From The Horse's Mouth - Mark Van Deventer

The Greyville track was running relatively fast for Saturday’s lucrative stakes races. Final times were correspondingly quick as were the come home sectionals with most of the winners flashing through 400m to finish fractions in around 22 seconds. 

Speed figure handicappers take all this into account and adjust for the way the track is playing to ensure the validity of the ratings. After crunching the numbers, this is what the clock revealed:

Questioning s/s 108 + is, for sure, a top-notch sprinter. He again won with something in hand and is teed up for another big race success. Jerusalema Rain s/s 106 ran well too, though the horse to take out of the race is Aristocratic s/s 105+ from Kannemeyer Racing Stables. He rushed home best of all and will be of interest when next entered over slightly further.

Roland Garros s/s 106 captured the Big Cap prize with a fluent victory. JP van der Merwe worked out a comfortable commute from draw 1 on the Justin Snaith trained grey, before skipping clear away from pursuers. 

Talk to the Master and What a Fortune, beaten with every chance, both attained 103’s. Isivivane s/s 102 transferred his Poly form to the green, good enough for 4th spot.

Turn it Up s/s 89 ++ was punted with conviction in the Race Coast Sales Slipper and the 11/10 favorite duly won by a street. Jockey de Melo had Sean Tarry’s colt settled some way back but the response, when asked, was instantaneous. A final 800m to finish in 44.6 seconds proved irresistible.

The Grand National was won by proven Aintree jumper, the top weight I am Maximus who subsequently received the highest Timeform rating (171) in the history of the race. This 2024 winner and runner up in 2025 is trained by Willie Mullins. He relishes the more forgiving fences of the “modern” National and has the class, stamina and determination to handle big fields of tough rivals.

This horse is just a superstar. Nothing fazes him and he does what he has to do - runs, jumps and wins Nationals.” said Mullins who is up there with legends of the sport such as Vincent o Brien having now trained three successive National winners. I am Maximus was a strongly supported favourite, one bold on course strike of 800 000 x 100 000 GBP saw him shorten into an SP of 9/2 and inflict damage on the layers when he finished best of all coming off The Elbow.

To conclude with an apt and gracious quote from Willie Mullins, which transcends the often-cut-throat nature of horse racing;

“I enjoy the people in racing. I enjoy the people in sport. Sportspeople are fantastic, they have a great outlook on life. We are all well used to getting beaten in finals, semi-finals or whatever and to me, that passion is wonderful. To be able to take those knocks and pat the next guy on the back - I love all that. The older I get, the more I enjoy it.

"When I was younger it was more about winning and wanting to win and needing to win but now I can see the bigger picture of sport and I enjoy it and I am very lucky. I have a team that do everything for me.

"Those guys take over and I try and not get in the way. They do their job fantastically. Where would we be without our staff? I love having happy horses and having happy staff."