Stephen John Moffatt: Best birthday present?

After 26 years training horses, Moffatt has finally got a really good horse on his hands and believes the only thing standing between Roman Carnival and the biggest payday of both their careers is the gelding’s wide draw.

Roman Carnival will start from the second-to-outside stall and only 5% of the horses who have jumped from there have won, as opposed to 25.5% from pole position.

The draw is a serious disadvantage, but Brian and Michael Miskin’s homebred is running in a field in which none of the fancied runners tick all the boxes.

He has good gate speed, which will help jockey Chase Maujean get him into his preferred racing position just off the early leaders, and he has the combination of speed and grit necessary to excel on the specialist sand track.

“From the first day I worked him I knew he’d be something special,” said Moffatt. “He’s not the biggest horse, but he’s all heart, has a lovely nature and loads of ability.”

He then quipped: “The favourites never seem to win this race, so 10/1 must make him a huge runner. I’ll be putting my money down – he’s a very good eachway (win-and-place) bet.”

Moffatt was born in Dumfries, Scotland, on September 23, 1971, and came to South Africa aged 10 when his dad Ronald got a job on Vaal Reef mine in Orkney.

He started riding at a young age and was accepted to the world-renowned South African Jockeys’ Academy in Durban at 13.

A growth spurt that year resulted in him becoming too heavy, “so I got the boot and went back to regular school until I matriculated”.

Moffatt knew his destiny lay with the majestic animals he adored and straight after Matric in 1989 he started working for the late Owen Sims.

Their relationship developed into afull-blown partnership early this millennium, when ill-health forced his mentor to slow down. They enjoyed a number of winners together before Sims retired in 2003, leaving the 13 horses that remained in the string to Moffatt’s care.

“A few of the owners had already started moving away when Mr Sims got ill, but Brian Miskin and Albert Rapp (of National Emblem fame) remained staunch patrons along with my dad,” he said.

Moffatt’s first solo winner came about six months later – on 15 July, 2003 to be precise – with Ceet Rambarran-owned four-year-old Private Badger at now-defunct Bloemfontein Racecourse. “It is a feeling I will never be able to describe and still happens with every winner we have.

“I’ve kept the string small for the most part,” he said. “A couple of years ago it grew to about 85, but I culled some of the horses and I’m back down to 45, which is a perfect size because each horse gets individual attention.”

Roman Carnival has recorded all his form on the Vaal sand track, which is to be grassed in a couple of months’ time. He is a young, lightly raced four-yearold and has quite a bit of mileage left in him.

On paper his two runs on grass were uninspiring so the sand track’s closure could leave him with nowhere to race. Moffatt has high hopes he will adapt to racing on turf.

“He’s too good for the only other sand racing surface in the country, Flamingo Park in Kimberley. But I believe he’ll be just as good on grass,” he said.

“In the first of his turf races he threw his jockey before the race and he pulled up shin sore in the other. So effectively he is untried on the surface. I think, fit and sound, he’ll hold his own.”

A few other horses in his string could also keep Moffatt’s name in the headlines this season. Leeuloop Jet and Dream Galaxy are feature-race prospects and a young three-yearold, beautifully named Ewan Again, is showing great promise on the training tracks.

Today’s race meeting is the biggest event of the year at Vaal Racecourse.