Sea Cottage the greatest of all time

khargisland Wrote:

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> All those overseas horses..... Did some forget
> FRANKEL??

Frankel was only born 18 days before those posts were made.
No-one knew he was the greatest yet.

Can some1 please tell me a lil more about the Sea Cottage shooting?
I'm a youngster, don't know much about it?
Like where and why?etc?

Thanks in advance..

Its special just hearing he ran 4th in the July after being shot a few weeks earlier

UNDOUBTEDLY the biggest incident associated with the Durban July and still spoken of today was the shooting of race favourite Sea Cottage in 1966.
The event was immortalised in A Newspaper History of South Africa, which recounts the tale as it was written more than 40 years ago in various publications.
Favourite for the race, Sea Cottage was shot in the right flank on Friday,June 10 while returning from a beach workout, by a gunman in a concrete shelter on the bridge crossing the Mgeni River at Blue Lagoon. In a strange twist of irony, the horse’s trainer, the legendary Syd Laird, had said to family and friends on the evening of June 9: “I don’t believe I’ve ever had a certainty for the July like Sea Cottage. The only way they will stop him is to get at him.”
And get at him they did. With three weeks until the race, the horse made a remarkable recovery and it’s worth noting the bullet was never found, despite three X-ray attempts. Sea Cottage started as favourite in the race and ran on gamely for fourth, behind Java Head, another Laird trained winner. Jockey Robbie Sivewright was adamant Sea Cottage could have won were it not for a bump from another horse, Cuff Link, which broke Cottage’s rhythm.
The following year, Sea Cottage dead-heated with Jollify to share race honours, the first dead heat in the history of the race.
As for who pulled the trigger, a Johnny Nel was subsequently arrested, convicted and sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended.

Cheers countrymember!!much appreciated!!
Was the dude who shot this horse a bookie? Or punter looking to back 2nd/3rd fav maybe?

As far as I know, the story goes that some bookmaker stood to lose so much money if Sea Cottage won the July that he paid someone to shoot him.

His name was widely published at the time..( lived very near to Greyville racecouse) ...Im too scared to mention it....With all these threats and suing going on....

Sonny Chislet was the bookie behind it and Johnny Nel was indeed the trigger man..CM i believe that the bullet was eventually found after Sea Cottage's death and Bobby Sivewright's children are in possession of it... the year Sea Cottage ran 4th the race was won by stable mate Java Head...this would have to go down as the most bitter sweet July win in the history of the race

Nice photos titch well done,you know sonny used to sit in my dads shop every day,and the day they shot the horse he sat behind the counter very worried and my mother side to him,sonny don't look so worried you never shot sea cottage, little did my mom know he was behind it all,

There was a middle man involved in the plot to shoot Sea Cottage - a nightclub owner called Monty Labuschagne, who gave the orders to Johnny Nel. It is all documented in the Sea Cottage profile which Aidan put together and which we'll try to give another airing on Tellytrack sometime soon. The profile doesn't deal at length with the shooting but Aidan has that all up his sleeve for a possible feature film he wants to make when he has finished the two historical series he's been working on for going on five years now. Funding continues to be his major obstacle and so far the industry itself, other than the TBA, which has been very generous, has not come to the party.

It's a great pity, because the two series - the one on the 40 greatest horses ever to race in this country, and the other on the history of racing and breeding in SA - could do so much to renew interest in racing as a sport, and generate legions of new fans. Both series are far down the road towards completion but without backing they may never see the light of day.

Monty was Sonny's muscle...was there ever a Roy Clack that came up when you researched the story Jim??? would be interested to know...so sorry to hear about your dog

a bit more about Sea Cottage (from Thoroughpedia)
would be fabulous if Aidan got to do the movie

www.queensplate.info/index.php?page=horse&horseid=793

ok headcount!! anyone going to the NYS Germiston at the end of April? who would like to see some of these documentaries + possibly a short talk from Thoroughpedia?

I have never heard of a Roy Clack, Titch, but Aidan might have, in his research. I'll ask him. Herman Brown Snr was very closely involved with many of the protagonists - he tells the story of how the gunman, Johnny Nel, could hit a cockroach crawling up a wall, not that I've ever seen a vertically crawling cockroach. But Herman's talent for embellishment is legendary! What a character!