SOUND THE BUGLES; THERE’S A SHOW ON THE GO

Click above to watch Hear The Drums
(Image : Summerhill Stud - Footage : Tellytrack)

HEAR THE DRUMS : LEGS OF STEEL AND HEART OF IRON

One horse who’s really caught the imagination in recent weeks (besides Pierre Jourdan) is our friend Hear The Drums. News of his exploits is being reported as far afield as Czechoslovakia (www.paddock-revue.cz) as well as in Britain’s most celebrated daily, Racing Post (www.racingpost.com). Scarcely a day goes by that some scribe somewhere isn’t talking about his charge for the title of winning-most racehorse in South African history. As matters stand, he’s the joint record holder with a warrior who lived by the name of Screech Owl back in the fifties, and if anything, we’d want the record to rest in the hands of a horse who was at least well named!

Trainer Des McLachlan has just confirmed that his assault on the title will take place on the 23^rd April at Arlington, scene of so many of his victories to date. The seven-year-old gelding is just 15.2 hh in height, but when he gets to the racecourse, he’s a veritable colossus who doesn’t know the meaning of the word “give up”. His legs are of steel, his heart is of iron.

The same weekend, the new darling of South African racing Pierre Jourdan, will be the first horse since Horse Chestnut with a crack at the Triple Crown, when the son of Parade Leader lines up for the R1million South African Derby (Gr1). The manner of his authority at the races has captured the minds of a public who love nothing like a champion.

Both these horses, a son of Parade Leader and Hear The Drums, have a sort of military ring to them. The great soldiers who bestrode our hills in the late 1800’s, Generals Botha, Joubert, Buller and Penn-Symons, were masters of the tactical trade of cavalry engagement. While what they did and what we do these days, may seem to be poles apart, the one thing these generals appreciated, was that in battle, the value of good breeding and a decent upbringing was inestimable. Both these fellows, Hear The Drums and Pierre Jourdan know where they come from. We see it every time they go to the races.

Both have widely different aspirations of course, there are two distinct messages flowing from each of them. In Pierre Jourdan, we have a racehorse who has the ability to ensure that the Empire of Racing can still strike back, while the seven-year-old gelding is proof positive that, like an old cavalry horse, you can still hear the bugles.

PINCH YOURSELF : IT’S ACTUALLY HAPPENING

South African Thoroughbred Breeders Log
(Photos : JC Photographics/Andrew Watkins/Emirates Racing Authority/Wally Strydom/TBA)

“GOING INTO A HORSE SALE,
YOU NEED ALL THE GODS ON YOUR SIDE”

Horseracing can be something of a rollercoaster; one moment you’re up, the next you’re on the slope. But the ride we’ve been on at Summerhill is now in its seventh successive year, and what a ride it’s been. We’ve had our moments for sure, and there’ve been plenty of them, but none better than the past couple of months, with the exploits of Imbongi in Dubai; Fisani in the Fillies Guineas; Pierre Jourdan on his way to a Triple Crown challenge, as the first since Horse Chestnut to get a crack at it; Hear The Drums with his record-equalling thirty-second victory; Vangelis’ Fairview Mile, and then almost miraculously, Smangaliso’s huge turnabout in Sunday’s Sycamore Sprint (Gr3), and Salutation’s tribute to her own fine family in the Oaks Trial.

We’d had such a run, we anticipated taking a back seat this last weekend, but Smangaliso (which means “Miracle” in Zulu) and Salutation, obviously didn’t read the script.  

Going into a horse sale, you need all the gods on your side, and right now we’re thanking our lucky stars.

SOUTH AFRICAN BREEDERS LOG

STUD	EARNINGS	RUNNERS	AEPR
Summerhill Stud	14,444,937	243	59,444
Normandy Stud	4,750,750	67	70,907
Lammerskraal Stud	4,416,475	89	49,623
Highlands	4,075,212	124	32,865
Maine Chance	4,071,000	112	36,348
D Cohen & Sons	3,912,012	124	31,548
Ascot Stud	3,805,375	96	39,639
Wilgerbosdrift	3,788,800	85	44,574
The Alchemy	3,570,075	75	47,601
Klawervlei Stud	3,536,075	147	24,055

 Courtesy of Sporting Post as at 7 April 2010

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

MEGAN ROMEYN'S TOP 12 RACEHORSES OF THE PAST 50 YEARS

Megan Romeyn and Sea Cottage
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

MEGAN ROMEYN : OUR RADIO DJ

Unlike their very visible television counterparts, radio DJ’s are the anonymous voices of the electronic media. Our anonymous voice is our shop window, the lady who answers the telephone. In Summerhill’s case, most of you know the mellifluous tones of Megan Romeyn, always cheerful, always polite, and never short of enthusiasm. Megan’s not only enthusiastic about life, she loves the horses and is passionate about the Summerhill story. She took the liberty this morning of naming her top twelve racehorses of the past fifty years. She didn’t pick them solely for their race records, but for their personalities and their hearts.

1. Sea Cottage. 20 wins from 24 races. Dead-heated with Jollify in 1966 Durban July.

2. Hawaii. Winner of fifteen races in South Africa and six in America including the Man O’War Handicap at Belmont. Son Henbit won 1980 Epsom Derby.

3. Colorado King. Winner of the Durban July and Cape Derby – both Group One races. He won a total of 10 races in South Africa before being exported to America. Won the Hollywood Gold Cup (Gr.1) in 1964 and equalled world record for nine furlongs.

4. Horse Chestnut. One of the greatest horses to come out of South Africa. His racing record speaks for itself.

5. Mowgli. Winner of six races of current Group One status in twelve weeks. A feat never to be repeated again in equine history.

6. Northern Guest. Greatest broodmare sire in South African history with a record eight titles to his name. Even though he was unraced, his progeny have distinguished themselves on the racetrack

7. Wolf Power. Winner of multiple Group One races including back-to-back Queen’s Plates (83/84). Horse of the Year. Sired 334 Graded Stakes winners from 500 starters in 16 crops.

8. In Full Flight.  Winner of four Group One races. Legendary duels with Sentinel whom he beat to win Queens Plate in 1971? 

9. Politician. Bred locally by Scott Bros. Winner of 11 Grade One and two Grade Two races most under top weight. Horse of the Year 1976-1980. 

10. Yataghan. Winner of Durban July (1973). Famous for his never say die attitude. Legendary duel with Elevation to win Champion Stakes. 

11. Elevation. Champion horseracer and equine sire. Remembered for hat-trick of wins in Holiday Inns Handicap (Gr.1) Winner of SA Derby and 2^nd in Met.

12. Sentinel. Bred here at Hartford House. Winner of 29 races. A superb sprinter, he became famous for his dead heat with rival In Full Flight in the Cape Guineas in 1972. Known for his deadly burst of speed.

OF HORSE CHESTNUT AND A VERY PRIVATE TIP

Horse Chestnut
(Photo : Drakenstein Stud)

HORSE CHESTNUT
DRAKENSTEIN STUD

Tuesday, we undertook the traditional pilgrimage (for us at least, as they’ve been with us at Summerhill since the gates opened 30 years ago) to Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud, which shares one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate with the L’Ormarins wine estate. So that you can understand the place, husband Johann has the wine side as his “baby”, while Gaynor jumps out of bed in the mornings for the horses.

We’ve said enough in these columns about their fine stallion Trippi, so while seeing him was confirmation of the wisdom of participating in his shareholding, it was Horse Chestnut that we needed to renew our vows with.

We last saw him in the flesh, burying a high class field in the J&B Met on his way to international fame and glory, and we remember the day he demolished the best of our Three-Year-Olds in the Derby at Turffontein. His victims that day included second placed Summerhill-bred Dangerous Donald, whose heart was irretrievably broken after a ding dong 300m tussle up the murderous Turffontein straight. So this for us, was a moment for the ages.

Stud Manager, Ross Fuller swears he only stands 16.1 hh, but to our minds he has at least another inch on him. He’s in great shape, and you only have to see him walk to recognise the fluidity of his movement in his heyday. A grass horse in a “dirty” country, Horse Chestnut might well have been better off at stud anywhere else but in the United States, yet his record out there (and abroad) was not without distinction. Let’s hope, for the sake of our local breds, that he can get up and salute as Jet Master, Captain Al and National Emblem have done in recent times, and deliver the goods as he delivered at the races.

Oh, and by the way, let’s not forget the lunch. Gaynor, as gracious as ever, is a wonderful host and we were lucky this time to be joined by a long-serving member of the Rembrandt board, Jennifer Preller, who happens to have graced the portals of Stellenbosch University in an era concurrent with my own. Little doubt, if Drakenstein Stud were to get into the restaurant business, we’d have a devil of a time at Hartford taking home the accolades that’ve befallen us in the past few months. And a very private tip: the L’Ormarins Sauvignon Blanc, 2007. Like the rest of the place, in its own class.

Thanks Gaynor and Ross, as always, for a class act.

Mike de Kock armed for Golden Jubilee Dogfight

J J The Jet Plane, Ascot
(Photo : Daily Mail)

Mike de Kock and J J The Jet Plane have captivated the interest of the UK racing media in the buildup to Saturday’s Golden Jubilee Stakes where they will challenge for South African glory in the final Group 1 trophy of Royal Ascot 2009.

Following is an extract from yesterday’s edition of the UK’s Mirror, written by David Yates :

Royal Ascot
Saturday 20 June 2009, Race 3
The Golden Jubilee Stakes

“I feel the need… the need for speed…”

Australia plundered Saturday’s Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2003 with King’s Stand Stakes hero Choisir.

Two years later, the six furlong sprint - run at York while Ascot was being rebuilt - went to Hong Kong raider Cape Of Good Hope.

Now J J The Jet Plane is the bookies’ favourite to make racing history by taking the prize to South Africa.

But victory for the five-year-old would mark just the latest overseas plunder for Mike De Kock, the trainer who has made his name dispatching runners from his Johannesburg base to capture some of the biggest races on the planet.

A decade ago Mike de Kock came to Ascot with a view to sending his stable star Horse Chestnut for a clash with Europe’s top middle-distance cream in the King George.

The plan to run didn’t come off, but a sortie to America saw Horse Chestnut demolish his rivals in Gulfstream Park’s prestigious Broward Handicap - and Mike de Kock was bitten by the travel bug.

“In any sport, you want to pitch yourself against your peers abroad,” explains the 45 year-old Mike de Kock, who as a boy became fascinated by the goings-on at Johannesburg’s Newmarket racecourse, a couple of furlongs from his family home.

After a couple of years in the Equestrian Unit of the SA Defence Force, Mike de Kock learned his trade in the training ranks of his native city before taking out a licence in his own name in 1989.

“The ambition to run Horse Chestnut in the King George didn’t take place, but it was his win in America that whet my appetite for international competition.

“I came across to Ascot and I thought, ‘This is what I want.’ But you’ve got to have the horses to be competitive.

“Sitting in South Africa, you’re looking abroad and everything in America and England looks so big, and you’re almost nervous to have a crack at it.” The exploits of the ex-Zimbabwean mare Ipi Tombe, which included a track-record win in Dubai’s Group 1 Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night in 2003, established Mike de Kock as a force on the international scene.

“I felt Ipi Tombe was good enough to race abroad,” he recalls. “I felt, ‘If there’s a better horse, then I want to see it.” “We didn’t really know how competitive we would be until we took our horses abroad.”

“We thought she would be competitive, but I didn’t imagine she would win in Dubai like she did.”

Ipi Tombe was crowned Dubai Horse of the Year for 2003, while Mike de Kock topped the trainers’ list at its spring meeting five years running from 2004.

Last year he even improved Aidan O’Brien cast-offs Archipenko and Eagle Mountain to score at the highest level in Hong Kong last year.

But success at Royal Ascot represents uncharted territory for Mike de Kock, who recruited dual Group 1 winner J J The Jet Plane to race at the Dubai Carnival this spring.

A Group 3 winner at Nad Al Sheba in February, the gelded son of champion South African speedster Jet Master arrived at his summer base in Newmarket last month, before warming up for Ascot in a Listed sprint at Windsor.

J J The Jet Plane lived up to his odds of 4-7 by four lengths from Intrepid Jack, and Mike de Kock admits: “I would have been very disappointed if he’d got beat or struggled to win.”

“People have said it wasn’t a very accomplished field, but I’ve gone back on the form and the other horses have some pretty good form.”

“The second is rated 107 and we’ve given him 7lbs and a four-length beating, so J J’s got to be running very close to his mark and I thought it was a good win.”

“He’s a very straightforward horse. He’s got exceptional speed and he’s also got that kick, that stamina with his speed, that I think makes him a horse that is going to be competitive on the world stage.”

The nomadic life travelling from one major racing carnival to another suits Mike de Kock, who has no plans for permanent settlement in Britain, adding: “I’m very happy to follow the sun - it would be difficult for me to make a base because in the winter I don’t want to be here!” Weather-wise a British summer comes with no guarantees, but Mike de Kock is already an enthusiastic convert to the domestic racing programme.

“You get some unbelievable meetings here and some of the best horses in the world to race.”

“The Derby is followed by Royal Ascot, which gets followed up by the July meetings, which gets followed up by York - Jesus, it doesn’t stop!”

“If I’ve got a top horse then I don’t believe there’s a place in the world that gives you the same value as England does - as a stallion or broodmare prospect.”

“You really, really are spoilt for really good racing at the top end.”