Top assistant trainer Vengi Masawi begins new chapter at HWB

We’re bidding a fond farewell to our long-time assistant trainer Vengi Masawi, who performed his last duties for the yard at Turffontein Saturday when Jaham won Race 4 over 1600m.

This week Vengi (45) will be joining the Hollywoodbets Group as an assistant trainer based at their recently established and beautifully revamped pre-training and recovery facility at the Ashburton complex outside of Pietermaritzburg. He will be working with Trevor and Jo Brown in the two-year-old barns.

Born and raised in Zimbawe, Vengi was educated at the highly-ranked Rusununguka Secondary School outside of Harare. He spent much of his teenage years on the Woodleigh Stud Farm in East Mashonaland, where his father worked as a mechanic.  The farm was owned by Dubbles Draper, who was married to Graham Carey, the grandfather of Ridgemont Stud’s Craig Carey. The great Ipi Tombe, bred by Peter Moor, was born in the same region.

Vengi with Divine Wisdom and the Lisa Harris team.

The early seeds of horsemanship were planted at Woodleigh where Vengi soaked everything up like a sponge and assisted with mare coverings on the farm. There were times, he said, when he ran away from school to be with horses.

Vengi met businessman Brian Makwabarara, well known in Zimbabwe and South Africa as an auctioneer and racehorse owner. Brian helped Vengi to get a job at Borrowdale Park, where he joined then champion trainer Lisa Harris at the height of her success. He credits Lisa with much of his foundation knowledge of stable management and treatment of injuries. He rode work and handled her top horses Double Bluff, Divine Wisdom and Zimbabwean champion Earl Of Surrey, with whom he got to travel to Johannesburg for a raiding feature victory in 2004.

Vengi told: “I enjoyed my South African trip so much that I rushed back when an opportunity came. I worked for Gary Alexander for a few weeks at Turffontein before joining another former Zimbabwean, Sharon Patterson, at her spelling facility near Randjesfontein. After a while Mrs Patterson felt that I would do well in a big racing stable and she spoke to Diane de Kock. In 2007 she got me the job as a stable employee working alongside Mrs. De Kock and every season’s string of incoming two-year-olds, which has always been separate from the main yard.”

Vengi said that he moved to the main stable after veterinarian, Dr Terry Casey, was impressed with the way he bandaged and treated an injured runner. “Dr Casey asked, ‘who did this, it is very well done’ and he mentioned it to Mr. De Kock.  I applied my knowledge and experience from Zimbabwe and that day it paid off.”

With Mike’s travels around the world, the extent of Vengi’s duties grew as he worked closely with erstwhile assistant trainer John Buckler and became a stalwart in the stable. Diane enrolled him at the Summerhill School Of Excellence in 2012, where he studied under Heather Morkel with the guidance of Mick Goss’s renowned multiple championship-winning team.

Vengi recalled: “We worked in teams, there was obviously a lot of academic work aside from the physical work with stallions, mares and foals and it was a priceless experience. We were each assigned a group of mares, my team leader was the exceptional Denali Mtshali and I was lucky to get the grey mare Jordie. She was the first to foal down with a colt they named Rabada. He became a champion and a stallion, and I am proud to this day of being the only graduate at the time to deliver what would later be a stallion!”

The grey mare Jordie with her foal, Rabada.

Mathew de Kock suggested that Vengi applied for an assistant trainers licence and helped him with the various test questions ahead of his written examination. “Mathew was a teacher to me. He’d draw up a list of questions and then mark my answers and discuss them afterwards until I was ready. I still get tears in my eyes when he phones from Australia to ask how things are going here.”

He also enjoyed working with jockeys Anthony Delpech, Callan Murray and Randall Simons and said they were like brothers to him in the stable. “Callan bought my wedding ring when I got married in Zimbabwe.”

Due to his knack with problematic horses, Vengi was asked to assist with the temperamental star Igugu, who needed two handlers to lead her in the parade ring and elsewhere. He also worked closely with horse behaviour therapist Malan du Toit, whose help was called in after another tricky customer Hawwaam’s controversial scratching at the start of the 2018 Durban July.

“I learnt a great deal from Malan, he is very good. We discovered that Hawwaam preferred being led into the stalls from his front side, so I’d take him by the reins and walk backwards into the stalls and then I’d crawl out and away from underneath the pens. I was going to join the horse when he was moved to the UK, but he was injured and returned here to stud. We’re all looking forward to see his progeny on the tracks. He was a top horse.”

While Hawwaam was the best he’d worked with, Vengi also has fond memories of Majmu, Soqrat and Triple Crown winner Malmoos. He is sad to leave the stable, but looks forward to his new challenge and re-uniting with former associates Anthony Delpech and Trevor Brown.

Mike de Kock commented: “Vengi is an excellent, intelligent horseman with people skills and these attributes give him a bright future in racing. He’s been a big asset to our yard, having progressed through the ranks to assistant trainer. We support his further growth and he’ll be joining a dynamic group of people who are going places. He has all the skills to be a trainer in his own right.”

Delpech said: “Vengi and I worked closely together for 10 years when I was stable jockey to the De Kock yard, so I know how talented he is as a horseman. He’ll start off in our two-year-old barn, but we have future plans for him in the pipeline.”

Vengi and Dayantsi with Igugu.