Racing · Classic
The SA Derby.
South Africa's oldest classic — and the final, unforgiving leg of the SA Triple Crown. 2450m at Turffontein every April.
The race.
South Africa’s oldest classic.
First run in 1885 in Port Elizabeth and at Turffontein ever since the turn of the twentieth century, the TAB SA Derby is the country’s original three-year-old classic. It closes the SA Triple Crown — after the Gauteng Guineas (1600m) and the SA Classic (1800m) — and it closes it hard. Over 2450m on Turffontein’s demanding turf, the Derby is the leg that decides who is genuinely Classic-class and who was merely quick.
Heritage
From Port Elizabeth to the Highveld.
It is a little-known fact that the SA Derby originated in Port Elizabeth. The inaugural event, open to three-year-olds sired in South Africa, was run for a stake of 400 sovereigns on Saturday, 17 October 1885 and won by Mr Hilton Barber's Oxygen (Plunger). By the turn of the century, Johannesburg had become the racing centre of South Africa in the wake of the gold rush and the race relocated to Turffontein where it has remained ever since. The distance has remained largely unchanged, barring a slight increase from 2413m to 2450m in 1970. It was shifted from December to its current April slot in 1971. The Derby attained Grade 1 status as part of South Africa's adoption of international grading standards in the late twentieth century, and held that rank for decades. In the current 4Racing programme it is run as a Grade 2, but the pedigree, the field quality and the Triple Crown weight it carries are unchanged — the SA Derby remains one of South Africa's oldest and most prestigious racing events.
Turffontein racecourseThe race at a glance.
Grade 2 · 2450m · Turffontein · early April.
Grade and distance
Historically Grade 1; currently run as Grade 2 in the 4Racing programme, over 2450m on Turffontein's turf. Open to three-year-olds of both sexes — fillies included.
The final leg
Third and deciding leg of the SA Triple Crown, after the Gauteng Guineas at 1600m and the SA Classic at 1800m.
TAB SA Derby
Sponsored by TAB. The pinnacle of the autumn three-year-old programme for colts, geldings and fillies alike.
Running since 1885
From Port Elizabeth in 1885 through the Turffontein era that began at the turn of the twentieth century — 140 years on, still the country's defining three-year-old test.
Notable SA Derby winners.
From Horse Chestnut to Curious Girl — the roll that defines the race.
Horse Chestnut
By Fort Wood; Mike de Kock / Felix Coetzee. Completed the Triple Crown and went on to demolish the J&B Met by 8¼ lengths in a Horse Of The Year campaign widely regarded as the greatest in SA racing.
Louis The King
By Black Minnaloushe; Geoff Woodruff / Robbie Fradd. Beat As You Like by a length to seal the second SA Triple Crown in fifteen years.
Malmoos
By Captain Al; Mike de Kock / Luke Ferraris. Ferraris became the youngest jockey ever to win the SA Triple Crown; seven wins from eight starts.
Curious Girl
By Futura; trained by Mike and Mathew de Kock, ridden by Richard Fourie. The first filly to win the SA Derby in 109 years, since Noble Lady in 1917 — Mike de Kock's sixth Derby.
The test
Why the Derby is the hardest leg.
2450m at Turffontein is not a trip you can bluff. The course sets horses up with a long, rising run from around the 1200m marker — the famous Turffontein climb — and the final stretch is all uphill, into the wind on a bad day. A three-year-old arrives here having already done 1600m in the Guineas and 1800m in the Classic inside two months. The Derby asks for another 650m on top of that, on the stiffest finish in the country. It is the leg where precocious milers are found out, and where the genuine stayer-miler hybrid — the Horse Chestnut, the Louis The King, the Malmoos — finally announces itself. Nothing else in the SA three-year-old calendar tests class, stamina and constitution in one afternoon quite like it.
The Triple CrownBe there
The SA Derby at Turffontein.
Derby Day is the climax of the Highveld three-year-old season — the Derby, the Oaks and the full Triple Crown Day programme on one card. Hospitality goes fast.
Hospitality enquiries