Trainer Profile: Michelle Rix

Michelle Rix cuts a confident figure as she stares into the camera, speaking to Brandon Bailey who is interviewing her about her upcoming runners for Cape Racing’s Perfectly Placed segment. She’s at home in her surroundings, her 30 horses back in their boxes after their morning’s work, and the rest of the day stretching out ahead of her.

Rix, as the racing fraternity is constantly reminded, is the daughter of Harold Crawford, a hardy veteran of this tough game who handed over the stable reins to Rix back in 2019. She was no greenhorn at the time, having worked under trainer Andre Heyns for four years and her father for a decade-plus. And she had already felt the adrenalin rush of a Graded winner when Perovskia won the 2018 Drill Hall Stakes. 

However, they say you never forget your first and the first of her own 60 trained winners came when Ready Steady Go won at Durbanville on 14th September 2019 in what was only the fifth horse she had saddled up on her own. 

Ready Steady Go was a five-time winner when she took over from her father, and he reached as high as 105 in the merit ratings. He was one of six horses from their yard over the years that the handicapper has merit rated higher than 100 – that being Time For Love, Cala Muretta, Secret Identity and Sorceress Supreme and, of course, the celebrated Kommetdieding. The latter’s story has been well documented – passing through the sales ring, bought by Ashwin Reynolds for R55,000 and going on to win the Gr 1 Durban July and Cape Town Met, as well as finishing second in three other Gr 1’s, and now standing at Klawervlei Stud.

The stretch of trainer’s stables in the Koeberg Road complex has housed some of the country’s finest thoroughbreds over the years, and Kommetdieding, who rose to a MR 129, is second only to Charles Dickens (132) in terms of merit ratings. 

Kommetdieding – or “Kommet” as is his shortened version – gave the trainer her confidence in front of the camera. “I wasn’t a natural,” she says when I ask her if she gets nervous when Cape Racing comes knocking for their regular interviews. “There was a period after he won the 2021 July that everyone wanted a piece of him and his owner, and the media were always around. I had to get used to the attention quickly!”

Understandably, Rix has grown tired of the stereotypical referral as a woman in a predominantly male-controlled sport. There’s a steely determination and conviction beneath her genial appearance and she doesn’t suffer fools or people who talk from their pocket. “We’re not a punting stable,” she says, pointing to the fact that of her 60 winners, only one has been at odds-on – Pilot Flame. “And that’s probably because Richard Fourie rode the filly when he was chasing that ‘334’ record.”

Kommetdieding’s July win ensured Rix is only one of two female trainers to win the country’s most prestigious race in 127 years. The first was Candice Bass-Robinson, with Marinaresco in 2017. And Rix is one of three female trainers along the famous Koeberg Road strip, all daughters of famous fathers, but all in the top dozen of 26 trainers in the Western Cape – Bass-Robinson, Lucinda Woodruff and Rix.

But, enough has been said for now of “Kommet”, the horse that launched Rix into the racing stratosphere. There is no Kommetdieding in the stable, and the jarring reality is that he was never physically here. “We have moved up the road since then,” she says, “so I can’t point and say ‘that was his box’.” However, like all stable favourites his was the closest to the main office. That pole position on the grid of boxes is now occupied by the lovable Master Wizard. “He’s actually our clown,” she grins, as if there’s a visual loop in her head playing out the colt’s antics. “He does his own thing, gets loose, a real character!”

Much of racing is the folklore, the highs, lows and the memories. And even in these physical new surroundings and location, the walls could tell plenty of stories. 

We talk about She’s My Captain, the stable’s “ATM”, a six-time winner with earnings of R560,000. She’s still only rated an 81 by the handicapper, and Rix agrees that this could be in part due to the perception that she’s that “small stable” that we’ve spoken about. It’s also because she’s a six-year-old mare with no black type. However, she was a MR 78 before she won her maiden and only got to that rating again after winning six races – five times under champion jockey Fourie.

Elsewhere there are War Chariot, Meant To Be and One Liner and Strawberry Stinger, all of who are, or were, owned by Jonathan Bloch, a man she gives extended credit to for giving her the self-confidence that she now carries with her. “He’s been a great influence on my life,” she says.

We’re scrolling down a list of all 60 career winners she’s had – although she’s quick to go back to Perovskia, whose Drill Hall Stakes win gave her the wind under her angelic wings. “Perovskia was one of the first horses we took to Durban. He paved the way for Kommetdieding’s successful campaigns there. Had it not been for Perovskia, getting used to the tracks up there, getting to understand Greyville, perhaps history would be different.”

Crawford makes many interesting points, fitting them into the conversation almost as throwaway lines, but each carrying huge weight if you listen hard enough. “I might not have a superstar in the yard, but I have some very decent and promising types, and one thing I truly believe is that each and every one of my 30 horses will at least win a maiden.”

A closer look at her stats show that she’s won by a short-head margin seven times, with only 0.40 lengths being a more common winning margin. In fact, 40 of her first 60 wins have been by a length of less. “It’s true that the handicapper punishes a horse that wins by far, but I’d rather win by a short-head than lose by a short-head. I’ve probably had more close seconds than I’ve had closer winners!”

I digest that comment and look things up a bit later. Her instinct is spot-on, perhaps put it down to women’s intuition. In fact she’s only had two short-head seconds – Pink Floyd and Magical Java – but 36 times she’s lost races by less than a length, including with Kommetdieding in two Gr 1’s.

To extend the uncanny symmetry, she has unsaddled her horse 60 times in the No2 box, to go with those 60 winners. Rix is hoping that her “luck” changes, even if she’s not superstitious by nature. At the time we are speaking, four of her last six winners have been by short-heads. But the important thing is that they have won.

At the beginning of November her winning tally for the season stood at five, with a percentage of 12.82. Her previous seasons as a trainer, which straddled the Covid-19 pandemic, have seen her sign off the annual campaigns with 11, 13, 6, 13 and 12 winners. And as Rix goes in pursuit of more success this 2024/25 season, she does so surrounded by a yard of happy horses. No doubt a whole lot of winning horses as well.

Words: Gary Lemke