by Robert Duncan
Where in this wide world can man find nobility without pride, friendship without envy or beauty without vanity? Here, where grace is laced with power, and strength tempered by gentleness.
He serves without servility; he has force without enmity. There is nothing so powerful, nothing less violent, there is nothing so quick, nothing more patient.
Our pioneers were borne on his back. Our history is his industry. We are his heirs and he our inheritance.
It is with enormous excitement and gratitude that we welcome you to Kylami Equestrian Park and this year’s event. The 2021 United Aviation Group Derby was forced by circumstances to be a limited event and yet our incredible riders brought their very best to a competitive field in all disciplines. This year the Derby is not constrained by anything other than space, and we know that our horses and riders will be just as delighted as we are to have everyone back at KEP, feeding off the excitement and joy to see each other again!
Once again supporters of this much-loved event have a host of exciting things to look forward to from the 5th to the 9th of October 2022. We have limited United Derby merchandise on sale in our United Aviation Group marketing tent, and we would love to meet you, so pop in and say hello. There are some great specials in the vendor village and United Aviation Group invites you to join us at the Derby after party on Sunday the 9th of October where Jesse Clegg will be supported by Me & Mr Green and Roger Goode.
In an unprecedented occurrence, tickets to this event were sold out almost before they opened, leaving many disappointed fans. United Aviation Group has therefore once again sponsored live-streaming and so we welcome our virtual supporters to this year’s event and invite you to interact with us on social media where we will be posting daily images and updates.
We would like to thank the South African Equestrian Federation and associated equestrian bodies as well as Kyalami Equestrian Park for allowing us to be part of this great event, and for their tireless efforts in making this an event that every equestrian holds so close to their heart. We would like to wish all our riders, their trainers and their grooms a wonderful show full of special moments, and we would like to send our gratitude to their magnificent horses, whom we all adore.
It is the gift of flying, whether on horse back or in a superb aircraft that exhilarates us, it is why we do what we do, as aviators, as riders.
Come #FlyAway with us. Warm Regards
JONATHAN WOLPE
September in Johannesburg brings with it, not only the joys of Spring, but “Derby fever” and by the middle of the month “Derby” is what most equestrians and equestrian fans are talking about. I clearly remember the joy that Derby brought me as a boy, going to the Inanda Club to watch my equestrian heroes, both human and equine, tackle South Africa’s most daunting and challenging show-jumping course. It’s what got me hooked on the sport that I love.
This year, Kyalami Park Club is proud to host the 56th South African Derby, and we are delighted that the United Aviation Group is once again involved as the sponsor.
A big thank you to Jonathan Wolpe and his team who guarantee a true spectacle and a feast of entertainment for all, post the main class.
The fact that tickets for this year’s Derby sold out in record time is proof that fans are hungry to be part of the extravaganza that United Aviation Group brings to Derby and Jonathan tells me that this year will be even bigger and better than last.
For those who are unable to be at KPC for the Derby, all the action will once again be broadcast on both Saturday and Sunday, via live-streaming on Equestrian Live and this year’s broadcast also promises to be a treat. Once again this livestreaming action is brought to you by United Aviation Group.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the KPC office team who work so tirelessly behind the scenes getting an event like this off the ground. Your hard work and dedication does not go unnoticed. To the ground staff, officials and arena parties, I thank you too. To my KPC EXCO who give of their time and expertise to serve the club with little reward, you have my respect, my thanks and my gratitude. To all the fans who have come out to be a part of this Derby, I wish you a wonderful day to remember and ask you to bring the best Derby atmosphere possible! To the club VIP’s being entertained upstairs in the sponsors area, I wish you the very best day and would like to say thank you for your very generous sponsorships and contributions over the past year.
Lastly, I would like to wish all competitors, horses and their connections, owners and support staff a wonderful show and hope that this is one for the scrap books. May your time over this Derby weekend be filled with super rounds that will become personal highlights. I wish each and every one of you an experience to cherish.
Chin up, heels down. Go well all.
The first jump is 1,5m high. The widest oxer is 1,7m wide.
The highest jump on the course is the wall (16) at 1,65m
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The Derby course was first designed in 1920 in Hamburg and has largely remained the same since then.
The Hamburg Derby consists of 17 fences, 26 efforts and is 1250metres long.
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The South African Derby is 1000m long and our bank is 2m high!
The Hickstead course is 1195m long and the riders have 180 seconds to complete the course.
Anne-Marie Esslinger is the only Course Designer who has ridden the SA Derby track and won it twice (not when building!). Usually a CD is appointed for a 3 year period. Previous Course Designers have all been top SA officials.
the bank and replicate it back home in West Sussex. He arrived on New Year’s Eve when it was snowing, and went round the showground measuring fences - much to the bemusement of the show’s officials. The layer of snow on top of the Hamburg bank must have affected Douglas’s measurements, as Hickstead’s bank stands 6in taller than its German counterpart. The rails at the bottom of the Hickstead Derby bank are two strides away from the bottom of the bank, but the Hamburg Derby bank’s equivalent upright stands just one stride away.
• Hickstead Derby only has 3 oxers on their course whereas the South African Derby has rather a lot more!
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At the Lummen Derby the track detours out of the arena not once, but twice and the fences are mostly painted the traditional white!
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The UK Derby, Hickstead, has an interesting story on how their bank came to be built. Douglas Bunn, the founder of Hickstead, had seen film footage of the Hamburg Derby and decided to visit the German showground to measure
• The South African Derby started off at Inanda Club and moved to its current home at Kylami Equestrian Park in 2000.
1943 Gonda Joyce Butters is born in Johannesburg.
1947 Gonda begins riding.
1951 Wins Under 18 show Jumping Championship at the Western Province Agricultural Show
1955 Moves to Ireland to train under Col. Joseph Hume-Dudgeon, Captain of the British show jumping team.
1957 At age 14, Gonda is granted a special licence by the South African National Equestrian Federation (SANEF) to compete as an adult.
1958 Gonda breaks the high jump record at the Rand Easter Show, on Gunga Din by clearing 6ft 10in (2,08m) coming in second to Bob Grayston who cleared 7ft. At the same show, Gonda becomes the first person to finish first (on her horse Oorskiet) and second (on her horse Gunga Din) in the Rand Easter Show Championship.
1958 Gonda joins the SA team travelling to Europe to compete, winning the international Team Competition in Holland. At the same time, Gonda achieved her Junior Springbok colours.
1958 Gonda competes under special license in the UK as an adult, winning the South of England Championship, achieving runner up at the British National Championship, and winning the Four Area International Olympic Trials.
1959 Gonda awarded the Helms Award.
1962 Awarded full Springbok Colours.
1961 – 1991 Gonda wins the Annual South African Championship ten times, South African Derby six times and the Outdoor Grand Prix twice among others.
1973 Awarded the President’s Award.
1973, 1979, 1980 South African Sport Merit Award.
1974 Invited to Ladies Individual International Championship in Washington D.C, which she won.
1992 Selected to represent South Africa in Barcelona.
1995 Gonda on Watchfire won the Swiss Ladies Championship at the Geneva Indoor International Horse Show.
2006 Inducted into the South African Sports Hall of Fame.
2017 Listed as a South African Sports Legend.
VISION
To be a sophisticated vibrant and prestigious club with equestrian activities as its core, catering to the need of the riding community and other social members, setting market benchmarks in quality while retaining its relaxed family-inclusive atmosphere and being the preferred choice of its members for lifestyle activities.
To be a pre-eminent club by creating tangible value for all members as well as other stakeholders, be they employees, commercial partners and the national sports administrators, through professional management of our riding and social activities by focusing on equestrian quality and the superior delivery of our objectives, projects and activities.
Equestrian Club affiliated to the premier Kyalami Equestrian Park showgrounds. Supporting various equestrian disciplines and all participants.The premier South African equestrian competition venue.
Find us at: www.kyalamiparkclub.co.za
Facebook: @KPCEquestrian
Twitter: @KPCEquestrian
Instagam: @KPCEquestrian
email: admin@kyalamiparkclub.co.za
Address: 1 Dahlia Road, Kyalami, 1685 (Located next to the SA Lipizzaners)
Tel: 010 023 0712
“Don’t look at the drop at the top of the bank. Keep your eye on the top of the plank after the bank.”
From Gonda to Anne-Marie
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2021 United Aviation Group Derby Winner on Protein Feeds Campbell & second time Derby winner. 2008 Equilibrium’s Warranga
2019 Derby Winner & 2021 joint 2nd place on Back on Track Clouny 3.
“To prepare we do a lot of wind fitness. It’s close to a kilometre long, so it takes a lot out of them. It’s also on a lot of different surfaces, so we train on varied grass arena’s so that the horses are ready for that as well.”
2021 joint 2nd place on Hausberger’s Eldo and the 1.50m Victor Ludorum winner.
“That’s what I love about Derby. You do your parade and you have everyone cheering you on. Everyone’s wishing you well as you go around this course. Everyone wants you to get a clear round. There’s no greater feeling.
“I couldn’t imagine tackling the Derby on any horse other than Le Cadeau. We know each other, we trust each other, and what an honour to share another first with him.”
UAG SA DERBY 35 2021 joint 2nd place on Regenesis Vet Le Cadeau for their first Derby together.
2012 Capital Don Cumarco
2013 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco
2014 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco
2016 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco
“It’s a work ethic, consistency and discipline thing for a rider to get to the top”.
“Avalanche was the best Derby horse I had, winning it twice and being placed in the Hickstead Derby as well. He had unlimited scope and loved the big bold Derby jumps. The second year he won was my perfect Derby round.”
1997 TBC Checkpoint , 2000 Fubu Sunday’s Eagle, 2003 Porsche SA Avalanche, 2004 Porsche SA Avalanche
“This is not technical riding. It’s a case of correct preparation, fitness, focus and courage.”
“I think you benchmark your ability as a show jumper on how well you do in the Derby - the year I won it, I felt like I’d finally ‘arrived’ (never mind that I had already represented SA). And certainly the crowds that attend Derby Sunday add to the magic of the class - it’s fabulous jumping for packed stands!”
2007 Greet a Star
“It’s a totally different event to any other in the year, it tests the horse and riders fitness, endurance and focus.”
“Of all the horses I could ride in the Derby, Lexington is the one I would choose. We know each other so well and he is brave, scopey and genuine! I have produced Lex for 7 years now so I really trust and know him.”
“I have spent my life idolising the top riders in the country – I have been in awe of how brave they are to tackle those huge jumps, I’m still pinching myself that I’m actually now in the hot bed and will have to do it too – so I’m slightly terrified but very, very proud to be able to compete. Watch out world – we’re coming.”
“I love the hype and the big crowds which is why I always want to compete in Derby, but I am also quite nervous to be honest. as I have only competed successfully on one horse, Quinsey. I’m hoping that once I have done the course on another horse I will change my tune!”
“You can have the horses and the talent. But without the hard work, commitment and persistence, you won’t jump the big classes.”
“Riding at this level isn’t just about the competition – horse sport is an emotional roller coaster, and you need to be mentally tough to cope with the highs and the lows.”
“On the day of the Derby I do everything I can to stay focused and give my horses the best possible chance of the right preparation for the class.”
“Attitude is everything! Never mind winning, just to compete at this level you have to ONLY have positive thoughts! To trust and believe in yourself, to imagine yourself riding and going around the course, and to believe that you and your horse together can take on the challenge as a team.”
“Horses have a way of keeping us grounded as there are many failures in this sport, but we have to learn from our mistakes, and try and put them behind us and move forward, which are lessons that I have found helpful in all aspects of my life.”
“Derby is magical because of the spectators and the amazing atmosphere that they create. In addition the type of jumps we do in Derby makes it different as they are so varied from the normal fences we do throughout the year. The size of the jumps is also really imposing, and presents a true test for both horses and riders.”
Carl Boonzaier
“There are so many elements that make Derby a magical event. It draws an enormous, enthusiastic audience and I believe it is a true test of team work between horse and rider. It requires bravery, trust and hopefully you have luck on your side on the big day!”
Every so often there is a convergence of passion and work. For me those days happen when we shoot the United Aviation Group Derby and United League of Champion videos.
This year we wanted to illustrate that the United Aviation Group Derby would be more accessible to the public due to the lifting of restrictions. To this end, we wanted to include more riders into the shoot, but there was just one problem. There were time constraints from the film crew and as Jonathan (United Aviation Group CEO), Ingrid (Creative Director) and Philippa (Production Manager) are very particular about who we work with, we had a lot to do in a miniscule amount of time! That included arranging a number of horses and riders, access to KEP, helicopters, make-up and hair crew, stylists, photographers, lighting, sound, ambulances and (what felt) like at least a small army of technical film people in a teeny-tiny span of time.
The call went out and our amazing riders responded with, if not alacrity, at least not total incredulity! We would need riders willing to spend half a day with us jumping their precious four-legged dependents repetitively over the same 1.30m – 1.40m jumps as we filmed them from all angles. Oh, and did we mention that the horses would need to be ok with camera’s swinging from booms off the back of trucks? Possibly moving trucks? Did we mention the noise, the chaos, the helicopters? Fantastic!
There is nothing quite like the ‘hurry up and wait’ of a film set. Whether it’s the sun (or the shade), the make-up team, the technical crew or that darn tricky drone that just isn’t getting the right shot, immense patience is involved when trying to coordinate so many, many, moving parts. Our riders were surprisingly jovial, taking some time to relax on the stands or patiently biding their time on the bank at the Bob Charter while the horses took the opportunity to munch on the surrounding foliage. And I got to kiss some of the most beautiful girls on set that day!
Whether during our interviews (many of which you can catch on our social media platforms or YouTube channel), strategically hidden behind a fence, or even while being made even more gorgeous than usual by our fabulous artists in the make-up chair, there were many laughs shared on the day, some surprises and even the occasional heels kicked in the air in fun (some actually by the horses).
There is however, nothing that can strike fear into a production managers heart, quite like watching Barry take off around the arena on his beautiful horse, with a huge truck and hundreds of thousands of rands worth of camera equipment just metres away as he confidently assures us that “it’ll be fine” as he heads towards an enormous fence. The footage was amazing, but I may have aged 10 years in around 8 seconds.
We are immensely grateful to KEP for allowing us access to shoot, and to be involved in this amazing event, to our incredible crew, our immensely talented Creative Director Ingrid Irsigler, our Production team at Purple Raindrop and of course to United Aviation Group and their CEO, Jonathan Wolpe for giving us the opportunity to do such fun, beautiful and heart-happy work!
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Nicole Horwood
Oscar N’Cube
Dominey Alexander
Barry Taylor
Lorette Taylor
Ashlee Taylor
Lisa Williams
Aisling Govitt
Thomas Van Rijckevorsel
Ronnie Healy
Jeanne Korber
Rainer Korber
Cath MacFarlane
Cheyenne de Beer
And a special thanks to our behind the scenes photographers
Shaun Mallett & Hilary O’Leary
Immense thanks to our talented riders for joining us on this adventure.
Previous winners of this prestigious event include the brilliant and the brave of the show jumping world, and reads like a veritable who’s who of the SA equestrian world.
Whether it’s a favourite horse that we have watched, starry eyed as it soared over impossible fences, or an admired rider that we saw swoop in and take first place, there isn’t one amongst us who can say they haven’t dreamed of being on this list themselves.
1965 Beauheira E Hayward
1966 Geronimo Gert Myberg
1967 Eldorado Gonda Butters
1968 Esprit Peter Levor
1969 Major Dominus Phillip Smith
1970 Torch Sign Mickey Louw
1971 Torch Sign Mickey Louw
1972 Torch Sign Mickey Louw
1973 Take a Chance Tony Lewis
1974 Lobil King Cole Wendy Grayston
1975 Toyota’s Charlie’s Swop Peter Gotz
1976 Prima’s Format Gonda Betrix
1977 Epol Xenophon Mickey Louw
1978 Toyota Tambourlaine Janine Myburg
1979 Elizabeth Anne’s Honey Girl Gonda Betrix
1980 Elizabeth Anne’s Honey Girl Gonda Betrix
1981 Toyota Dress Suit Janine Myburg
1982 Compass Line Errol Wucherpfennig
Royal Swazi Spa Bye & Bye Lachlan Maclachlan
Ascot Fever Willie Peters
Storm Finch Anneli Wucherpfennig
Jongleur Tony Lewis
1983 Bischoff High Hopes Lester Sander
1984 Billy Onduno L. Cpl. Wayne Dale
1985 Sagorin’s Isis Bridge Gonda Betrix
1986 Toyota Gossiper Peter Gotz
1987 Bye & Bye Gail Foxcoft
1988 Cognac Anne Marie Esslinger
1989 Sentinel High Hopes Ronnie Lawrence
1990 Babcock Africa’s Bye & Bye Gail Foxcroft
1991 AAA Watchfire Gonda Betrix
1992 Audi Storm Finch Anneli Wucherpfennig
1993 Gestetner’s Blue Rock Bryce McCall
1994 Noble Cut Peter Gotz
1995 Avis Panache Ronnie Lawrence
1996 Equi Feeds Rival Steven Chalom
1997 TBC Checkpoint Barry Taylor
1998 Mid Tempest Shirley Kemp
1999 Not Held
2000 Fubu Sunday’s Eagle Barry Taylor
2001 Listor Mandy Johnstone
2002 Avis Ella Lynne Piercy
2003 Porsche SA Avalanche Barry Taylor
2004 Porsche SA Avalanche Barry Taylor
2005 CPH Lindenburg Gail Foxcroft
2006 Ryobi Napoleon Z Ronnie Lawrence
2007 Greet a Star Lorette Knowles-Taylor
2008 Equilibrium’s Warrangal P Lisa Williams
2009 A New Era Jade Hooke
2010 Avis Gryphon Rouge Ronnie Lawrence
2011 A New Era Jade Hooke
2012 Capital Don Cumarco Nicole Horwood
2013 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco Nicole Horwood
2014 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco Nicole Horwood
2015 Alzu Oregon Anne Marie Esslinger
2016 Mark White Nissan’s Capital Don Cumarco Nicole Horwood
2017 Sunny Park Elpaso Nicola Sime Riley
2018 Kelly O Connor Hera van de Bien
2019 Rainer Korber Back on Track’s Clouny 3
2021 Lisa Williams Protein Feeds Campbell
Lisa Williams jumps to victory on Protein Feeds Campbell in the 2021 United Aviation Group South African Adult Derby held in the Bob Charter Arena at Kyalami Park EquestrianThis premier event, always a staple on the SA show jumping calendar, was United Aviation Group’s first foray into sponsoring of South African equine sporting events. In the build up to the event the United Aviation Group marketing team executed a precision planned campaign with one objective. Showcase the event to as many local and international audience members as possible. We wanted to show the world that a South African run show jumping event would compete with any on the international stage, and so we did.
Following the success of the SA Derby, South African Show-Jumping gave approval for the United League of Champions to be launched in 2022. The series is a not-for-profit league which runs over 6 events in conjunction with the FEI World Cup Series events.
Ten teams, made up of a maximum of eight riders have been allowed to enter the league in its first year. Each team comprises includes an U25 rider and each team will be required to include a 1.20m, 1.30m, 1.35m, and 1.40m horse.
The first 5 events have been held, with two more (including the final) to come. One in Maple Ridge on the 28th of October and the final at Summit Ridge Equestrian on the last weekend of November 2022.
The sponsor of the event, United Aviation Group, has put up a purse of R250,000 for the winning team at the end of the series.
OCTOBER 2021 SAW THE SUCCESSFUL EXECUTION OF THE UNITED AVIATION GROUP DERBY.
“If you make a mistake or knock an early jump, put it behind you and keep concentrating. It’s a long way around the course and the sooner you forget, the better round you will have.” Barry Taylor
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Horses have graced our planet for roughly fifty million years; evolving from forest-dwelling creatures the size of a dog, into the beautiful animals that have walked and worked beside humankind for more than five thousand years. They’ve done everything from carrying soldiers into battle to taking part in the more modern rite of film-making, making it hard to gauge the impact this relationship has had on history, though it’s a safe guess that the world would be a very different place if it weren’t for these gallant animals. It should come as no surprise then, that the list of horses that have risen to fame is a long one - far too long to be properly explored in the confines of this short tribute, though we will take a quick peek into the lives of a very few of these star-studded equines.
It’s a testament to the courage and
heart of horses that so many who have served men in war, are remembered by name - Copenhagan, for example, ridden by the Duke of Wellington in the Battle of Waterloo; Marengo, Napoleon’s favourite horse through countless campaigns; Kidron, ridden by General Pershing in World War I (and through the Victory Arch in New York City at the end of the war); Traveller, ridden by General Robert E. Lee during the American Civil War...and on and on, stretching back to the earliest wars.
Wherever man has left his footprint in the long ascent from barbarism to civilization, we will find the hoof print of the horse beside it.
~ John Moore
There can be no doubt that one of the greatest horses in antiquity was Bucephalus, belonging to Alexander the Great. Bucephalus was offered to King Philip II, but he refused as the animal appeared to be unbreakable. Then, a thirteen year old Alexander promptly tamed and won the horse which went on to serve him in many battles in his attempted conquest of the world. When the great steed died in 326 BC, Alexander founded a city, Bucephala, in his honour.
Many years later, but no less noble, we have the only recovered survivor of Custer’s Last Stand, Comanche. Though other horses lived through the Battle of Little Bighorn, they were taken as spoils of war by the Western Sioux tribes. Comanche was left behind, gravely wounded having been shot seven times. He was discovered two days after the battle, nursed back to health by the Seventh Cavalry, and later went on to be honored by the title of “Second Commanding Officer” of the Seventh. He was one of only two horses in US history to receive a full military funeral, though his remains were preserved and can still be seen today in the University of Kentucky’s Natural History Museum.
Another highly-ranked horse, Sergeant Reckless - a Mongolian mare of only fourteen hands high (that’s pony height really) - was purchased by the United States Marine Corps in 1952 and used to carry supplies and evacuate wounded soldiers during the Korean War. She soon became a mascot for her unit, was allowed to sleep in the marines’ tents on cold nights and eat almost anything; including scrambled eggs, bacon, buttered toast, chocolate bars, mashed potatoes, coca-cola, and beer. The Marines trained her to avoid several hazards including barbed wire and to lie down under fire. She even learned her supply routes, enabling her to make deliveries on her own - once making fifty-one trips to resupply front line units in one day thus earning her the rank of corporal. After being wounded twice, she was retired with the rank of sergeant with more than several awards under her belt; two Purple Hearts, a Presidential Unit citation, the National Defense Service Medal, and a Marine Corps Good Conduct Medal… to name a few. LIFE magazine recognised her as one of America’s one hundred all-time heroes in 1997.
~ Tesio
Incantus, the next horse on our list, was known to never have taken part in a battle. However, it seems that his owner, Caligulathe third emperor of Rome, was as devoted to him as Alexander to Bucephalus… or, just maybe, ever-so-slightly more. While it’s uncertain whether Caligula’s treatment of his horse was a sign of insanity, an elaborate prank, or made up by later historiansthe legend lives on. According to the stories; he held birthday parties for the chariot-racing champion, had his soldiers keep the neighbourhood quiet on nights before races, fed him oats mixed with gold flakes, housed him in a marble stable, and even intended on making him a senator - until his assassination put the brakes on that highly sensible plan.
Then of course we have the slightly less pampered racing star, Arkle. The famous Irish steeplechaser was born in 1957. He won twenty-seven out of his thirty-five races, and has the
~Anonymous
Look back on our struggle for freedom, Trace our present day’s strength to its source, And you’ll find that man’s pathway to glory, Is strewn with the bones of a horse.
highest Timeform rating ever awarded to a steeplechaser. (A Timeform rating is essentially a mathematical expression of a horse’s merit). Such was his prowess, that the racing authorities in the Irish Grand National used a separate weighting system when Arkle was on the turf. When he died, his skeleton was put on display in the Irish National Stud’s museum. In April 2014, a bronze sculpture of the Arkle and his jockey was erected in Ashbourne to honour this fine horse, and his first of a hattrick at the Cheltenham Gold Cup races.
Though our next entry didn’t get a statue, his home country, New Zealand, honoured him with his very own stamp. Cardigan Bay, the “million dollar horse,” was the first Standard-bred horse to win a million dollars in prize money in North America. For those who aren’t in the know; standard-bred horses are uniquely built with shorter legs and the longer bodies that are particularly well-suited to harness racing. Cardigan Bay was the only horse to beat the three US Hall of Fame horses of the time: Overtrick, Bret Hanover, and Meadow Skipper, and he was one of the first horses to be inducted into the New Zealand Trotting Hall of Fame in 1998, along with greats like Caduceus and Highland Fling. He even appeared on the Ed Sullivan show alongside the Beach Boys!
Cardigan Bay wasn’t the only horse to get his moment in the spotlight - horses have been used in film and television from the earliest days of the medium. In the 1940s, two horses - White Cloud and Tarzan’s White Bannerbrought joy to small children everywhere by playing Silver, the Lone Ranger’s iconic high-rearing grey stallion. Another, by the name of Fury, who was a gorgeous American Saddlebred, played Black Beauty, along with many other award-winning roles— including starring alongside Elizabeth Taylor in Giant, and reportedly stealing the final scene from his two-legged co-stars.
Roy Rogers, one of the most popular Western actors of his time, insisted on giving his horse, Trigger, equal billing in more than eighty movies they appeared in together. Having learned around one hundred and fifty tricks, Trigger, “the smartest horse in the movies,” no doubt earned what no less than deserved.
Though the role of the horse in modern life is undoubtedly smaller than it used to be, they continue to entertain and inspire us, carry us through competitions and into adventure, and remain worshipped and adored by little girls everywhere. And rightly so. Few animals have had a greater part to play in history, and surely none with more dignity and spirit than the mighty horse.
OLDEST HORSE: Old Bill, born in 1760, who lived to be 62.
TALLEST HORSE: Big Jake, a Belgian gelding, measuring around 21 hands high.
SMALLEST HORSE: Thumbelina, a miniature brown sorrel mare, measures only 44.5cm.
HIGHEST JUMP: A racehorse named Huaso jumped a record-breaking 2.47m in 1949
FASTEST SPEED FOR A RACEHORSE: Winning Brew recorded a speed of 70.76km/h over two furlongs at the Penn National Race Course.
MOST EXPENSIVE HORSE SOLD AT AUCTION: The Green Monkey was sold for $16 million at an auction in Florida.
FIRST CLONED HORSE: In 2003 the Italian-based Laboratory of Reproductive Technology successfully created a cloned mare, Promotea.
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This 2022 United Aviation Group Derby is themed Pegasus and Planes. If you have seen our beautifully produced promotional videos, not only for the Derby but for the latest United Aviation Group advertising campaign, you will notice that the theme of flying away is one that is carried across all the online and marketing material.
Whether it’s flying away on holiday, flying away for business or even flying away on our beautiful horses, we believe that United Aviation Group can help take us there!
I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly
I’d fly above the trees
Over the seas
In all degrees
To anywhere I please
Oh, I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away Yeah, yeah, yeah
Let’s go and see the stars
The Milky Way
Or even Mars
Where it could just be ours
Let’s fade into the sun
Let your spirit fly
Where we are one
Just for a little fun
Oh, oh, oh yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah, yeah, yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away Yeah, yeah, yeah
I got to get away
Girl I got to get away Oh, oh, oh yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away Yeah, yeah, yeah (With you) Oh yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away Yeah, yeah, yeah (With you)
I got to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away
Yeah
I want to get away
I want to fly away
Yeah, yeah, yeah (With you)
Girl I got to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away
I want to get away Yeah
I want to get away I want to fly away
Yeah, yeah, yeah (With you)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
Songwriters: Leonard Kravitz. For non-commercial use only.
Written and performed by Lenny Kravitz
Pegasus (or Pegasos) is a winged-horse from Greek mythology which was fathered by Poseidon and was born from the severed neck of the gorgon Medusa, slain by Perseus.
Poseidon gave Pegasus to his son Bellerophon who put Pegasus to good use in his famous battle with the Chimaera.
Bellerophon and Pegasus fought many successful battles together including one against the Amazons. However, becoming rather boastful and thinking he could fly high enough on his winged steed to take his
place amongst the immortal gods, Bellerophon was thrown by Pegasus and fell unceremoniously back to earth. There’s nothing quite like a horse, even a mythical, magical, winged one to put you in your place!
Meanwhile, Pegasus kept on going and on reaching Mt. Olympus, he was given to Eos who was responsible for bringing Dawn across the sky each day. According to Hesiod in his Theogony, Pegasus also brought Zeus his thunder and lightning whenever needed.
DERBY MERCHANDISE UnitedThisyearwehavelimited merchandiseAviationGroupSADerby on sale in the UnitedDerbyAviationGrouptent. inspirednumnahs,caps,Pegasus t-shirtsandothers.Come andmeettheUnitedSalesTeam, andseewhat’sondisplay. *Creditcardsonly please*
Horse racing has a glamorous history on the African continent, stretching back to the first formal race on Cape Town’s Green Point common in 1797. Now, to put that in context, this was some time before the invention of electric lightbulbs, typewriters, and even the stethoscope.
It is a sport that has had a grip on the psyche of the continent for centuries, partly thanks to the colonial link to England, where racing still remains the next big thing to football. In the 2013 Economic Impact of British Racing, Delloite’s reported that over 5.6-million people attended 1,369 fixtures in the same year.
Little wonder then, that if you step into the home of just about any horse enthusiast from Johannesburg to Melbourne, you’ll be confronted with bookshelves crammed with any of the forty-four novels bearing the name ‘Dick Francis.’
During the 1970s and ‘80s, Dick Francis was a publishing celebrity, spoken of in the same breath as Robert Ludlum, John le Carré, or Frederick Forsyth. Awards flowed his way, along with about sixty million book sales and the adulation of pretty much everyone.
It was an unlikely trajectory.
Who, after all, would have put money on one of the world’s most accomplished jockeys—who left school at the age of fifteen but still clocked up three hundred and fifty career wins—becoming a publishing sensation?
Perhaps the answer lies in an instant of tragedy that would be deemed implausible had it appeared in Francis’s own novels, an event which the Telegraph dubbed “one of sport’s greatest mysteries.”
Picture the scene: it’s 1956, and Francis, already the champion jockey two years before, is the royally-appointed jockey to Queen Elizabeth. Riding the queen’s horse, Devon Loch, he is yards away from winning the most famous
steeplechase of all: the Grand National at Aintree.
This is the way the Telegraph described what happened next:
“Fifty yards from the line and with the entire nation cheering a Royal victory, Devon Loch pricked up his ears, appeared to jump a phantom obstacle, and belly-flopped to the turf with his four legs splayed out like Bambi on ice.”
Francis lost a race he seemed destined to win, and even now, there is no explanation for it. He reportedly called it a “disaster of massive proportions.”
Perhaps, but from the wreckage, Francis rebuilt himself. After publishing his autobiography, The Sport of Queens , in 1957, he wrote his first novel, Dead Cert, five years later.
Dead Cert, branded one of the ‘100 Must-Read Crime Novels,’ sparked a writing career that extended all the way to his death in 2010, at the age
of eighty-nine.
And yet, in a few months’ time, we will see a new Dick Francis novel, Damage, on the shelves, continuing the franchise without skipping a beat. This will be the work of Dick Francis’s son, Felix Francis, a man whose own story seems almost as unlikely as that of his father.
Felix, now in his early sixties, and a man who studied physics and electronics before spending seventeen years as a science teacher, seemed the least likely person in the family to take over from his father as a full-time writer.
Yet, speaking to Maverick about the impact the books have had globally, as well as his conversion from schoolmaster to crime writer, Felix bubbles with the sort of childlike enthusiasm for the books that makes it seem the most natural transition in the world.
“I’m actually very well aware of how popular the books are in South Africa,” says Felix. “Obviously one of Dad’s books, Smokescreen, is set in South Africa, and my parents went there in the early 1970s and loved it. I also went out there, and went racing in South Africa, so yes, it is pleasing”. His father, during his stint in the Royal Air Force in World War II, also spent three years fighting in Africa, so the continent is far from an unknown proposition.
Felix describes his conversion to crime novelist and successor to his father as a “bit of a mistake.” The story goes like this; he’d been looking after his father’s affairs for some years, including, he says, “doing everything from managing investments to changing the light bulbs.” But his father, who was getting on, hadn’t picked up a pen since his wife, Mary, died in 2000.
In 2005, Felix went to meet Andrew Houston, the agent of the Dick
Francis franchise alerted him to a bigger problem.
“The Dick Francis books, he told me, were going out of print. People were forgetting what the novels were about. So what we needed was a new front book, to jog memories and revive the back catalogue,” he said.
Houston’s answer was to hire one of the United Kingdom’s best crime writers to keep the franchise going. Felix had a different solution.
“I said to him, before you ask anyone to do it, I’d like to have a go. So he gave me a shot. He gave me two months to produce two chapters. I gave it to him, and he got quite excited. My father read it, and got quite excited, and it sort of snowballed from there,” he says.
The first joint effort— Dead Heat —was a thundering success. One reviewer said, “Francis Senior and his new partner-in-crime offer up the ultimate armchair ride.”
Felix has now completed his ninth Dick Francis book, and to his credit, the ardour from the booksellers or readers hasn’t dissipated. “I hadn’t expected to enjoy it so much,” he says. “After I did it for a year, and found I adored it. I didn’t want to be a teacher anymore,” he says.
The transition might have been seamless enough, but it was all a family tradition. Since the 1960s, the novels might have hit the shelves under the name ‘Dick Francis,’ but this was more a collective pseudonym for the entire Francis clan than anything else. Dick’s wife, Mary, many believed, was instrumental in crafting the novels, and polishing the words on the page.
“My father was a great ideas man, but my mother loved the rhythm of the sentence. People I talk to say, ‘oh, this is such easy reading,’ but what they don’t know is that the entire family worked very hard to make sure it was easy reading,” he says.
Felix too, played an early role as a teenager. As a seventeenyear-old physics student, he wrote part of a book where a bomb explodes on an airplane. This was melded into Rat Race, the book that came out in 1970.
Nowadays, Felix laughs about how rudimentary some of the ideas might seem, with four decades of science and technology development. “My son, who read that book when he was in his twenties, came to me and said, ‘Dad, what is a cassette tape?’ So yes, things change.”
What is evident though is that Felix Francis, like most authors, gets a kick out of bumping into people on the street or in restaurants who are, quite simply, fans.
With great excitement, he describes a scene, a few days after he finished writing Damage, when he was at dinner in a bistro in London with some friends and a few other people he hadn’t met before.
“Someone asked what I do… so I told him, ‘Well, I write the Dick Francis novels.’ This guy overheard us and leant over, and wanted to tell me how his wife had just given him all the Dick Francis books he didn’t have, and how he was re-reading all of them. Now, this man was a barrister, a QC. It was just wonderful,” he says.
Nine books down, and with a contract to deliver one book a year, Felix is relishing the life of an author.
How is it that in the age of iPads, downloadable movies, and epileptic attention spans, the Dick Francis franchise has retained its allure?
“That is the plan, as long as the publishers want it and the people want to read them,” he says. “Having just finished one, I have to think of another book now. It’s quite a task.”
Having swapped lives, Francis, surprisingly perhaps, says he doesn’t miss teaching. “We use books to teach people, don’t we? So, I still feel like I’m teaching in a way,” he says.
What was new with Gamble in 2011, was that it was the first novel written entirely by Felix, without any oversight from his father. The previous book, Crossfire, was a third complete when Dick Francis died.
So how easy was it to write the novels without his father’s eye?
“Well, when we started writing together as a joint effort in 2007, he was already eighty-six-years old, so his input was mostly just to read it and make sure all the racing was right and accurate. So, I suppose it was quite strange not to have that safety net to fall back on,” he says.
What he does have, however, is his elder brother, Merrick, who now does the fact-checking on the racing.
It’s also no great surprise that Merrick Francis has lived his life in the racing business; first as a trainer (he trained the winners of a number of important British races) and then in the racehorse transport business.
Felix says his brother’s input as a fact-checker is invaluable. “I miss my Dad, of course I do. But it was his time,” he says.
How is it that in the age of iPads, downloadable movies, and epileptic attention spans, the Dick Francis franchise has retained its allure? Especially when it seems horse racing doesn’t have the glam appeal it had during the 1960’s and ‘70’s?
“Well, it’s true that the interest in football is now greater than it ever was. But there is still a fairly prominent interest in racing,” says Felix. “Go to the Cheltenham festival, and you’ll see sixty or seventy thousand people there each day. So I wouldn’t say that racing is less prominent in the psyche than it used to be.”
Felix says racing continues—and gambling on horses certainly does too. It still has an element of mystique about it in the public eye.
His novels, obviously, help.
“People like to think there’s all this skull-duggery going on in racing (like fixing races and drugging horses). But the truth is, there really isn’t much. There is far more dodgy stuff in my books than you’ll find on the track,” he says.
The real secret about Dick Francis’s books, the secret that has kept the franchise in such fighting-fit shape for all of these years, is one of which Felix is very much aware.
“The books, you’ll find, aren’t about horses and racing. It’s about people. Racing is just the canvas against which people are illustrated,” he says.
And this, as any great novelist will tell you, is the trick to writing.
“He said to me that he would have happily given up all the success he achieved as an author to have won the Grand National on Devon Loch.” Fellow writer John Francome commenting after the death of Dick Francis.
It’s been a simply incredible five days and Jonathan Wolpe and the United Aviation Group would like to thank you for spending time with our team!
The bravery of our show jumpers, discipline of our dressage contingent, patience of our ponies and outpouring of love and support from our online and inperson community has been immensely appreciated. Thank you!
We would like to thank Kyalami Equestrian Park and their wonderful team for their great work and devotion to this sport and their members. They have been a joy to work with for this event. Thank you for having us on board.
We would like to thank our Creative Director, Ingrid Irsigler for bringing her vision of Derby to life for the United Aviation Group hospitality areas and her amazing work on our many videos, our Production Director Philippa Rose-Tite for her masterful juggling of balls and getting all the details done, and our Chief Designer Shaun Mallett for his beautiful design and layout on everything from the banners to this beautiful book you are reading. This group and their teams have done an incredible job of bringing Derby to you in 2022 and we thank them.
Whether on your horse or in one of our aircraft, let’s #FlyAway together!
