South African horse racing legend Nathan Kotzen Snr dies
The humble horseman who shaped champions and stories across continents is remembered for his unmatched instinct, wit and deep love for the sport.
South Africa.- South African horseracing lost a titan on April 26, when veteran horseman Nathan Kotzen Snr passed away peacefully at his home at the age of 85, surrounded by family.
Born in 1939 to a Polish-Jewish father and Catholic mother, Kotzen’s life journey spanned continents and decades, starting just before the outbreak of World War II.
Known simply as “Mr Kotzen” in racing circles, his career began in the 1950s as a jockey in Durban, South Africa, where he rode in several Durban July handicaps before he took a different path in the sport.
That path led to the Copperbelt in Zambia, where Kotzen reinvented himself as an owner-trainer-jockey. Renowned for his strategic mind, he would keep his horses race-fit during the rainy season lull, pouncing when others returned rusty. One legendary afternoon saw him win eight races, a feat that became the stuff of folklore.
The family later moved to Bulawayo, in then-Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where Kotzen continued his winning ways, training for the late Tony Taberer and guiding the talented Joker to 18 wins in the Taberer silks.
Eventually, the family settled in Johannesburg, where Kotzen’s son Glen, now a Durban July-winning trainer himself, was born. Glen, aptly named after Russian Glen, a horse his father once rode, fondly recalled his dad as a quiet man with encyclopaedic horse knowledge.
“There are so many anecdotes I could talk to you for a week,” Glen told Sporting Post.
Kotzen Snr leaves behind his family: his wife Dawn, daughter Chantal, farrier son Darren, and trainer sons Glen and Nathan Jnr. His late son Grant was a top jockey who won the 1985 Met on Charles Fortune.
