MAKING UP FOR LOST TIME

Please click above to view foal photos

We’ve had our problems this season, as most people know, with an invasion of one of our early foaling groups by one of the most horrid of interventions, the Herpes abortion virus. We’ve always counted ourselves fortunate at Summerhill having escaped this plague, but it seems as if none of us are immune. Decisive action, innovative management and early intervention appear to have won the day, and the arrival of ten perfectly healthy, quite normal foals signals the beginning of normality.

Among the arrivals is a Kahal sister to the unbeaten juvenile heroine of the Golden Slipper (Gr.1), Bridal Paths, a close relative to the Gomma Gomma ace (Gr.1), Pick Six; a Mullins Bay sister to the Eastern Cape star, Vangelis; a Solskjaer half brother to Jay Peg’s vanquisher, Dynamite Mike in the new equivalent of the old SA Guineas (Gr.1); and two outstanding first crop produce of Timeform’s Champion Handicapper, Stronghold, one from the Group winner, Hot Reception, and the other for the internationally famous Hong Kong Breeder’s Club.

Of course, we’ve come to expect good foals from the likes of Kahal and Muhtafal, tried and tested as they are, but there’s real fizz in the quality we’re seeing from Mullins Bay and Stronghold, whose first progeny are arriving as we write.