HOME RUN FOR SOLSKJAER

Click above to watch Ice Axe winning the Mauritius Derby (Gr1)
(Photo : Mauritius Turf Club - Footage : iDates)

ICE AXE (SAF)
Solskjaer (IRE) - Nordic Air (SAF)

A few weeks back, you might remember that Solskjaer’s entries in the Gold Circle Derby and Oaks respectively, were causing a ripple of gooseflesh here at Summerhill. Shogunnar had just run Jackson to within a couple of lengths in the Daily News 2000 (Gr1), and Final Score crept into the money in the Oaks. They’re not alone though, in advertising the talents of their sire; Ice Axe, who has lamentably left our shores and is no longer able to showcase the virtues of his sires’ stock, has been flying the flag not only for this country, but for the farm and his father, in Mauritius. In the past couple of months, he has annexed the Bicentenary Cup (Mau Gr1) as well as the Mauritian Derby (Mau Gr1) for Rupees 1.1million and 750,000 respectively. We’ll let our correspondent say the rest :

“Ice Axe (Solskjaer ex Nordic Air) bred by Summerhill Stud is creating a sensation out here in Mauritius. He grabbed two Gr.1 races (The Bicentenary Cup over 1500m for R1.1million, and the Mauritian Derby over 1850m for R750,000) out recently from his two starts. Ice Axe is now in contention for his third win in a Gr.2 over 2200m this Saturday. We people here in Mauritius really thank Summerhill Stud for providing us with such a great champion.” - Jesse Sinspired via Facebook

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

BETTING WORLD DERBY AND OAKS : OLE OLE

Shogunnar (SAF)
(Photo : Gold Circle)

Betting World Derby and Oaks (Grade 2)
Clairwood, Turf, 2400m
24 June 2012

Life can be funny in the way it throws up coincidences. Or is it possible that these things are preordained? Here we are at the quarter final stage of Europe’s biggest football tournament, England, thank heavens for her fans who’ve taken a pasting on the rugby field of late, having made it to the quarters, and suddenly on the racing front we’re reminded of one of the same tournament’s greatest sons. Some years ago, Manchester United striker, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer made this tournament his own, and the horse the Coolmore team named for him, Solskjaer, pops up with a live candidate for each of this weekend’s Gold Circle Derby and Oaks.

The Derby looks like a match in two, with Vaughan Marshall’s Tribal Dance in the one corner and Gavin van Zyl’s Shogunnar in the other. The catch here is which form is the more reliable. Tribal Dance destroyed his field in the East Cape Derby (Gr.3) a few weeks back, and we found a pleased-as-punch Vaughan Marshall grabbing an early breakfast on Sunday morning at Café Bloom: he was imperious in pink, and he had the bloom of confidence about him. Shogunnar on the other hand, on only his fourth racecourse appearance, posted the fastest last 400 metres in an ominous display from the back, grabbing the third placed cheque behind Jackson in the Daily News 2000 (Gr.1). We’re not for a moment suggesting that Shogunnar is in the Jackson class, but this was a smashing effort making up 7 lengths on the favourite, and as a son of the Summerhill resident, Solskjaer, he gives hope of a good weekend. Adding weight to our aspirations, just Tuesday afternoon, the stallion’s first-time daughter, Sol’s Gold, gave early notice with a 60-1 performance for Albert Rapp and co at the Vaal. Don’t tell Mike Bass or Marsh Shirtliff we said this was a “match in two”. They’ll tell you Taipan is the one to be with, and he could well be; it’s just that a “match-in-two” had a better ring to it.

The Oaks is a different matter. It does not look like a vintage field, the top rated being Beloved Betty (MR 99), Razzle Dazzle Rose (MR 96) and Avenue of Gold (MR 92), while Mike de Kock will believe he holds a strong hand with Tajmeel (MR 86). However, for as long as you have a ticket, there’s hope, and it’s interesting that current champion jockey, Anton Marcus, has taken the ride on Sean Tarry’s Final Score, another Summerhill-bred daughter of Solskjaer. You might well ask where all this stamina comes from, given that the stallion’s December-foaled Ice Axe picked up a cheque in the Derby last year. Here we need to remember that his half-brother Yeats, is the only horse in history to have posted four consecutive victories in the greatest staying race in Europe, the Ascot Gold Cup (Gr.1) over 4000m, coincidentally also scheduled for Thursday at Royal Ascot. That probably says it all. It’s now in the hands of providence.

WANT TO BE THE CAT'S WHISKERS?

EMPERORS PALACE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE
27 - 29 April 2012
TBA Sales Complex, Block A

Two weekends is just a couple of days, but it’s a long time in racing.
A week ago, Checcetti swallowed a Summer Cup winner
in the Jacaranda Handicap (Gr3).
This weekend, Extra Zero gave it to Give Me Five
in the Sycamore Sprint (Gr3).
Two weekends, two more Group winners, one farm.
Goes to show. Can’t get a good team down.
Cream always gets to the top.

P.S: Cape Royal deadly first-timer;
Indaba My Children 2nd Godolphin Barb (Gr.3);
Secret Babe 3rd Jacaranda Handicap (Gr.3);
4th Alqaffay Godolphin Barb (Gr.3),
Final Score Oaks Trial (Listed).

Same week, same farm.

THIS CAT’S GOT THE CREAM.

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

NUMBER ONE BY NUMBERS. NUMBER ONE BY RESULTS

Extra Zero (Way West) wins the Sycamore Sprint (Grade 3)
(Photo : JC Photos / Summerhill Stud)

“This week the story gets even better…”

You saw our piece on our blog’s new international website traffic record last month, according to the Alexa rankings. March was another record, both locally and internationally. This time though, we didn’t break those records, we smashed them. Our South African ranking leapt 207 places (25%), and our international record was a staggering 11,003 positions ahead of last month’s new record. Our fans are spread across the entire globe, with 42 countries representing more than 30 individual visits to the site.

These are giant-killing numbers, by any standards, as you’ll have witnessed from the figures we posted last month, relative to all-comers internationally. You don’t want to get carried away with yourself by these things, but it’s a sign not only of the power of technology, but of the value of a good story.

And this week’s story gets even better. When Sean Tarry’s Extra Zero powered home in the Sycamore Sprint (Gr.3) on Saturday, we’d scarcely gotten over Checcetti’s demolition of the Summer Cup heroine, Flirtation in the Jacaranda Handicap (Gr.3) the previous weekend. Flirtation paid homage to that form in the Colorado King Stakes (Gr.2) on Saturday, walloping the colts in menacing fashion: we know Costa Livanos well, and he’ll be having palpitations at the thought of another Group One on Champions’ Day at the end of the month.

When you’re approaching a sale, you need every last “promo” to keep your customers’ attention. There’s no advert like a good winner, and Cape Royal’s six and a quarter length romp on debut for Dean Kannemeyer at Kenilworth yesterday was as good as it gets for this R1,5 million graduate of November’s Ready To Run. We touted him as a veritable flying machine after the gallops at Summerhill, and it’s reassuring when you’re vindicated. He wasn’t alone though : Indaba My Children, a R650,000 graduate of the same sale, was a smart runner-up for Charles Laird in the Godolphin Barb (Gr.3) on only his second racecourse appearance, while he was chased home by a R90,000 National Sales product, Alqaffay in the same event. Dennis Drier’s Secret Babe was a money-getter in Checcetti’s rout, and Catherine Hartley and her pal Sandy Wilson, would’ve been tickled with Final Score’s come-from-behind rip in the closing stages of the Oaks Trial (Listed). They can dream now, as she seems to be better with every yard they tack on to the distance, and she’ll be cherry-ripe for a tilt at the SA Oaks (Gr.1) on Champions’ Day. Her family knows the taste of Classic success, though James Goodman and Barry Walters were still young men when Last Watch grabbed the R1million cheque in the Bloodline Classic (Gr.1), and F.W. de Klerk was still State President. Those were the days when a million was still a million!

www.summerhill.co.za

SOLSKJAER AND WAY WEST : THE SILENT ASSASSINS

 

Solskjaer (left) and Way West (right)
 (Photos : Greig Muir)

“Two Stealthy Operators”

Some people go about their business with inordinate fanfare, and gather the legions in their wake. The Pied Piper comes to mind, so does Julius Malema. But at Summerhill, we have two stealthy operators, who are quietly carving a name for themselves with a gathering force of quality performers from their two small crops at the races.

Solskjaer’s a man who’s taken his time making his mark, but those with memories will know he debuted in the Irish Two Thousand Guineas (Gr1). While that was some statement of the esteem in which he was held by Coolmore and one of the world’s top trainers, Aidan O’Brien, it was nonetheless well into his three-year-old season that he first set foot on a racecourse.

It was unlikely then, that his progeny would be any different, and the emergence of Ice Axe as a proper contender for the R2million Sansui Summer Cup (Gr1) is a welcome endorsement for what we’d come to expect from a 120-rated son of one of the world’s top sires of his era.

This weekend, two daughters from his second lot, Final Score and I Got You Babe, put up their hands as likely contenders for higher honours in the impressions they made at Turffontein and Scottsville. Both are modestly priced (R50,000 and R7,000 respectively) graduates of the Summerhill Ready To Run programmes, and Final Score’s victory represented a final bold bid for a place in Saturday’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup. It seems the “Sollys” like the sound of “R2million”.

Danehill’s other Summerhill-based son Way West, reminded us of his capacity to surprise, when the unbeaten Hot Girl stampeded up to take her story to two from two. The Way Wests have an affinity for “two”, it appears. Two small crops, two Group One fillies to date, two runners in the Cup (both running for R2million) and Hot Girl two from two.

Two good to be two?

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