NATIONAL YEARLING SALE UPDATE : TERMS OF TRADE

Marsh Shirtliff with Pocket Power
(Image :  Sporting Post / TAB Online)

EMPERORS PALACE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE
27 - 29 April 2012

We did say to anyone who asked during the course of the week, that we’d liked to have seen more customers on the sales grounds, and that was evident in the trade for the elite offerings at South Africa’s principal bloodstock auction, the Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale. The “big-hitters” in the domestic bloodstock market, Markus Jooste, Bernard Kantor and Chris van Niekerk were noticeably absent, having apparently filled their order books already at local and international auctions, and their lack of presence in the ring was apparent in both the reduced average and the clearance rate, when measured against last year. However, accounting for this missing element, an average of R240,000 was a fair achievement (last year R249,000 at the same stage). One soldier often associated with Messrs. Jooste and Co., Marsh Shirtliff of Pocket Power fame, was however, his usual stoic self. One thing we know from our rugby playing days and what he did to save Cape Town’s oldest rugby club, Hamiltons, is that when you’re in the trenches, you can always count on Shirtliff. If you were going to war, he’d be anybody’s general. There were just 4 millionaires last evening, and he bought two of them.

Given that we had a number of first season sires among those in our draft, we’d have to be more than satisfied with an average of R319,000, and while there was the odd disappointment, those that fell into this category are obvious Ready To Run types. Over the years, many an overlooked Summerhill horse at the National Yearling Sales, has gone on to make very good money in November, given the opportunity to mature and prove its worth as a runner.

Bloodstock South Africa’s chief yearling selector, John Kramer, has been generous again in his praise for the debut crop of A.P. Indy’s best racing son worldwide in 2009, A.P. Arrow, and this was evident in a solid performance by his first offspring in the ring. Equally, there’s obvious respect for the Mullins Bays, evident in those that signed for them on the vendors roll, and Backworth Stud will have been happy with the R140,000 for the first (and only) daughter of Admire Main to debut at any South African sale. Anyone who saw Sun Bay (a “Mullins”) helter-skeltering at the leaders in the closing stages of the Juvenile sprint on Thursday, would have to have been impressed, and we take some confidence from the fact that whoever we talk to with Mullinses in their yards, are bullish about their prospects. It’s not often you see a two-year-old quicken like Sun Bay did, particularly in a sprint, and he looks pretty decent on that effort.

Speaking with Marsh Shirtliff late last evening, it’s obvious that he shares the view with a number of experts that Sunday’s catalogue carries the biggest guns in the sale, and we will be looking for a solid performance from our five sons and daughters of Stronghold, none of whom have seen any action so far. Timeform’s champion handicapper son of Danehill has five winners from his first six runners, giving him the best strike-rate in the land right now, and he has quietly cultivated a bit of a cult following. There’s scarcely a visitor to our premises at Block A that doesn’t call for the Strongholds, besides a glass of the finest red in our cellar.

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

RIVER JETEZ HONEST THIRD IN BEVERLY D STAKES

Click above to watch Stacelita winning the Beverly D. Stakes (Gr1)…
(Image : ESPN - Footage : Arlington)

BEVERLY D STAKES (Grade 1)
Arlington Park, Turf, 1900m
13 August 2011

David Thiselton
Gold CircleSouth African mare, River Jetez, added another US$45,673 (R328,238) to her career earnings after running a typically honest third in the Grade 1 Beverly D. Stakes over 1900m at Arlington in the USA on Saturday. The Mike de Kock-trained eight-year-old Jet Master mare, who landed the J&B Met when trained by Mike Bass before embarking on her money spinning international career, has now earned a total of about R15,216,347.

River Jetez is owned by Cedric Amm and Marsh Shirtliff and was bred by Out Of Africa Stud. Christophe Soumillon piloted her from her draw of six where she jumped off as the second favourite at 39-10 behind the four times Group 1 winning five-year-old French mare, Stacelita, who started at 9-5.

Soumillon had River Jetez in about fifth place in the running, while a steady pace was set by Dubawi Heights, whose career in the UK in 2009 included being beaten over seven furlongs by the now Mike de Kock-trained South African-based Gibraltar Blue.

Stacelita sat in third place and quickened into the lead along the rail as they turned for home. Soumillon followed her and was unable to move out as Dubawi Heights was also running on well. River Jetez however didn’t have the pace to catch Stacelita who won by 1,25 lengths, and failed by only a head to catch Dubawi Heights. The rest of the field were 2,5 lengths behind River Jetez.

Stacelita, who is by the German sire Monsun, has now won five Group 1 races and is trained by Chad C Brown and was ridden by Ramon Dominguez.

Extract from Gold Circle

THE SAI CUP, KRISFLYER AND IRISH 2000 GUINEAS

Roderic O’Connor, Anne-Marie, Joseph and Aidan O’Brien
(Photos : Racing Post)

“A FAMILY AFFAIR”

Singapore is a long way from home, but it’s a statement on the international nature of racing that both the biggest events on their racing calendar, were dominated by South African trained, owned and ridden horses.

The KrisFlyer Sprint (Gr1) finally fell to one of the world’s most deserving sprinters, Rocket Man, owned by Fred Crabbia, trained by Pat Shaw and masterfully piloted by Felix Coetzee.

But it was in the big one, the Singapore Airlines International Cup (Gr1) that the South African influence really came home, as it has done so often in recent seasons. In as tight a finish as you could conjure, Herman Brown Jnr at last landed the richest of rewards for his enterprise, as his Gitano Hernando (Glyn Schofield in the irons) bested the Mike de Kock trained, Shirtliff and Amm owned and Bernard Fayd’Herbe ridden River Jetez in an all-South African finish.

Ownership? Yes, you may well speculate. Gitano Hernando was recently sold by long-time Summerhill client, Barry Irwin, to newly arrived Summerhill customer, Ramzan Kadyrov, and gave notice of his intentions with a big warm-up in the Dubai World Cup.

One last word on family. The Irish Guineas (Gr1) was entirely predictable, as Aidan O’Brien landed the spoils for the seventh time. What wasn’t quite as expected, was that his 18 year old son, Joseph O’Brien would be on board the Galileo colt, Roderic O’Connor, who brushed aside his vapid efforts in England’s equivalent a fortnight ago.

TBA SALES COMPLEX, GOSFORTH PARK, THIS WEEKEND.

TBA Sales Complex, Gosforth Park, South Africa
(Photo : Heather Morkel)

EMPERORS PALACE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE
15 - 17 April 2011

Mike Moon
The TimesIf you want to see very rich people splurging shedloads of money on luxury goods, head east of Joburg this weekend.

We’re not talking about the East Rand Mall on Saturday arvie, but something rather more rarefied.

Wallet-enhanced individuals will gather to raise their hands in willing and sacramental forfeiture of millions and millions of bucks. In return, they get a smelly horse or two. More important, they get a dream.

It’s a dream of glory, a dream of these horses carrying colours to victory, with the adulation and envy of multitudes raining like manna upon the clever clogs what bought ‘em. There by Germiston.

That’s where the Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale starts this afternoon.

No one knows how market winds will blow at the country’s premier thoroughbred sale.

Racehorse sales in South Africa have done comparatively well in the teeth of the recession gale of recent years. This is partly due to overseas interest in South African-bred horses because of their international successes. And there’s been the strong rand, and other factors.

But it’s feared that this year’s sale will be down.

One concern is that the new Cape Yearling Sale earlier in the year drew considerable fire from the local racing industry’s buying arsenal.

The Cape sale averaged R404,000 a horse, whereas last year’s Germiston sale had a R324,500 mean.

Of course, a drop in prices is good for buyers - aka racehorse owners. And I hear it being said that vendors - aka thoroughbred breeders - have been in clover for years and must now just grin and bear it.

One thing is certain: mega money will still be spent. These are theoretically the best 600 yearlings in the country - hand-picked for looks and pedigree.

Will the sale record of R4million for a yearling be broken? Will we match the 22 lots of R1million-plus achieved in 2010?

South Africa’s big spenders - such as Markus Jooste, Hassan Adams and Marsh Shirtliff - will rub shoulders with Barry Irwin, of America’s Team Valor, and advisors to the Arab sheiks. None of them come for East Rand scenery.

But the real stars of the show won’t be there at all.

Stallions and broodmares, on whose reputations fortunes are spent, stay in a rural idyll far from the machine-gun patter of auctioneers and the cauldron of excited bidding.

Topping the bill is champion sire Jet Master, with 44 foals catalogued.

But his supremacy is challenged by the likes of Trippi, reckoned to be the most valuable stallion in South Africa now because of recent stellar performances of his progeny in the US, where he stood as a sire before being snapped up by the Western Cape’s Drakenstein Stud.

The sale is at the TBA sales complex at Gosforth Park. Today, 250 lots will be sold from 1pm. Tomorrow’s shorter session starts at 5pm, and Sunday’s extended one at 10am.

Extract from The Times

For more information visit
www.tba.co.za

THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTION : DWC AND ALL THAT

Click above to watch Rocket Man winning the Golden Shaheen (Gr1)
(Footage : Dubai Racing)

DUBAI WORLD CUP
26 March 2011

The Dubai World Cup meeting featured two sprints, one on grass, the other on tapeta. Having shown his preference for the turf, (or rather, his dislike of the tapeta), it was Lucky Houdalakis’ decision to keep J J The Jet Plane on his best surface in the Al Quoz Sprint (Gr2) and he was vindicated when our local ace came sprinting out of the mist after twice being interfered with, to get over the line in the last stride of the 1000m trip, now arguably too short for him.

His ranking as the best male sprinter in the world remains intact, and was not eclipsed by Rocket Man’s gutsy win in the Golden Shaheen (Gr1) a few races later. The latter is a man who thoroughly deserved his victory, as he’d been narrowly denied last year in the same event, as well as by J J The Jet Plane in the Hong Kong Sprint (Gr1) a few months ago. Rocket Man may be Australian-bred, but he’s South African owned, South African-trained, and he was South African-ridden on Saturday evening, the protagonists being respectively one of the country’s biggest owners, Fred Crabbia, the veteran horseman, Patrick Shaw, and one of our most celebrated riders, Felix Coetzee.

As gallant as gallant gets, it was very nearly South Africa’s turn to grab the cash in the $5million Dubai Duty Free (Gr1) yet again, (no country has won it more often), when River Jetez claimed the lead 300m out, and just as she appeared to have the race at her mercy, the Luca Cumani-conditioned Presvis finally got his act together, (having had a couple of shots at the event before), for a half length victory. Now in her seventh year, River Jetez’s astonishing effort was as fine an advert for the class and durability of South African gallopers as any, and the Amms and Marsh Shirtliff can take some solace from the knowledge that she ran her guts out for “president and country”.