Owner Of the Month Mark and Dorrie Sham (tu)

HUSBAND and wife Mark and Dorrie Sham are best known in racing circles for their company New Turf Carriers, one of the leading horse transporters in the country.

But the couple also own many racehorses – and were in transports of delight when four of them won in five days last week.

All four were saddled by Dorrie, who now works in a training partnership with veteran conditioner Barry Steenkamp – a yard currently in red-hot form in both Port Elizabeth and Kimberley. Indeed, the Steenkamp-Sham team racked up six winners over the week.

Mark and Dorrie’s run started at Flamingo Park on Monday when their five-year-old Beast Of Burden registered his second career victory.

Then, on soft ground at Fairview on Friday, Strike Twice, a three-year-old owned in partnership with Ashley Parker, broke his maiden at the eighth attempt. This was followed by lightly-raced mare Daffodil Day getting her second victory in nine starts.

The jade silks with white shamrock were back in the winner’s circle after the final race of the Fairview card when I Got You Babe justified favouritism to also claim a second career victory.

Mark and Dorrie met while at school in Joburg and have both been involved with horses all their lives – showjumping, racing, farrier work, breeding and transport. They started New Turf in 1995 and their sons – Michael, Matthew and Marcus – now run the business while Mark and Dorrie indulge their “hobby” of owning and training thoroughbreds.

Dorrie works with about 70 horses between Fairview and a satellite yard in Kimberley – about 60% of which run in the Sham name. The couple’s current best is Bob ’N Weave, a six-time winner they bred themselves.

Fantastic. Keep up the good work. I salute you(tu)

Well deserved. Congratulatons guys!

Brilliant well done (tu)

Congratulations may your success last long

Just smiling... enough said -D

Well Done Mark and Dorrie and your fantastic team. Wishing you all many many more winners.

Congratulations Sham Racing..wishing you many,many more successes.

Brilliant and well done! Was just a bit disappointed that Muzi was openly criticized by Dorrie on the forum on Monday.

Thank you Titch and Clanners for your continued support...

@Harris, we are always openly transparent on this site about all our runners and what we feel their chances are. When 5 runners race instructions are clearly ignored and then told that they are cripple, too strong, blinkers on, blinkers off etc. Then horses come and win when instructions are followed so this leads us to believe that the jock is tired as once again we reiterate that we feel he is one of the best ,is why we changed.

Please also remember that we take your (and others) criticisms on the head so so should we be able to comment on our feelings. We could have gone to the stipes and reported as not riding to instructions but felt strongly that he needed a break, yes, we were proved wrong on Monday. There are no ill feelings between Muzi and us snd it was communicated to him that we would give it a break. We still speak on racedays.GO MUZI Go!!

Also we personally own the majority of the horses in our stable so it hits us particularly hard when our hard work and plans go awry .

Sham Racing Wrote:

---

> Thank you Titch and Clanners for your continued
> support...
>
> @Harris, we are always openly transparent on this
> site about all our runners and what we feel their
> chances are. When 5 runners race instructions are
> clearly ignored and then told that they are
> cripple, too strong, blinkers on, blinkers off
> etc. Then horses come and win when instructions
> are followed so this leads us to believe that the
> jock is tired as once again we reiterate that we
> feel he is one of the best ,is why we changed.
>
> Please also remember that we take your (and
> others) criticisms on the head so so should we be
> able to comment on our feelings. We could have
> gone to the stipes and reported as not riding to
> instructions but felt strongly that he needed a
> break, yes, we were proved wrong on Monday. There
> are no ill feelings between Muzi and us snd it was
> communicated to him that we would give it a break.
> We still speak on racedays.GO MUZI Go!!
>
> Also we personally own the majority of the horses
> in our stable so it hits us particularly hard when
> our hard work and plans go awry .

Well Said !!

I worked some of the Shams Kim runners on Sat before they were floated.
There was a particular horse, that had run its best race for me, who worked better than anytime before but was still not letting it all out at work. I suggested a different warm-up before the race in Kim as I thought it might help the horse find those extra lengths it had been saving.
When I saw the final results, I smsed Dorrie to comment on the good run. She was quick to reply that the jock was asked to do what I suggested and for twice as long.

It is teamwork like this that sees the stable get those extra wins + places out of horses that otherwise would normally be passed on.

Very rarely are we tied down to instructions but God help us if they are specific and not followed!