A RIGHT ROYAL BASH

Amor Vittone, Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco and Juanita Mitchell
at the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cocktail Party, D’oreal Grande, Emperors Palace.
(Photo : Yolanda van der Stoep)

PEERMONT EMPERORS PALACE CHARITY MILE RACE DAY
Turffontein, South Africa
3 November 2012

Mike Moon
The TimesHer Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco will be at the races tomorrow. I’ll be there too, also serene - until, as usual, I start sweating on a dwindling betting stake.

Princess Charlene, the wife of Monaco’s Prince Albert II, is the guest of honour at the Peermont Emperors Palace Charity Mile race day.

The annual meeting sees hundreds of thousands of rands going to good causes, with various charities being linked to the fortunes of horses running in the main event.

The popular formula also has celebrities linked to the horses and charities, but this year all those common or garden variety “schelebs” will be eclipsed by the princess. Royalty trumps all. Even republicans like us in our socialist confusion get a bit dazzled by a sparkly tiara.

Tomorrow, we have a royal double whammy. Lesotho’s King Letsie - a keen thoroughbred breeder - also graces us with his presence.

Of course, Charlene is no stranger to Egoli. Her childhood home is down the road in Benoni - just like that of Princess Charlize of Hollywood.

Born Charlene Wittstock in Bulawayo (coincidentally the birthplace of yet another princess, Her Not-So-Serene Highness of My Neck of the Woods), she emigrated to South Africa with her family in 1989 and eventually became an Olympic swimmer.

Charlene’s parents, Michael and Lynette, own racehorses, so Her Royal Highness might even have been to Turfies before becoming serenity personified.

Turffontein first saw royalty in 1925, when Britain’s Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII, dropped by. This geezer was hugely popular at the time, described as “handsome and debonair”, and the scheduled race meeting was moved from the downmarket Auckland Park track to the more salubrious Turffontein.

A “royal gate” was erected at the six-furlong post for the prince to enter through and be driven up the course in a cavalcade with mounted cavalry escorts, bands playing and the hoi polloi shouting “Hurrah!”

In 1945, the Aga Khan, an Islamic Royal of sorts, was at Turffontein and was amused to note that the winner of one race, Bir El Gobi, was the son of Khorsheed, a horse he’d raced in England but which had been a very expensive flop and exported to these shores. The old place’s biggest Royal occasion was in 1947 when King George VI, Queen Elizabeth and their daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, toured the country.

That day, the Hartford (Summerhill-bred) Cape Heath, ridden by Basil Lewis, won the King’s Cup at the Big T and the wartime Monarch presented a special gold trophy to breeder-owner-trainer AR Ellis on the little grandstand balcony, decorated with the British Royal crest, that can still be seen at Turffontein today.

Since then, the only royalty celebrated have been the Kings of Racing. And a few Queens, of course. Young pretenders will make claims for racing enthronement tomorrow, particularly in the R2.5million Ready To Run Cup, whence arose Igugu, Queen of our Turf.

View more photos from the
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cocktail Party

Extract from The Times

FIT FOR A PRINCESS

Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco and His Majesty King Letsie III
(Image : Jewelry/Lesotho)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN CUP
Turffontein, South Africa
3 November 2012

It’s never happened before. Probably not in South Africa, certainly not in racing. Our Guests of Honour for this year’s renewal of the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup (and its attendant sale) are His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho and Princess Charlene of Monaco. For all those budding historians out there, remind us if the literature has a record of it ever happening before. They’re here, by the way, to present a trophy (the best in the game), which was originally donated as the Governor General’s Cup to the Johannesburg Turf Club by King George V’s sister-in-law, Princess Alice, during the Royal visit in 1922.

If you’re connected to any one of the runners in the “Cup” (or if you’re in town for the sale), it would be our personal pleasure to introduce you to our Royal visitors, as distinguished as we could imagine, at the Emperors Palace Cocktail Party on Thursday, as well as a dozen of the nation’s top celebrities. Give us a call if we can help. Amorette Kramer - 079 278 9449.

READY TO RUN WEEK : LET THE GAMES BEGIN

Join us at the TBA Sales Complex, Block A…
(An iKind Studio Production)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
TBA Sales Complex, Germiston
2nd and 4th November 2012

The gallops are over, the judges have handed down their verdicts, and the horses are at the TBA Sales Complex in Germiston, awaiting your inspection. The Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale is now entering its final phases, and because it happens to be aligned with the biggest race of its kind in the world, there’s as much of a buzz about Saturday’s Ready To Run Cup, as there is around the sale itself. Understand, we’re talking about prize money of R2.5million, equal with the J&B Met, and just a few decimals behind the Vodacom Durban July, as well as the best trophy in racing.

The Cup has its own challenges of course, particularly when there have already been some 45 winners emerging from last year’s sale, the bulk of whose owners are itching to get a run in the big event. The organisers did have a crack at persuading Phumelela to put on a consolation race for those that missed the cut, but to date, it hasn’t met with universal approval. Keep trying, they say.

Contrast this with the first running of the Cup six years ago, when one or two of the entries in the field were still non-winners, and you begin to get a feel of how deep the quality in the sale is these days. By early next week, the selection panel will have issued their invitations, the final field will have been announced in a live draw on Tellytrack (between 12 and 2pm on Tuesday 30^th October) and while there are bound to be a few disappointments, there will also be a legion of ecstatic owners, trainers and jockeys. They’ll be pouring into Emperors Palace for Thursday evening’s Cocktail Party (7 for 7:30pm), particularly if there’s a prospect of shaking hands with Princess Charlene, and no doubt, we’ll feel the electricity in the parade ring on Saturday. Spare a thought though, for those who missed the cut, and especially for the selection panel who had to make the agonising decisions.

Bloodstock SA and their vendors have left no stone unturned. Ready To Run week is packed with activities, starting with the televised draw, visits to the sales complex and the attendant entertainment at vendors’ boxes, cocktails with the nation’s most recongisable faces and the opening salvos at the TBA’s “bull ring” on Friday evening. Then it’s about summoning the energy for the big race on Saturday. His Majesty King Letsie III is the official Honour Guest, but for those with an eye for the finer things in life, he could just have some competition with the presence of Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco.

Find some stamina now, because Summerhill’s celebrity chef, Jackie Cameron, has listed her choices of Johannesburg’s finest restaurants for those who are making a festival of the week (CLICK HERE), and then we need to be properly attired at the sales grounds Sunday morning, when the gladiators take up arms again. We use those words advisedly, because if you’ve been following the gallops, the consensus is that this is the best line-up of horses we’ve seen at a Ready To Run Sale, and there’ll be stiff competition when the auctioneers take up their gavels at 5pm Friday and again at 2pm on Sunday.

BSA have posted out DVDs of the gallops, but if you haven’t received yours yet, you can get one delivered by hand if you’re in the near vicinity, or alternatively go to the two websites (www.tba.co.za or www.summerhill.co.za) where you can access all of them at your leisure. Please remember too, the action in the sales ring will be streamed live on both these websites throughout the sale, so you can keep up with the action from start to finish.

While most of South Africa’s big-hitters will have their hands in the ring, they won’t have it all their own way. There’ll be catalogues waving from as far afield as Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritius, and while that might suggest a “tough” contest, this sale is most famous for its excellent value horses. The trick here is to make use of every tool at your disposal, and that’s where the Ready To Run separates itself from other options. Firstly, there’s the benefit of hindsight, which comes in the form of a live gallop. A horse doesn’t know who his father is, so if he can run, he can run! Secondly, there are judges’ panels, grooms, jockeys and stud managers to guide you in what they already know of the horses from their work at home, and there’s many a tale of a jewel falling into the lap of the buyer whose limited budget was rewarded by his own intuitions or for seeking some “insider” information.

And then finally, it’s worth remembering that this is the only sale in the world that formally offers up to six cheques* (depending on aggregate purchases) to those who’d prefer to spread their payments over a period of time. It only remains for you to tick the box when you sign for your purchase, to ensure you have a ticket in next year’s R2.5million sweep.

*For those in good standing with Bloodstock South Africa at the time of sale.

Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup • Saturday 3rd November
Lots 1-75 • Friday 2nd November 17h00
Lots 76-202 • Sunday 4th November 14h00

Read more about the
2012 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

For more information please visit
www.tba.co.za

THIS IS THE REAL CINDERELLA

Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco
(Photo : Caras)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN CUP
Turffontein, South Africa
3 November 2012

If ever there was a “rags-to-riches” story which parallels the rise of Cinderella, it belongs to Charlene Wittstock, otherwise known as Her Serene Highness Princess Charlene of Monaco. Before we explain the fairy-tale, allow us to quickly acknowledge that her presence on Saturday 3^rd November at Turffontein for the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup raceday, is a wonderful coup for horseracing, and that coupled with the presence of our honour guests, His Majesty King Letsie III of Lesotho and his charming wife Queen Masenate, will make it a right Royal occasion.

Back to our fable. The Wittstock family is of German origin, Charlene’s great-great-grandparents Martin Gottlieb Wittstock and his wife Louise, having emigrated to South Africa from the Pomeranian village of Zerrenthin in Northern Germany in 1861, to escape hardship. In South Africa the Wittstocks worked as handymen and prospected unsuccessfully for diamonds. Charlene’s parents, Michael and Lynette, migrated to Bulawayo, in the former Rhodesia, where her mom was a competitive diver and swimming coach. They returned to South Africa when Charlene was 11 years old, and Charlene grew up and, like her movie star counterpart, Charlize Theron, attended junior school in Benoni, on Johannesburg’s East Rand.

Her teenage years were spent in Durban, where she returned after a spell at the University of Pretoria in 2005, becoming a South African Olympian swimmer and national champion in the process. What’s important here, for those aspiring princesses out there, is that before she became a member of the household of Grimaldi as consort to Prince Albert II of Monaco, Charlene had made her name as an international swimming celebrity, so she’d already earned her own stripes. Of course, it helps that she was also a ravishingly beautiful woman with a naturally regal bearing. Unlike Cinderella though, her shoes are closer to size 10 than number ten, which is appropriate for someone not far short of 6 foot in stature.

Take a bow Emperors Palace and Phumelela for this one. The fish don’t get much bigger, and the buzz and the mob around the R2.5million Cup this year, will be all the greater for Her Serene Highness’ presence.

READY TO RUN GALLOPS DINNER

Click above to view photos…
(Photographer : Leigh Willson)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN GALLOPS DINNER
School Of Management Excellence
18 October 2012

Scenes from Thursday evening’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Gallops Dinner
held at the School of Management Excellence, Summerhill Stud.
Awards were presented to jockeys and judges by
His Majesty King Letsie III and champion trainer Mike de Kock.

Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup • Saturday 3rd November
Lots 1-75 • Friday 2nd November 17h00
Lots 76-202 • Sunday 4th November 14h00

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