NAAS BOTHA WAS RIGHT

SOUTH AFRICAN BREEDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

“The Currie Cup is not won in (October)”. But it’s a comforting thought that with barely 3 months of the new season expired, five times Champions, Summerhill, hold a healthy advantage on the National Breeders log, in what is, without parallel, the tightest held Championship in racing, anywhere.

Breeder	Wins	Stakes (R)
SUMMERHILL STUD	55	5,692,362
D COHEN & SONS	24	1,848,037
LAMMERSKRAAL STUD	28	1,716,550
HIGHLANDS FARM	25	1,584,000
KLAWERVLEI STUD	19	1,507,275
THE ALCHEMY	19	1,467,825
SCOTT BROS	18	1,359,375
MAURITZFONTEIN STUD	24	1,331,400
MAINE CHANCE FARM	17	1,310,950
BD OPPENHEIMER	6	1,296,825

  CORRECT AS AT 10 NOVEMBER 2009

 

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

DIAMOND QUEST’S OWNERS : A CAUSE FOR “LE HOPE”

Nigel and Rose Leheup
(Photo : Leigh Willson)

Canon Gold Cup 2009

We went to the Gold Cup on Saturday, fully expecting our Sunday evening guests, Rose and Nigel Leheup to come home victorious for the second time in three years. Their home-bred colt, Diamond Quest, was the hero of the 2006 renewal of Africa’s greatest staying race, the Canon Gold Cup (Gr.1), and we were lucky at Summerhill to have spawned the Gold Cup ace of 2008, Desert Links.

As it happens, Diamond Quest never really fired after his spectacular victory on July day in the Gold Vase (Gr.2), but in the process he left the spoils open to the grand dame of the game, Bridget Oppenheimer, who bred first and second past the post.

Most commercial breeders have given up on breeding horses with an aptitude for the mile and half to two mile trip, but not “Mrs O”. There’s no commercial imperative behind Mauritzfontein Stud, and so she simply gets on with the business of breeding the best horses she can. Saturday’s exacta for her black and yellow silks was another tribute to a private breeding establishment that keeps on churning out the class.

Well done to you and your team at the farm.

One dividend which accrued from Diamond Quest’s return to the races was the maiden visit to Summerhill (and Hartford House) of Nigel and Rose Leheup, two dyed-in-the-wool “victims” of the horse game who flew out especially from the UK for Saturday’s sports. But Diamond Quest’s story is not an ordinary one. He left South Africa after his famous victory in the most cherished of this continent’s staying races, for the desert sands of Dubai, where he promptly showed his class by winning a mile event in a competitive field.

He went on to Royal Ascot, where for a moment in that great festivals premier showcase the Gold Cup (Gr.1), he had South Africans on the edges of their seats as he turned for home just one behind the immortal Yeats, only to find the last half mile of the 2.5 mile journey beyond him. He tweaked a tendon in that race, and for most horses, that would be the end of the competitive road. But like Mrs Oppenheimer on Saturday, Diamond Quest had other news for his connections, and giving up was not an option.

He went home for a well-earned rest at their Buckinghamshire property, Barrettstown Manor Farm, where they have a veterinary hospital on the property, and where his recovery was not only complete, but near miraculous.

With a new spring in his step, and being the property of people who care for their animals, when the frozen wet and wind of the following winter descended upon Diamond Quest, they could see that he was yearning for this country, and he was sent back with gracious retirement on the agenda. Yet no-one had reckoned on the skills of Mike Bass as a trainer and not long after he was back in training. If he never does anything else in his life, his win on July day in the Gold Vase tells a story of a horse with a heart, and a couple of owners with their hearts in the right place.

The Vodacom July - Everything and a whole lot more than you could have expected...

Saturday’s racing was one of most spectacular meetings we’ve had the pleasure to attend. The racing was thrilling, competitive, and just reward to Gold Circle for everything they put into it. This was a great display, not only of the organizational talents of racing in this country, but it was also a great compliment to the horsemen involved. The horses were turned out spectacularly, they were ridden by some of the best jockeys in the world, and they were prepared to the minute by some of the finest conditioners anywhere.

In the end, we (Summerhill) didn’t have a great time in the July itself with our three runners, with Pick Six joining his Three Year Old compatriots, Kildonan & Jay Peg, in proving once again to the handicappers that you can’t expect three year olds to carry 55 kgs against their elders at this time of the year under Group One handicap conditions. These three horses were set what history tells us to be a nigh impossible task, and it showed in the end. The truth is, Buy & Sell’s exceptional run for second place in receipt of 2 kgs from the other 3 year olds, was the best indication of the impact of weight, and the old adage that “weight stops trains”, was never more evident than it was on Saturday.

Hunting Tower - triumph for Mauritzfontein Stud (Photo Gold Circle)In the end, the race was a triumph for Mauritzfontein Stud and the Oppenheimer family, as their gallant horse Hunting Tower came from the back of the field to mow down a wave of aspirants right on the line. There was less than a length covering the first six home, as the race unravelled precisely as most people had predicted. This was a high class gathering of horses, and there were more than a few people who said that there were a dozen horses with a chance. The Mauritzfontein team were on hand at the Summerhill Stallion Day on Sunday to celebrate their historic win, and everyone here joins in congratulating them on their fifth home-bred winner of this fantastic event.

Most of us spend a lifetime trying to breed one winner of the July let alone five, and this was a great achievement on the home-breeding front. Yet it wasn’t the end for the Oppenheimers, as they won the race for the sixth time with a horse they bought in the form of Spanish Galliard.