HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY?

Click above to watch Igugu winning the Ipi Tombe Challenge (Gr2)…
(Photo : JC Photos - Footage : Tellytrack)

HIGHVELD RACING AWARDS
19 May 2012

We all know that the KZN Champions’ season is the most glamourous three months of the racing year, but we know too, that the Highveld Spring and Autumn seasons are the toughest of the lot. Year after year, the award for the nations’ champion trainer inevitably falls to a Highveld trainer, and it was no different in 2012. That means it’s consistently the most competitive environment in South African racing, and that makes the title of Highveld Champion Breeder all the more noteworthy.

When Catherine Hartley made her way to the podium on Friday evening, she was fetching Summerhill’s third consecutive Champion Breeders award, not only a landmark occasion for us, but also a “first” as far as breeders’ prizes go. No farm in the history of the Highveld Awards had hitherto earned the title three times in a row. There were no major Group One victories in Gauteng from the likes of Igugu or Pierre Jourdan this year, but there was a string of Group successes from Smanjemanje, Extra Zero, Checcetti and Mannequin as well as Igugu and Pierre Jourdan, to advertise the class of our graduates. We never take these things for granted, and we have our horses and our people to thank for it.

By contrast, the trainers’ award has fallen to Mike de Kock on any number of occasions, and Saturday was the same old story.

www.summerhill.co.za

FINAL SCORE TICKS OFF MAIDEN WIN FOR IMAGINE RACING

Click above to watch Final Score winning her maiden…
(Image and Footage : Tellytrack)

FINAL SCORE
2010 SUMMERHILL READY TO RUN GRADUATE

FINAL SCORE
Solskjaer (IRE) - Tribute by Desert Team (USA)
3 Year Old Bay Filly

Owners : Imagine Racing CC (Nom : Mrs Catherine Hartley), Sean Tarry Racing (Nom: Mr Sean Tarry) and Messrs Chris Haynes and Gary Grant
Trainer : Sean Tarry
Jockey : Robbie Fradd
Breeder : Summerhill Stud
Win Time : 113.80
Career Record : 1 Win, 2 Places, 3 Starts

FINAL SCORE is a graduate from the Summerhill draft of the 2010 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale.

STEWARTS & LLOYDS MAIDEN PLATE (F&M)
Turffontein, Turf, 1800m
29 October 2011

#	LBH	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.00	FINAL SCORE	57.0	0	1	R Fradd	Sean Tarry
2	1.25	MIZZEN MIST	57.0	0	7	W Marwing	Mike de Kock
3	3.25	ROSEY’S SONG	60.0	66	13	G Lerena	Brian Wiid
4	3.30	LADY CLEOPATRA	60.0	61	8	* N Juglall	Stuart Pettigrew
5	3.40	SAKKIE SAKKIE	60.0	56	2	G Wrogemann	Lance Wiid
6	4.00	BROADBAND BABY	60.0	55	9	R Simons	Gary Alexander
7	4.75	INFALLIBLE	60.0	56	3	D David	Mike Azzie
8	10.50	OLYMPIA BEIJING	57.0	0	14	S Chambers	Luchelle Kruger
9	11.50	JAEGER	57.0	66	11	* T Appie	Alec Laird
10	14.00	BODY SNATCHER	60.0	0	6	S Brown	St John Gray
11	14.25	VELVET SATIN	60.0	0	4	P Strydom	Joe Soma
12	14.75	SEMI PRECIOUS	57.0	0	12	* J Greyling (1.5)	Craig Mayhew
13	15.25	ARAGON	57.0	0	10	L Nhlapo	Wallace Tolmay
14	18.00	ZULU LULU	60.0	49	5	F Naude	Gary Alexander
		Late Scratchings
15	0.00	NOBLE WINTER	57.0	48	8	Reserve 1	Romeo Francis
16	0.00	FULL QUEST	60.0	40	6	Reserve 2	Erico Verdonese

For more information please visit :
www.summerhill.co.za

VUMA HORSEFEEDS RESTRUCTURING

VUMA HORSEFEEDS
PO Box 430 Mooi River 3300
KwaZulu-Natal South Africa
Website : www.vumafeed.co.za 
Email: info@vumafeed.co.za

Mick GossI have had to share tough news in my time, but nothing as tough as this. We started making Vuma Horsefeeds 20 years ago, and in that time, even our competitors will concede, we changed the nutritional landscape.

In the past ten seasons, the Champion trainer has been on our books seven times, the Champion Breeders five times, and we’ve fed any number of sport horse champions. On the way, we’ve employed more than 50 people, and we’ve sustained many families. That makes this note all the more painful.

We returned from the National Sales to the news that we’d been the victims of a massive fraud in the procurement of ingredients, and on the farm there’d also been large scale theft of product. For some time, we’ve feared that the eye has been off the nutritional ball. This explains things.

The reality is simple. Vuma is not our core business. While it has been one of the pillars of Summerhill’s success, we have had to employ numbers of people from outside the farm in order to keep up with our growth. The two elements of urban and rural staff working together do not gel well, not here at any rate. The security issues that pre-occupy us with a plant operating 24/7 have made Vuma a distraction, and now a serious headache. Besides, Summerhill can ill afford to keep supporting a business which is culturally so far removed, and where we’re having to maintain a constant vigilance on where things are going.

We are driven to one very unfortunate conclusion. We are going to wind the business down in the next fortnight, so that it will do only what it was originally intended to do: a dedicated Summerhill plant, operating in daylight hours with farm staff.

In our time in the feed business, we have been privileged to have developed enduring relationships with some excellent people. You are one of them. We are especially saddened to have to share this news with you, as we feel we are letting people down.

Yet faced with these problems, and especially the extent of them, we know you will understand. We have no choice, and we need to do so while the business remains profitable, and is a going concern.

We are not selling it, nor will we part with the brand unless it’s passed to the custodianship of a worthy entity. When I gave up my law practice, I took nothing for it. My sole concern was that its people were taken care of.

Within Vuma, there are some quality employees. Some will be retained, others will not be as fortunate. They will be looked after as far as possible, and that will be our prime concern, as well as the interests of our customers.

I leave for Australia as I write, but for those whom I haven’t been able to speak to personally, you are welcome to ring Heather Morkel, Catherine Hartley or Haydn Bam, if there is anything we can help with. 

I should end by thanking you so much for your loyal support and help in the past. We take nothing for granted here, and we’re extremely sorry to have inconvenienced you.

As always, warmest regards.


MICK GOSS
FOUNDER : VUMA HORSEFEEDS

HIGHVELD BREEDER OF THE YEAR 2009

Catherine Hartley accepts the award for Breeder of the Year on behalf of Summerhill Stud from Peter Miller  at the 2009 Highveld Racing Awards
(Photo : JC Photographics)

It may not be the National title, but it’s certainly one we’ve always coveted, and we’re very proud to hold. For the second consecutive year, Summerhill was last night named Highveld Breeder Of The Year, and Vuma’s Catherine Hartley was on hand to pick up the silverware. Gauteng is the most competitive racing environment on the continent of Africa, and we’ve always counted ourselves lucky to be among the finalists for this prestigious award.

It’s probably an appropriate moment to revisit our standing on the National Breeders Log as well, where our lead is approaching R5 million. We’re reminded at this time of an advertisement we wrote in May 2005, as we marched to our National Breeders’ Premiership, and we thought we were reasonably comfortable with a R2 million margin. While the big lady still has a bit of singing to do, it’s a comforting thought that there is a sound buffer between us and our pursuers.

We never forget though, the sacrifices our people have made towards this achievement. It’s a sobering thought that, in our 30^th year in business, that we should be so deeply indebted to so many, who’ve given up so much in getting us there.

Click here to view
South African National Breeders Log

Highveld Racing Awards 2008

Catherine Hartley (Vuma Feeds) Saturday night witnesses the celebration of the annual Highveld Racing Awards in which Summerhill picked up three Championships last year, and for which we are among the finalists in the Champion Breeder and the Champion 3yo Colt/Gelding (IMBONGI) categories this time. In many ways it’s been a record-breaking season, and the nominations are up there with the best of their predecessors.

Catherine Hartley, our representative for Vuma Horsefeeds in Johannesburg, will be attending the gala function for Summerhill, while tonight the rest of the team will be riveted upon the goings-on at Greyville, where IMBONGI takes on his elders for the first time in the Drill Hall Stakes.

The catagories and finalists follow below:

CHAMPION TWO YEAR OLD FILLY

 

CHAMPION TWO YEAR OLD COLT/GELDING

 

CHAMPION THREE YEAR OLD FILLY

Front of House, Glenrossal, Happy Spirit, Rat Burana, Urabamba

 

CHAMPION THREE YEAR OLD COLT/GELDING

Eddington, Imbongi, JJ the Jet Plane, Kings Gambit, Lion’s Blood, Pointing North, Seventh Rock

 

CHAMPION OLDER FILLY/MARE

She’s on Fire, Stratos

 

CHAMPION OLDER COLT/HORSE/GELDING

Biarritz, Bound by Honour, Narc, Our Giant, Strategic News

 

CHAMPION SPRINTER

JJ the Jet Plane, Mythical Flight, Narc, Seventh Rock, Succesful Bidder

 

CHAMPION MIDDLE DISTANCE HORSE

Eddington, Kings Gambit, Our Giant,  Strategic News, Stratos,

 

CHAMPION STAYER

Kings Gambit, Pacific Warrior, Santa

 

CHAMPION SAND SPECIALIST

Fair Brutus, Naples, Narc,

 

CHAMPION BREEDER OF THE SEASON

Cohen and Son; Lammerskraal; Summerhill

 

CHAMPION OWNER OF THE SEASON

Mrs I and Mr M Jooste; Team Valor (Nom. B Irwin); Mr C J H van Niekerk

 

CHAMPION JOCKEY OF THE SEASON

Piere Strydom, Anton Marcus, Weichong Marwing

 

CHAMPION TRAINER OF THE SEASON

Mike de Kock, Charles Laird, Sean Tarry

 

HORSE OF THE SEASON