Gold Rush result continues Viljoen’s run of good luck

If one googles “Lady Luck” it states it is “chance personified as a controlling power in human affairs”.  

If one googled it in relation to the sport of horse racing in SA, the answer would be Suzette Viljoen.

The success that the lady from a cattle farm in Schweizer-Reneke in North West province — and her husband Basie — have achieved pretty much beggars belief. Since their first winner when dipping their toes into racing in 2018, the couple have enjoyed success on a par with Novak Djokovic in tennis championships.

Viljoen has an Equus Champion Owner trophy on her sideboard and now owns in the region of 100 horses with various trainers around the country.

Old-timers in racing will always say racing is like a game of snakes and ladders — sometimes you’re on top, sometimes you slide to the bottom. In the Viljoen’s case, they haven’t experienced any of the latter.

That is — until last Saturday at the big Met meeting at Kenilworth.

Driving to the course, the North West couple might have had a conversation something like this.

Suzette: “I see every pundit thinks we can’t lose the Majorca Stakes with our favourite girl [Captain’s Ransom].”

Basie: “Yes, this should be her 14th win and delight her legion of fans.”

It’s history now that Mike de Kock’s filly, Desert Miracle, not only spoiled the party for the Viljoens, but also consigned thousands of Pick Six tickets to the bin.

Not winning the R593,750 first prize won’t have mattered, the defeat of their top horse was a hard pill to swallow.

Not to worry — on to the sixth race, the Summer Juvenile Stakes — in which Suzette’s colours would be carried by Golden Sickle, a daughter of Vercingetorix they had bought from Varsfontein Stud for R700,000.

The youngster could only manage fourth place behind shock 33-1 winner, Rascova, and by now the day certainly wasn’t going well for the couple from North West.

This is where “Lady Luck” played her role as the R7.5m Gold Rush offered a R5m prize to the holder of the winning ticket and the Viljoens had purchased one of the 16 made available.

What they didn’t know at that time — according to Turftalk — is that when they purchased Royal Aussie for R70,000 at the 2021 Cape Premier Yearling Sale, the son of Royal Mo got an automatic invite into the Gold Rush if he was good enough.

The answer to that question was yes, with Justin Snaith getting two wins and five placings out of the Klawervlei Stud-bred colt from seven starts. Dane Squance, professor John Warner and Dr Jill Warner joined in the fun as part owners of the horse.

The WSB Met first prize was R1,118,750 so the Viljoens — and their partners — were laughing all the way to the bank, pocketing four times more than Jet Dark’s owners, Tommy Crowe and Nic Jonsson.

At this stage, spare a thought for golf legend Gary Player — he bred Dave The King who was beaten just half a length by Royal Aussie. It would have been a huge feather in the cap of the nine times Major winner if he had taken top honours with a horse that cost R175,000 and which he owns in partnership with Larry Nestadt and Ralphs Racing.

At the end of Met day, Basie and Suzette Viljoen had been in the mire but ended up smelling of roses. Long may “Lady Luck” smile on the couple.