When racing fans saw the name “R J Barrett” for the first time in Kenilworth’s Tuesday race card, there was some head-scratching. RJ who?
Brand-new trainers don’t often win with their very first runners, so many punters would have dropped the horse Chasingtherainbow from exotic bet calculations. The engagement of star jockey Richard Fourie might have given a moment’s pause – would the former champ get onto a beast saddled by an incompetent greenhorn?
Cape Town turf regulars had an advantage, with Robert Barrett being a fairly well-known face to them.
The young man had been an assistant to conditioners Mike Stewart and Brett Crawford and had virtually grown up in a stable yard – with his Manchester-born grandfather Paul a long-standing horse owner and a friendly fixture on the local scene.
Chasingtherainbow and Fourie made short work of their opposition in Race 5, a B Stakes event over 1400m in very soft going, winning by 2.50 lengths – “doing cartwheels” in the words of race caller Alistair Cohen.
The four-year-old gelding’s starting odds of 17-2 reflected general public wariness about the “newby” situation. A career record of five wins from 12 starts would normally have warranted more support.
There were joyful moments as grandad Paul, co-owner Dave Curran and the Futura Park stables team led in the winner and man-of-the-moment Robert did a post-race interview with racing polymath Grant Knowles, who turned out to have been one of the new operation’s most valued helpers.
Robert’s half-Brit-half-Saffer accent was interesting, but there was no doubting the fellow’s deadly serious horsemanship – born of a lifelong obsession with thoroughbreds.
He reportedly had talent to be a pro golfer, but preferred mucking out stables for early mentor John Koster at Klawervlei Stud, then for Stewart at Noordhoek and then for the Crawfords.
Amid the celebration, TV viewers were reminded of the ups and downs of the bewitching game.
Fourie described it as “a happy-sad moment”, explaining that one celebrant not present was Louis Mxothwa, a jockey “who really loves this horse”. Mxothwa was warned off for two years by authorities last week over a puzzling phone voice note they’d stumbled upon.
Robert Barrett also singled out ill-starred Mxothwa in his thank-yous: “There’s one man missing here today; Louis. He knows what he’s done for me, so thank you Louis!”.
Knowles interjected: “There are a lot of people who are going to be missing Louis Mxothwa, one of the greatest assets to the jockey ranks. Hopefully sanity prevails in due course.”
Such comment reflects shock in the industry at the harshness of the punishment handed down in the case by the National Horseracing Authority.
Mxothwa partnered Chasingtherainbow to three of his five victories and had obviously been preparing him for Tuesday’s big moment.
