BLAZING NEW TRAILS – PHILILE ZUMA
With KZN Bred Grade One winner MK’s Pride making history by being the first black owned stallion going to stud at Heversham Park, the breeding and racing landscape in South Africa is opening up exciting new possibilities and opportunities for many new faces.
One of these new trailblazers is a remarkable lady – Philile Zuma, who has the unique distinction of being the first, and we believe only, black lady pre-trainer in the country. Philile has a powerful and captivating story, especially when it comes to how she got involved with horses. “Growing up I always thought I’d end up in corporate. In high school, I started warming up to the idea of practicing law as one of my aunt’s is a magistrate judge and would take me to office and court when I visited her. After high school, it was decided that I was going to study Law and International Relations. Few years later, I obtained my BA Law degree from the University of Witwatersrand. I thought to myself, my corporate dream is near. Little did I know that like many other graduates in South Africa, I would struggle to find employment. I sometimes got contract jobs in different companies such as IEC but those didn’t last long, and this was my reality for about 5 years. Around 2019, I decided to register a company, RejuveDOX Holdings, to try empower myself. For the most part, the company did and is still doing well as it continues to operate under my partner and younger brother (who is also faced with the same reality as mine back then, being an “unemployed graduate”). But unfortunately, the company has not managed to get longstanding contracts, just two or three relatively big jobs a year. And as one can imagine, this is nowhere near enough to sustain us monthly. Over and above, it is not enough to have running capital and invest back into the business for its growth. So the search for a more permanent job continued.”
Philile was fortunate enough to fall into the orbit of one of South Africa’s top pre-trainers and yearling judges, the indomitable Jane Thomas of Far End Stables. Jane’s keen eye, honed in on Philile’s hidden potential. As she explains it was the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in her life. “Luckily for me, Jane offered me a job as her office admin staff and this is where my work in the equine industry began. As mentioned, I started working for her in the office but after my office duties, I’d go out to the yard with her where I found myself being useful as an interpreter between Jane, who battled with Zulu, and the staff, who battled with English. The more I worked in the yard my love and interest for horses developed. I was now more interested in what pre-training entailed. Jane observed this and started sharing her knowledge of horses with me. Having been involved in the horse industry now for close to four years, there is a lot of satisfaction I get from seeing babies I worked and cared for go on to do great things in their racing careers. This is all thanks to Jane, who took me under her wing and continues to share more each day. With her, I have learnt how to conduct horse administration, and I have learnt how to back and train horses. I now understand how to feed and medically care for horses too. Recently, she’s been taking her time with educating me on horse conformation as she believes that conformation tells you everything you need to know about a horse: its future prospects and how to go about training it.
I feel immensely blessed to be given the opportunity to be mentored by Jane, one of South Africa’s leading horse people. Equally, I feel like I have also been given another chance in life… a chance to have purpose in an industry where you hardly find women of colour. Importantly, I look forward to what this journey still has in store for me”.
Due to the pressures of her travels for judging yearlings around the country and her pre-training work, Jane struggled to find time to attend to the regular admin duties that were needed. Enter Philile, who whipped the office and medicine room into shape in no time, combined with her fluency in both English and Zulu enabling her to communicate Jane’s orders effectively to the staff, lifting a huge burden off Jane’s shoulders.
Jane nailed it when she said that “Philile was a sponge, soaking it up”, combined with her inbred common sense, it was a match made in heaven and one which has continued to grow and evolve over time. As anyone involved with horses or farm life will tell you, the days are long and time off to rest and relax is precious. It’s a testament then to Philile’s character and commitment that she chose to spend her free time learning as much as she could about horses, and all aspects surrounding them. Philile’s passion and desire to immerse herself in the equine world, gives Jane enormous comfort as she fights cancer, knowing that Philile can step up and do what needs to be done, when needed.
Owners like Stinky Pooe, Jessica Motuang and Koos Nkale, along with jockeys S’Manga Khumalo, Muzi Yeni & Kabelo Matsuyane, trainers Bo Ngcobo and Lunga Gila, and now Philile are firing up new generations with passion and enthusiasm as they get involved in breeding and racing in South Africa.
As the ancient Chinese philosopher Laozi said “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step”. Philile has already taken giant steps, and we cannot wait to see her continuing her journey through the equine world, and where it takes her.
Pictures credit: Mzo Mbona
