REMEMBERING THE CATALOOCHEE SPEED MACHINE

Cataloochee
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

CATALOOCHEE
EQUUS CHAMPION SPRINTER 2004/2005

Following Ms Loochee’s win at Scottsville this past weekend, the Sporting Post remembers her Champion Sprinter sire, Cataloochee :

“The deceased Cataloochee became the first of the new batch of freshman sires to be credited with a winner when his daughter Ms Loochee won at the second time of asking over 800m at Scottsville on Sunday. Ms Loochee had faded after showing pace in the opening two-year-old event on the same course one week earlier, but this time she led her rivals a merry dance from the break and never looked like being caught.

The sheer straight-line speed showed by Ms Loochee won’t come as a surprise to those who remember Cataloochee as the outstanding sprinter of his time. Trained by Geoff Woodruff, Cataloochee won 5 races from only 8 starts, between 1000m - 1200m including Gr1 Computaform Sprint and the Gr1 Golden Horse Casino Sprint. He was voted the Equus Champion Sprinter of the 2004/2005 season. He only raced once more the following term, finishing fifth in the Computaform Sprint and was retired in 2006 to take up stallion duty at Summerhill Stud. Cataloochee died after a paddock accident in 2008.

Cataloochee was a son of former champion sire Al Mufti, whose other stallion sons include the excellent and prolific Captain Al. Cataloochee was out of the Old Testament mare Lexington Love, who won 5 races up to 1400m and finished third in the Gr1 Allan Robertson Fillies Championship. She, presumably, was the source of Cataloochee’s preference for sprinting. Lexington Love in turn was out of the Brigadier Gerard mare Miss Waterloo, a Stakes winner in Italy. This is the family, amongst others, of European Gr3 winners Andreyev, St Expedit, and Asian Heights.”

Fastest horse in Africa retires to Summerhill

DUAL Grade 1 winning sprinter Cataloochee has been retired from racing and will join the stallion ranks at Summerhill Stud where he will stand for a fee of R15,000.

Trained by Geoff Woodruff for Mr and Mrs Robert Muir, Cataloochee enjoyed his finest moments as a three-year-old when victorious in two Grade 1 sprints. He beat Nhlavini in the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein and then defeated a star-studded field in the Golden Horse Sprint at Scottsville.

Sidelined with knee chips after the Golden Horse Sprint, Cataloochee only returned to the track in May this year to finish a creditable fifth to National Colour in defense of his Computaform Sprint crown.

However, a strained tendon has finally put paid his career and his owners have decided to call it a day. He retires to stud a five-time winer, all in stakes company, from 1000 to 1200m and he placed twice from only eight starts.

Cataloochee is the first sprinting son of leading sire Al Mufti to retire to the breeding shed. Out of Grade 1-placed  Lexington Love, a speedy daughter of Old Testament, he hails from the same family which produced the Kosters’ successful sire, Welsh Harmony. Considering that Al Mufti has already has a promising stallion son in Captain Al, the speedy Cataloochee should prove a popular and welcome addition to the KZN stallion ranks.