MACK M SNEAKS A PEAK AT THE CUP

Click above to watch Mack M
(Footage : Tellytrack)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN CUP CANDIDATE

With just days left to qualify for the R1,5 Million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup, this weekend is sure to see a spurt of do-or-die performances for 2008 Ready To Run Graduates wanting to make the handicappers’ cut.

The first to step up at Greyville last night was the Bhekinkosi “Bennett” Bulana-trained Mack M, under a sterling ride by Jonathan Soll for owner Mrs Marimuthu.

Click the video button above to watch the Mr and Mrs Grammaticas-bred Labeeb colt, out of the Kenyan mare Mesopotamia, coast at the rear of the field before flying home in the final straight of the 1900m trip.

Look out too for fellow candidate, the ultra consistant Michael Miller-trained, Makulu-Kulu, fighting right down to the wire… taking his place tally to a 2nd, 3rd and 4th from 3 starts.

 

R1,5 MILLION EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN CUP
7 NOVEMBER 2009

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
8 NOVEMBER 2009

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

ASTRAPACK 1900 Nominations

Andre KirstenThe R300 000 Grade 2 Astrapak 1900, a key race on the Champions Season programme and a vital stepping stone into the 112th running of the Vodacom Durban July for some hopefuls, has drawn a massive entry of 46 horses including a number of major race winners.

Nominations for the race closed on Wednesday and the entries included a six-horse contingent from the powerful Charles Laird stable headed by last year’s Vodacom Durban July winner, Hunting Tower. The team also includes the previous GommaGomma Challenge winner PICK SIX.

There is a strong entry of 18 runners from Cape-based stables with Mike Bass nominating six horses, Dean Kannemeyer four and both Joey Ramsden and Glen Kotzen entering three horses.

The Gauteng entries include five from the Sean Tarry and four from the Mike de Kock yards.

A notable entry from Gauteng is the Makaarem gelding CATMANDU from the yard of Andre Kirsten. The four-year-old has an excellent record of five wins and nine places from 18 starts including placings in the Wolf Power Handicap, the Drumstar Handicap, the Horse Chestnut and an impressive third in the recent Gommagomma Challenge.

The Mike Bass team includes the Jet Master gelding Floatyourboat who ran second in the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate and was strongly fancied to win the J&B Met where he finished just 2.3 lengths behind stable companion, Pocket Power.

HORSE AGE MR TRAINER
FLOATYOURBOAT (5G) 0.0 111 Mike Bass
HUNTING TOWER (5G) 0.0 111 Charles Laird
PICK SIX (4G) 0.0 109 Charles Laird
CATMANDU (4G) 0.0 107 Andre Kirsten
EQUAL IMAGE (ARG) (6G) 0.0 107 X Mike de Kock
JAGGED ICE (5G) 0.0 107 Dean Kannemeyer
APPELATE COURT (7G) 0.0 106 Glen Kotzen
SILVER MIST (5G) 0.0 106 Joey Ramsden
SURFIN’ USA (4G) 0.0 105 Mark Dixon
BRAGGADACIO (4G) 0.0 104 Mike de Kock
HILGROVE (5G) 0.0 104 Mike Bass
LIKEITHOT (5G) 0.0 103 Charles Laird
DESERT LINKS (4G) 0.0 102 Basil Marcus
OUTCOME (4F) 0.0 102 B Michael Miller
TAN CAN (3C) 0.0 102 Dean Kannemeyer
WONDER LAWN (4G) 0.0 102 Dean Kannemeyer
SINGING SWORD (5H) 0.0 101 Tyrone Zackey
APPLE-A-DAY (5G) 0.0 100 Sean Tarry
BILL OF RIGHTS (4G) 0.0 100 Mike Bass
CAUSATION (AUS) (3C) 0.0 100 Charles Laird
KILCOY CASTLE (3G) 0.0 100 Sean Tarry
SILVERPOINT (AUS) (6G) 0.0 100 Mike Azzie
FORK LIGHTENING (6G) 0.0 99 B Sean Tarry
NAUGHTY PRINCE (4G) 0.0 99 Mike Bass
GALAXY (BRZ) (3C) 0.0 98 B Dean Kannemeyer
OLYMPIC GOLD (5G) 0.0 98 Glen Kotzen
RIVER JETEZ (4F) 0.0 98 Mike Bass
SOLAR SYMBOL (3C) 0.0 98 B Charles Laird
NORTHERN TRIBE (5G) 0.0 97 Kumaran Naidoo
BOUND TO TRAVEL (4G) 0.0 95 Alec Laird
BOSANOVA (4G) 0.0 94 Mike de Kock
CAPE TRAFALGAR (4G) 0.0 94 Joey Ramsden
SMART BANKER (3G) 0.0 94 Charles Laird
WEST COAST GOLD (5G) 0.0 94 Michael Roberts
ALTIUS (IRE) (5H) 0.0 93 Joey Ramsden
ISLAND SWING (4F) 0.0 91 B Brian Wiid
GALANT GAGNANT (3G) 0.0 90 B Mike de Kock
MAGICAL BALLAD (6G) 0.0 90 Brett Crawford
WINTER SERENADE (4G) 0.0 89 Sean Tarry
I’M FAIR (ARG) (4C) 0.0 87 Geoff Woodruff
KEEN WARRIOR (NZ) (4G) 0.0 87 Tony Rivalland
METEOR SHOWER (IRE (5H) 0.0 87 B Mike Bass
ROYAL DAY (4G) 0.0 87 Bart Rice
SORBA EL GRIEGO (A (3G) 0.0 87 Glen Kotzen
LONDON GUEST (5G) 0.0 86 Tony Rivalland
HUMBOLDT (3C) 0.0 77 Sean Tarry
(46 Entries)

Extract from SA Horseracing 

DANCER'S DELIGHT : “Dancer's” the Delight in a weekly Quintet

In a week which yielded a Summerhill-bred “fifer” (as the cricketers say) of winners, including Freecell his 5^th for Peter Fabricius, Matatu (means “three”) his 3^rd for Paul Lafferty and Fantasma his 2^nd in a row for Sean Tarry, undoubtedly the stand out was Dancer’s Delight.

Charles Laird’s charge was celebrating her second win from as many starts, and came home impressively (though not without the aid of Anton Marcus’ considerable experience) when she started to “wobble” with “greenness” in the last few hundred metres.

There was more than the odd tear in the Summerhill eyes for this unbeaten daughter of Rambo Dancer, remembering that she recovered from a near-death collision as a yearling, and still carries her head with a tilt.

Matatu (Gold Circle)As an own sister to Gomma Gomma hero, Pick Six, she is bound to improve with the benefit of more distance, and with interest in local runners at an all-time high on the back of the success of our horses in Dubai, it won’t be long before the international grapevine catches on to the class of this one.

Bred in partnership with Diana Mellows, she is yet another outstanding product of the Summerhill Ready To Race programme, on which there are currently a number of ready-made talents available. Right now.

Click here to view Summerhill’s Stock Exchange.

Fantasma (Gold Circle)They weren’t alone however. Shadwell Stud-bred Mutaddareg registered his third win for Michael Miller, while Gail Fabricius (this time!) saw her farm-raised Paris Perfect endorse his claim among the top Three year olds in the land with his 5^th career victory against the best of the older generation in the Eastern Cape. He’s another bound to attract international attention.

New Turf Carriers on crashes

By Charl Pretorius

IN this letter to freeracer.co.za, Mark and Dorrie Sham of New Turf Carriers explain the events surrounding the carrier accidents which claimed the lives of three horses in the last week.  After 13 years on the road without a major accident we were very unfortunate to have two accidents on 3 and 5 November 2007.   In the first accident our truck, carrying runners returning from the Charity Mile, collided with a stationary, unlit vehicle that was parked half on the road and half off. Our driver attempted to miss the vehicle but the side of our truck hit the side of the other vehicle causing our cab to be ripped from the chassis.
 
Miraculously. both drivers were able to get out of the cab. Victor, the driver, has a broken  his left foot and has broken toes on his right leg as well as a few cuts and bruises. He is currently recovering from an operation in hospital in Bethlehem.The co driver was badly bruised. The grooms were all taken to hospital in Bethlehem but were discharged on Sunday and are all home. The greatest loss suffered was by Alistair Gordon, the Jonssons and Mr Hamilton as their horse What A Question was killed on impact. The Big Ask (Mike Miller) and King James (Tracy Woolard) were both treated on scene by Dr. Chris Nel from Harrismith and brought back to our depot in Johannesurg in an extra truck . We also brought back What a Question, who is now buried on our property in Johannesburg. The other 2 horses were seen by Dr. Kobi Tadmore on Sunday and are both now happily back home with Mike Miller and Tracey Woolard. We cannot thank all the connections of these horses enough for their kind thoughts towards all of us at New Turf.
 
On Monday we had a truck on its way from Johannesburg to Durban with 11 horses from the Sale as well as two runners relocating to Natal.About. About 15kms after the Tugela toll the truck was pushed off the road by a gust of wind. Unfortunately at that point the road goes straight down an embankment.The driver, Joel, tried to get back onto the road but the trailer weight pulled the whole unit over and down the embankment onto its side, trapping the horses inside. Three horses escaped almost immediately and they were found standing a short way away from the truck. Two other horses also managed to escape and were held outside the trailer. Thank goodness just after the accident Heather Morkel and staff from Summerhill who were also returnning after the sale, arrived on the scene. Heather was able to help by identifying the horses that were injured or dead for us as we were miles away in Johannesburg. The local vets, Dr. Roger Turner from Ladysmith and Dr. Helen Tiffin and Dr. Dave Mullins were on scene as soon as they were called.To all of them as well as Tarryn Liebenberg our heartfelt thanks. Peter Choice of Choice Carriers, responded to our call for help by diverting one of his units to the scene immediately. Greatful thanks to both him and Grant Gillies for their prompt response. Also we need to thank Bennie and staff of Car Towing Services from Ladysmith as he dropped all work to get his recovery unit there as soon as he did to cut open the trailer and get the remaing horses out.

By some miracle off  all 11 horses that survived only 3 had bad injuries. After the accident the 11 horses were taken to Summerhill Stud were they have been looked after diligently by the staff and Dr. Alan Bechard. Dr. Bechard has assured all that the horses should be back in work fairly soon. Thanks must also go to Mick Goss who offered his Summerhill Stud for the injured horses.
 
Mark, Michael and Matthew Sham flew to the accident site by hired helicopter as soon as they could where they met with Bennie of Car Towing Services. Bennie assured us that there were very high winds along that stretch of road on Monday and that it was a regular occurance on that notorious road for vehicles for to be pushed off by the wind. Our injured staff were all taken to hospital for treatment. Joel has a back injury while our groom Redgie dislocated his shoulder, our groom Wilson has broken ribs and a punctured lung. However they will all be home soon.
 
We would like to comment on the article published in freeracer,co.za and in Racing Express on 7 November: No horse was under the trailer at all. One horse was killed on impact and one was euthanased inside the trailer. Our driver, Joel Mutedi, has been driving horses for the last 9 years, 7 of those with New Turf Carriers. He is often especially requested by breeders and trainers to drive their yearling and racing loads to the sales and races. Once he has recovered from his injuries he will be returning to work for us as will both Redgie du Plessis and Wilson Ntuli.  
 
Once again we cannot express our thanks and gratitude enough to all the owners and trainers of the horses involved for their support during this trying time. Being involved in the Racing Industry brings you into contact with all different types of people. We have been inundated with sms and phone messages of support and good wishes. To all off these loyal friends and clients our grateful thanks. We live by our motto, “Dealing With Friends” and as always assure our clients of our personal, best service in future. Mark and Dorrie Sham, New Turf Carriers.