RACHEL ALEXANDRA VS ZENYATTA

One day after finishing second in her seasonal return in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes at the Fair Grounds, Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d’Oro) was officially confirmed out of the Gr1 Apple Blossom Handicap, which will be contested on 9 April. Her owner Jess Jackson confirmed yesterday that, although the defending Horse of the Year exited the New Orleans Ladies healthy, the four-year-old would not be shipped to Oaklawn Park for a match-up with champion Zenyatta (Street Cry).

“Saturday’s race, while a disappointment, helped us define Rachel Alexandra’s racing condition,” explained Jess Jackson. “While she is healthy, just as I had anticipated, she is not in top form. Therefore, I decided on Sunday that she will not be going to the Apple Blossom on April 9.

ZENYATTA VS RACHEL ALEXANDRA

The unbeaten Zenyatta (Street Cry) strode to her 15th career victory in the Santa Margarita Handicap (Gr1) at Santa Anita on Saturday and in doing so added more hype to her intended match race with Rachel Alexandra in the US$5 million Apple Blossom Invitational on 9 April - a race in which Zenyatta is a finalised starter. The headline story was the defeat of Rachel Alexander in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes.

It was a bit more eventful than perhaps it had been scripted: Zenyatta was still last as they headed into the stretch, and jockey Mike Smith opted to take the shorter route to the wire. He had to steady briefly and, for a moment, it seemed that the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner was in a spot of trouble. But she angled inside to pass one rival, eased up on the outside of pacesetter Dance to My Tune (Stravinsky), and was on her way to yet another earspricked victory.

WENDY SAINT

There was disbelief at Summerhill when the boss employed a new PA by the surname of “Saint”. Some wags were quick to ask whatever he did to warrant such an appointment, and “saintly” is probably the most apt term in describing Wendy Saint, who came to us from a career as a long-serving stewardess in the front cabins of SAA. This is obviously where she honed her skills with people, and she arrived complete with all the dulcet greetings including a habit of answering the phone “Good day, Wendy Saint”.

“THE HARDER YOU WORK, THE LUCKIER YOU GET”

Ambition can be a dangerous thing. Most times, we come up short. At Summerhill, we’ve just kept on doing things the best we can, getting up earlier, thinking outside the box, farming a bit differently. And giving our horses the best upbringing known to man.

That way, you can live in hope, and know you’ve taken care of 90% of the things that make a racehorse. The rest is a matter of luck.

EATSPLORERS TOP 10 DESTINATIONS AND RESTAURANTS

Summerhill has had one of the best few weeks in its racing history, with two Guineas winners, an international ace, a thirty one-time winner, and the winners respectively of the Egoli and Fairview Miles. We’ve had our moments, for sure, but this week took a lot of beating, and certainly, for as long as we breathe, we’ll never forget it.

We get just as much of a kick though, when our “little brother” (or sister” if you like), Hartford House, earns more stripes. Just this week, the celebrated gourmet and luxury travel website, Eatsplorers, named Hartford in both its top ten restaurants and its top ten accommodation establishments. For the record, it was the only establishment in the country to make the top ten in both categories. This is what Eatsplorers had to say about Hartford :

EAGLE MOUNTAIN
(ROCK OF GIBRALTAR x MASSKANA)

Attendees at last October’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Gallops at Summerhill, will recall the impressions left by the first progeny of the Freshman sires, Way West, Hobb Alwahtan and Cataloochee. In the event, they sold like the market had developed a renewed appetite for new sires again, and this weekend vindicated their judgement, when Waywest Goddess left the opposition for dead in the Ruffian Stakes (Listed). Sheikh Mohammed’s Hobb Alwahtan stock will, by nature, take longer to show their mettle, so it was encouraging to see two of them nominated for the R125,000 Sentinel Stakes in Durban, even though, in the end both were unfortunately withdrawn. They were obviously showing their trainers enough to warrant inclusion, so we can only look forward to their names among the nominations in the weeks ahead.

The Sheikh’s been in the news again with the announcement by Mike de Kock that his globetrotting Eagle Mountain (Rock of Gibraltar x Masskana by Darshaan), winner of the 2008 G1 Hong Kong Cup, has been retired after sustaining a tendon injury in training. The six-year old bay finished runner-up in the 2007 G1 Epsom Derby and G1 Champion Stakes when trained by Aidan O’Brien, and preceded his career highlight with a runner-up finish in the 2008 GI Breeders’ Cup Turf in his second start for Mike de Kock.

FEVER TREE HANDICAP (MR) (Non-Black Type)
CLAIRWOOD RACECOURSE 1450m TURF
10 MARCH 2010

DYNAMITE MIKE (Fard x Beyond The Call by Braashee)
6 Year Old Grey Gelding
Owners : Messers Mayesh Chetty, Andrew Brewer, M Chetty, S Jugathpaul, K Naidoo, R  Sewgoolam, Preggie Somasundram and Mrs M Sewgoolam
Trainer : Kumaran Naidoo
Jockey : Anthony Delpech
Breeder : Summerhill Stud
Win Time : 85.74
Career Record : 7 Wins, 7 Places, 47 Starts
Career Earnings : R564,200

Dynamite Mike is a R50,000 graduate from the Summerhill draft of the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale.

IMBONGI SINGS OUR PRAISES

This time, it’s not only Summerhill in the headlines, its South Africa. It’s official at last, but we’ve been wondering for a while now who the Victor Ludorum would be in terms of earnings at this year’s Dubai International Racing Carnival. The good news for the Rainbow Nation is that two of the top three places are occupied by South Africans, while Mike de Kock’s charges hold four of the first six spors.

Imbongi heads the list with earnings of DHS 846,400 (approximately R1,715,820) while Mr Brock slides in with a handy DHS 798,560 (approximately R1,618,240).

Dubai has long been a happy hunting ground for South African horses, who seem to take to the desert conditions and the climate with aplomb. Victory Moon, Ipi Tombe, Jay Peg, Grey’s Inn, they’ve all flown the flag with pride, and now we have Imbongi, living up to the Zulu interpretation of his name “signing the praises”.

WAY WEST

WAY WEST earned his tag on his big day in one of Australia’s premier “Stallion-makers”, the Blue Diamond Prelude.
In Record Time.

Saturday his daughter, WAYWEST GODDESS did the same to the best of Gauteng’s juveniles in the Ruffian Stakes (Listed).
By four and a quarter.

Just a case of history repeating itself.
DEMOLITION.

AUTUMN SAND SPRINT (Non-Black Type)
VAAL RACECOURSE 1200m SAND
9 MARCH 2010

PHUNYUKA (Slew The Red x Catch Me by Argosy)
5 Year Old Bay Gelding
Owner : Wally Brits
Trainer : Roy Magner
Jockey : Guillermo Figueroa
Breeder : Summerhill Stud
Win Time : 71.08
Career Record : 6 Wins, 12 Places, 25 Starts
Carrer Earnings : R849,755

Phunyuka is a graduate from the Summerhill draft of the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale.

INGLIS MELBOURNE PREMIER YEARLING SALE 2010

A couple of years ago, two of the world’s best known horse auction houses teamed up in a cross shareholding arrangement in their respective businesses. Tattersalls in England was founded as long ago as 1766 by Richard Tattersall, who staked his claim to a prime piece of real estate in the heart of what was to become racing’s headquarters, in Newmarket, England, which had been proclaimed thus by Charles II, ruling monarch of the time.

The Inglis family were Scots migrants to Australia in as 1867, and they too, staked their claim to what has become one of that country’s landmark horse auction sites, based at the Australian version of Newmarket, on the doorstep of Royal Randwick racecourse in Sydney.

The contrast in the racing economies of England and Australia right now is as stark as the contrasting styles of the auctioneers of these two grand institutions, and last week in Melbourne we were treated to a display of some of the finest bantering in the world. You’d be tempted to suggest that it was the auctioneers that lifted the sale some 35% beyond last year, but we’d need to remember that these self-same men were on the podium at the 2009 version as well, so you’d have to give credit for the years result to an already bubbling Australian economy.

SUMMERHILL INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

The 33^rd, 34^th, 35^th and 36^th beneficiaries of our international scholarship programme; Elliot Bhengu, Sizwe Ndlela, Thabani (Eric) Nzimande and Prince Mdunjane departed our shores last month for Genesis Green Stud in Newmarket, UK, and Becky Thomas’ Lackland Farm in Florida, USA, respectively.

We received the following email this morning from Eric and Prince, our men in the States…

Hi Linda, how are you guys back there and we hope you all doing well back home. We starting to settle in here and enjoying our working because Becky she is a nice lady and she is trying her best to teach us everything and we goner try our best to take everything that she teach us and goner bring it back home and let other guys know how they do things around here at the State. Please greet everyone at the morning meeting and tell them that we miss each every one of you. Thanks again for giving us this great chance to learn things here in USA. Keep well and keep shining and keep that Summerhill Flag high.

From you lovely guys in America (Eric and Prince)

…THREE HIGHLY PERFORMED SONS OF DANEHILL :
WAY WEST, SOLSKJAER AND STRONGHOLD

Readers of these columns must be tiring of our lament on the tardy response of South Africans to the influence of the only stallion in history to achieve Champion Sire status in both hemispheres. While breeders of the generation spanning the latter four decades of the twentieth century, will always point to Northern Dancer as the king of all stallions, given the substantially greater competition internationally and the fact that he did it in all spheres, on all surfaces and over all distances, it’s an arguable proposition that his grandson, Danehill, was at least Northern Dancer’s match, if not his superior.

Yes, the percentages don’t quite stack up the way Northern Dancer’s did, but then he had the benefit of much smaller crops, and a far greater concentration of the best broodmares as a result. The fact is though, Northern Dancer’s influence in the southern hemisphere was always quite limited, though that might also have been attributable to the lesser quality stock which represented his male line in these realms.

Whatever, Summerhill has championed the Danehill cause for some years now, and we’re proud hosts to no fewer than three highly performed sons, Way West, Solskjaer and Stronghold.

…FISANI, PIERRE JOURDAN, IMBONGI, SMANJEMANJE
…AND VANGELIS?

Just a week ago, the Summerhill team was rocked by the successes of Fisani and Pierre Jourdan respectively in the Gauteng Fillies and Colts Guineas, though it was not for a lack of faith in the horses themselves, but because you can never count on these things in real life.

The Breeder’s log though, tells us we must be doing something right, a statement endorsed empathically by Imbongi’s gutsy success in the R2 million Zabeel Mile (Gr.2) at Dubai’s Meydan racecourse on Friday evening. In the race (which included several internationally performed Group One winners), our man had to endure a severe bump at a critical stage in the straight, before gathering himself again and thrusting for the line in the typical pose we’d become accustomed to from the dual Guineas winner here in South Africa.

RUFFIAN STAKES (LISTED)
FOR TWO-YEAR-OLD FILLIES
6 MARCH 2010

WAYWEST GODDESS (Way West x Gallic Goddess by Gallic League)
2 Year Old Bay Filly
Owners : Claude Comaroff and Corryvrecken Racing CC (Nom: Mrs E Joell)
Trainer : Louis Goosen
Jockey : Deon Sampson
Breeder : Hallmark Thoroughbreds
Win Time : 57.06
Career Record : 1 Win, 0 Places, 2 Starts