Living legend Mike Bass received the perfect farewell to his official career as a trainer at the Lanzerac Hotel in Cape Town when his brilliant Trippi filly Inara was named Horse Of The Year at the RA Western Cape Racing and Breeders Awards.
Inara won this most prestigious award in the Racing Awards, while the Mauritzfontein Stud-bred J&B Met winner Smart Call was named the Breeders Awards Horse Of The Year.
Smart Call didn’t qualify for the Racing Awards, having been trained out of Alec Laird’s Gauteng yard.
Bass was given rapturous applause when receiving a Lifetime Achievement Award.
Earlier his top class Silvano gelding Marinaresco had been named Three-year-old Male of the Year and his cracking Silvano filly Silver Mountain had been named joint Three-year-old Female Of The Year along with the Justin Snaith-trained Dynasty filly Bela-Bela.
Inara also received the Older Female of the Year award and Champion Middle Distance Horse Of The Year.
Justin Snaith retained his Western Cape Trainer of the Year title and also won a special Acknowledgement Of Achievement Award for his phenomenal feat of sending out eight winners on J&B Met day. His Australian-bred Danehill Dancer gelding Ovidio was named Champion Stayer of the Year.
Vaughan Marshall landed a notable double when Always In Charge and The Secret Is Out, both by Captain Al, were named Juvenile Male and Juvenile Female of the Year respectively.
The Joey Ramsden-trained Western Winter entire Red Ray completed a fairytale when named Older Male Of The Year, as he had returned from an overseas stint which had not panned out at all well. However, he had to play second fiddle to the Dean Kannemeyer-trained Trippi filly Real Princess in the Champion Sprinter Of The Year award.
Mike Bass stable jockey Grant van Niekerk received the Cape Jockey of the Year Award, Million Dollar-winning rider Heavelon van der Hoven was the Cape Apprentice of the Year and Andile Ndlebe was the WP Groom’s School Workrider of the Year.
Markus and Ingrid Jooste once again landed the Owner Of The Year award.
Tom Fowler, who served as a director on Western Province racing boards for 15 years, received a service award along with stipendiary stewards Ernie Rodrigues and Stephen Naude.
In the Breeders Awards the Drakenstein Stud-based Trippi was named the stallion of the Year.
Highlands Stud’s Our Table Mountain, dam of Gr 1 winners Silver Mountain and Cloth Of Cloud, won the Broodmare of the Year award.
Varsfontein Stud’s Gimmethegreenlight won the Outstanding New Stallion award.
Klawervlei Stud were the breeders of the year.
An Outstanding Breeder award was presented to Lammerskraal Stud for their feat of producing SA Triple Crown winner Abashiri.
Abashiri, who is by Go Deputy, was also named Stayer Of The Year and Lammerskraal also landed the Sprinter Of The Year award with Red Ray.
The Middle Distance award winner was the Mauritzfontein Stud-bred Ideal World filly Smart Call, who also won the Older Female Award before being named Breeders’ Horse Of The Year.
The Avontuur Farm Stud-bred Greys Inn gelding Legal Eagle became the highest merit rated horse in the country after Smart Call had departed overseas and was duly named Breeeders’ Older Male of the Year.
The Breeders’ two-year-old awards went to the Klawervlei Stud-bred colt Always In Charge and the Highlands Stud-bred filly Cloth Of Cloud Respectively, and the latter is also by Captain Al.
In the Breeders’ three-year-old colt award the Mauritzfontein Stud-bred Marinaresco ousted some stiff competition, including Abashiri and Gr 1 Grand Parade Cape Guineas winner Noah From Goa.
The Cheveley Stud-bred Bela-Bela and the Highlands Stud-bred Silver Mountain could not be separated in the Breeder’s three-year-old filly award.
There was plenty to laud on the night in what is both the strongest racing and breeding region in the country, but the toast of the town was Mike Bass, who handed over the reins to his daughter Candice Bass-Robinson at the beginning of this season.
RIAR press release
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