An old article on the passing of Ricky Howard-Ginsberg, trainer in TVL
It was with a deep sense of regret and sadness that the TBA learnt of the sudden passing of popular TVL trainer Ricky Howard-Ginsberg[44] on Dec 14 ..'Ginsie's presence at the sales and on the racetracks will be sorely missed and our sympathies go out to his wife Pam and his 3 children Lisa, Karen and Robert.
Family apart no on e was closer to Ricky than Basil Benjamin." When I first met Ricky some 22 yrs ago I could not stand him.He aws a very abrupt and headstrong young man and I had no intention of becoming involved with him.Besides my horses at that stage were trained by George Azzie and Basil Cooper and I was perfectly happy with that arrangement.However my wife Shirley sensed that he could make the grade and she persuaded me to give him a chance so I invited him over to the farm to look over some that nobody else wanted.Fils d'Eve[Fr] was the resident stallion at the time and Ricky picked out 2 fillies by him.
He won 8 races with those 2 fillies and from then on a bond developed between us which got stronger with each passing year."
Looking back on Ricky Howard-Ginsberg's career as a trainer, one could say without fear of contradiction that he was successful.His father Howard was himself a top trainer and was often referred to as "Ginsberg the Magician".He was one of the first trainers to raid Natal with success while at the same time keeping a string going on the Rand.He had the uncanny ability to keep a horse at his peak for a great length of time and very few of his horses ever ran "inexplicably" below their form.
Howard's career was curtailed by a serious illness which necessitated an operation in England.He returned to S.A. but remained an invalid until his death .
But for Ricky, success was a long time coming.Despite Basil Benjamin's valuable assistance, money was in short supply and the stable's patrons were largely bargain hunters.Hours and hours of looking through horses at the Sales would often yield no purchases but fortunately Ricky was a man with a tremendous sense of humour and there were times when that's all that kept him going.
Around 1977 Ricky started training for Alf Field and Johan Zwart and suddenly the buying power was there.Ricky's confidence began to grow and so did the list of winners.His biggest success came in the 1979 Holiday Inns which he won with Bold Cherry which was bred by the Birch Bros.
Ricky was a great fan of the Birches and in the latter years he enjoyed a great deal of success with their stock.Right to the end he believed in their way of rearing horses.To him they were always the toughest. His band of patrons was also growing steadily and things began to tick along nicely.There was a particularly pleasant atmosphere in "Ginsies" yard as he would never train for anyone he did not like.
Over the past couple of seasons he had a particularly good run winning big races with high class filly Eileen Alanna and the good stayers Totally Bold, Colourburst and South Lake.Off the track Ricky was a man of contrasts.He loved to party and enjoyed telling a really good joke.He was more often than not the life and soul of any festive occasion. But he reallyenjoyed getting away from it all and going hunting in the veld which he loved.Carl Malcomess taught him everything he knew about "veld-craft" and the 2 on many occasions led parties of hunters into the bush in search of trophies.
On more than one occasion Ricky expressed the wish to one day give up racing and take up big-game farming on a full time basis.He was without doubt one of the great characters of the turf and racing is very much the poorer for his death.
It is a tribute to Ricky's character that his patrons have thrown their weight behind his assistant Michael de Kock and we wish them many winners in the future.
ENDS.
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