This is for you Elvis
Nieuwenhuizen’s training career is slowly taking off
NICCI GARNER: IN the somewhat cynical world of horseracing, David Nieuwenhuizen is a breath of fresh air. One of the "small-fry’’ racehorse trainers on the Highveld, he looks like a bohemian and is reserved and quietly spoken. But he is visibly and deeply happy to be involved in the sport.
FACT FILE
David Nieuwenhuizen
Date of birth: 22 November 1964
Family: wife Heather, step-daughter (and stable employee) Nicole Radford (27); daughter Tarryn (21)
Licensed: 2004
Number of winners: 25
Number of horses: 28
Best horses: Eternal Glory (5 wins); Mint Green (4 wins) and Culamoya Chimes (4 wins)
Highest finishing position on the trainers’ log: 128th - 2009-10: 128 runners, 8 winners, 19 places.
Role model: David Payne
Other interests: fine art; road running - has run the Comrades five times; watching sport live.
It shows in that delighted twinkle in his eyes and his small smile whenever he has a winner. Also patent is his commitment to his new life and his passion for his charges. "Every moment in racing is special,’’ he confesses.
An artist who worked on contract in the advertising industry under the banner Wooloomoolloo even after he was licensed to train horses by the National Horseracing Authority, David came into racing later than most, and the odds were very much against him making the grade when he started out with just four horses, three leased and one he owned, Woodyoubelieveit.
His training career has not been meteoric. But since saddling his first runner on 2 December 2004, there has been a calculated and steady growth in numbers as he has quietly and methodically practiced what he learned from his mentors Jan Breedt, Ernie Anderson and Lance Wiid.
"I love animals, particularly horses. But my family was not involved in racing - they never wanted me involved as my great grandfather rode in the early part of the century and had a very difficult life.
"Back in the late ‘70s, though, a friend and I used to watch racing on TV and lay bets between ourselves. I think that is when I got hooked and decided I must be involved in racing’’ he says.
"While the rest of my family was not big in stature, I was always the smallest and would have loved to become a jockey. Unfortunately, I missed the academy intake. Back then they would only accept apprentices aged 13 and in standard 7. It was something I always regretted.’’
"I decided I had to be involved in racing, but knocked my head against many closed doors before getting a break from Ernie Anderson. I was with him for eight months before he realised I was genuine and signed me up as a stable employee,’’ chuckled David.
He started riding horses to the track and when the Racing Trust and trainer James Maree started up the work-riders’ training programme about a decade ago, David was among its first recruits.
"At the forefront of my ambition to ride horses was the dream of riding in a race down the Turffontein straight,’’ he said. "James Maree’s programme gave me the opportunity to fulfil that dream.’’
David then went to ride work for Lance Wiid (his wife Heather’s cousin) alongside horsemen like Jackson Feni and became really serious about making horses his full-time career in late 2000 when he joined Bapsfontein-based Breedt, as a stable employee and then as an assistant trainer.
"I was with Mr Breedt for around four years. I cut my teeth on horses like Settler City (a seven-time winner who finished third in the SA Nursery of his year), Waves Of Argosy (won three races for Breedt and finished fifth in the Gold Medallion) and high-class filly Silver Moon. Mr Breedt was the leading trainer of two-year-olds with David Ferraris and Charles Laird while I was with the yard.’’
Any trainer, even those raised in the industry, will bluntly tell that starting up a yard is one of the toughest endeavours, so what made David decide to take out his own trainers’ license?
"You’ve got to change - change is good - and take chances in life,’’ he responds. "You are always more disappointed about the things you don’t do than those you do. People need to reach beyond their current circumstances and achieve new goals.’’
When he was first awarded his trainer’s license he was given 14 stables at the Vaal Racecourse and he cites the next three years as being "the toughest in my family’s life’’.
"We stayed in Joburg and I commuted to the Vaal every day from December 2004 to December 2007. At that time I was also still running my own business in advertising.’’
His results reflect his desperate circumstances during those three years because he saddled a total of two winners from just 124 runners from December 2004 to 31 July 2009.
"The first, Nombulelo at the Vaal on 7 September 2005, was awesome,’’ he remembers. "But so much effort goes into every runner and every race that every winner is something I cherish.’’
What made Nombulelo’s victory even more special, though, was that he owned the mare in partnership with Heather and that she was picked out by his daughter, Tarryn, at a dispersal sale. The stable’s other winner while David was based at Vaal, Ride On Time (Vaal, 22 June 2006), also ran in their black and white silks.
While every winner gives him a thrill, getting low-rated horses to win is most satisfying because "you’ve got to place them carefully and nurse them along. So it’s rewarding when you eventually get it right.’’
Another highlight was getting another of his top horses, Culamoya Chimes, back to the racecourse after she injured herself badly in an incident in the starting stalls. "We were told she was unlikely to race again. But we nursed her back and she won a couple more races for us,’’ he remembers.
Given his lifestyle from 2004 to 2009 and his poor results during that period, few would cast aspersions if David had thrown in the towel. However, he stoically continued to plug away at his new profession - with a lot of help from his step-daughter stable employee Nicole Radford.
"She’s methodical and dependable and very straightforward,’’ he said. "She deals with all the things that I can’t get my mind around, like the administration, and overseeing the treatment of any of the horses. That leaves me in the clear to concentrate on stable management and training the horses.’’
When Colin Scott moved his base to Durban, David was offered a barn in the wooden-stable complex at Turffontein. He jumped at the opportunity to work closer to home and comments: "That’s when everything started turning around.’’
"The facilities at Turffontein are brilliant. It’s the hub of racing on the Highveld. The tracks are always in great condition, my boxes are great. It’s a great place to be,’’ says David, who believes his best traits are his patience in giving each horse individual care and his ability to assess his horses’ well-being as well as his honesty and openness with his owners, and his dedication to placing his horses in the correct company.
After his relocation to Turffontein, David attracted a number of new owners to the yard. While Fred Thompson has been a staunch supporter, the trainer now also has horses owned by Ashnee Devachander and her husband Sunil. She tested the waters with a Caesour gelding called Mint Green and the six-year-old has become one of the stable stars, winning four races in Kimberley - his last three in a row. She sent David a few more horses and he now also trains for owners like Alesh Naidoo and Ivan and Antoinette Snyman.
"I have some really decent horses in my string now, including a couple of nice unraced horses - one of which I rate very highly. I don’t want to say too much, but you’ll be seeing that one in the near future.
"In this game you can’t do it alone. I’m very grateful for the support of every one of my owners. And for the jockeys who ride for me, like S’manga Khumalo, who is Ashnee Devachander’s preferred rider, and Derreck David, with whom I’ve had a fair bit of success.’’
He is thrilled that his barn is full to capacity - and that he has had to turn down a few horses because he just doesn’t have space. "I’ve requested more boxes and hopefully I’ll be able to grow my string further in the near future,’’ says David.
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