Our Work
Bless My Stars 2023 Grade 1 Wilgerbosdrift SERIES A Fillies Classic winner & 2023 THREE-Year-old champion Filly of the Year
OUR CHAMPION BLESS MY STARS
2023
Sean Tarry and Smango Khumalo stormed home to win the Wilgerbosdrift SA Grade1 Fillies Classic over 1800m at Turfontein.
GOLD CIRCLE 2020 ALLAN ROBERTSON CHAMPIONSHIP GRADE 1
OUR CHAMPION VERNICHEY
To win a Grade 1 is a dream 99.99% of horse owners have. Only a handful are skilled and lucky enough to win. Vernichey has done the Pillay’s extremely proud to win the Grade 1 and 2019/2020 Champion filly of the year.
2020
Gareth van Zyl and Warren Kennedy teamed up with the exciting Vercingetorix filly Vernichey, who powered clear to maintain her undefeated record in the R100 000 Post Health Gr3 Strelitzia on Saturday. Easy to back at 5-1 after her facile debut victory at the same venue in the very first race of 2020. Vernichey turned on the engines in the final 200m to score and authoritative win by 1,10 lengths in a time of 62.23 secs.
DEDICATED TO THOSE FIGHTING CANCER
JULY 2023
ROA OWNER OF THE MONTH
Kenneth Pillay ~ Kestorm Investments
The Racehorse Owners Association is honored to present Kenneth Pillay as our Owner of the Month for July 2023.
Kenneth owns Bless My Stars who had quite the season as a 3-year-old this year. She finished a courageous third in the Hollywoodbets Durban July earlier this month and topped off an exceptional season with a win in the Grade 2 Riding High Together Gold Bracelet. Kenneth was on course to experience both of these impressive finishes.
Kenneth’s business interests are in the shipping industry, relating to customs customs clearing and forwarding. He enjoys going to church with his family and spending quality time with them too.
He currently owns 25 horses under Kestorm Investments, his trainers include Sean Tarry and Tony Peter on the Highveld and Alan Greeff in the Eastern Cape. Some of these equine athletes have had quite the exceptional careers, making Storm Racing very proud thus far.
When asked about most memorable victories, Kenneth recalls Vernichey winning the Gr 1 Allan Robertson on 4
July 2020, trained by Gareth van Zyl (Jnr).
Another great memory includes the fantastic season that Bless My Stars recently had, winning the Gr 1 SA
Fillies Classic and who is conditioned by the 2023 Highveld Champion Trainer, Sean Tarry. Bless My Stars earned Storm Racing/Kestorm Investments the Champion 3-year-old filly award at the Highveld Feature Season Awards
earlier this year. Kenneth attended the event with his wife, Meloshnie will more than likely be with him again at the Equus awards come the 23rd of August.
We have seen more of his promising young horses in the winner’s circle this month, including Hotarubi, a 2-year-old Vercengetorix colt who recently broke his maiden, and Let’s Go Now, a 2-year-old Gimmethegreenlight filly who broke her Maiden at the Vaal and went on to win a juvenile race at Scottsville just three weeks later, both are trained by Sean Tarry.
Kenneth has been an ROA Member since 2013 and mentions that he has always been welcomed and taken care of. He expresses his sincere
appreciation for the hard work and dedication we put into the industry by taking care of owners, adding that the attention to detail has been instrumental in achieving the goals of Storm Racing.
We wish Kenneth and the rest of Storm Racing all the best for the seasons ahead!