J&B MET : TALES OF GLORY

Smanjemanje leads home The Apache and Pierre Jourdan
in the 8 January London News Stakes (Gr3)
(Photo : JC Photos / Summerhill Stud)

J&B MET (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 2000m
28 January 2012

At the weights, Saturday’s “big one” looks like the conditions of the race were scripted for only one horse : the Summerhill graduate and Horse of the Year, Igugu. Her 13/10 chalk on bookmakers’ boards is quite generous then, given her record, but reflects more on a less-than-ideal preparation than her ability. The “J&B Met” is like an Olympics final, and, unless you’re unusually gifted, you’d not want the interruptions the daughter of Galileo has had to endure in the past months.

Take her out of the equation, and it’s anybody’s race. On merit ratings alone, the three-year-old Gimmethegreenlight (impressive victor in the time-honoured L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate (Gr1) three weeks back against his elders) is especially well treated with 54kgs (55kgs at weight-for-age in the Plate,) and the services of Piere Strydom (J&B Met winner aboard Summerhill-bred Angus in 2006), and no penalty for his Plate win. He probably has a kilo or 2 in hand against the favourite in handicapping terms, if his 117 rating (same as Igugu’s) is accurate. His rating might be, though we suspect Igugu is better than rated. If the colt has a chink in his armour, it could be his stamina.

In Cape Town, they speak well of Kahal’s son, Tales of Bravery, though bias aside, we’ve always seen him as a thoroughly genuine Group Two horse, and he’s also got a bit to find against the three-year-old. By the way, Kahal’s two runners (Smanjemanje besides) make him one of four stallions (Silvano, Fort Wood and Dynasty) with a brace in the field.

The betting tells us to respect Bravura and The Apache as well. The former last won at this level exactly two years ago (Investec Derby) and while the extra two furlongs might help, he looks held by the Justin Snaith-trained Gimmethegreenlight on Queen’s Plate form, all things being equal. He wouldn’t have been far off his best that day (Joey Ramsden may say otherwise,) and you might argue much the same for Winston Chow’s The Apache, on his run behind Smanjemanje in the London News (same day as the Queen’s Plate).

If the favourite hasn’t been following the press, and ends up fluffing her lines, Mike de Kock feels Ilsanpietro has as good a chance as any, and he’s next among the public fancies.

But strictly on his “Smanjemanje” form, he’ll be troubled attempting to reverse places with that man. At the weights, he can’t.

Which begs the question, what about our fellow Smanjemanje? They’re betting 13/10 Igugu, 7/1 Gimmethegreenlight, 8/1 Bravura and Tales of Bravery, 10/1 The Apache and 14/1 Ilsanpietro, Beach Beauty and Run For It, with “Smanje” among the “33/1 and upwards”. Capetonians can be notoriously parochial about their sports stars, and they’re forgetting “Smanje” had both The Apache and Pierre Jourdan in arrear in the London News, at very little weight disparity. What price Pierre Jourdan in this field? It seems they’ve forgotten where Smanjemanje comes from.

For our money, he’s worth a punt, even if it’s only for minor money. He only has to run to his efforts in the Victory Moon and the London News to make the bearers of those illustrations names proud, and to make you a richer man than you already are!

THE MET DRAW

Igugu - Ready To Run Graduate
(Photo : JC Photos / Summerhill Stud)

J&B MET (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 2000m
28 January 2012

So far so good for the 2012 J&B Met. The Summerhill graduates, Igugu and Smanjemanje, have slots 7 and 9 at the barrier. As we see the race now, it’s a contest between Igugu and Gimmethegreenlight, The Apache and Smanjemanje (no sentiment involved!) though we should remind ourselves that one of our two previous Met winners, Angus had the 16 draw.

Let us have your thoughts. Ours are purely superficial (and emotional at this stage).

FINAL FIELD

N0	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	BRAVURA	60.0	113	12	A Marcus	Joey Ramsden
2	THE APACHE	59.5	114	11	R Danielson	Gavin van Zyl
3	TALES OF BRAVERY	58.0	113	15	M Byleveld	Vaughan Marshall
4	ILSANPIETRO (BRZ)	58.0	111	2	W Marwing	Mike de Kock
5	LION IN WINTER	58.0	109	3	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
6	SMANJEMANJE	58.0	108	9	* G van Niekerk	Tyrone Zackey
7	CASK	58.0	107	6	tba	Stephen Page
8	FABIANI	58.0	107	14	S Cormack	Glen Kotzen
9	SUPER STORM	58.0	104	13	K Neisius	Mike Bass
10	CHESALON	57.5	110	16	K Teetan	Mike Bass
11	RUN FOR IT	57.5	106	4	B Fayd’Herbe	Justin Snaith
12	IGUGU (AUS)	57.0	117	7	A Delpech	Mike de Kock
13	EMERALD COVE	57.0	106	1	F Coetzee	Justin Snaith
14	BEACH BEAUTY	55.0	108	5	A Forbes	Dennis Drier
15	GIMMETHEGREENLIGHT (AUS)	54.0	117	8	P Strydom	Justin Snaith
16	ASTRO NEWS	52.0	107	10	R Fourie	Greg Ennion

*Summerhill runners denoted by bold

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Angus - J&B Met (Grade 1)
(Photo : Sporting Post)

CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE
Cape Town International Convention Centre
26 - 27 January 2012

J&B Met hero Angus; history’s winningmost racehorse Hear The Drums;
East Cape Horse Of The Year Coastal Waltz;
Group One performers The Gardfarder and Norinco;
Graded Stakes winners Redcarpet Style and Decorated Hero.

This was your harvest last time we sold in Cape Town.
We’re back in town next week.

NEW CLOTHING : SAME OLD STORY.

Enquiries :
Tarryn Liebenberg 27 (0) 83 787 1982
or email tarryn@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

SOUTH AFRICA'S RACING GRAND SLAM

Please click above to watch a little Durban July history.
The presentation can be paused at any point using the navigation controls, bottom left.
It can be viewed full-screen by clicking the view button, bottom right.

(Photos : Summerhill Stud Archive)

A NEW THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS ASSOCIATION INITIATIVE

The term “Grand Slam” evokes all sorts of emotions, particularly when it’s applied to golf, tennis and northern hemisphere international rugby tours. There is another context though, in which South African racing sees it, and a new initiative by the Thoroughbred Breeders Association of South Africa, intends to bring racing’s Grand Slam back to life.

What is meant by racing’s grand slam? Well firstly, there’s never been an official identification of the events, but under the direction of its chairman, Altus Joubert and through the enterprise of Alan Roux, they’ve identified the three big “majors”, the Vodacom Durban July, the J&B Met and the Sansui Summer Cup as the jewels in the crown. How many people; owners, trainers or jockeys, how many horses and stallions have ever achieved victory in all three. For starters, no one horse has ever done so, which is almost understandable when you recall the fact that they’re up to 1000 miles apart, in Durban, Cape Town and Johannesburg, two of them are run at sea level and one at almost 6000 ft.

Only four trainers have ever been there, Syd Garrett, Terrance Millard, Syd Laird and Mike de Kock. The mere mention of their names helps to understand why. In the post-war era, the progeny of only two stallions, both of them champions, Royal Prerogative and Foveros, have achieved the grand slam, though obviously through different horses. Just one other pre World War II stallion, the French-bred Cape Metropolitan winner, Asbestos II, did it through his sons Feltos (Met & Summer Cup) and Pat Goss’ diminutive St Pauls (the Durban July). In the modern era, all of Silvano, Fort Wood and Jet Master have two legs under their belts, and it’s a fair bet one or more of them will achieve the grand slam in the not too distant future.

The breeders are another story. Thirty four grand slam victories for the Birch Brothers is an astounding achievement, even considering there were three different farms between them, with an awful lot of mares. No wonder they dominated the Breeders Championship for so many decades. Old man Nourse, who won his first July in the early 1900’s with Nobleman, bred nine grand slam winners, while the Koster Brothers between them have seven. You might well ask how we’ve done. The old Hartford produced three Summer Handicap winners (read Summer Cup), a July winner in Mowgli, the only race of any importance on the calendar to elude them, being the Metropolitan. We put that right when we came here, with two horses off Summerhill; La Fabulous and Angus taking the J&B Met, Luke Bales’ Dancing Duel was a July winner born on the farm, and Pick Six and Emperor Napoleon “exacta-ed” the Summer Cup.

The history books tell us this is as tough as grand slams get, and it’s worth working for. Salutations to Alan Roux, Altus Joubert, Robin Bruss and everyone else behind the project.

BEEF CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Hartford’s Angus Cattle
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

HARTFORD ANGUS

For more than a decade now, diners at Hartford House’s legendary restaurant, where celebrity chef, Jackie Cameron, “wows” them with the best beef fillet on the planet, have proclaimed the virtues of our Angus beef.

But besides “Woolies”, who’s fussy customers only buy Angus, South Africa seems to have overlooked one of the world’s best kept secrets, in much the same way as we bypassed the “Danehill” phenomenon in the stallion business.

Fast forward nine hours to Melbourne, Australia, where Channel Nine was banging on this morning about their “big” discovery, almost as though they’ve struck oil. Angus beef has been proclaimed the best by a country mile, and there’s hardly a food outlet not offering it on their speciality menus.

It’s well known back home, that our Agriculture Manager, Barry Watson, presides over one of South Africa’s finest Angus commercial herds and they’ve won countless awards. Just a few years back, the President of the largest commercial beef farmers union in the world (Argentina) was a house guest at Hartford House. He left us after a week, conceding that the Hartford beef was up there with the very best he’d ever eaten.

But ours is no ordinary herd. They don’t just taste so good. They eat so good, as complementary grazers for the horses. They like the pastures long, while the horses like it short.

They pick up the horse parasites (it’s a symbiotic relationship, much like zebra and wildebeest in the wilds) they control the ticks (and facilitate the export status of our thoroughbreds in the process), and in general, they provide the variety so essential to the delight of the eyes on any proper farm property.