Stand back Frankie Dettori. Your famous Flying Dismount has a challenger called the Joffe Jump.
Performed on Saturday for the first time, its debut was to a global television audience of millions from the winner’s enclosure at Dubai’s Meydan racecourse. This new move is named after its inventor, South African billionaire industrialist Brian Joffe, the 65 year old whose sheer joy at winning a big horse race birthed the procedure.
The Joffe Jump, in case you missed it on the Racing Channel, is an excited hip-high action ending with legs tightly locked around an unsuspecting racehorse trainer’s girth and arms around his neck. Not sure if the sloppy cheek kiss is standard, but the recipient of Saturday’s post race affection, brilliant rough diamond Mike de Kock, didn’t flinch.
That’s no surprise, though because De Kock has seen it all in his 30 year career of training horses. He knows better than most how manic/depressive emotional spurts are racing’s permanent bedfellow. The sport often brings out the unexpected. Like the pic above, republished from De Kock’s website, showing how Joffe’s victorious French jockey became Proudly South African after the memorable victory.
While the racing community worldwide will doubtless always associate its inventor with the Joffe Jump, at home he is likely to remain best known as founder of the mighty Bidvest Group. Started by Joffe in 1988, the conglomerate today employs 105 000 worldwide and is worth a staggering R80bn.
Right now Joffe is making financial headlines locally after launching a hostile takeover bid for pharmaceuticals group Adcock Ingram. The target company’s chairman has opened the defence with vigour, suggesting a tough battle lies ahead. If he wins, Bidvest’s founder is sure to celebrate. But don’t expect another Joffe Jump. That’s reserved for really special occasions.
Saturday night in Dubai was one of those.
Back in April 2009, Joffe and long-time racing partner Myron Berzack bid to R550 000 in securing ownership of a 17-month-old colt at SA’s National Yearling Sale. The future star hadn’t been named so Joffe chose to call him after his grandson Shea. And just for luck, doubled it to Shea Shea. On Saturday night that young horse, now in his prime at five years of age, proved himself to be one of the fastest thoroughbreds on earth when comfortably winning the sprinting highlight of World Cup night, the $1m Al Quoz Sprint. For a video of the preliminaries and the race itself (although this cameraman unfortunately missed the Joffe Jump) click here.
Ironically, Shea Shea, was bred and sold by one of Joffe’s fiercest commercial rivals, Steinhoff’s Markus Jooste whose Klawervlei Stud is one of the largest horse breeding establishments in the Southern Hemisphere. Joffe and Jooste have businesses that go head-to-head in motor retailing (McCarthy v Steinhoff Motor), logistics (Panalpina v Unitrans) and car hire (Budget v Hertz). Although both entrepreneurs trained as chartered accountants, that’s where the similarities end. Joffe is the ultimate Jewish financial genius who loves his penthouse overlooking Johannesburg; Jooste, a staunch Afrikaner who has migrated to the Volk’s new power base in Stellenbosch and prefers farm living to skyscrapers.
That said, don’t be misled into believing Joffe’s celebration was part joy at putting one over his competitor.
In South African racing, what happens in the boardroom rarely travels to the course. Even though he missed out on Shea Shea, Jooste would have been delighted at the horse’s big win. The Joffe Jump signalled another big day for a South African horse breeding industry whose growing achievements from limited opportunities is enhancing its global reputation.
Shea Shea’s victory was one of three SA milestones at the richest meeting in horseracing, a night when the Emirate offers huge purses that entice the world’s very best horses to make the trip. Last year’s unbeaten South African two year old Champion Soft Falling Rain (owned by Dubai’s Sheikh Hamdan) was another local to triumph in a big race on the night. A third De Kock inmate, The Apache, was denied making it a memorable hat-trick when beaten into second in the $5m Dubai Duty Free by super-mare Sajjhaa.
Brian Joffe’s sprinter’s next mission is Royal Ascot and the historic King’s Stands Stakes. Like The Apache, a supermare awaits him there in the form of Australia’s 24 from 24 race champion Black Caviar. I’m betting that if the Saffer puts one over the Aussie that day, the Joffe Jump will be back in business. And doubtless De Kock will once again carry off his part with aplomb.
