Trainer Eric Sands recovering following axe attack at Cape Town yard

Cape Town-based trainer Eric Sands has been subjected to a frightening and unprovoked attack by a group of men, including one wielding an axe, that has sent a wave of security fears surging through the city's Milnerton Training Centre.

Sands, who learned his trade with Bruce Hobbs, Liam Browne and Fred Winter, was in the yard of his stables around 6pm on Wednesday, February 20, when his staff had all gone home.

Without warning an intruder burst in with an axe and charged towards Sands. The trainer, showing no lack of courage for a man of 62, ran at his would-be assailant and hit him with the point of his shoulder.

The attacker lost his balance and fell but Sands’s advantage was short-lived. Three more men appeared armed with knives, and soon it was Sands who was on the ground and in mortal danger.

"He had a pellet gun," said Sands. "I was on my back and I couldn’t really move. I saw him lift the gun and prepare to bring it down, butt first, into my face. In the last fraction of a second I managed to move my head sideways and the butt only grazed my cheek."

The men then tied up Sands in his office before making off with R7,500 (just over £400) in cash, as well as some foreign currency left over from his trips overseas.

There was a security man on duty but he was on the road frontage side of the stables guarding the cars. He is reportedly under orders to stay put until the last of the cars have left and, in any case, he heard nothing.

Sands has let it be known that he is prepared to pay a reward for information leading to the arrest of the men and he has so far received some feedback.

There was trouble in the training centres in Johannesburg and Durban last year but that came from staff demanding better pay and conditions.

There had not been any attacks on trainers in Milnerton since Harold Crawford was confronted by two armed men one evening in November 2013. They shot at him and missed but then hit him over the head with the gun and stole his cash.

More than 20 years ago Joey Ramsden, then an assistant trainer, was confronted by two men when he was paying the wages. One had a gun and the other a knife, which was plunged into Ramsden’s padded jacket.

Greg Ennion, whose yard adjoins Sands’s stables, said: "It is believed that the quality of the security has deteriorated markedly over the last two years. They must improve it. We are paying for security as it is included in our rent."

Candice Bass-Robinson has a 100-box yard in the training centre but further up the road. She said: "Phumelela [the company that runs Cape Town racing] has to work on this, otherwise it’s only a matter of time before it happens to us all."

Sands has been training for 36 years and has a string of Group 1 winners to his credit. Last month’s win with Rainbow Bridge in the Sun Met was the biggest of his career.

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