Harry’s Charm Part 2:
Triumphs, Trials and Racing Glory
At the close of the 1994/95 season, Michael Azzie chose to give Harry’s Charm an extended break. By then she was already well developed and close to her full growth, so the spell wasn’t about physical maturing – it was simply a well-earned rest for a filly who had already given so much on the track. “She’d won seven of eight starts in a busy campaign, gave us her all, and was already a beast of a horse,” Azzie noted.
Harry’s Charm only returned to the track eight months later, in March 1996, and she was stronger and better than ever. In her comeback run in the hands of Piere Strydom, she galloped her rivals dizzy in the Grade 3 Henry Eatwell Memorial over 1000m at Newmarket, leaving quality sprinting fillies like Studio Star and Sydney’s Dream in her wake.
This proved to be Harry’s Charm’s sole preparation for the Grade 1 Mondi Sprint over 1200m, staged on 26 April – a clash against some of the nation’s top sprinters, among them Shoe Shac, who had downed the mighty Tommy Hotspur to capture the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint just six weeks earlier.
With such quality collateral form among her rivals, some experts suggested that Azzie had bitten off more than he could chew, asking Harry’s Charm to take on hardened campaigners in just her second run back after a long break. But Azzie, in true racing parlance, “didn’t want to know.”
On race day, Harry’s Charm opened odds-on at 6-10, drifted to 12-10, and then shortened again to 1-1. Punters were clearly confident in the imposing chestnut filly, who by all accounts seemed to be near the peak of her powers. To them, the result was as good as “in the frame,” and once again Harry’s Charm put her rivals to the sword with a breathtaking display of pace and power, guided effortlessly by Strydom. She left Casey’s Honour nearly three lengths behind at the line, with Shoe Shac a further two lengths back in third.
Above: Harry's Charm (Piere Strydom) wins the Mondi Sprint (image: supplied)
Unexpectedly, Harry’s Charm’s decisive win in The Mondi Sprint was followed by a frustrating losing streak of six runs, beginning with a shock defeat at the hands of rank outsider Wonderful World in the 1996 Grade 1 SA Fillies Sprint at Scottsville. Ironically, Azzie pointed out, she had also been beaten at the same meeting in 1995 by Gold Flier, and, in both cases, her conqueror was ridden by Robbie Fradd.
At this stage of her career, it should be noted, Harry’s Charm was up against some of the finest male sprinters South Africa had seen in decades – a generation of proper champions. She finished third to Bold Thatch and Flobayou in the Grade 1 Gilbeys Stakes at Scottsville in June 1996, before taking fourth behind Tommy Hotspur, Golden Loom, and Divine Force in November’s Listed Joseph Dorfman Memorial over 1000m at Gosforth Park.
Harry’s Charm was again outpaced by the now bang-in-form Divine Force in the Listed Merchants Handicap over 1200m at Turffontein on New Year’s Day 1997, finishing third under visiting jockey Frankie Dettori and nearly six lengths adrift.
Azzie was puzzled that she hadn’t won or at least closed in on the winner, but there was a valid explanation that put his mind at ease. “Frankie unsaddled her and said, ‘Mike, she wasn’t using herself in the race.’ When I looked down, I saw that Harry’s Charm had spread a shoe. It was still on her hoof but twisted to the side, which explained her inability to stride out fully. Thankfully, she wasn’t hurt, and we pulled the shoe off.”
As it happened, Dettori rode two other runners for Azzie that day – Blue and Hot Masala – both also well fancied. But they, too, were beaten into third. Azzie quipped, “We thought we had the treble wrapped up with the world’s best jockey on a rare visit to Johannesburg, but it wasn’t to be. We got a hiding.”
Harry’s Charm gave Golden Loom a hard race in the Syd Laird Memorial over 1000m at Newmarket a month later, going down by just half a length. “Goofy” was approaching his prime, already the winner of eight races, and would eventually retire five seasons later with 22 victories to his name.
Next, Harry’s Charm went off the boil in the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint, turning in the worst run of her career, seven lengths adrift of Tommy Hotspur. “She looked lacklustre. I began considering what to do, searching for reasons behind her below-par efforts.
Above: Johnny Geroudis in his riding heyday (image: supplied)
“There were plenty of jockeys eager to ride Harry’s Charm in the mornings, but I felt some may have pushed her too hard. So Johnny Geroudis and I decided to team up and get to the bottom of it,” Azzie recalled. “We sat down with a sheet of paper and mapped out her next several workouts meticulously, down to the second for each fraction, on both grass and sand.”
With Johnny as her sole work rider, Harry’s Charm seemed to turn the corner. In the week leading up to her next race, the second renewal of the Grade 1 Mondi Sprint on 19 April 1997, Azzie believed she was ready to deliver a massive run. Geroudis told his trainer, “It’s race over, she cannot lose.” Remarkably, the contest was scheduled almost exactly a year after her last victory, which had come in the same race.
This was arguably the finest performance of Harry’s Charm’s career. Among her rivals were arch-enemies Golden Loom, Flobayou, and Divine Force; the rising star July Day; the award-winning champion Special Preview; and multiple winners such as Turbo Star, What A Chance, and Planetary Music. Harry’s Charm fought July Day all the way to the line, edged clear close home, and successfully defended her title with a three-quarter-length victory, Divine Force and Flobayou following in close order.
Geroudis, in his post-race interview, remarked: “I love it when a plan comes together!” and he said earlier this week: “Harry’s Charm was a machine, one of the best I came across in my career. In my short spell with her, I rode her every day of the week and enjoyed every moment of her progress.”
Azzie engaged his old friend Gavin van Zyl to ride Harry’s Charm in her second tilt at the Grade 1 Fillies Sprint at Scottsville on Saturday, 24 May 1997 – an interesting day all round.
Typical New Turf Carriers early morning scene (Image: New Turf Carriers on Instagram)
As was customary, Harry’s Charm was booked to travel alone on a New Turf truck to Pietermaritzburg on the Friday night. Azzie set off in his own vehicle in the early hours of Saturday, knowing he would catch up with the truck along the way, as he had done before. Long before daybreak, at the top of Van Reenen’s Pass near Harrismith, he came upon the New Turf vehicle pulled up alongside another horse float that had broken down.
Azzie told: “The stationary float had accidentally hit some stray donkeys crossing the road. The driver was stranded with a broken vehicle carrying runners trained by St John Gray and Dianne Stenger. The driver asked if we could load three of his horses, who were carded to race at the same meeting. I refused, because of what we’d been through before with Harry’s Charm. She had to travel on her own, and that was the fixed arrangement. I owed it to the filly and her owners to deliver her to the track without interruptions or distractions along the way.”
“The idea of fitting their horses onto our float was a nightmare. Harry’s Charm was standing in what we call ‘the well’ – the wider, lower section of the float, with an upper deck for other horses beyond it. To load theirs, Harry’s Charm would have had to be unloaded first. This would have unsettled her, which was completely unacceptable. Not only was she a poor traveller, but they expected her to stand in the dark, held by a groom, with traffic racing past on a dangerous mountain road, while they loaded each horse one by one on the top deck. Only then would she be reloaded into the well. At the top of Van Reenen’s Pass, anything could have gone wrong.
“I had to phone my driver’s boss, Mark Sham, who confirmed the single booking and instructed him to carry on to Scottsville with just one passenger. Credit to the driver and New Turf: after dropping off Harry’s Charm, the driver turned back to Van Reenen to collect the stranded trio, who all arrived in time to take their places on the day. St John’s filly Finest View won the SA Fillies Guineas, but Dianne’s pair, Marlin Bay and Pollen Count, missed the frame,” Azzie said. “Neither trainer spoke to me for a while.”
The colts and geldings Harry’s Charm had defeated in the Mondi were handicapped to turn the tables in the Grade 1 Golden Spur (Gilbeys) in June 1997 and they did. Her familiar male rivals were too strong at the swing in weights and Harry’s Charm was beaten just over two lengths by July Day, Golden Loom, Divine Force and Flobayou.
She wasn’t disgraced, however, and kept her form for an easy handicap win over a 1200m at Turffontein on 12 July 1997, a comfortable win in the hands of Rhys van Wyk. “This was just ordinary pacework for her, a walk in the park,” Van Wyk said afterwards. With a perfect two-from-two record aboard the filly, Van Wyk would finish his partnership unbeaten, while Harry’s Charm’s career tally stood at 10 wins and seven places from just 18 starts. Sadly, she would never win again.
Given a short break before her five-year-old campaign, Harry’s Charm began showing signs of losing interest – something not uncommon in young mares as nature starts to whisper that the broodmare barn awaits.
For the way she ran through over 1200m and her natural class, Azzie decided to try Harry’s Charm over 1600m in the Spring Fillies and Mares Stakes (drawn 16/16) and the Style Magazine Challenge (drawn 14/16). She finished within three lengths of the winner on both occasions and her supporters would always wonder how she’d go from a better draw, but there wasn’t going to be a third attempt at the mile.
In her final tilt at the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint in March 1998, Harry’s Charm returned fresh from a five-month layoff. Though she’d lost a touch of her trademark speed, she dug deep and still produced a gallant run to finish second to the all-conquering Golden Loom.
Rising six, Azzie gave Harry’s Charm one final chance to defend her title in the Grade 1 Mondi Sprint in April 1998, but she finished midfield behind Basic Instinct. “She was sour and difficult to saddle, it took two handlers to get her onto the track for the canterdown. She played up at the start and ran a moderate race. Physically, she was very sound and strong, but she’d had enough. She gave us clear signals, and I knew it was time to call it a day.”
With five Grade 1 victories, Harry’s Charm etched her name into the record books as one of the standout fillies of the 20th century. She returned to Highlands Farm before being shipped to the USA to begin her stud career.
Azzie reflected: “Harry’s Charm retired at the Beck family’s Gainesway Farm in Kentucky. She foaled down with a filly by Grand Lodge (USA) who ran eight times for no wins, and was then twice sent to the Gainesway stallion Orientate (Mt Livermore, USA), producing two fillies who didn’t succeed on the track. She didn’t pass on her genes in those matings, but perhaps she might have nicked well with other stallions. What matters to me is that she was a true track star who ran with power and pride. She brought immense joy to our stable and to South African racing fans, and she was deeply admired by all.”