"PJ" NO GIVEAWAY

Click above to watch Pierre Jourdan winning the Charity Mile in November 2011
(Image : JC Photos - Footage : Tellytrack)

PIERRE JOURDAN
“The People’s Horse”

There’s little dignity in a great racehorse being put through an auction ring at the end of a race meeting, particularly for a champion. Pierre Jourdan grabbed the imagination of racing fans countrywide with some spectacular performances commencing in the spring of 2009 through the summer of 2011, yet such are the attachments and emotions of racehorse ownership, that even a horse of his stature had to face the auctioneers’ hammer at Turffontein Sunday evening.

He’d come out of last month’s Horse Chestnut (Gr.1) with a bit of a jar and some filling in his joints, and there must’ve been a few misgivings as to whether or not he’d come back to his former self. Let’s not forget, it was just a few months back that he made mincemeat of a high quality field in the Peermont Charity Mile (one of South Africa’s best endowed 1600m events), and he did so giving chunks of weight away to some of the nation’s best talents. Pierre Jourdan made his mark in the vintage of some of the best three-year-old colts we’ve seen in decades, and besides his sparkling performances in his classic year, he very nearly upset Igugu’s party in last year’s Vodacom Durban July (Gr.1). He was South Africa’s biggest earner in 2010, and he impressed his July rider, Dougie Whyte, to the degree that the multiple Hong Kong champion suggested he would more than hold his own in the best company out East.

Emilio Baserio is nothing if not a passionate racing man, and his lifetime obsession to own a champion, eventually manifested itself in the R60,000 purchase of “PJ” at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run. He’s been on the greatest ride of his life, thanks to some grand handling by Team Alexander, who’ve managed his career like it belonged to their own child. It happens in racing, because we’re all emotional about our horses, but in the end the partners decided that what was best for the horse, was they should dissolve their venture, hence Sunday’s sale. In the end, we’re told Emilio gave it a good old crack, courtesy of Alec Laird, who’s long been in the saddle for him, while the Alexanders put together a bit of a team themselves. We believe Weiho Mawing had a big punter in the fray at one point, and while it’s nothing compared with what he might’ve fetched after he’d whipped the cream in the R2million Premiers Classic (Gr.1) in 2010, the R1,6million winning bid was probably a respectable price for a five-year-old gelding who’d come out of his last start feeling a few things. Emilio’s got the cash, and he’ll be back investing a bit of it in his favourite sport, while Gary Alexander and his team have walked away with the spoils.

For their sakes, and ours, we hope PJ will be back soon, thrilling the crowds as only he could, this winter.

HAIL THE CHAMPIONS!

Mooi River Landscapes
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

“If you’ve never been before…”

We’ve had a string of eminent personalities pass this way of late, many enticed by the horses, just as many magnetised by the charm of Hartford House. “Legend” is an over-used term in the world these days, but there are a few that have earned the title. On the weekend, at Hartford (www.hartford.co.za) we hosted the Fitzgeralds, Steve and Nicky of C.C. Africa (now And Beyond) fame. Then, if you’d been a fly on the wall under the old oak tree besides the Summerhill office yesterday, you’d have been knocked over not only by the individuals, but by the sheer weight of what they stand for.

Before we tell you about our gathering, there’s a famous story we regularly share with our visitors of the attractions of our area, and of the gravitas that gathered on the summit of Spioenkop, at the “mother and father” of all battles in the early months of 1900. Drawn together by dint of the beauty and the bounty of our region, and the peculiar circumstances that lead nations to war, were five men of incalculable influence. Louis Botha, South Africa’s Prime Minister, who’d been a classmate of the Moors of Hartford at Hermannsburg, (who could guess then that both Sir Frederick and General Louis would both one day be Prime Ministers?) our man, Jan Smuts, the man the world chose to write the charters for the League of Nations and the United Nations, the man Churchill appointed from the war cabinent to be his successor as Prime Minister of Britain should Churchill himself have been incapacitated, was there; the most famous Englishman of the century, perhaps of all-time, Sir Winston Churchill, he was on Spioenkop that day; Denys Reitz, Deputy Prime Minister of South Africa, and one of our most celebrated sons was present, and who would’ve thought it, the man who liberated India in 1947, Mahatma Ghandi, he was carrying a stretcher on Spioenkop that day. Can you think of a gathering of any more influential men of any century, in such a remote place at one such time, on one day?

We might be overstating things a little when we look at yesterday’s gathering, but in the affairs of the world we live in, it’s worth a go. David Higgs, South Africa’s No.1 Chef of 2010, and Jackie Cameron, ranked alongside, they were there; the Champion Angus breeders of the nation, Colin and Judy Emmanuel from our neighbourhood, and Serovin Silero, a stand-out personality in a cattle breeding population of close to 50 million head in his native Argentina, they were here to cast their eyes upon the Summerhill Angus herd, in its own right, a prolific gatherer of show-time case ribbons over the years: the Alexanders, Gary, Dean and Julie, conditioners of our own champions, Pierre Jourdan, Arabian Mist and the Gerald Rosenberg heroine, Spring Garland; Peter and Jenny Blyth, celebrated breeders of the Durban July ace, Classic Flag; Peter and Gail Fabricius the only owners in modern times of three East Cape Horses Of The Year, and history’s winning most racehorse, Hear The Drums, twice the Victor Ladorum, Brigadier Parker, and the first South African bred horse to earn a cheque in the richest race in the world, Paris Perfect, were at the table. And then there were the usual sprinkling of the country’s seven times Champion breeders.

Some day, in some place. If you’ve never been before, as they say in the classics, you’ve never been anywhere!

Happy Christmas and a gigantic 2012.

SANSUI AND THE SIZZLING SUMMER CUP

THE SANSUI SUMMER CUP (Grade 1)
Turffontein, Turf, 2000m
26 November 2011

Along with the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup, the Sansui Summer Cup is the joint third richest race on the South African calendar. It is topped only by the Vodacom Durban July and the J&B Met, and while these two might hold the upper hand in terms of value, neither is any richer when it comes to tradition. Contested in the heart of Africa’s biggest commercial city, Johannesburg, the Summer Cup was born out of history’s most famous gold rush, and it has spawned some of the greatest racers our sport has known. Its reputation as a legend-maker is matched only by it’s storied connection with some of the most stirring political events of our times, the most bizarre of which was the postponement of the infamous Jameson Raid by a week, to avoid that calamity clashing with the staging of the 1895 edition of the race. You see, the raid was inspired by the most powerful Randlords of their time, Cecil John Rhodes and Sir Alfred Beit (with Sir Abe Bailey and Henry Nourse in the wings), and most of them either had horses competing, or were stewards of the Johannesburg Turf Club. Here was an attempted coup d’etat aimed the military overthrow of Paul Kruger’s Transvaal Republic, and it’s argued by more than one student of the politics of the era, that the week’s delay occasioned the leaking of news of the intended raid, hence the fiasco it turned out to be.

Time was that when the Summer Cup (or Handicap, as it was in it’s earliest manifestation) overtook all sporting events in prestige and prize money, when it was contested under the guise of The Holiday Inns, worth R100,000. While there’ve been any number of fabled winners of the “Summer” since its first running in 1887, it’s arguable that among its most fabled sons included were the great Java, Home Guard and Elevation, who won it three times in a row under top weight, with the tragically talented Martin Schoeman in the irons. Elevation was to become one of the most successful South African-bred stallions of his era, eventually aspiring to the status of champion of the nation.

From a Summerhill perspective, we haven’t held a better hand in the event since Pick Six led home a farm exacta in 2008 from the enigmatic millionaire, Emperor Napoleon, under the unlikely name “Gomma Gomma”, the race once more boasted the biggest purse of R3million. The class of the race in 2011 is undoubtedly rags-to-riches hero, Pierre Jourdan, who’s been set the unimaginable task of shouldering 60kgs (yes, 132 pounds or 9st 6lbs as they used to say in the old days), from draw 19, which is akin to starting in Loveday Street with the rest of the field lining up in Eloff Street. He’s in good shape though, and he’s unbeaten this term, following an inspiring effort in the Vodacom Durban July, where only Horse Of The Year, Igugu, was good enough to shade him.

Besides, his trainer seems to have something up his sleeve. As he did when PJ was plundering the Classics as a three-year-old, he looks to have a joyous premonition. As he did then, Gary Alexander wears a beatific smile, as though he knows something others don’t.

We have two other strings to our bow, though we’d have to admit to a suspicion that there must be something of a conspiracy up there among the gods who organised the draw. The runaway victor in last week’s Victory Moon Stakes, Smanjemanje, has not only ended up at draw 13, but he’s been penalised six pounds for his dominant effort in that outing. The question is, was the difference the cornel collar made to his breathing apparatus, such that it raised his game five or six lengths? If so, he’s a runner. He couldn’t be in better shape for this, the biggest assignment of his life, but coping with the additional impost and a draw beyond 10 might be decisive.

Finally, we come to Black Wing, who must be in with a proper shout if the form of the Daily News 2000 (Gr1) has anything to do with the outcome, particularly as he now goes to post in blinkers. The likely favourite for Saturday’s big event, The Apache, was the hero of that championship three-year-old contest, and here Black Wing is 3,5 kgs better off with that one for a beating of less than a length.

At the weights, that’s enough to turn the tables, but the question is, can he overcome his 14 draw, as well as his ride from sea level to 6000 feet, and still get the toughest 2000m in racing? The 800m Turffontein straight is murderous, and its victims include some of the best stayers of their generations. Yet there is something about distance, and what it demands of man and his horses, which separates it from the shorter stuff. It gives a fresh dimension to Geoffrey Blaney’s theory about the tyranny of distance. There is a charm involved. It allows you to hang on to your myths.

Whichever way you look at it, the farm holds a decent hand, and our runners are ready to play it.

At the human level, we still have to overcome the hurdle on Friday of a pre-race party at Mike and Diane de Kock’s Dainfern Estate, where the trimmings and the trappings of several seasons of high plunder in the desert sands of Dubai, are gloriously evident.

For more information, please visit :

www.sansuisummercup.co.za

THERE'S A HORSE FOR EVERYONE...

Smanjemanje - Victory Moon Stakes (Grade 2)
(Photo : JC Photos / Summerhill Stud)

…AT THE READY TO RUN.

Last week it was Pierre Jourdan,
for Gary Alexander in the R600,000 Charity Mile.

This week it was Smanjemanje,
for Tyrone Zackey in the R300,000 Victory Moon Stakes.

Both graduates of the Summerhill Ready To Run programme.

YOU GET ONE MORE CRACK OF THE WHIP.
AT SUMMERHILL 20 FEBRUARY 2012.

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

PIERRE JOURDAN ALL CLASS IN PEERMONT CHARITY MILE

Click above to watch Pierre Jourdan winning the Charity Mile
(Image : JC Photos - Footage : Tellytrack)

PEERMONT EMPERORS PALACE
CHARITY MILE (Grade 2)
Turffontein, Turf, 1600m
5 November 2011

PIERRE JOURDAN
PARADE LEADER (USA) - VIN FIZZ by Qui Danzig (USA)
5 Year Old Bay Gelding

Owners : Messrs E Baisero, CG and TRJ Hurly and GM Alexander and Ms M Konstantatou
Trainer : Gary Alexander
Jockey : Derreck David
Breeder : Summerhill Stud
Win Time : 96.47
Career Record : 9 Wins, 6 Places, 16 Starts
Career Earnings : R4,475,675

Pierre Jourdan is a Summerhill graduate from the 2008 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale.

RACE RESULT

#	LBH	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.00	PIERRE JOURDAN	61.0	112	6	D David	Gary Alexander
2	1.00	ENGAGEMENT	54.0	98	13	S Chambers	St John Gray
3	2.75	TWO TONE	58.0	106	4	M Yeni	Mike Azzie
4	3.50	WELWITSCHIA (GB)	56.5	105	8	A Marcus	Mike de Kock
5	3.75	BLACK WING	58.5	107	1	S Veale	Paul Gadsby
6	5.00	DANCEWITHTHEDEVIL	61.5	113	11	G Lerena	St John Gray
7	6.25	RUDRA	59.5	109	2	* J P van der Merwe	Mike de Kock
8	6.30	THE MOUSEKETEER	56.0	102	5	* N Juglall	Sean Tarry
9	6.50	BULSARA	59.0	108	12	R Danielson	Gavin van Zyl
10	7.00	ACROSS THE ICE	54.0	98	14	R Fradd	Sean Tarry
11	7.75	D J DETZKY	54.0	98	15	P Strydom	Louis Goosen
12	9.50	FLIRTATION	57.0	104	16	W Marwing	Mike de Kock
13	10.00	EMPENOSO HENN (ARG)	55.5	101	3	* T Appie	Mike de Kock
14	10.25	KAVANAGH	58.5	107	7	A Delpech	Mike de Kock
15	12.00	WITTENBERG	54.0	98	9	D Mansour	Geoff Woodruff
16	25.00	KNOCK ON WOOD	55.0	100	10	S Brown	Ormond Ferraris
		Late Scratchings
17	0.00	MIKE’S CHOICE	54.5	99	7	B Lerena	Michael Roberts
18	0.00	MAHOGANY	52.0	94	6	n/a	Weiho Marwing

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