Low Profile, High Strike Rate The Kuhns’ Racing Journey
Above: Hein and Hester Kuhn (Image: supplied)
The black silks with a white cross and red cap carried by the runners of Heinrich and Hester Kuhn are quietly becoming a familiar sight in South African racing. The relatively young owners describe themselves as ‘average Joes’ who prefer to stay out of the limelight, but their growing involvement in the sport reflects a thoughtful approach shaped by the same principles that guide their business interests.
Above: Grand Empire beats Trust in the Grade 1 SA Classic (Image: JC Photos)
Their latest success story is Grand Empire, a colt by Vercingetorix out of an unproven Potala Palace mare, bought for R400,000 – the second-lowest price paid for any of the 35 yearlings by the champion sire at the 2024 Bloodstock National Yearling Sale.
Heinrich commented: “Jan Mantel raised Grand Empire at Millstream Farm. Whenever we see Jan, he quips, ‘You stole that one!’ but of course it was a fair deal. Our good friend and trainer Eric Sands liked Grand Empire as a young horse when he visited the farm and told us that he was a lovely specimen – on the small side but with lots of scope.
“When Grand Empire got to the sales ring, Eric already had his eye on him and, due to his size, we secured him without much competition from other buyers. Eric did the groundwork, told us that Grand Empire would take time to mature. When he was almost ready to race, we moved him to Sean Tarry so we could have easier access to the Gauteng features and KZN season coming up this year.”
Above: Heinrich Kuhn and Cathy Rymill (right) and the late Werner Kuhn with Cosmic Speed (Image: supplied)
Tarry believes the Kuhns are ‘lucky’ owners, with a knack for acquiring quality horses. Aside from Grand Empire, they currently also race the Grade 1 winner Cosmic Speed (Querari), the ultra-promising Speedman (Vercingetorix) and the Graded-placed Hierarchy (Erupt), stabled along with a couple of promising, unraced two-year-olds in training at his Randjesfontein yard.
Heinrich noted that all their runners are selected by their trainers and that many are owned in partnership with others, although he concedes they may also have enjoyed a measure of good fortune in racing.
From available statistics (as close as could be determined), the Kuhns have raced about 70 horses between 2013 and 2026, alone or in various partnerships, yielding 40 individual winners of at least one race or more. That represents a remarkable winning strike rate of near 60% from horses raced.
This record is even more impressive considering that two of their early purchases produced Graded winners and a runner in the Hollywoodbets Durban July, and that they’ve had Grade 1 winners in the last two racing seasons.
Heinrich recalled: “My late brother, Werner Kuhn, was the first in our family to get involved in racing. He pulled us into a share of a cheapie called Captain Rock (Seventh Rock), trained by Chris Erasmus. She won first time out over 800m at the Vaal in November 2013 and the bug bit right there. She was a bleeder and struggled in a few runs after that before we retired her, but she gave us enough inspiration to dip our toes a little deeper into the water.”
Their first Graded winner came from their very first auction purchase. Cosmic Light, a filly selected by Cathy Rymill, was bought at the 2014 Bloodstock SA National Yearling Sale for R200,000 – the lowest price among the eight yearlings by Querari offered, and R130,000 below the sale’s average price.
Cosmic Light won her first three starts for Duncan Howells, including the Grade 2 Debutante Stakes, and later finished second in the Grade 2 Sceptre Stakes at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. “We retired her after nine runs and sold her back to her breeder, Maine Chance Farms,” Heinrich said. “She has since produced the multiple-winning sprinters Cosmic Star and Chyavana, both performers at Graded level.”
Above: Ten Gun Salute, two appearances in Grade 1 Durban July (Image: supplied)
Heinrich had Ten Gun Salute (Henrythenavigator, AUS), an imported half-brother to ten winners, on his shortlist for the 2014 Ready To Run Sale, but the bidding rose beyond his budget to R1.15-million. Shortly afterwards the buyer withdrew, and Heinrich recalled: “Nicola Coppez of Balmoral Stud phoned to say the horse had become available and asked if I, as the underbidder, was still interested. We bought him for R650,000.”
Ten Gun Salute developed into a high-class performer for Duncan Howells, winning both the Listed Michael Roberts Handicap and the Grade 2 Betting World 1900. He carried the Kuhns’ colours in the Hollywoodbets Durban July in 2016 and 2017, and also travelled to Gauteng for the Summer Cup.
“Ten Gun Salute didn’t make the frame in those races, but simply having a runner in such prestigious events gave us enormous thrills and unexpected early exposure to top-level racing,” Heinrich said of Ten Gun Salute, who was exported to Mauritius.
Another prominent runner was the R80,000 purchase Driving Miss Daisy (Master Of My Fate), raced in partnership with Eric Sands and several others. She proved the unlucky bridesmaid of her generation, winning just two races but finishing second in the Grade 1 Paddock Stakes, the Grade 1 WSB Fillies Guineas and the then Grade 1 Woolavington Stakes, and fourth in the Grade 1 Garden Province Stakes on Durban July day. She earned just under R700,000 in stakes.
Heinrich said: “Due to her excellent Graded record we decided to keep Driving Miss Daisy and breed with her. We’ve retained our interests when she retired to stud at Millstream Farm.”
While they are well aware of the financial pitfalls of racehorse ownership, the Kuhns have tried to ‘balance the books’ and run their racing interests as a business.
“We look at our available racing budget every year to make sure we don’t overspend,” Heinrich said. “We’ve invested up to R3-million on new acquisitions in a season, but sometimes much less. We try to cut our cloth according to prevailing circumstances, and choose the right partners. We retire or sell on the non-performing runners. Right now, we have 15 in training, which is the most we’ve had at any one time.”
Heinrich and Hester both come from middle-class families and grew up within a block of each other in the modest Johannesburg suburb of Newlands.
Heinrich said his father, Johan, began his working life as a plumber before building his own plumbing business into a successful enterprise. “He was very focused on entrepreneurship and gave my two brothers and me plenty of advice and business guidance. We all had our own businesses by the age of 20. We made plenty of mistakes along the way, but he kept steering us in the right direction.”
Heinrich and Hester started a building construction company that grew into a sizeable business by the early 2000s. Their company, Benchmark Construction, established large and active branches in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, but the couple changed direction when they relocated from Gauteng to Cape Town in 2010.
“The business had grown to a point where its rapid expansion – combined with corporate red tape and provincial challenges – was giving us sleepless nights,” Heinrich explained.
“We had staff across three regions and were running the entire business from Cape Town,” Heinrich said. “In the end we decided on a lifestyle change, scaled things down and opted to run a smaller operation ourselves – just Hester and I. These days we focus mainly on buying and selling property, with construction taking a back seat. We purchase old or run-down houses and factories, refurbish them, subdivide them where possible and then sell them on.
“This type of business is less effective in Gauteng and KZN for political, regulatory and other practical reasons but the Western Cape, with its robust expansion and infrastructure development, has proved ideal,” Heinrich said. “We have agents around the Cape who source what they believe are suitable investment properties and factories. We investigate them very carefully before making a decision, and we’ve turned quite a few down.”
Aside from keeping her finger firmly on the pulse of the business, Hester is an interior decorating specialist whose expertise is invaluable when it comes to ‘flipping’ properties at the right cost, further strengthening their partnership.
On the thoroughbred side, Heinrich said Hester has also picked up some important selection insights from their trainers, although the couple generally avoid becoming directly involved in that process. “The first lesson we learned in racing was to stay in your lane and not interfere with the work of the experts. When we first entered the sport we thought we knew everything – and of course we didn’t. Our horses are selected and trained by professionals, and we don’t try to do their jobs for them.”
If asked what advice he would give to newcomers to racing, Heinrich said it would be simple: choose a top trainer and then get out of the way.
“Everyone tries hard, but your chances are better with an established stable,” he said. “People often say the leading trainers have greater buying power and larger strings of horses, but they are in that position for a reason – they are very good at what they do.
“That doesn’t mean we write off horsemen outside the Top 5. We enjoy seeing talented trainers coming through the ranks. Recently, for example, young Dean Smith has shown he has what it takes.”
The Kuhn family rarely go to the racetrack and Heinrich said: “We prefer to keep a low profile. We enjoy watching the racing on television at home with our daughters, Crislynn and Genevieve. When we have runners it’s special to be together, and when they win we often celebrate with a family lunch the next day.”
They also love having a bet, and Heinrich added: “We like to have a tickle, especially on racing in the UK. We’ll back our own horses too, but not when they run in Graded races – it feels like you’re putting extra pressure on them.”
He concluded: “Racing is a sport that works for us. We know what we’re in for, we try our best to keep it financially viable and we take great enjoyment from every horse’s journey. Every purchase carries a special promise – from the sales ring to the trainer’s yard and ultimately to the racetrack. We’ll ride our wave of luck while we can, but we’ll sit out the lean periods too.”