One of the trio was intent on smashing his face in.

Trainers are expressing concern about security following the horrific attack on Eric Sands at Cape Town’s Milnerton Training Centre last week.

The Sun Met-winning trainer, who is 62, was in the yard of his stables around 6.00pm last Wednesday when an intruder burst in wielding an axe and charged towards Sands. The trainer, with considerable presence of mind and no little courage, ran at the man and hit him with the point of his shoulder.

The assailant lost his balance and fell. But Sands’ advantage was short-lived. Three more men appeared and they were armed with knives. In no time it was Sands who was on the ground and in mortal danger. One of the trio was intent on smashing his face in.


“He had a pellet gun. I was on my back and I couldn’t really move. I saw him lift the gun and prepare to bring it down, butt first, into my face,” Sands related. “In the last fraction of a second I managed to move my head sideways and the butt only grazed my cheek.”

It was a bit more than a graze – the scar is still clearly visible. The men tied up Sands in his office before making off with R7 500 in cash as well as some foreign currency left over from overseas trips.

There was a security man on duty but he was on the road frontage side of the stables guarding the cars. Apparently he is under orders to stay put until the last of the cars has left and, in any case, he heard nothing. However somebody obviously knew that there was cash on the premises and tipped off the raiders. Sands has let it be known that he is prepared to pay a reward for information leading to the arrest of the men and he has so far received some feedback.

Greg Ennion, whose yard adjoins Sands’ stables, said: “It is believed that the quality of the security has deteriorated markedly over the last two years. They must improve it. We are paying for security as it is included in our rent.”

Candice Bass-Robinson’s yard is further up the road and she said: “Phumelela has to work on this. It happened to Harold Crawford a few years ago (November 2013) and we can’t have this sort of thing – otherwise it’s only a matter of time before it happens to us all.”

She pointed to the obvious dangers of a woman sitting in the office of a yard on her own but she was thinking, not of herself, but of assistant Mel Arnold who is often working there on a Saturday afternoon when the rest of the complex is either off duty or at the races.

The most famous Milnerton attack came over 20 years ago when Joey Ramsden, then assistant to Vaughan Marshall, was attacked by two men when he was paying the wages. One had a gun and the other a knife which he plunged into Ramsden’s padded jacket.

Seemingly, and dangerously, not a lot has changed.

By Michael Clower

Hectic... sympathy to Mr Sands. Hope the assailants are caught and the security is tightened!

Scary but it also means that they can get to the horses as well, especially the "odds-on" ones.

Just days before the shocking attack on Eric Sands at the Milnerton Training Centre, a female Assistant Trainer has recounted how she was assaulted in Barn 4 at the same complex.

Port Elizabeth-based Michele Turner contacted the Sporting Post to register her dismay at the news of the attack on Eric Sands, suggesting that it happened ‘just days’ after she had reported her own incident and thus ‘should surely never have been allowed to happen’.

“I was busy tending to a sick horse in Barn 4 just days before the Sands incident when a Groom that is known to me entered the area and attempted to strangle me. I am fortunate that he was apparently intoxicated and fairly small in stature and I thus managed to fend him off. I screamed and our Grooms thankfully came to my aid. I was very lucky to come out of the attack unscathed,”recounted the Assistant Trainer, who said that she only felt safe at Milnerton if she was accompanied and armed.

She said that Kenilworth Racing Security had responded quickly and provided assistance to her throughout her stay. She said that she was thus puzzled by Eric Sands’ unfortunate incident.

“Kenilworth Racing were quick to my assistance. But the fact is that nothing appears to have improved in reality. The wall between the retail area at Royal Ascot and the Dean Kannemeyer Barn 1 is so low anybody can jump over. The irony is that the very same Groom that attacked me also returned hours later and tried to attack his colleagues. I feel sorry for the personnel that work at Milnerton – that’s Grooms and Trainers. It’s not safe.”

Ms Turner lamented the non reaction of the SAPS.

“We reported the incident immediately. The police just simply never arrived. I went and laid charges at Milnerton SAPS myself,” she said as she urged the Sporting Post to publicise her and Eric Sands’ experience to the racing community as a warning to exercise extreme care at Milnerton.


From sporting post

Not a mention of the vicious attack at Summerveld

Shame. Glad it wasn't worse.

Hard saying if we ever will stop paying the price as now things have soured up properly and the chasm is now unbridgeable

Just wondering why we have a Police Force and why they draw salaries....

Every crime inevitably results in the law abiding Citizens discussing what they must do to counteract these crimes in the future.

Heaven forbid the Police to actually do something about crime from their side...

IMHO the laws here are far to lenient and on the side of the perpetrators. Come into my house, lift a hand with a weapon of any sort to me or my family, try and hijack me etc and I must be allowed to shoot you dead and not have to worry about a serious murder charge later.

Craig Eudey wrote: IMHO the laws here are far to lenient and on the side of the perpetrators. Come into my house, lift a hand with a weapon of any sort to me or my family, try and hijack me etc and I must be allowed to shoot you dead and not have to worry about a serious murder charge later.

Come on Craig. Be fair now... With all due respect to the perpertrators, after them trying to stab you, beat you and shoot at you a couple times, the least you could do is fire a warning shot to let them know your gun is loaded. How on Earth are they to know if you don't show them first. :Whistle:

I will do that Karma, maybe more than one just to be fair to them! :lol:

......tragic....and a target because these barbaric fiends think that such people sit around with Kruger Rands in their ashtrays....that Milnerton facility besides being an eyesore from the road side is a security nightmare..... they should have at least spruced it up with a palisade fence and access gates ....many many years ago.....it is so easy to walk right in any time of the day or night (locks and doors easily forced).... and these occurrences are becoming more and more frequent .....a security deterrent is
needed before there is more tragedy......:huh: