The Crawford’s Joined Forces

The father-son combination of Brett and James Crawford created history at the 7th December meeting at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth when, on the first day that their training partnership becoming official, they won a Gr 1 and a Gr 2 race.

First, JP van der Merwe brought the Hollywoodbets Durban July winner Oriental Charm home to take the Gr 2 World Sports Betting Green Point Stakes over 1600m and then 35 minutes later Piere Strydom rode a “flawless” race, coming from an outside gate to lead from start to finish in the World Sports Betting Cape Fillies Guineas on Fatal Flaw. It was also the multiple champion jockey’s only winner in the Western Cape this season.

That opened the floodgates for the Crawford’s. Father Brett had saddled 24 winners for the Cape season up to them, but as a training combination the pair have racked up 15 winners in the region.

Brett, now 53, has 38 Grade 1 victories and nearly 1,500 winners, having started his career as a trainer officially in 2001 when he secured a position as a private trainer for Mrs Sabine Plattner.

The news landed that he is Hong Kong-bound after securing a licence to train there for the 2025/26 season.

Crawford follows the likes of former South African-based handlers Tony Millard (709 Hong Kong wins) and David Ferraris (460) by switching tacks to Hong Kong as he was welcomed at Sha Tin by Executive Director, Racing, The Hong Kong Jockey Club, Andrew Harding, at a press briefing.

“When we came to look for an outstanding talent to recruit from South Africa to join the ranks of training in Hong Kong frankly the natural choice was Brett Crawford. He has all of the attributes we look for including the experience of dual-site training. We are delighted that he and his partner Gwen have made the decision to join us, and I look forward to him making an outstanding contribution to Hong Kong’s world-class racing,” Hardind said.

By Gary Lemke