Youngsters in Major roles in Guineas

James Crawford looks remarkably young, fresh-faced and innocent, but he knows more about getting a horse to win South Africa’s biggest race than most of the older, battle-hardened trainers in the country.

Winchester Mansion and Oriental Charm won the 2023 and 2024 Hollywoodbets Durban Julys under the name of Brett Crawford, James’s father, but it was the son and assistant trainer who did the hands-on work, getting up at ungodly hours of the morning to apply the finishing touches that led to those epic victories.

Both champions were prepared for the big race at Crawford Racing’s Randjesfontein satellite yard near Joburg, where James ran the show with dad Brett remotely directing operations from Cape Town HQ.

When Brett was given a prized training position in Hong Kong last year, he passed his hugely successful SA practice into the proven safe hands of his offspring.

Fast forward to early 2026 and Crawford the younger – now relocated to the Cape head office – reckons he’s got another Durban July prospect on his hands. Three-year-old Star Major is a surprise winner of the 1800m Politician Stakes on Met day and then a creditable fourth in the 2000m Cape Derby a month later.

The colt is immediately dispatched up the N1 to Joburg to prepare for the KwaZulu-Natal winter season.

Small problem: James isn’t there to fine-tune the horse. Solution: hire another youngster with racing pedigree to do the job. Who better than Tim Woodruff, grandson of Terrence Millard and sprog of and former assistant to Geoff Woodruff – names that echo loudly in the halls of racing fame?

Fast further forward to this past Saturday and Tim Woodruff delivers a well-drilled Star Major to Greyville racecourse and triumph in the WSB Guineas. Boss James flies in from Cape Town and Hong Kong (where he was checking on the old man) to cheer on his latest prodigy.

Both Winchester Mansion and Oriental Charm made similar in-and-out, Joburg-to-Durban, raids ahead of their July conquests.

Young folk might have bad haircuts and bad music, but these two blokes appear to have learnt good things from old masters and obviously know how to keep to a script.

Of course, there’s a long way to go to the first Saturday in July but, as James says of Star Major, “He’s a late foal so he’s going to mature and strengthen up with time and racing. The owners and us knew our fun was coning with the Durban season.”

A 25-1 shot at the Durban July first-entry stage, Star Major has been clipped to 16-1.

Any comment on Saturday’s Guineas must include mention of the exceptional performance of visiting French jockey Michaëlle Michel whose energetic work saw Star Major slice through a packed field to win comfortably. She admitted afterwards she’d been positioned a bit further back than planned but the colt’s tremendous finishing speed put everything to rights – and boded well for a Durban July down the same short run-in.

It was the personable young rider’s second Grade 2 success of the week, after the Senor Santa Sprint at Turffontein aboard Jerusalema Rain, and raised the question of whether she will get a Durban July engagement.