Rowe On Monday – Vorster embraces a new chapter, autumn firepower aplenty for B2B Thoroughbreds, no way back for Macau

From rival to mentor, Vorster takes up teaching role with Racing SA 

Expatriate South African jockey Barend Vorster knows he’ll never get back in the saddle again, but he’s happy helping the next generation of riders in South Australia.

The talented jockey has not ridden in a race for three years after suffering what turned out to be career-ending injuries in a mounting yard incident at Morphettville in February 2023.

Despite attempts to obtain medical clearance, Vorster has come to terms with his future, working at times for Cornerstone Stud, Aaron Bain Racing, and now Racing SA.

After some time off in the middle to late last year, he joined the principal racing authority on a part-time basis in December, working for the apprentices’ academy.

“I’m stepping up a little bit more now into the coaching side of it,” Vorster told this column.

“It’s not a full-time five to six days a week job. But I’m doing it about three to four days a week where I attend a couple of race meetings and go to barrier trials. 

“Also, then what I’ve sort of incorporated is once a week I do one-on-one coaching with each apprentice, like a bit of a workshop system.

“And that seems to be working quite well. It’s nice to see that they’re willing to learn. They are approaching me and standing up and wanting more help, which is really good.”

Vorster also keeps a close eye on racing in his home country of South Africa, and he marvelled at the comeback of jockey Andrew Fortune, who completed a Grade 1 double in South Africa on Saturday.

A reformed drug addict, Fortune weighed as much as 90 kilograms before embarking on his stunning turnaround, which saw him land the Cape Town Met and Majorca Stakes on See It Again and Double Grand Sam respectively.

The pair is trained by leading South African horseman Justin Snaith.  

Fortune spent time in Australia working for Ciaron Maher at Bong Bong and Annabel Archibald at Warwick Farm before returning to South Africa in his fight to return to race riding.

“What he’s gone through and all of that, with rehab and addiction, and then he got his license taken away, then he got it back and rode again winning championships,” Vorster said.

“He then got too heavy and retired and went training, and then he came to Australia, and now he’s gone back there. He had to go to the High Court to get his license back and now, at the age of 58, he’s riding two Group 1 winners on a day. 

“It’s just really extraordinary what he’s done.”

It’s Fortune’s self-belief that is clearly evident to anyone who comes across him, according to Vorster.

“You’ve never seen anybody with confidence as much as he’s got. This horse that won the Met, he was telling everybody two weeks out – and, yes, everybody’s got an opinion and saying, you know, my horse has got a chance to win – but he declared it two weeks ago and said, ‘they will not beat this horse’ and it’s come off,” he said. 

“I don’t want to use the word arrogant, but that’s how he comes across.”

Hidrix adds to B2B Thoroughbreds’ depth at the top end

Whispers went around Karaka last week that the Chris Waller-trained Hidrix, the $1.7 million son of Extreme Choice, might be pretty good.

On Saturday, despite his double-figure odds, the two-year-old delivered in spades at the first time of asking and surged to the joint top of Golden Slipper markets.

He races in the colours of father-and-son Ricky Snr and Jnr Surace’s B2B Thoroughbreds with many other industry heavy hitters, also in the Kate Nivison-bred colt, who is a brother to this season’s Flight Stakes winner Apocalyptic.

If the eye-catching grey colt continues to progress as expected, he could quickly become the most valuable of what is an exciting racing portfolio owned by the Suraces.

B2B Thoroughbreds also owns dual Group 3-winning filly Panova and four-year-old Lazzura, a winner of the Let’s Elope at Flemington last spring, both stablemates to Hidrix.

“Everything’s on target for her (Panova) to be targeted at the Vinery Stud Stakes as her main goal. She’ll likely trial (this) week, and before having another trial, then going first up in the Surround,” Ricky Surace Jr told colleague Warwick Barr.

Lazzura is more forward in her autumn preparation with the daughter of Snitzel on target for the Group 1 Coolmore Classic next month.

Surace was at Karaka where B2B Thoroughbreds signed for two fillies from Curraghmore, a Proisir yearling for $400,000 on day one and $500,000 for a daughter of Satono Aladdin.

The Proisir filly is from the family of So Si Bon while the Satono Aladdin filly is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Annavisto, a Reliable Man mare who was trained by Mick Price and Mick Kent Jr.

“It was sort of a last-minute trip. We weren’t originally going to go, but just had a swing through the catalogue, or looked through the catalogue, and we found a few fillies we liked,” Surace Jr said.

“We sort of want to target those 1400, 1600, maybe 2,000-metre horses.”

Waller will train the two fillies.

‘It’s just absolutely disgusting’

Geoff Allendorf, a jockey-turned-trainer, never wanted to leave Macau, but it was forced on him by the demise of the sport in the gambling mecca in early 2024.

The Australian is now residing in NSW and returned to training officially just last week.

“There was no doubt in the world I would have still been in Macau another 10 years if we didn’t close down. I just love living in Macau. I love the setup,” Allendorf says.

“I loved how you don’t have to chase the bills like they have to here and all that sort of thing.”

The government rescinded the Macau Jockey Club’s licence to operate, citing enormous debts.

Despite speculation at the time that racing at Taipa could be revived, Allendorf doubts it could ever happen.

“You could if you had the right people or something like that. But you need government backing to get anything going,” he says.

“It was just a shame. And you know what they’ve done? They’ve just locked the gates and you should see the photos of it now.

“It’s just absolutely disgusting. I was over there three months ago … and I spent a couple of weeks in Macau. The racecourse has weeds in the middle of the turf track. 

“They’ve got weeds as high as eight feet or 10 feet.”