High Praise for IMBONGI
Saturday, July 25, 2009 at 12:10AM 
Please click above to watch video
(Footage : YouTube)
“Let’s all sing Imbongi’s praises”
Extract from The Times
The GeeGees : Mike Moon
It’s ironic that a horse called Imbongi has been one of the least ballyhooed of South Africa’s growing band of equine exports – especially as he’s quite possibly the best of them.
An imbongi is, of course, a praise singer in Zulu and Xhosa culture – the guy in traditional gear who heralds the arrival of an important leader on grand occasions. Whistling and waving sticks, the imbongi yells out the achievements and virtues of the approaching big cheese.
We used to love it so when President Mandela’s imbongi did his thing, affirming our devotion to Madiba and his deeds.
Praise singing of our high and mighty has lost its spark. Perhaps it’s due to post-’94-miracle cynicism. It can’t be that we don’t believe the big shots have any virtues. Surely not.
The most excitement generated by an Imbongi of late has been among the British racing establishment.
The horse from Mooi River has only raced twice in the UK, yet this week the respected Timeform agency gave him a lofty rating of 121.
This places Imbongi among the top half percent of horses racing in the world today.
There’s talk of jetting him across the Atlantic to Chicago in a fortnight’s time for a shot at the prestigious Arlington Million.
This is far removed from the sorry sight at a thoroughbred auction in Germiston 18 months ago when the young Imbongi left the sale ring in ignominy after failing to attract a bid from the assembled clever clogs of South African racing.
He went home to Summerhill Stud in the Midlands where champion breeder Mick Goss – a truly clever chap who’d loved the colt from day one – put him into race training in hope that he’d eventually make it to a track.
Summerhill had thought out Imbongi’s pedigree carefully, mating sire Russian Revival (Timeform 125) to a daughter of another world-class racehorse, Foveros (120). For lineage anoraks: the Northern Dancer (Russian Revival’s grandsire) cross with a Teddy line mare had produced the legendary Nijinsky.
Imbongi is proof that sometimes a plan comes together.
Racing doyen Ronnie Napier visited Summerhill, took a shine to Imbongi, and formed an owner partnership with the stud farm and a few other friends.
It was all the encouragement Imbongi needed. Winning both the Gauteng Guineas and KZN Guineas, and whipping Pocket Power in the Drill Hall Stakes, he became the best middle distance horse of his generation.
Sheikh Khalifa of Dubai bought in and it was off overseas.
After scooting to victory in a grade 3 event at Newmarket, Imbongi ran a close-up third in a grade 2 at Ascot. The latter race was described as the best mile form in the world this year and Timeform passed judgment.
The chestnut with the handsome head is finally being taken seriously. Time to start yelling.
Aforementioned Pocket Power might also race overseas soon. But first the great one has a date at Clairwood in the Champions Cup today – and will surely atone for his fiasco of a run in the Durban July.
Click above to experience Imbongi’s last two runs in the
John Bovington Memorial Criterion Stakes and Ascot Summer Mile Stakes
Reader Comments (2)
Thank you for your interest in our website, and your comments on Russian Revival. Apologies for the delay. I’m away in Johannesburg as I write. In response:
1.I think the first thing we need to say is that our venture into Kenya with the Maktoum stallions was intended to assist the local breeding industry there to uplift itself, and anything short of reasonably decent prospects would be doing them a disservice. They are continental neighbours whose racing matters to South Africa, as it affects the prosperity of our own industry to a degree. The Sheikhs felt it was a worthwhile project, just as we’d helped the Zimbabweans in years gone by. The last champion sire of Zimbabwe, Kahir Al Mayden, was another we’d sent there in terms of the maiden programme.
2.That said, (and there are others that have asked the same question as you have), while Russian Revival has had a couple of decent runners, notably Imbongi, (the reality is, his winning percentages were not what you need to sustain a winning edge in South Africa, and I’m sure if you visit those stats (www.sportingpost.co.za) I think you’ll find we’re right. He’d died a commercial death here, was receiving very few mares at the time of his export, and we think it would be a disservice to the Kenyans to remove him now that he’s got a decent horse abroad.
3.Similar fates were behind the transfers of Desert Team and Fahal, the latter of whom was sent to one of the best studs in the country, and even they’ve given up.
4.Rami, on the other hand, was persisted with here at Summerhill, right up to his untimely death, so he was never sent away, and we paid a big price for sticking with him. We’ve since developed a common philosophy with our stallion principals that, when stallions have proven themselves failures and they’ve lost their commercial appeal, it’s time to draw a line in the sand.
5.Braashee was an entirely different case, as he was a top class sire, but with less than 50% fertility, which made him a difficult horse to persevere with, not only because he got far fewer foals than most, (remember, it costs the same to keep a barren mare as it does a pregnant one), but also because he tended to get plainish stock who didn’t have much commercial appeal. Again, we persevered with him longer than we probably should have, and then took care to send him to Connington Stud, where he was managed by our ex stallion manager, Brendan Norman, before he gave up as well, and he was acquired for duties in the Cape.
6.If you revisit all the records of the horses you’ve mentioned though, (Makaarem excepted) they were all given more than their time at Summerhill, even if this didn’t involve particularly big numbers, and that was simply because they didn’t have the commercial appeal to attract the mares in the first place. In Makaarem’s case, Sheikh Hamdan had a very sincere reason for sending him to Kenya, which was to help, and nobody can fault that.
The last thing I should mention to you is that it costs a couple of hundred thousand Rand a day to run this organisation, and we obviously have to maintain a close look at the numbers. I’m sure you’d rather we were here in a couple of years time to answer your correspondence, than that we should’ve disappeared down the plughole!
Keep up the interest, and if there’s anything else you’d like us to respond to, please let us have your questions.
Warm regards,
Mick Goss