VISIONAIRE : NOW STANDING AT SUMMERHILL

Click above to watch Visionaire.
(Image and Footage : Team Valor)

VISIONAIRE (USA)
Grand Slam (USA) - Scarlet Tango (USA)

In life, timing is everything. Whether it’s a multi-billion dollar Warren Buffett acquisition, the capture of Osama bin Laden or the winning of the Kentucky Derby, you need to get it right. All of this happened in the course of the past week, so it’s as good a time as any to announce the arrival of a new stallion prospect, especially one associated with the biggest event in American racing, Team Valor and its always-colourful principal, Barry Irwin. South Africa doesn’t have a greater racing ambassador abroad than our man Irwin, and his victory in the Kentucky Derby with homebred Animal Kingdom, will have warmed the hearts of all South African racegoers.

It’s also universally known that besides the Derby, commonly known as the “best two minutes in American sports”, the most celebrated stallion-making races on their calendar are the King’s Bishop (Gr1) and the Met Mile (Gr1). For these purposes, we’re going to confine ourselves to the former, because it’s the here-and-now from a South African perspective. Anyone who attended the 2008 staging of the King’s Bishop at fabled Saratoga, couldn’t help recalling one of the most famous stretch runs in the history of this great event. Considering it is the traditional gathering ground of the fastest three year olds in the United States, and that there’s only 350 metres from the final bend to the post, the closing run of the victor that day is part of the folklore of the King’s Bishop. Still last as they entered the bend, Visionaire’s demolition of a field described by the Blood Horse as “real good with big numbers”, resembled the big boy in the kindergarten. Whatever we have to say about it here, you’d need to see the movie to understand (click above to watch…).

The good news for us as a country, is that in his determination to use the type of stallion he’d like to breed his own select band of broodmares to, Irwin has sent Visionaire to Summerhill Stud, where he arrived a fortnight ago. In the last decade alone, the King’s Bishop has spawned the celebrity stallions Distorted Humor, More Than Ready, Forestry, and top five American sire last season, City Zip, none more impressive on their day than the handsome Visionaire, who hails from the Gone West male line. Besides South Africa’s Champion sire, Western Winter, Gone West has left his own big mark on the international stallion scene through Elusive Quality, Mr. Greeley, Zafonic, Zamindar, Speightstown and Visionaire’s own sire, Grand Slam.

Visionaire was no one-race wonder though, his earlier achievements making him and Pyro the “talking” horses going into the Kentucky Derby of that year. It was his complete dominance in his two opening gambits that pricked Team Valor’s interest, and within just two more starts, they had secured the winner of one of the principal Derby trials, the Gotham Stakes (Gr3), remembered for another stand-out performance from the all-time legend of Stateside racing, Secretariat.

“I can understand now why Mr Irwin wanted so badly to bring this horse to South Africa. He’s as big and strong as any horse I’ve had in this barn, and he’s just about the best looking, too. He’s wanted to breed his mares in South African to a horse like this for years”, according to Greig Muir, whose 24 year tenure at Summerhill includes vigilance over the top stallions Northern Guest, Home Guard, Liloy, National Emblem, Rambo Dancer, Kahal and Muhtafal.

Knowing that Visionaire was Summerhill-bound, Maine Chance’s Dr. Andreas Jacobs recently lamented the fact that Europe, England, Ireland and Australia had largely missed the Mr. Prospector-line boat, whilst the Champion stud farm had obviously been building its concentration of his blood. And here we have the full circle: the Kentucky Derby winner was bred by Team Valor, out of a German mare acquired from Dr Jacobs!

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

THE BREEDERS’ PREMIERSHIP : A NEW RECORD

SOUTH AFRICAN THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ PREMIERSHIP
2009 - 2010

It was the celebrated South African flyhalf, Naas Botha, who once famously said that “the Currie Cup is not won in May.”  He was quite right, and that’s been proven time and again with the passage of the years. However, Summerhill’s record of five consecutive Breeders’ Championships is one that stands alone in the last forty years, and this weekend, with a full three months of the racing season left, we have eclipsed all our previous (and South African) earnings records, as our runners amassed more than R1million for the week, catapulting our collective earnings for the season past the R16million mark.

We’ve asked the question before, only to be proven wrong, but we wonder whether we can ever best this season again. The log tells the story. And asks the question.

Figures courtesy of Sporting Post as at 5 May 2010

Breeder	Stakes	AEPR	SW Wnrs	SW Wins
Summerhill Stud	16,037,712	64,151	11	14
Lammerskraal Stud	5,207,650	56,605	3	3
Normandy Stud	5,113,525	71,021	6	10
Wilgerbosdrift Stud	4,960,900	55,740	3	4
Highlands Farm	4,599,587	38,845	2	2
Maine Chance	4,499,312	38,787	2	2
Ascot Stud	4,478,225	46,167	3	3
D Cohen & Sons	4,289,662	33,513	0	0
Avontuur Farm	4,264,325	63,647	5	5
Klawervlei Stud	4,201,075	25,933	2	2

The Trainers Championship is Hotting Up.

While the breeders, stallion and jockey’s Championships are pretty much in the bag for this year, there is a very tight battle for the laurels on the National Trainers log. For the first time, Charles Laird has pulled himself to the front, following victories in the continents richest race, the Gomma Gomma Challenge and the continent’s most prestigious race, the Vodacom July, as well as second in the J&B Met (so he’s excelled in all of the Big Three). It’s a great compliment to Charles Laird and his team that he heads the list ahead of two of the best trainers South Africa has ever produced, both champions in Mike de Kock and Geoff Woodruff.

There’s not a great deal in it (Charles leads by R200 000 odd), and it’s going to go all the way to the wire, with ten days of the racing year left, to decide whose going to be “King”.

Geoff WoodruffMike De KockCharles LairdSpeaking to Charles last week, while recognizing the magnitude of where he is right now, he did say that his horses were in programmes and he would not be loading his entries any more than usual, in his attempt to hold onto his lead. Noble words from a man who hasn’t known the meaning of “Champion” yet – perhaps he should try it first to see what it feels like!

The three of them traded punches over the weekend, and as one popped up with another winner, so one of the others would retaliate with one of their own, and so it seems that the Championship races on Dubai Racing Carnival Champions Day this weekend will probably be the determining factor.

Our people at Summerhill know the agony of the last minute charge by a rival only too well, as we had spent the last six weeks of the 2004 season exchanging blows with Maine Chance, who grabbed the lead back from us on each of six successive weekends, after we’d managed to wrest it from them in mid-week. That’s how tight it was, and in the end, it went right to the last race on the last day of the calendar (which was Champions Day). Two Summerhill graduates, Royal Emblem and Fez ( the latter bred and raised at Summerhill for the Kjell Foundation) took out the Thekwini and Premiers Champion Juvenile Stakes (both Grade One’s) respectively, and we held a slender R180 000 lead going into the Champions Cup itself. That’s where Maine Chance struck with Gary Alexander’s James Jaguar, taking the title for the 7^th or 8^th time, but this time (and for the first time) since ownership of that famous nursery had changed hands. In that year, Dr Andreas Jacobs of Jacobs coffee fame had acquired the operation and its name, so his acquisition was instantly gratified with a Breeder’s Championship in what has become the most intensely competitive premiership in international racing.

For what it’s worth, until that time, the Championship had only been held by five entities in all of history, with only Birch Bros, Koster Bros, D Cohen and Sons, Highlands Farms and Maine Chance among its holders.

The momentum which had seen Summerhill produce a record number of Feature race winners in 2003 and our second place in 2004, eventually culminated in glory in 2005, and 2006, and now with a lead of close to R6 million, it’s both technically and practically impossible for anyone to catch us before this year ends on the 31^st July.

It’s time for us to remember how fortunate we are to be in this position. More on that when it becomes a reality. There should be no crowing before the singing!