J.C. SUPERSTAR

Ebony Flyer - South African Fillies Sprint (Grade 1)…
(Photo : Gold Circle) 

Scottville’s Festival of Speed 26 May 2012

There were plenty of first-time racegoers at Scottville’s Festival of Speed, witnessing a feast of four Group One sprints. The sponsors, the Golden Horse Casino, which shares the racecourse complex, must’ve been delirious with the outcome, and there’ll be more than a few in the crowd who’ll be back for sure. Racing is meant to be fun, and it was.

But for the connoisseur, this isn’t how it’s meant to be. Track biases are sometimes figments of the mind, yet on an occasion which celebrates more Group One sprints down a straight 1200 metres on one day than any other in the world, it’s a pity one side of the course can sometimes be so much quicker than the other. Not a single outside (standside) drawn horse came home (in five 1200 events all told), despite the fact that in three of the five events all carried level (sex and age-adjusted) weights, and several of the best-credentialed runners occupied outside post positions. Nothing beyond the 11 slot even made the frame on the day, and as a result, we saw a hotch-potch of outcomes.

The two Juvenile divisions have been in disarray all season, and after the weekend, we’re no less confused. The “big one” of the day, the Golden Horse Sprint, is a handicap which by its nature, is designed to upset from time to time. While the victor, Delago Deluxe, is an obvious talent and already a Group One winner in the Juvenile colt’s race at the same meeting last year, he was nonetheless lightly treated at the weights with a modest 54 kgs on his back. What he certainly is though, is thoroughly happy back in the yard of former Champion trainer, Charles Laird. His form prior to his departure for the Cape last summer as well as this season, was in marked contrast to his sojourn in the Winelands. You can chalk this one down as a definite “Shark”, as opposed to the Western Cape’s local rugby franchise, the Stormers, who bit the dust against the Sharks in Durban the same evening.

One event on the card though, which lived up to every inch of its billing, was the South African Fillies Sprint, featuring two distaff superstars and one, Welwitchia, who had hinted at stardom when her trainer, Mike de Kock, suddenly relented to her being the sprinter her pedigree suggested she had to be. One of de Kock’s most disarming attributes is his candour when he gets things wrong, (yes, he does very occasionally) and he volunteered in the lead-up that he’d tried to make Welwitchia “stay” for too long. Those who saw her destruction of a quality field of colts on Champions Day a month back, were not only quickly converted to de Kock’s new-found faith, but most of us were fully expecting her to settle the superstars here as well.

For the record, the “glamour girls” in the line-up were the much-exalted Ebony Flyer (who counts a smashing victory over Horse of The Year, Igugu, among many highlights in a remarkable career thus far,) and the sensational Princess Victoria, queen of the Three Year Old division, whose only defeat in her past 8 visits to the races, came at the hands of Joey Ramsden’s Variety Club, one of the brightest milers we’ve seen in decades.

Both these deities enjoy cult status among the sports’ fans, and this was a day to savour. Princess Victoria’s well-being was advertised only a week ago, when Beach Beauty, among her vanquished last outing, produced the season’s most stirring “July” trial in the Astrapak 1900 (Gr.2). But “the Princess” was drawn 10 this time,  and that sadly tells the tale of a race in which she never threatened, even for a stride. So it was down to Mary Slack’s Welwitchia, whose sustained run from the rear looked to have it stitched up entering the final furlong, and Ebony Flyer, starting at (for her) the generous odds of 6/1. Yet, as good as Welwitchia absolutely is, she was mown down in a matter of strides by this Amazon of racing, flashing up this time in the emerald and red of Team Valor and Anant Singh, and adding another string to the bow of the already formidable band of females under the command of Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud.

But hey, listen, this was no ordinary training feat. Justin Snaith has always said this filly was not just extraordinary, he claims she’s a freak, a statement Glen Kotzen has always reserved for Princess Victoria, too. She’d been off since winning the Gr.1 Majorca Stakes in January, she’d been under the knife, and this was supposed to be a “prep” for things to come. It wasn’t the script we’d have penned beforehand, but it went something like this:

Her jockey, Bernard Fayd’Herbe, isn’t exactly a born-again Christian, but his Mauritian ancestory guarantees he’s a good Catholic boy, with a sound reverence for his creator. As he entered that hallowed piece of turf they call the Winner’s Circle (on big days, on the track in front of the grandstand at Scottsville,)  Fayd’Herbe cast his head heavenwards as most god-fearing sports people do these days, and as he’d been taught at his Catechism classes, he looked to “cross” himself in acknowledgment. Good natured cat-calls echoed from the boisterous throng pressing on the running rail. No one was doubting the power of the Lord, but it seemed that just about everyone in the crowd knew of another eternal truth. When it comes to racehorses, and especially Ebony Flyer, the initials to look for are J.S, not “J.C.”. 

Best back that up in case we’re accused of a new form of blasphemy, such was Justin Snaith’s faith in this filly, whose “roaring” wind affliction is as well known at the Phillipi work track as stopwatches are, that he’d ordered a second wind “op” just a few months back. This performance must’ve been the “second coming”. But just to prove the Snaiths are as human as any of us, as the filly returned to scale, Justin and his brother Jonathan quickly flipped the switches to vaudeville. The winter sun played on their faces, and there were some who thought they’d seen a bit of moisture in their youthful eyes. 

Editor: Ebony Flyer’s sire, Jet Master is arguably the best South African stallion of all time. Certainly, he has been the dominant stallion among what has undoubtedly been the most formidable assembly of stallions in living memory. Yet he was afflicted by “wind” issues so severely that his racing career (encompassing 8 Group One victories) was limited to races of 1600m or less. That he is known to share this problem with a good proportion of his progeny, tells us that with modern technology, when they’re good enough, “wind” is no longer a reason to decry an otherwise outstanding sire prospect.

THE SECOND RICHEST RACE IN THE LAND

Click above to watch the 2011 Vodacom Durban July (Gr1)
(Image : Vodacom Durban July - Footage : SABC 3)

R2,5 MILLION
EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN CUP

And the best source, pound-for-pound,
of quality racehorses in the world.
The finish to the 2011 Vodacom Durban July reminded us again.
Igugu and Pierre Jourdan.
Both graduates of the Summerhill Ready To Run.
And both graduates of the
R2.5 million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup.

Saturday, 3rd November 2012

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

HOW HIGH CAN YOU FLY?

Click above to watch Igugu winning the Ipi Tombe Challenge (Gr2)…
(Photo : JC Photos - Footage : Tellytrack)

HIGHVELD RACING AWARDS
19 May 2012

We all know that the KZN Champions’ season is the most glamourous three months of the racing year, but we know too, that the Highveld Spring and Autumn seasons are the toughest of the lot. Year after year, the award for the nations’ champion trainer inevitably falls to a Highveld trainer, and it was no different in 2012. That means it’s consistently the most competitive environment in South African racing, and that makes the title of Highveld Champion Breeder all the more noteworthy.

When Catherine Hartley made her way to the podium on Friday evening, she was fetching Summerhill’s third consecutive Champion Breeders award, not only a landmark occasion for us, but also a “first” as far as breeders’ prizes go. No farm in the history of the Highveld Awards had hitherto earned the title three times in a row. There were no major Group One victories in Gauteng from the likes of Igugu or Pierre Jourdan this year, but there was a string of Group successes from Smanjemanje, Extra Zero, Checcetti and Mannequin as well as Igugu and Pierre Jourdan, to advertise the class of our graduates. We never take these things for granted, and we have our horses and our people to thank for it.

By contrast, the trainers’ award has fallen to Mike de Kock on any number of occasions, and Saturday was the same old story.

www.summerhill.co.za

JOIN THE CLUB

Variety Club - KRA Guineas (Grade 2)
(Photo : Gold Circle)

“Imagine a day when
Variety Club and Camelot face off…”

The first of the Classics in the Northern Hemisphere’s most important racing countries, the United States and the United Kingdom, were staged on Saturday. The Derby (pronounced “dirby,” as in “birdy” in America) fell to I’ll Have Another, and while his form going into the race was solid, most fans would say they were surprised at the ease of his victory. Last year’s winners, Team Valor, can take solace in the fourth place of Went The Day Well, who put in a dead honest charge. Across the pond, there was any amount of hype around the performance in Newmarket’s 2000 Guineas, of the hitherto unbeaten Camelot, whose late surge for a neck victory suggested that while he’s a good colt at a mile, he could be an exceptional one come the mile and a half of the Investec Derby in June. The beginning of another legend?

But the horse that arguably put up the Classic performance of the weekend was South Africa’s Variety Club, who bolted clear under the Jooste silks, crushing a top class horse in Jackson in the closing furlongs of the KZN Guineas (Gr.2). While this was on the short side for Jackson, (and he’d not been seen since his facile Investec Derby (Gr.1) victory in January,) not even the benefit of a run was likely to have put him alongside Variety Club in this one. Jackson will have his day when they stretch out for the 2000m of the Daily News, but Variety Club looks ready to take on the world at a mile.

Whilst plans for the Guineas hero are obviously fluid, Joey Ramsden, who deserves credit for his handling of the horse, hinted in his victory speech that he was ripe for some globe-trotting, and somewhere in that conversation December’s Hong Kong Mile (Gr.1) crept in. The ludicrous impasse over South Africa’s export protocols at present, means that together with Igugu and Soft Falling Rain, he would have to exit via Mauritius (three months quarantine) before embarking for the UK, and then onto Hong Kong. Nonetheless, these are three horses that will stand their ground with the best anywhere, and if they can overcome the rigours of such an arduous travel schedule, they’ll make us proud down the track. Imagine a day when Variety Club and Camelot face off - all hell will let loose.

THE SHEIKH AND THE SHEARER

King’s Temptress (left) and Soft Falling Rain (right)
(Image : Sporting Post / Mike de Kock Racing)

THE COLTS’ AND FILLIES’ NURSERIES

We said Monday we’d pen another story about the two nurseries run at Turffontein on Saturday. We couldn’t resist : it was the democracy of the turf at its best.

Let us remind you. The Colt’s Nursery (Gr1) was taken in facile style by Soft Falling Rain, the property of the Deputy Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum. He cost nigh on half a million bucks, and Mike de Kock regards him highly enough to have him on the plane for England, alongside Igugu.

The Fillies’ Nursery, by contrast, fell to a determined rush from an unraced filly trained by an unknown trainer by a supposedly unproven (or should we say “failed”) stallion, and it happened at the expense of a hitherto unbeaten filly belonging to a member of our local “royalty”.

The winner, King’s Temptress, is trained in Kimberley, a one-horse Kalahari town that wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for diamonds. Racing is still conducted gymkhana-style on an arid sand track much as it was in the mid 1800s when Cecil John Rhodes and Barney Barnato were still just diggers, like everyone else at the “Big Hole”.

Corrie Lensley, the filly’s trainer, is a part-time operator whose background is in sheep farming and shearing. And that’s the part that tickles us. In Kimberley, a shearer has always been thought as good as a Sheikh. Better really, because a Sheikh is not much use if your merinos need dagging.

In Kimberley a couple of years back, the winning owner of the Flamingo Park Cup was invited by the stewards to the committee lounge for a drink. Thanks, he said, but he had to rush home to milk the cows.

One of the cherished pieces of Kimberley’s folklore is that any battler can win a Flamingo Park Cup. And a few have, though fewer than mythology allows. The democracy of the Cup has given it a rare flavour. It doesn’t go like this in many places in the world.

Editors Note :

King’s Temptress was bred by the Waterford Stud in Queenstown, one of the last remnants of what was once a thriving breeding industry in that area. The late Richard Sahd and his brother Bennie, established the stud, and it’s to the credit of Ben and Richard’s widow, Toy, that they’ve stuck it out against so many odds. Truth is, Queenstown is horse country, and this is not the end: it is the end of the beginning.