SUPER SATURDAY : THE ACID TEST

Herman Brown Jnr and Mike de Kock
(Image : SA Trainers)

“SUPER SATURDAY”
Meydan, 10 March 2012

Super Saturday in Dubai is the last crucial test of aspirations for the richest day in racing, the Dubai World Cup meeting, where almost $30 million will be disbursed at the end of this month. For some of the candidates, their conditioners are simply applying the finishing touches, for others it’s the last run they need to get them to peak for the great day, and for others the question of where they’re going to end up on the day (in or out or in which race they’ll compete) still has to be defined. There are two South African trainers in action tomorrow, many times Champion trainer of the UAE, Mike de Kock, and third generation Herman Brown Jnr, who carries the hopes of the Chechneyan President, Ramzan Kadyrov. Brown’s horses are largely untested in the UAE, and they come from a variety of international backgrounds. We don’t know much about them, other than their ratings and their countries of origin, and you have to take their wellbeing on trust. He wouldn’t be running them at Saturday’s level, if he didn’t think they belonged there.

For de Kock, his horses fall into any one of the categories we’ve mentioned above. Bold Silvano, Musir, Mahbooba and Irish Flame, are in the “polishing” touches phase, River Jetez, the former J&B Met heroine, is only lighting up the afterburners, and has work to do. Others like Master of the Hounds, and the recent Group 2 mile victor, Viscount Nelson, have been confusing in their form, and questions remain as to what their best aptitude is. The latter is a spectacularly bred son of Giant’s Causeway (out of a Guineas and Oaks winner by Sadler’s Wells), and you’d expect his best trip to be at least ten furlongs, maybe twelve.

Local fans will be looking for bold showings from most of these horses, in particular the Durban July winner, Bold Silvano, who was a strong fancy last year to take the winner’s prize in the world’s richest race, the World Cup itself, before injury cruelly intervened. He ran a muddling race on his first start back, and the fact he’s only having his second start here, suggests de Kock has been nursing him.

Either way, it’s going to be an intriguing night of contests (two of the races have recently been elevated to Group 1 status), and if you’re wanting to follow it, tune into Tellytrack Saturday afternoon (channel 232). If you don’t have the fields, go to www.emiratesracing.com.

DEATH OF BANKABLE : NO MORE BANKING.

Click above to watch a tribute to Bankable
(Image and footage : Summerhill Sires Film 2011/2012)

BANKABLE (IRE)
Medician (GB) - Dance To The Top (GB)

Racing people have always been superstitious, and Friday 13^th has long carried its own demons. For Summerhill, it was a black day with the sudden death of the Dubai star, Bankable. South African racing fans, and especially the team at Summerhill, had developed a deep affection for a horse whose trademark was to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and he had developed a legion of supporters since his arrival at Summerhill. He died quickly from severe complications arising from colic, which had become inoperable.

Winner of eight races (including four at Stakes level), it was Bankable’s versatility from six furlongs to ten under the expert tutelage of Herman Brown Jnr, that appealed most, besides his 560kg physique, though it’s arguable that his best performances were in defeat. In England, he was second to the world champion miler Raven’s Pass in the Celebration Mile (Gr2), giving the winner six pounds, and his track record going down a short head to Eagle Mountain in the Darley Stakes (Gr3) sticks in memory to this day.

“He was a lovely horse, both as a specimen and as a personality, and he’d grown into an imposing stallion. His manners in the covering yard were exemplary, and his fertility was excellent, to the point that he will have exceeded 90% in foal by the time the final returns come in”, said Greig Muir, who has been managing the stallion barn at Summerhill for close to a quarter of a century now. “It’s a great loss not only to us, but to President Kadyrov, who had developed a special affection for the horse, to the degree of supporting with 24 of his own mares, all of which are tested in foal. All told, we will have of the order of 70 of his progeny on the farm, and hopefully there will be a couple of champions among them”.

He went on to say “there are parallels in the case of Dubai Millenium, Sheikh Mohammed’s favourite racehorse, who died in similar circumstances at the end of his first season at stud. The Sheikh’s affection for his horse led him to buy almost all of Dubai Millenium’s first crop, wherever he could get his hands on them, and he was handsomely repaid by the performances of Echo Of Light and Dubawi, who was not only a world-class racehorse, but also an international stallion of great significance. We have every hope of some déjà vu”.

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

BANKING ON DUTCH ART

Dutch Art
(Photo : Cheveley Park Stud)

“His runners are making a meal of things…”

Investors in renaissance art are aware of the fortunes some have made in their pursuits of the works of the Dutch masters, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Caspar Netscher and Floris van Dijck. Their works are priceless, and we know of at least one friend who made a personal fortune through her inheritance of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, so much so that in her lifetime at least, there was no longer a need to get up with the sparrows in the morning to attend a day job like the rest of us.

No doubt, the connections of the most precocious English two-year-old of the 2006 season, were hopeful that this miracle might be repeated for them when they named him Dutch Art, whose appeal to Blanford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff was such that he put his hands on him for 16,000 guineas at the Doncaster Yearling sale. The son of Medicean was a very smart juvenile, and included among his victories the stallion-making Middle Park Stakes (Gr1), contested since 1866 at October’s Champion Stakes meeting at Newmarket. As a three-year-old, he claimed the Greenham Stakes (Gr3) on his way to a third in the English Guineas, and looked like the real deal.

Retired with a Timeform rating of 124 to Cheveley Park Stud, home of his own sire, Medicean, Dutch Art has his first runners at the races this year, and to say that he is making a meal of things is an understatement. He already has 21 individual juvenile winners, including the aptly-named, Caspar Netscher (Gimcrack Stakes, Gr2), and several other Stakes performers. He’s not only a shoe-in for the title of Champion Freshman Sire, (from some formidable opposition, mind you, including the similarly named Excellent Art, who stands at Coolmore), but he could well turn out Europe’s overall champion sire of juveniles.

From a Summerhill perspective, the news is encouraging. Like our own Kahal and Darley’s American-based Street Cry, Medicean is another successful son of Machiavellian (also sire of Summerhill resident, Mullins Bay), and just arrived at the farm, is another equally well-performed son of Medicean, Bankable, a much-loved racehorse among the South African public for his exploits at the Dubai Racing Carnival over the past couple of years. Bankable proved his mettle against world champion Raven’s Pass, as well as Eagle Mountain and Passage Of Time in England, and while the rush for services to Bankable is probably due more to local fans appreciation of what we knew of him in Dubai, the news of Dutch Art’s early success is bound to rub off on his bookings. We don’t know Dutch Art in the flesh, but he’d have to be a helluva horse to match the physical attributes of our man, who weighed in at a hefty 560kgs in training with Herman Brown Jnr.

BANKABLE ARRIVES AT SUMMERHILL

Herman Brown Jnr with Bankable
(Photo : Greig Muir)

BANKABLE
Medicean - Dance To The Top

Finance journalist Felicity Duncan commented on the recent economic downturn that “the last few days have been many things; boring was not one of them”. Stock markets plunged and many allowed emotions to overwhelm a sense of reasoning as the market encountered a crises in confidence; on Tuesday the market started a comeback, finishing slightly up.

For us, “it’s all about timing”, we witnessed a comeback as early as Monday night with the arrival of the aptly named BANKABLE (Medicean x Dance To The Top by Sadler’s Wells), who’s racing accomplishments accounted for 8 wins, including 4 at Group and Stakes level.

“Now is not the time to be caught napping”, Summerhill’s Stallion Manager, Greig Muir commented. “We’ve reason to be excited. BANKABLE boasted a Timeform Rating of 122 and is perhaps one of the best looking horses to come through the Summerhill gates in the last decade. He descends from a great sire line and is out of a mare by one of the world’s all time greatest broodmare sires, Sadler’s Wells. He’s perfect”.

This was confirmed by trainer Herman Brown Jnr who, when reunited with the BANKABLE on Wednesday, said “for me, there was very little between BANKABLE and JAY PEG. BANKABLE had the perfect temperament and was confirmationally faultless which gave him the ability to perform over a broader distance with tremendous ability”.

BANKABLE earned over R20 million in stakes over distances from 1200-1800m and ran World Champion Raven’s Pass to one length whilst giving him 6lbs. With 8 wins and 8 places (including 2 places at Group 1 level), “we think you can BANK on this one”.

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

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS

Left to Right : Solskjaer, Stronghold, Way West
(Photos : Summerhill Stud)

(Please click photos to enlarge… )

SOLSKJAER, STRONGHOLD AND WAY WEST

Racing fans with long serving memories, will recall the announcement of an era in European breeding was previously unheralded. The first crop of Sadler’s Wells (who went on to take an unprecedented 14 champion sires titles) were just two year olds, and in the best juvenile race on the calendar, the Dewhurst Stakes (Gr.1), Scenic (who went on to a triumphant career at stud) and Prince Of Birds, dead heated for the spoils. No first crop sire had ever been represented by the first two past the post in the Dewhurst (by any sire, to our knowledge) and it took another eighteen seasons before it happened again on Saturday.

This time it was the four-time group winning son of Danehill (yes, Danehill again) Oratorio, who supplied the goods, as his appropriately named son, Beethoven grabbed the cash from his paternal half brother, Fencing Master, to mark the beginning of a new history.

Could this be a portent of a second “coming” of Sadler’s Wells, and while many may consider that a rhetoric question (could there ever be another stallion of Sadler’s Wells class?), there is nothing to suggest that it can’t.

At Summerhill, we’ve long lamented the fact that this country appears, at large, to have missed the Danehill boat, given that in Australasia at least, Danehill is the greatest sire phenomenon in history, and is already represented by three individual champion sire sons, while only last weekend in Europe, with Group One winners on both sides of the Atlantic, Rock Of Gibraltar reminded us that Danehill Dancer is not the only Danehill son with aspirations of championships in the northern hemisphere.

Fortunately, Summerhill saw the train coming, and we’re home to the three best performed sons of Danehill on the African continent, two of whom, Solskjaer and Way West, are represented by their first crop at the sales this year. Ready To Run watchers at last Friday’s gallops, were stunned by the performances of the Way Wests (you’d have expected them to be forward, being the issue of one of the most explosive juveniles of his year in Australia), while we all know that the Solskjaers brought the house down at the Nationals, not only with the sales-topping filly, but in the people that pursued them. Ormond Ferraris, Charles Laird, Mike Bass, Mike de Kock, Herman Brown Jnr and Team Valor’s Barry Irwin, made up the admirers. It seems that at the auction at least, they’ve already caught the imaginations of the local racing public.

That’s not the end, though, because the outcome of England’s Champion Stakes (Gr.1) on the weekend, produced another boost for our third son of Danehill, Stronghold, when Twice Over went one better than his effort last year in grabbing the main prize. While he’s not a son of Danehill himself, he happens to belong to the same family as Stronghold. When we speak of this man, we need to remind ourselves that the best rating agency in the world, Timeform, rated Stronghold the best handicapper in Europe in 2006. Yes, the very best in Europe.