Buller Benton

BULLER BENTON might look a trifle serious on the photo accompanying this article, but he’s a jovial and friendly man and somebody who is distinctly young at heart. At 75 he is one of the oldest subjects to be interviewed for Legends Of The Turf, but he speaks with the spark, humour and enthusiasm of a man half his age!

Buller looks back on a lifetime of accomplishments in the horseracing industry. He trained successfully for over 25 years, served the TBA as an inspector for four years, worked for the legendary Terrance Millard for six years and more recently assisted SA’s only black trainer, Bennett Bulana, at Summerveld. He also helps out at the Jockeys’ Academy, transporting apprentice jockeys from their base at Summerveld to Ashburton and back.

The small things Buller does these days seem humble compared to the mentioned achievements, but the Benton family has enjoyed a good and happy life in an industry they love. Buller is quite content just to be involved, sharing his considerable skills as a horseman with whoever presses his button.

Buller and his wife Pam have three sons who have all made careers in racing. Steve is a trainer in Pietermaritzburg, Peter holds two Masters Degrees and is an executive at Phumelela Gaming & Leisure and former trainer and Stipendiary Steward Craig has just been appointed Training Operations Manager for the British Racing School at Newmarket, UK.

Craig, asked what his father liked to talk about, immediately mentioned the name of Cyril Hurvitz, the late South African cattle tycoon who died of cancer in the late 1980s. As Craig promised, Buller responds with many a tale from his remarkable association with the ‘Beef Baron’.

Hurvitz was the backbone of the Benton stable between 1958 and 1970 and again between 1978 and 1984, a partnership that yielded literally hundreds of the 1000-plus winners Buller sent out from various training centres since 1956.

“Cyril Hurvitz was a big and powerful man, really frightening in some ways. He was popularly regarded as the leader of the `mighty millionaires’ which included Graham Beck and Laurie Jaffee. They looked up to him. He was the principal and they were the schoolboys.”

Hurvitz, the man behind the Bull Brand trademark, at 27 became the youngest mayor in South Africa when elected in his home town of Mafikeng. He opened a large abbatoir in City Deep, Johannesburg, followed by a complex in Krugersdorp. He had a Trading Office in London and sold South African beef, with great success, mainly frozen in boxes.

Hurvitz also managed the Kosher contract for Israel each year and supplied all the Wimpy Bars on the African continent.

Buller tells: “Mr Hurvitz was introduced to me by my doctor, Dr Berkowitz, who said he knew a rich man who was interested in buying a racehorse. He brought him to my stables and I was told I could spend 1000 pounds, which later went up to 2500 pounds for his first horse, Courtella, a close relation to the great Hawaii who won 14 races for us!

“Like all powerful millionaires he did not believe in problems. He believed in solutions. He did things in a big and bold way and nothing would stand in his way. Yet he was as calculating when buying horses as he was in business. He bought only the one horse in his first year, two in his second year and only by the fifth year went up to five or more.

“I never dared to call him by his name. I had too much respect for him. He was ‘Mr Hurvitz’ to me from when I met him in the 1950s to his death in the 1980s. Still he respected me as his trainer and we could have long and passionate conversations about horseracing. We enjoyed each other’s company to the extent that his wife Peggy kept a collection of hats at our house. On race days she would phone and ask Pam to bring her a blue hat, or a red one, or a black one!

“On the big racing occasions they made weekends of it. They often stayed at the Beverly Hills Hotel where we would normally have dinner on a Friday evening with a young “Solly’’ Kerzner, who owned the hotel, followed by racing on the Saturday, a party on Saturday night and lunch on Sunday. He was absolutely besotted with racing and wanted to know everything there was to know. We’d talk into the night.’’

“Before ordinary race days he would phone a few days prior to the meeting. He would either phone at 5am when he flew out for business to Botswana, or at 10am when he flew back. I couldn’t give him awkward answers. He always said, ‘Buller, should I come down this weekend or stay at home?’. He wanted a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’, that was all.’’

Hurvitz applied business principles to his punting and was very successful. He and Buller would study all the form factors for hours at end and only take a punt when the horse was fully tuned.

“We had glorious days, many wonderful doubles and trebles, we had a great run,’’ recalls Buller who saddled the likes of Chatham, Belligerent, Reference, Pretty Prize and Laura during their first spell together, and in the second term won many races with stars like Have A Fling, Frisky and the great Bold Tropic, who was sold to the US for R5 million and became the second-best turf horse to John Henry.

Buller speaks fondly of three runners – Phareen, Poplin and High Frequency – trained for Hurvitz and all breaking their Maidens in feature races.

Recognizing early talent was one of his strengths, he says, and also the ability to focus and manage his time. “Mr Hurvitz was very sharp and always had chirps when I complained about something. One day I said I didn’t have enough time in a day and he responded, ‘Well, Buller, then get up earlier and go to bed later!’’

In 1970, however, Hurvitz with his sometimes brash attitude and perhaps unnecessary sarcasm brought Buller to the edge of a breakdown and he landed up in hospital with bleeding ulcers.

“We decided to part company and Mr Hurvitz was disappointed in his own way, I think, because I couldn’t handle his pressure. His horses went to Fred Rickaby and they also had a run of success, but when Rickaby retired I heard that Mr Hurvitz wanted to come back to my yard but that I had to `apply’ to him in person.

“After several months nothing happened, a caretaker trainer was employed and I decided to phone up. I was older and I guess wiser and I said, ‘Mr Hurvitz, I’d like to apply for your horses, can I train for you again?’ I heard him sigh deeply on the other side and then he said, ‘Yes, Buller, you can train for me again!’ ‘’

And so, in many ways, the racing story of Buller Benton is the racing story of the mighty Cyril Hurvitz. The one needed the other. But let that not detract from the fact that Benton was, and is, a top horseman in his own right, with much to contribute in his twilight years.

Presently, two things are close to his heart. He’d like to see a single controlling body for racing, despite having a lot of respect for the “fighters’’ at Gold Circle. And he’d like to see strict control and suspensions of inconsistent runners.

“In our days, racing was an alluring, intriguing experience full of twists and turns. It was ruled by the strike punt. People would talk about match races on street corners. There was huge participation, huge interest and huge excitement. That vibe will probably never return, but we need to protect the punter so he gets a good deal.” – (from The Citizen’s Racing Express, March 2010).

Photo: Buller Benton (summerhill.co.za).