Notable among them is Jet Dark, which beat Kommetdieding to the winning post two weeks ago in the Queen’s Plate at Kenilworth in Cape Town.

It’s a David vs Goliath match-up that for many is worth much more than the winning purse.

Win or lose, Kommetdieding has already helped erase the memory of the demise of listed company Phumelela, previously SA’s biggest horseracing and tote operator, which was part-owned by Jooste, the disgraced former Steinhoff boss.

The fallout over Jooste forced the company to delist from the JSE, leaving racing in disarray. Phumelela’s demise, and Jooste’s fire sale of his race horses, compounded the impact of Covid.

Suddenly the sport of kings, once the preserve of the elegant and stylish, was more like a backwater of elitism and excess.

Enter Reynolds, a former punter at Kenilworth who used to jot down race results for his grandfather. Reynolds used profits from his construction business to dabble in the sport with horses he stabled with Milnerton trainer Harold Crawford.

It was Crawford who spotted Kommetdieding at a sale — on a Jooste-owned farm — and advised Reynolds to buy it on the basis of a promising bloodline.

“I was at home and Harold called to say, ‘Can I buy you a horse?’” Reynolds told the Sunday Times last year. “I said ‘thanks, Oom Harold, but please not more than R80,000.’”

Crawford’s hunch proved correct but initially Reynolds didn’t think much of his new steed. “He was an ugly horse. Two weeks after the sale they brought him and said ‘this is your horse’. I said to myself, ‘this ugly one standing here?’”

Unsurprisingly Reynolds is now Kommetdieding’ sNo1fan. “The horse is the people’s horse, without a doubt,” he told the Sunday Times this week.

“For people here in the Cape Flats, it is their horse. You don’t have to own a horse that costs R5m like only the rich can buy — that has been proven now.”

Another measure of Kommetdieding’s popularity is admiration from rival owners: “It’s a wonderful story — of course it is good for racing,” said Jet Dark owner Nick Jonsson, who has three horses in the Met field. “It will be a marvellous race.”

Racing fans also say Kommetdieding represents a democratisation of a sport that historically has been dominated by a handful of powerful owners and trainers, notably the Ruperts and Oppenheimers. Jooste himself, who paid exorbitant prices for his racehorses, was one of the key players.

“These big guys compete against each other at auctions and some of the prices aren’t realistic,” said commentator Michael Jacobs. “Back in the day we had lots of trainers and the game was going well. Now those guys only have 10 horses and the big guys have over 100 horses. They are shrinking the pie. It is very costly for smaller guys to have horses.”

Some industry pundits also paid tribute to prominent racehorse owners for investing in the industry and effectively rescuing it from collapse, notably Harry Oppenheimer’s daughter Mary Slack, who helped found new industry administrator, 4Racing.

Gaynor Rupert, wife of tycoon Johann, is another industry sponsor and benefactor.

Unlike Jooste, these owners would leave a legacy of job creation rather than profit-taking, said veteran commentator Rouvaun Smit.

“There is a fine line between greed and the good,” said Smit. “The good has always been around, and I believe without them [the investors], we would be poorer.”

Administrators have dropped the gate price for this year’s Met in an effort to attract crowds back to racing — one of several moves to reignite interest in the sport.

“The planets are aligning now for racing — it is racing’s biggest chance to turn the ship around,” said Benson.

Smit said the “cherry on top” would be Kommetdieding parading in the Met winning circle: “Wouldn’t it be a good thing if the people’s horse won? I personally think he has a very good chance.”