Strong foundations laid for the new De Kock era

Mike and Mathew de Kock ended the first season of their newly established training partnership with 42 winners, 123 places, R8,723,950 I gross stakes and a Top 10 position on the National Trainers Log.

It was half a season, actually, because the partnership officially launched on 1 February, which makes a Top 10 finish in only six months a remarkable achievement.

Mike and Mathew congratulated Justin Snaith on landing the title. Alan Greeff had his best ever finish in second, a superb feat, and Sean Tarry, Candice Bass-Robinson and Dean Kannemeyer filled the other places in the Top 5.

Mat commented: ‘We started the season with Spumante Dolce winning the Grade 2 Wilgerbosdrift Guineas and ended with a Grade 1 win by Jan Van Goyen in the Premiers Champion Stakes. In between, Dave The King won the Grade 1 Gold Challenge for a second time. Also, we had 19 Juvenile wins and no other trainer collected more Juvenile Stakes bonuses. We are very proud of our first results.”

Mike, on his own, saddled 38 winners in the first half of the season, reflecting 3803 winners for his own career, and 141 Grade 1’s, now 143 alongside Mat. Their combined figures would have given a Top 5 position this season, and they’ll be aiming at that, and better, in 2025/6.

Mat said: “I’d like to thank our team and staff, also the jockeys who rode for us and our supportive patrons, who really came to the fore when we announced the partnership. We have an exciting bunch of young horses and we look forward to the new season. Our goals would be to have as many winners as we can, to win as many big races as we can and to ensure that our owners enjoy a great client experience.”

The 2025/6 season started on a positive when Gotta Go Eddie won his Maiden over 1600m on the Polytrack at HWB Greyville, ridden by Sean Veale.