De Kock stable scoops nine Equus Awards, including coveted Horse Of The Year for Irish Flame ONE of nine proud moments for Mike de Kock on the Equus Awards Stage. The 2010 Banquet was held at Emperors Palace on Thursday, 12 August. A report featuring Mike's runners and the list of winners here.

Slack's filly puts her head down and wins with strong finish MARY Slack has yet another good broodmare prospect for Wilgerbosdrift Stud in Headstrong. The five-year-old mare by Pivotal produced a powerful finish under a confident Anthony Delpech to collar Herman Brown's runner Norbury a stride short of the line in a 1400m Handicap sponsored by Brown himself at Scottsville on Wednesday, 11 August. Headstrong is a good racing prospect for the new season too. With the turn of foot she showed over the last 200m, and lightly raced to boot, she can be watched in forthcoming fillies features.

What lies ahead after a wonderful 2009/10 season? ELEVEN of Mike de Kock's top runners are due to go into quarantine in Cape Town on 15 August and 60 days later will jet off to his Newmarket, England, base. The group includes Durban July hero Bold Silvano (photo), Irish Flame, Ancestral Fore, Happy Valley and Lizarre. They will remain in the UK for a further 30 days and then fly on to Dubai. NICCI GARNER of Racing Express lays out Mike's plans for the season ahead. Read more.

Mike and Epol to launch revolutionary feed MIKE de Kock will soon be launching a revolutionary horse-feed for the commercial market developed in comjunction with Epol and horse nutrition specialist, Dr. Rensia de Wet, who is excited about a formula she has improved and tested. Read more.

Equus Awards Nominees for 2010 SOUTH AFRICAN horseracing’s stars of the 2009-10 season, which ended on 31 July, will be honoured on Thursday 12 August when the Equus Awards will be presented at Emperors Palace.  Ten awards will be presented to the connections of the top horses in the different age and distance categories and racing will also pay homage to the greatest human achievers during the last 12 months. Read more.

Success doesn't just fall from the sky! THE De Kock stable and Diane de Kock, in particular, are very proud of the team of grooms involved with the pre-training of young horses at Mike's Randjesfontein yard. New acquisitions go from various sales or farms to Randjesfontein for pre-training with the focus on individual care. When they're ready for full-training, Diane sends them to Mike's main training base at Summerveld. “We pre-trained 20 individual juvenile winners last season,“ Diane says.  “Without my team of dedicated grooms this wouldn't have been possible!“

Mike lands Trainers' Title with record stable stakes! 151-plus reasons to smile!

MIKE de Kock and his team of assistants and grooms he regards as “the best in the world” have lifted the South African Trainers’ Title for the fifth time, and in their most impressive style ever. Mike saddled three Graded winners on Durban July day, the last day of the season, winning the July itself with Bold Silvano, the Garden Province Stakes with Here To Win and the Gold Vase with Equiparada. He also racked up three seconds and a third on another remarkable day in his great career. In total Mike won 151 races (including 10 Grade 1s)for record gross stake earnings of R22,3 million. In a season Mike and his many supporters will remember for a long time, he also enjoyed huge success internationally. On Dubai World Cup night he chalked up a 1-2 in the UAE Derby with  Musir and Raihana came agonizingly close to winning the world’s richest race with with Lizard’s Desire. The South Africanm bred rose from obscurity and went on to run second in Hong Kong’s premier event, the QEII Cup at Sha Tin and then won the Singapore Airlines International Cup at Kranji.

Teamwork and a hot pace clears the runway for Bold Silvano's Durban July showdown with Irish Flame A great moment for Mike de Kock's family and the stable. Bold Silvano (Anthony Delpech) gives the Boss a playful nibble after winning the 2010 Durban July. On the left is Mathew and Diane de Kock and Kirsten hugs her dad. More.

Durban July is as open as ever, but Irish Flame is the most popular choice THE big day has arrived! Mike de Kock will saddle a record seven runners in the 2010 Durban July and while he has stressed that the result is most certainly not clear-cut at the set conditions, most racing editors have sided with the three-year-old brigade and its proven star, Irish Flame. Jack Milner's review here.

MHB's 2010 Super Sale establishes a good base for future trading of top bloodlines MICHAEL Holmes Bloodstock's 2010 Super Sale, held at Greyville, followed the Reduction Sale concept by which a proportion of the stock owned by the biggest owners are made available to the middle market buyer. MHB's  sale turned over in excess of R3,7 million, with all lots sold. Top price was R340,000, paid for Street Cry gelding Eight Street.  Read more.

Mike gives advice on all runners carded at Greyville on Saturday MOST of the hard preparation has been done at Summerveld and now it's action time for the De Kock team, performing all the pre-race duties to wrap the 2010 KZN Champion season with a host of runners carded to race on Durban July Day. The Citizen's Racing Express made notes of Mike's comments on all his runners on SA's greatest race day. Read them here.

Muzi the “ghetto kid“ won't take nonsense in Saturday's big race! JOCKEY Muzi Yeni says that ''growing up in the ghetto'' made him tough and that he won't be intimidated when riding Happy Valley in the Durban July at Greyville on Saturday. He talks about his great season and the big race. Read more.

Delpech bids for third win in the big race JOCKEY Anthony Delpech has two Durban July's to his name, but he is hungry for a third and believes Bold Silvano is the right horse to do it. “The faster they go the better but if they go slow it won't matter as he has a turn of speed“ he says.. Read more.

Business magnate Graham Beck (80) dies BUSINESS tycoon Graham Beck, one of the most active racehorse owners and breeders in the history of South African racing, has died in London, aged 80. He suffered from lung cancer and passed away in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 27 July. Legendary for his business deals and investments, Beck was a self-made multi-millionaire with interests stretching from coal mines to wines, yachts, stud farms and property all over the world. Beck’s familiar brown-and-white silks were seen in the winner’s box hundreds of times and his host of top racehorses included champions Zatopek, The Rutland Arms, Bush Telegraph, Free My Heart and more recently National Currency, Overarching and Dancer’s  Daughter. Beck is survived by his wife Rhona, son Antony, daughter-in-law Angela and five grandchildren.

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