Horse lovers in test by fire

Stories of heroism and generosity pour out of Cape Town like plumes of smoke from the wildfires in its fynbos and forests. And one is rather proud to read that horse-racing folk on the peninsula have been involved in rescue efforts.

The names of champion trainer Justin Snaith and his family have been noted in dispatches, while two leading equine transport firms - New Turf Carriers and Choice Carriers - have volunteered their horse floats and boxes and worked through the days and nights to get endangered animals to safety.

Racing often gets detached from events around it, being a rather esoteric business that demands much absorption. Truth is, sometimes those bods are on another planet.

But, even when the form guide for Kenilworth is really compelling, you're unlikely not to notice giant flames licking at the stableyard gate.

I was interested in an excellent news report on racing website Sporting Post about the conflagration. It quoted assistant trainer Jono Snaith relating how family and friends pitched in to evacuate horses from farms lying in the path of the blaze - along with dozens of tortoises that came scrambling out of the bush in terror.

Most of these horses will be from riding schools, for social riding and the like, or just for paddock decoration. And many of them will be retired racehorses, so it was amusing to read Snaith's comment: "I now have show jumpers in my paddocks who think they have been put back into training."

At the risk of us falling into "fire fatigue", here's Sporting Post quoting Belinda Haytread, trainer Mike Bass's top work rider: "We've being evacuating horses from Tokai and we've got some here, some at Justin's place . and at SA Riding for the Disabled.

"We've had people ringing from here all the way to Caledon volunteering paddocks and horse boxes. Some of the hacks haven't moved off their properties for years and wouldn't go into the horse boxes, so we had people walking them out, riding them out. I just feel sorry for the other animals out there though - you can hear them crying and screaming."

Heat of another kind will be experienced tomorrow in the Arabian Desert, when Meydan racecourse stages its annual Super Saturday meeting, a dress rehearsal for the 20th running of the Dubai World Cup on March 28.

Of particular interest will be the performance of South Africa's champion sprinter of recent times, Via Africa.

The five-year-old mercurial mare will contest the Grade 3 Meydan Sprint over 1000m on turf - the race in which her compatriot Shea Shea first made his international name.

Via Africa is reported to be well-tuned for the challenge. She'll need to be, for the UK's two-time King's Stand Stakes winner Sole Power is in the lineup.

There's a slew of other South African runners on the card, including the magnificent Vercingetorix and the sand meister Pylon - a world away from his stamping ground on the banks of the Vaal River.