DEATH OF CASEY TIBBS

Casey Tibbs
(Photo : Sporting Post)

CASEY TIBBS
Sadler’s Wells (USA) - Fleur Royale (IRE)

Klawervlei stallwart sire, Casey Tibbs has died aged 19.

Based at the Hemel ‘n Aarde Stud, Casey Tibbs was a consistent sire of stakes performers and smart, gritty runners of both sexes. He was one of South Africa’s best value for money stallions and was known for producing tough stock capable of winning over any distance.

By the great Sadler’s Wells, Casey Tibbs was out of the Mill Reef mare Fleur Royale.

By an Irish Classic winner out of a mare who was second in the Irish Oaks, Casey was certainly classically bred. His second dam, French Oaks winner Sweet Mimosa, was a full sister to the great champions Le Moss and Levmoss.

Casey Tibbs was one of over 320 stakes winners sired by the Sadler’s Wells, whose leading sire sons include Galileo, Montjeu and El Prado. A Group 1 performer himself, Casey won six races during his career, including the leading Derby trial, the Ballysax Stakes. He was also second in the Group 1 Secretariat Stakes, one of North America’s top turf races.

Retired to stud in South Africa in 2000, Casey Tibbs got off to a good start with his first runners. This crop included seven stakes horses, amongst which were the outstanding filly Sweet Virginia (Gr3 Winter Derby), and top-class colt, Play Catch (Gr3 Cape Classic).

After that Casey would come up with a least one smart performer in every crop. From his second crop came Hilgrove, whose five wins included the Gr2 Premier’s Trophy, and over R500,000 in prize money.

Other stars sired by Casey Tibbs included Casey Cool (G2 Merchants Stakes), Festive Occasion (G2 SA Oaks, and an Equus Champion), Naughty Prince (G3 Winter Guineas), Cyber Case (G3 Lebelo Handicap), Cree Lodge (Gr3 Langerman Handicap) and recent feature race winners Cash Register and Why Worry.

However, Casey Tibbs’ greatest son was undoubtedly champion Big City Life. This magnificent colt won four Grade 1 races, including the Vodacom Durban July, Cape Derby and Daily News 2000. He also beat the mighty Pocket Power in the G1 Gold Challenge, but tragically suffered a fatal injury in the 2011 Vodacom Durban July. Big City Life, who won over R3,900,000 in prize money, was named Equus Champion 3-Year-Old colt in 2009.

Casey Tibbs had a remarkable ability to sire graded winners over all distances. He had feature race winners from 1000-2400m, and both his colts and fillies run. His success came despite never covering top-class books of mares, and Casey proved himself the hard way.

To date Casey has sired 31 black type performers. His current 2-year-olds include the useful filly, Masked Lady, who competed in the Summer Juvenile Stakes on J&B Met day and the eye catching debut winner, Red Tractor.

By no means a big horse, Casey confirmed the mantra that dynamite comes in small packages!

Extract from Klawervlei Stud

SOLID GAINS FOR 2013 CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE BOOK ONE

Click above to watch a summary of the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Book 1
(Image and Footage : Cape Thoroughbred Sales)

CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE BOOK 1
Cape Town International Convention Centre
24 - 25 January 2013

The second session of the Cape Premier Yearling Sale did not quite reach the heights of the first session, but with 19 yearlings breaking the million Rand barrier, it demonstrated that there was a solid band of quality individuals on offer during the sale.

The final aggregate of the sale was just under the R100 million mark, coming in at R98,510,000, while the average was R482,892. Klawervlei Stud overtook Highlands Farm Stud as top vendor, consigning 32 lots for a total of R15.445 million, while Trippi did the same to Dynasty in the sire stats, totalling R15.130 million for his 24 yearlings. Markus Jooste’s Mayfair Speculators continued their buying spree, eventually signing for 21 yearlings totalling R14.225 million, to remain at the top of the buyers list.

“It was a successful sale”, Cape Thoroughbred Sales Chairman, Chris van Niekerk summarized. “The vendors provided quality horses and the wide spread of buyers confirmed the quality and good value of South African stock, which was underscored by a 20% increase in the average from the prior year.”

After a sluggish start to the second session, Kip Elser could not resist signing for a lovely grey filly by Tapit out of the Orientate mare Charmz. From the female family of Champion Two-Year-Old Filly, Champion Three-Year-Old Filly and Champion Older Female Sprinter, Harry’s Charm, Lot 136 was knocked down to Elser for a mere R700,000. For Elser the equation was a simple one: “She is a great mover and the 2nd dam was a champion!” Mike Sharkey, manager of vendor Highlands Farm Stud explained the low purchase price: “The buyer clearly appreciates and understands the sire better than the local market. She is a lovely filly from a good solid South African family and definitely well bought.”

Lot 150, the grey colt Imibala, was one of the talk horses during the week and it therefore came as no surprise when he topped the second session, with the hammer falling at R2 million. By Group 1 Vodacom Durban July winner Dynasty out of the Vodacom Durban July winner Dancer’s Daughter, he epitomises the adage of breeding the best to the best. Signed for by John Freeman, the colt will be trained by Justin Snaith, who also trained his dam. Brother Jonathan Snaith was extremely pleased to have acquired the handsome grey. “We trained the mom and he looks just like her. We are very excited to have one of her produce in our stable, after missing her daughter last year. With a beautiful conformation, he was our pick of the colts at the sale.” Mike Sharkey, manager of Highlands Farm Stud confirmed that it was only the second time in South African history that a yearling was by a July winner out of a July winner. He cheekily added that the colt should have been named Triple D! “He is a lovely yearling and a great walker. He was a late foal and I look forward to seeing him furnish into a proper horse.”

Just three lots earlier, the top filly of the second session, consigned by equine vet, Dr Bennie van der Merwe of Moutonshoek was knocked down to trainer Gavin van Zyl for R1.7 million. Lot 147, the aptly named Eros’s Girl, is by Captain Al out of the unraced Jet Master mare Cupid, herself a sister to multiple Group 1 winning filly Ebony Flyer and a half sister to Champion Three-Year-Old Filly Captain’s Lover. Dr Van der Merwe was thrilled, calling her a lovely well put together filly and a great mover. Van Zyl was extremely happy to have picked up such a well-related individual and added that if she runs like the other females in the family she will be a champion.

Third on the buyers list after the sale, Chris van Niekerk’s Rainbow Beach Trading signed for Lot 179, the exquisite bay Trippi colt, Trip to Heaven (R1.4 million) and Lot 197, the flaxen maned chestnut colt from the last crop of champion Sire Jet Master. Both will be trained by Sean Tarry. Out of the imported Cee’s Tizzy mare, Helleborus Blue, Lot 179 is a half brother to Group 1 winning two-year-old The Hangman. Tarry was very pleased to have acquired the brother to his star, commenting that the colt is a classic type and if he has half the ability his brother has, he will be very good. Van Niekerk, who also owns 2012 Vodacom Durban July winner Pomodoro, was very pleased with his purchase. “As much as we think we have a champion in The Hangman, we believe that we have a more refined individual in Trip To Heaven”, he said. Speaking on behalf of vendor Highlands Farm Stud, manager Mike Sharkey added: “He is a quality individual, he looks just like his sire and being the half brother to The Hangman, Chris van Niekerk just couldn’t stay away.” Having trained Mythical Flight, a very speedy Jet Master colt with a flaxen mane and tail, Tarry was the one who could not stay away from Lot 197. “He is a strong colt from a good female line and of course with a flaxen mane and tail. We hope he is as good as our last Jet Master with a flaxen mane and tail”, he said.

Andreas Jacobs’ Maine Chance Farms consigned Lot 216, another chestnut Jet Master, who was knocked down to Gareth Pepper for R1.4 million. Named Legato, the colt is out of the Jallad mare, Lyrical Linda, a mare very near to Jacobs’ heart. “She was my first Group 1 winner in South Africa and she is very special to me. I was thrilled when she produced such a beautiful individual”, he commented. The young bloodstock agent had to wait patiently until the end of the second day, before signing for the colt on behalf of KwaZulu-Natal trainer and ex Mauritian Champion jockey, Robbie Hill. With Hill’s daughter getting married on Saturday, he wisely decided to stay at home.

Cape trainer Vaughan Marshall could not believe his luck when Lot 226, the strapping son of Var and full brother to Champion Sprinter Val De Ra, was knocked down to him for R1.1 million. “It is wonderful to have an owner like Ken Truter, who buys me horses like this. We are thrilled to have got him, as we thought he would go for much more”, said a grinning Marshall.

Angus Gold purchased six yearlings for Sheikh Hamdan’s Shadwell Stud South Africa, signing for Lot 81 (R375,000), Lot 92 (R800,000), Lot 170 (R600,000) and Lot 206 (R900,000), before some spirited bidding landed him Lots 230 and 232 right at the end of the sale. Consigned by Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm, both are by Champion Sprinter Var out of very speedy mares. Lot 230 is the first foal of Silvano mare Mochachino, who scorched to victory in the Group 2 Camellia Stakes over 1160m at Turffontein. Despite being a first foal, Gold commented on how precocious the filly looked. “She is a very racy filly and she looks sharp. If she were in Australia, she would be a Golden Slipper filly. Mike de Kock loved her and we are very happy to have her.” Lot 232, named Mastermind, reminded Gold more of his damsire Jallad, than his sire Var. “He was a lovely horse, a big strong powerful colt from a fast family. He reminded me a lot of Jallad, who we bred and raced in the UK.”

Gold is no stranger to the Cape Premier Yearling Sale or to South Africa and explained his continued support. “We are very happy to be buying here, as the yearlings are very good value by international standards. The objective is of course to take the horses to Dubai if they are any good. We got lucky with Soft Falling Rain, who was Champion Two-Year-Old Colt and who easily won his first start in Dubai. It is early days yet, but from Sheikh Hamdan’s viewpoint, South Africa is a good value alternative to buying in Europe or America.”

CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE
Cumulative Statistics

	2013	2012
Catalogued	234	350
Offered	220	294
Sold	203	238
RNAs	17	56
RNA %	7.7%	19%
Highest Price (ZAR)	3,250,000	2,800,000
Gross (ZAR)	98,510,000	106,835,000
Average (ZAR)	482,892 (+19.8%)	403,151

For more information, please visit :

www.capethoroughbredsales.co.za

DEATH OF NATIONAL EMBLEM

National Emblem (SAF)
(Photo : Sporting Post)

NATIONAL EMBLEM (SAF)
National Assembly (CAN) - Title Page (SAF)

Ex Summerhill stallwart National Emblem, champion South African racehorse and Sire, died from colic Wednesday at Klawervlei Stud. He was 21.

Bred by the late Wilfred Koster, the imposing chesnut was by National Assembly out of the Welsh Harmony mare Title Page and traced in tail-female line to the breed-shaping foundation mare, Sister Sarah, through her daughter Sister Sublime (Dante), his third dam.

National Emblem fetched R100,000 as a yearling - and quickly showed his ability. He won three in a row at two, including the G2 Gosforth Park Juvenile (C&G), before running fourth in the G1 Administrator’s Champion Stakes, when poorly drawn. At three, National Emblem confirmed himself as one of the leaders of his generation. He won six races, including the G1 Administrators Classic, G3 Newmarket Guineas and G3 Jubilee Handicap. The latter race he won after a dogged fight with champion Special Preview. National Emblem was also placed in both the G1 SA Guineas and G1 Durban July as a sophomore.

Named Champion Older Male at four, National Emblem won the G2 John Skeaping Trophy, before capturing the G1 Administrator’s Cup under a big weight. He ended off his 3-year-old campaign with a gallant fifth place finish to champion London News in the July.

After beating London News in the Gr1 Champion Stakes, National Emblem was retired to stud. He made a return to the track, and won both the G2 Keith Heburn Champion Stakes and G3 Chairman’s Stakes.

The versatile National Emblem won from 1150-2000 metres, and defeated such champions as London News, Taban, Cordocelli, Teal, Divine Force and Record Edge during his racing career.

He won 15 races and over R1.9 million in prize money and will long be remembered for his courage and class.

National Emblem was one of a select band of locally bred stallions who succeeded in South Africa. A former Champion sire of juveniles, National Emblem’s progeny include over 50 black type performers. His stakes winners number 10 Gr1 winners amongst them.

National Emblem’s best offspring include the Summerhill-bred champion sprinters, Nhlavini and Rebel King as well as Rip Curl, Buy And Sell, Carnadore, Emblem of Liberty, Shea Shea, Fez and Potent Power.

Extracts from Sporting Post and Klawervlei Stud

MAKERS OF RACING'S MODERN HISTORY

Summerhill Ready To Run groom and jockey
(Photo : Linda Norval)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN GALLOPS
Turffontein • 17 October 2012
Summerhill Stud • 19 October 2012

If there’s been a landmark in innovation in the sales scene in the last quarter of a century, it’s the Emperors Place Ready To Run. The idea took root at Summerhill because they were battling to compete at conventional sales with the established vendors of the era. They had to find another way of wrapping up their product: people judge a book by its cover, and packaging can be theatre. The Ready To Run’s customers have voted with their feet: they love this sale, mainly because of its history of so many champions, but also because there’s hindsight in seeing your fancy run.

At the yards of all the major consignors, Ambleway, Balmoral, Far End, Klawervlei, Maine Chance, Mauritzfontein, Patterson Racing and Yellow Star, things are abuzz as the countdown for the gallops on the 17^{th and} 19^th October at Turffontein and Summerhill respectively, begins. We found an extract from the latest Summerhill brochure which pretty much sums up the atmosphere out there.

“There’s a fundamental basis though, to the success of the Ready To Run, and it lies in the education of the horses, the faith they have in their handlers and the lessons they’ve learned. Watching our grooms at the sales ground, you’d think they were strapping the most valuable horses in the world. It’s like they’re as delicate as some earthen jug from the tombs of the Nile, to be handled gently, reverently, because one careless touch could undo the work that has led to this day.

At Summerhill, the Ready To Run youngsters are housed in three locations, little principalities of their own, places of hope and despair, depending on how this or that horse is going. The jockeys, as we know them, are the “chopper pilots” of the horse game. They occupy a murky world which starts hours before dawn, in the pitch dark, when the night is so still, so windless, you can hear the branches talking to each other in the avenues of trees that demarcate these places from the rest of the farm. At that time of the morning, nothing is happening in little old Mooi River, a few kilometres away, where people won’t start arriving for work for another three or four hours. Normal people work there.

Here at Summerhill, the members of this private society, the “Salon Privé” as we know it, are going through a routine that’s hundreds of years old, and is barely changed. The lights are on in the principalities. You hear the swish of brooms, the sounds of strappers talking softly to horses, of water buckets being filled, the thud of straw hitting concrete, the footfalls of horses on their way to the track. This side of town has a smell of its own: a cocktail of horse hair and of sweat on rugs and saddle blankets, of urine on straw, the bittersweet aroma of eragrostis hay.

As the first string departs the yard, the atmosphere is vibrant and alive. This is the essence of the kindergarten. What you see on race days doesn’t come quite as close to the soul you see out here, where there is no need for affectation, because everyone is an insider. The men on board are educators, not race riders, members of a private, patient profession, where bumps and spills are all part of a day’s work. If there’s a gambler in the Summerhill team, you’ll find him at work in the Salon Privé Monday to Friday, but on weekends, he’ll be hanging around the Tote in town, trading his “insider” instincts for hard currency.

It’s in these principalities that you discover whether a horse is a trier or a mongrel, and it’s where the horses are taught the rules: follow the rail, no pig-rooting or u-turns, stretch out when clicked up, the routines and the rituals, cross-tying in the stalls and hosing down with cold water.

Here, in the half-light is an old sport, an old picture, an idiom heavy with gallows humour and rhyming slang, understood only by insiders. There is talk of toffs and “tea leaves”, gents and bludgers, flying machines and cockroaches and centipedes. Other sports aren’t like this; footballers and cricketers train in the bright light of day, the public can go along and watch what is going on. Conventional English is spoken.

In a few hours, the sun is up and the third string is on parade. In the clear light, parts of the original Summerhill take on the air of a lovely old farm “let go” by the present generation. It is loaded with history, but if you look closely, you’ll find spots where the paint is peeling. It’s not through neglect though, it’s to do with time. When the Ready To Run is on, there’s precious little of that, because the detail has been spared for the horses.

That’s the “private society” for you, the people that carry the secrets to the athletes they sit on, that know and understand the mysteries that make a good racehorse. These are the people our customers go to these days for the inside track, for the stories that inspire their investments, and the legends that are the bedrock of our folklore. That’s where Igugu and Pierre Jourdan came from, and Imbongi, Paris Perfect, Fisani and Hear The Drums, among the makers of our modern history.”

Read more about the
2012 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

EIGHT IS THE NEW NUMBER

Summerhill Stud - Equus Champion Breeder 2005 - 2012
(Image : Summerhill Archives)

SOUTH AFRICAN BREEDERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 August 2011 - 31 July 2012

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOThe Jockey’s Championship may still be hanging on a thread, but the Breeders’ version is done and dusted. Saturday’s racing finally put paid to any sniff any pretenders may have had to the crown, and so, at last, we can tell the printers to proceed with the 30^th edition of the “Summerhill Sires,” including all references to “EIGHT CONSECUTIVE BREEDERS TITLES”.

There was a point in May, when Summerhill lagged Klawervlei by some R400,000, that we looked like “toast”, particularly considering that we were at a distinct disadvantage in terms of numbers, and there were more to come: the impis were lining up in waves!

It is a tribute to one of the best teams in the world, their sacrifices and their dedication, that the margin in the end will be close to R1,5 million in our favour. It is a tribute to those who support us, to the loyalties of those who keep their horses with us, who buy our stock at the sales, to those that train and ride them, and to our fans in the stands.

It is a salute to the uncertainties of the game, to the adage that inspires the belief that kids from the “sticks”, like us, can prevail against the odds. That you don’t have to own a fortune in order to know the top of the mountain. That hard work, obsession and the sheer love of the game can take you to new worlds of conquest. That “eight” is a brand new number in the modern world of breeding, and that it’s attainable by anyone with the will and the resolve to make it happen.

Yet in the end, it will always be a tribute to our horses. Mankind would do well to recall that our histories were written on the backs of these noble creatures in warfare, on the roads, in the workplace, on the sports fields. It is no different at Summerhill.

This is an enterprise unlike most others of its kind, built solely on the skills of its people and the achievements of its horses. It has given birth not only to the home of the champions, but to a world-class hotel, to the continent’s second largest equine insurer, to an elite horsefeed business and to the only school of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

To those of you who’ve made it happen, and to those that fought the good fight, thank you.

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