Top owner Roy Eckstein dies in freak accident
South Africa: Roy Eckstein, one of the country's leading owners, has died following a freak accident. He was 70.
He was riding a scooter up the drive of his home in the Cape Town suburb of Camps Bay on Wednesday afternoon when he suddenly lost control and suffered fatal injuries.
He owned a number of good horses with Vaughan Marshall including last year's Cape Derby winner Top Seller and Queen's Plate runner-up Tales Of Bravery while two-year-old Twitter won the Grade 3 Godolphin Barb Stakes earlier this month.
He made his fortune in the shoe business and first started owning horses in 1977. One of the best he had was crack sprinter Shoe Express.
Marshall, who had trained for him since 1981, said: "He was a wonderful man and a good friend. Racing can ill afford to lose men of his calibre."
Ecksteinwas also the first chairman of Gold Circle, the company that runs the racecourses in Cape Town and Durban.
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