Zebaldt Ngaruka 

Namibia’s popular racehorse Starlile from Okahandja Racing (OR) is set to retire next month.

This was confirmed to New Era Sport by Judge Katanga, the OR vice president.

 He said the ageing thoroughbred horse will bid farewell to one of the country›s popular sports. The Okahandja-based racehorse won several top awards in competitions in Namibia. 

It went as far as South Africa and Botswana to compete. Asked how many accolades Starlile won, he said they stopped counting. Katanga said it is difficult to keep the track record, but recalled the double July Handicaps and MTC derbies. Despite Starlile’s age, Katanga said the club opted to retire its thoroughbred horse while it is at its best performing state.  The coming race event in September will be its last official competition. 

“It is both a sad and beautiful feeling seeing this historic horse leave the turf. It is beautiful in a sense that we are celebrating an experience of a lifetime, and sad because it’s going to be difficult to replace and adapt to something new with the same expectations,” he said. 

The vice president said the horse is admired by many in the horse racing fraternity because every competition it participated in was regarded as a highlight.

“This is because of the different winning tactics the horse and jockey always implemented.  “Other competitors were planning on how they were going to defeat Starlile. That was good for healthy competition,” he remarked. Katanga called on horse fans and OR supporters to remain intact. 

He added that this will not be the end of the road in terms of competition.

“We have other clubs’ horses that will keep the club’s flag flying high. We are busy with a huge surprise and continue supporting the club,” he promised. 

Starlile contributed positively to the Namibia Horse Racing Association (NHRA) in terms of horse imports from various countries to challenge the defending champion throughout the years in the country. “Our horse played a vital role in NHRA, as most clubs imported horses to challenge this historic horse. This was good for the development of the horse racing sport. 

“The importing of horses has led to tougher competition. Competition led to more events, which the sport needs at the moment,” the vice president stated. 

Asked whether there will be a special race event to be staged in honour of the popular horse Okahandja-based horse, Katanga said nothing was decided yet, but the club will look for dates to say goodbye to Starlile. Starlile will join other Namibia’s top retired racehorses, Freedom Fighters owned by Uaraa Tjiho, Kings Kittens of Eamon Freygang and Von Trotha of Edison Kandjii. Most races are turned into reproduction after retirement, but this is not the case with Starlile, as it was gelded.

“Unfortunately, we cannot have offspring of this seasonal horse, as it can not mount and produce offspring,” Katanga said. 

The Okahandja Racing club currently has 10 horses, of which six are thoroughbreds and two Nambreds.  -zngaruka@yahoo.com