OFF THE RECORD #19

Above: Hot team: Kelly Mitchley (right), with Kyle Paddock and S'Manga Khumalo (photo: Pauline Herman)

On the Fast Track: Kelly Mitchley's rapid rise to prominence

In the world of thoroughbred racehorse trainers, where experience and tradition often dictate success, youthful trainer Kelly Mitchley (27) has emerged as a rising star, shining against the backdrop of the established hierarchy. She’s ignored earnest warnings not to pursue her chosen career and she’s defied low expectations from the racing fraternity. With odds stacked against her, Kelly has made a quick name for herself in Gqeberha, where the Greeff and Smith racing families have dominated the region for more than twice the number of years she has been alive!

Fellow lady trainers Yvette Bremner, Tara Laing and Sharon Kotzen have all made their mark in Gqeberha in the last two decades, but Kelly’s announced herself with an especially notable bang. She has proved, again, that age and gender are no barriers to success in our demanding and exhilarating sport.

Kelly started with a single horse, the filly Hilarity, in July 2022. She finished second in her first start for the stable, giving her trainer one place on record in the 2021/2 season. A year later, at the end of the 2022/3 season, Kelly had 60 horses in her care, with 40 winners and 146 places to show. Another seven months on, at the time of writing, she’s built her string to 94, including some yearlings still spelling at the family farm, and six unraced two-year-olds. Kelly’s winning tally on 21 March, 2024, was 46 winners with 210 places, already an improvement on her good second season, and reflected in a Top 20 position on the National Trainers Log.

Kelly said: “We’re aiming at doubling last year’s 40 winners. There are four months left, so with a bit of luck we can get there.” With ‘we’, she referred to her training team and her partner, fellow horse fanatic Kyle Paddock, the son of former trainer Grant Paddock, who helps her to place horses in the right races. She’s full of praise for Steven Ngqabuko, her first, and two years ago her only groom, who remains an important cog in the wheel of a team that has since grown to 30 individuals. Megan Guscott, a long-time member of Justin Snaith’s operation in Cape Town, is new on the block in the role of assistant trainer.

Kyle, some friends and patrons, were present at Fairview last Friday when Kelly won five races, including wins by two longshots. At combined multiple bookmakers’ odds, the five-timer worked out to a winning chance of about 20:000 to 1. On the balance of probabilities, according to one source on Google, a ratio of 20:000 to one entailed that there was a much better chance of being struck by lightning, getting a hole-on-one on the golf course or seeing Kim Kardashian as the next President of the USA. (Champion Trainer Justin Snaith will probably dispute those probabilities and be willing to prove them wrong. He sent out an SA record of seven winners at Fairview in March 2013).

Whatever your view of statistical assessments - and while her rival trainers Alan Greeff and Gavin Smith have won five-in-a-day a number of times between them - Kelly’s five-timer will go down in history as a most unexpected achievement at this early stage of her career.

Kelly said: “We were hoping for two winners, Golden Rule and Brenden James (4^th), but five came along. After the third winner, Makhachev, we were over the moon, and then Lady Zultanite won out of the blue at 33-1. It seemed so unlikely that we’d get number five, but we were on a high and we fancied Fiery Duke a bit in the last race. He stormed up late. It was a wonderful feeling, a big moment for all of us at the track and our supporters at home.”

Among her winners on the day, Kelly believes the well-bred Golden Rule will go on to a solid career. He’s a son of Canford Cliffs and the former top race mare Taking The Peace and Kelly said: “He has a boxy foot. We bought him under value for R150,000 at the Ready To Run Sale last year. He’s a talented sort who should be effective up to 1600m.”

Brenden James arrived from Gauteng as a one-time winner; Kelly’s first acquisition from her now leading patron, Brendan Fegan. He’s won a further five races for the stable in just 18 months and Kelly noted: “We were told he wasn’t good enough to earn outside of the MR70s, but he has already won off a MR84 and has been competitive off an MR93. He’s a stable soldier, alongside Polytrack Challenge winner Prince Of Fire and our seven-year-old stalwart, Mount Anderson.”

Reflecting on her early triumphs and the rapid growth of her yard, Kelly said that nobody had waved a magic wand. “I had five or six horses in October 2022, mostly from Suzette Viljoen. I went to the 2022 Ready To Run Sale where I didn’t know many people and had no idea what to expect. My friend Inel Bekker from Volmoed Stud introduced me to a few of her acquaintances from the breeding industry. But I also had to walk around on my own and introduce myself to other people. It was awkward, but it paid off and just after that sale we had nine new horses. I was lucky to meet Gary van den Berg, who is a big supporter of the yard today. He has 12 horses in training with us.”

Her good results have made it somewhat easier to get new patrons and she said: “The other day a truck arrived here carrying five horses from Kenneth Pillay’s Kestorm Investments. And there have been phone calls from other interested owners. Having winners helps a lot, of course.”

Above: Winning races has many benefits! (photo: Pauline Herman)

Kelly has not escaped racing’s notorious rumour mill and its jealousy factor and she said: “As always, when a trainer has a good run of success, people want to know, ‘what is she injecting?’, or ‘what dope is she using’? Those rumours have reached me and it’s annoying. Even worse is when fellow-trainers talk behind your back or try to pinch horses by phoning your owners. That is nasty and unprofessional conduct and something I would never do.”

It’s mostly good, however, she said. There has been support from most of her colleagues. “Alan Greeff is always helpful and he enjoys competition. He came up to congratulate us last Friday and gave me a hug, it was something I appreciated. We’re all trying our best in the same hard game and the wheel turns all the time. I see no reason not to be envious of another’s success.”

While she trains from the Fairview centre, Kelly has access to a long strip of beach about 20 minutes away from De La Ranch, the family’s rehoming centre. In the first reports written about her, she was said to have made good use of it. Is she doing anything different from what her rival trainers are doing? Does she get her horses fitter on the beach?

Kelly, who has had working spells with Snaith, Yvette Bremner, Corne Spies, Johan Janse van Vuuren and Gavin Smith, commented: “I learnt different things from all the trainers I worked for. It has not been about trying to copy what they do so well. Training is not a module you can repeat for exactly the same results. It doesn’t work that way. I’ve tried to incorporate the knowledge I received from all of them into a routine that works for me. The way trainers feed, for example, differs significantly in terms of the nutritional composition of the feed and the number of times they feed in a day. And there are many other factors involved. The specific needs of individual runners are primary.

“The beach has been an extra training tool, it is not our main training base. Every day I train on the same sand track as Alan and Gavin. We haven’t been to the beach at all this year because the trucks have been fully booked. Normally we take 16 horses at a time on a New Turf truck. The beach, the sea water as we know is good for sore legs, but importantly it also does wonders for temperament. Troublesome horses go there all hot and bothered and come back beautifully relaxed. Mount Anderson is one of them. He just loves it there. He always gets to go for a stretch on the beach and in the water with our two other ‘senior’ runners, Prince Of Fire and Brendan James.

“We’re also fortunate to have the services of professional jockeys who ride work and this makes a huge difference. Sandile Khati is on the track every morning and Donald Geerthsen has joined us from Gauteng. Julius Maphanya is also on the team. He is a very good work rider, he’s trying to get his licence back. And a big plus has been securing S’Manga Khumalo as our stable jockey. He’s getting the first choice of our mounts.”

Kelly’s approaching R4-million in gross stable earnings this season, without standout stakes runners in her string. The aforementioned older horses and two-year-old filly Public Benefit are the only ones to have raced outside of handicap level. She said: “The major owners tend to stay away from Gqeberha as a first port of call. Among the big breeders, only Maine Chance has given us support. We are very much willing to travel if we have a horse that is good enough. A talented horse in my stable won’t get stuck at Fairview for the sake of it. I’d love to travel more, to compete in the major races.”

While she doesn’t lack ambition and is open to a future move to a bigger centre, Kelly’s focusing on what is happening in her life right now. “Moving away and re-establishing a stable elsewhere is easier said than done. The pool of owners is limited and trainers in the Cape, for example, charge a lot more than we do here in Gqeberha. There’s a different fabric to it. I will raid whenever I can and we’ll see how things unfold.”

Kelly Mitchley has a good thing going, and we’ll be watching!