THE DURBAN JULY : A CITY'S REFERENCE POINT

“THE DURBAN JULY”

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOLong ago, before Ben Hur won the first Interdominion, the philosopher Diogenes envisioned a race as big as the Durban July. Clothed under various sponsor’s mantles since its inception in 1897, the great race is to Durbanites what the Melbourne Cup is to Melbourne.

For any self-respecting citizen of Durban, the July is a reference point. A few wounded, fresh returned from the nightmare of Delville Wood, limped around Greyville to see Pamphlet blast home in 1918. The year after the Second World War, the hero named for the cathedral which survived the “blitz”, St Pauls kicked the butt of Moscow, just as the Allies realised they’d licked Hitler, only to inherit Stalin. In 1966, the race was “robbed” of one of its most famous sons, Sea Cottage, through the treachery of a gunman’s bullet. In the same year, an assassin delivered a similar fate to apartheid’s principal architect, the Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd.

Yet it’s hard to explain the July to an outsider. The English and Kentucky Derbies are about the supremacy of genes and the buying power of the ruling classes. The public is allowed to join in for the crowd scenes. The best colt usually wins and is hurried off to stud for fear of losing his value.

Our July is quirky. Got up by the people, for the people. A cross between a horse race and a folk festival. It mocks convention because it’s a handicap, which means the outcome is not preordained. One of the cherished pieces of Durban’s folklore is that any battler can win the July. And a few have, though fewer than mythology allows. In 1977, Dessie Rich, a struggling dairy farmer from our village, turned history on its head with Lightning Shot. The stewards invited him to the committee lounge for a drink. “Thanks,” he said, but he had to rush home to milk the cows.

For the past 116 years, the Durban Turf Club has hosted “Africa’s greatest horserace” on the first Saturday in July. The Birch Bros of Doordrecht, who dominated the national breeding scene for almost half of the last century, produced six of its winners. We rank second, with four that’ve have tasted the green, green grass of home.

Which brings us back to St Pauls. The July was different in 1946, the first time the crowd numbered more than 100,000. These days, horses fly in for the contest with a personal dietician. St Pauls came by train with cattle and sheep, and they unloaded first. He was the pride of Pat Goss, a former stock inspector, who, like some of us, was quite at home with a pair of sheep shears in his hands. And that’s the part that tickles us. In Mooi River, a sheep shearer has always been thought as good as a Sheikh. Better really, because a Sheikh isn’t much use if your merinos need a clip. Mowgli, who was trained from the end box of the Hartford yard, as most of our top horses of that era were, was one of the all-time greats of the South African turf. He may even have been the greatest if it weren’t for a wind affliction which plagued him to death, literally in the end. When he settled the July field in ‘52, he collapsed within yards of passing the post. Minutes later, he rose, Lazarus on four legs, and walked away. Here finally, was proof that racing exists mainly to remind us of our fallibility. Here was the horse that took the round-they-go-again sameness out of the sport. Here was the horse who gave us not one, but ten undying moments.

Mowgli dominated the 50s the way Mohammed Ali dominated the heavyweights in the 1970s, and the analogy is not meant to be trite. Mowgli was that rare thing: a natural. He made the hard things look easy, the mundane look graceful. The qualities which, in any sport, separate the gifted from the sloggers.

Racing is good sport. It is great sport when you see an Igugu and a Pierre Jourdan in full flight down the Greyville straight, tooth-and-nail for the biggest prize in racing. It isn’t always good business, but when you win the July, it most certainly is. Racing is a way of living, and a way of thinking. It has its own language and its own humour. It is loaded with danger, physical and financial, and it comes with a hint of conspiracy. It doesn’t necessarily build character, but it throws up some great characters. Igugu is trained by one of them. Mike de Kock is the man everyone wants to know. He’s become the idol of a social set to which he never belonged, and to which, you suspect, he never wanted to belong. De Kock knows the rich and famous, he has himself become rich and famous. Yet fame has not changed him, not outwardly anyway. He doesn’t conform. He can’t; he isn’t like anyone else.

When de Kock entered the Summerhill box after the July, we asked him if he’d like a drink. “Or is that a silly question?” It was a silly question.

The above is an extract from the 2012/2013 Summerhill Sires Brochure to be released soon. Are you on our mailing list?

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

RELATIONSHIPS BUILD VALUE

Ravishing
(Photo : Leigh Willson)

“Friendships Mean Everything”

Summerhill is one of those places where friendships mean everything. The world is a big place, and the only way to make it smaller is to make friends. It is true that transactions build turnovers, and none of us can do without them, but in our case, relationships build value. Today we have the pleasure of greeting some of our oldest friends, and by that we speak in generational terms. Just recently, Igugu became the fourth horse known to these pastures, to take Africa’s most famous prize, the Vodacom Durban July, and she did so from an erstwhile paddock-mate, Pierre Jourdan. Our connection with this enormous event goes back 65 years however, to the victory of Pat Goss Snr’s diminutive St Pauls, still the smallest horse ever to wear the blue sash. He did so from draw 20 and came home in record time, some achievement for a horse who started out in pony and galloway handicaps (races reserved for horses under 15 hands), and went on to stardom.

In 1952, Raymond Ellis’ Mowgli got up in the dying strides to deny Irradiate, in one of the races greatest displays of courage, and his feats that year guaranteed his place among the immortals.

The 1993 renewal fell to Dancing Duel, who added the great race to a resume which included that year’s South African Guineas and the Daily News 2000, guaranteeing him the Champion Three-Year-Old title. He carried the silks of our old mate Luke Bales, of Singita fame. Then of course, there was Igugu, in the colours of one of our first customers, Andre Macdonald and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed, whose family association stretches more than two decades.

You might ask what this has to do with relationships, and all of them have their own story, none more so than little St Pauls. Pat Goss was the eternal optimist, and after his horse had completed a spell on his farm The Springs, in the remote reaches of East Griquland, he told all who would listen that he had just loaded the July winner onto the Durban-bound train.

His optimism extended to booking out Durban’s most famous hospitality landmark, The Kew Hotel on the city’s Berea, almost three months before the starter would call them into line. The manager of the hotel was a young “deb” by the name of June Macguire, and she made the reservation. In the aftermath of the race, every Durbanite, whether he knew Pat Goss or not, who share the winning owner’s reverence for the Durbn July, was invited to the party, and its reputed to have raged for two days. Shortly afterwards the Kew burnt down, but its said it had nothing to do with the July party.

The point of this story is that June Maguire’s daughter, Robin Coller, married an American by name of Robert Muir, today one of South Africa’s landmark racehorse owners, and Robin and the boss go back as mates to their schooldays. They are visiting today, and Robert will tell you that when his first foal arrived here he was told his four day old foal, “Hot Guard would win the Smirnoff (Gr1)”. Just like Luke Bales was told the day Dancing Duel was born, that he win the July. Of course, we’ve made other prophecies here before, and they haven’t all been right, but we got these two right.

Robert and Robin have kept their mares at Summerhill for many years, and whilst their band has been relatively small, they’ve bred stand-outs Rambo’s Jewel, (Horse of the Year in KZN), Sleek Braashee etc, as well as standing the celebrated racehorses, Cataloochee and Ravishing at the Midlands nursery. Few things are more worthy than good friends, and these are among the best.

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.

BIRTH OF A CHAMPION

Sea The Stars with mother Urban Sea
(Photo : Supplied) 

SEA THE STARS

A question that pops up with regular frequency, is if we know at birth whether a horse is destined for greatness.

While it’s true you can tip the odd one (we told Luke Bales that Dancing Duel would win the July the day he was born,) it doesn’t always follow, and we’ve had the occasional “ugly duckling” (Fillies Guineas winner, Mystery Guest) go on to fame and fortune.

One you wouldn’t have figured there and then, is the best horse in the world in 2009 (maybe the best ever?). Here’s what Sea The Stars looked like the day he popped out. And you’d certainly not’ve spotted his mother, Urban Sea, as an “Arc” winner in her time, nor as the dam of another legend, Galileo, who claims the mantle of the best stallion of his era.