TRAINER Johan Janse van Vuuren celebrated his stable’s 200th winner at the Vaal on Thursday when Weichong Marwing booted Believe Me to a 2.75-length win for Laurence Wernars and family.
“We started with four horses, we’ve come a long way,” said Janse Van Vuuren, who moved his racing string to Turffontein recently and has sent out half a dozen winners from his new base in just a few weeks.
Believe Me, a three-year-old filly by Silvano, has only one eye and her promise has been hampered to the extent that Janse Van Vuuren called on Equine Behaviour Therapist Malan du Toit for help.
Du Toit told: “Believe Me has been a bit uptight. With her right eye gone she has monocular vision (as opposed to the normal binocular vision) and it would feel to her almost if her left side is not there.”
“Horses like this can do things like walk into a fence or a pole and then lack confidence. The goal was to teach her to become aware of her other side, she’s improved nicely.”
Van Vuuren said that Believe Me, a R140,000 buy from the CTS Two-Year-old Sale in August 2016, will win more races. She drew away to win nicely and while she’ll be taking on stronger now, she could to be above average.
Photo: In the winner’s circle at the Vaal: Trainer Johan Janse Van Vuuren (inside righ) with owner Laurence Wernars in the middle. On the left is Darryl Maree, jockey Weichong Marwing and Malan du Toit, on the right is Wernars’ business partner Bruce Binnie.