STARS AND STRIPES AND STAR-SPANGLED BANNERS

Jean Cruguet with A.P. Arrow
(Image : Leigh Willson)

JEAN CRUGUET
“1977 US Triple Crown Winning Jockey”

If there’s any virtue in hardship, it’s that it makes us appreciate the good times when they come around, and there are any number of stories among the champions of the business, political and sporting worlds of people who grew up tough. How many kids have emerged from poverty with a greater hunger than their coddled contemporaries, how many rags-to-riches stories are there of people who’ve been driven by the memories of their deprivation and their envy of those who had it all?

Just as France’s “impregnable” Maginot Line was overrun by German invasionary forces in the spring of 1939, a toddler who was to inscribe his name into thoroughbred lore, was born to an impoverished French family in Agen. At the tender age of 5, Jean Cruguet was placed in an orphanage after his father abandoned the family, leaving his mother destitute. She had no choice, and from 10 to 16, the young Cruguet lived at a secondary school run by Catholic priests, where he faced all sorts of abuses, not the least because he was the smallest guy in the school. At 16, his size became his greatest asset, as an associate of his grandfather offered him work at a thoroughbred racetrack. A budding career in its embryo stages as a jockey was interrupted by mandatory military service in the French Foreign Legion in Algeria. Cruguet returned to thoroughbred racing after four years, and replaced the army-bound future champion, Yves St-Martin at the all-conquering stable of Francois Mathet, famed for his association with the Dupre horses which were to form the foundation in later years of the Aga Khan’s powerful breeding enterprise. A chance liaison led to his marriage to the supremely talented horsewoman, Denyse, a pioneering female in the French racing industry. Later in life, Jean acknowledged her abundant skills of horsemanship, when he said she was “the best horse I ever rode”. They soon decided to take their chances in the United States; it was the beginning of an explosion.

Cruguet had hardly arrived when he was offered the plum position of stable jockey for the celebrated conditioner, Horatio Luro, famed for polishing the talents of one of America’s greatest racehorses and certainly the world’s greatest stallion of all time, Northern Dancer. In 1969 he gave notice of things to come when he replaced Roberto’s rider, Braulio Baeza on the future Hall Of Fame inductee, Arts And Letters, charging home in the time-honoured Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park. In 1971, he was connected with the horse he claimed was the best he’d thrown a leg over thus far, coaxing Hoist The Flag to an unbeaten two and three-year-old campaign. Hoist The Flag suffered a career-ending injury in his preparation for the Wood Memorial in the lead up to the Kentucky Derby; the decision to pack him off to stud at the Hancock’s Claiborne Farm denying the colt a shot at the Triple Crown. That was the beginning of a highly productive career at stud where his progeny included the dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe champion, Alleged. The cruelty of fate raised its head again, when Hoist The Flag broke a leg at a time when his stud life was just beginning to blossom.

Little did Cruguet realise that there were even bigger fish to fry in the United States, as he and his wife decided to return to France for the 1972 season; this time he landed with his proverbial “bum-in-the-butter”, as he swept the major Group One races for fillies including the Prix Vermeille and the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in France, as well as the Champion Stakes in England and wound up second in an abbreviated calendar in the French Jockey’s Championship. In the final session, he strapped his saddle over the back of the champion San San, whom he rode to all her wins, including the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth II Stakes for the storied Angel Penna Snr, bar one, and that was the only one that mattered to a Frenchman. He was prevented by injury from taking the ride in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and the filly duly obliged for the flamboyant Countess Bathiany.

Jean Cruguet
Career Record 

MAJOR RACING WINS
Travers Stakes	1968
Metropolitan Handicap	1969
Toboggan Handicap	1969
Lawrence Realization Stakes	1969/1970/1975/1978
Cowdin Stakes	1970
Laurel Futurity	1970
Prix Vermeille	1972
Poule d’Essai des Pouliches	1972
Champion Stakes	1973
Manhattan Handicap	1974
Stuyvesant Handicap	1974
Alabama Stakes	1975/1983
Hopeful Stakes	1975/1976
Champagne Stakes	1976
Mother Goose Stakes	1976/1977
Flamingo Stakes	1977
Wood Memorial Stakes	1977/1984
Kentucky Derby	1977
Preakness Stakes	1977
Belmont Stakes	1977
US Triple Crown	1977
Futurity Stakes	1978
Washington DC International Stakes	1978/1993
Canadian International Stakes	1978/1989
Jerome Handicap	1979
Ladies Handicap	1979
Saranac Handicap	1979
Withers Stakes	1979
Blue Grass Stakes	1983
Tremont Stakes	1983
Coaching Club American Oaks	1984
Dwyer Stakes	1984
Knickerbocker Handicap	1985/1986/1988/1992

Cruguet paid us a surprise visit on Sunday, having been advised by any number of Kentucky horseman, that if he was to make the journey to South Africa, he was compelled to visit Summerhill. He tells us that his childhood reminds him constantly that life gives you one chance, and you need to make the best of it while you have your faculties about you. He and Denyse returned to the United States in 1973, and it wasn’t long before the diminutive Frenchman was setting the tracks of America alight again. The crowning moment came in 1976, when he teamed up with Billy Turner to ride the two-year-old colt Seattle Slew, who’d at $17,000 had been pretty much overlooked at the sales. “Slew” cruised to victory in the Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, crowning an unbeaten season, and claiming the Juvenile champion’s title, as well as putting his hand up as a legitimate contender for the Triple Crown. To put this into perspective, the previous Triple Crown winner was Secretariat in 1971, and before him you’d have to go back to Citation in the 40s. The most recent Triple Crown winner was Affirmed in 1978, and no horse or rider since has been good enough to do it.

Watch Seattle Slew winning the 1977 Kentucky Derby
(Image : Racing Archives - Footage : Awis Dooger)

Seattle Slew warmed up for the Kentucky Derby with facile victories in the Wood Memorial and Flamingo Stakes (both Group Ones) on his way to the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs. His running style was on the lead, and as he took his place in the stalls for the 103^rd renewal of America’s most famous race, he was the only unbeaten aspirant for the Triple Crown in history, never headed for a single yard in any race before. He jumped awkwardly however, and for the first time, he missed the break: within a hundred yards there was just one horse behind him, and Cruguet knew he was in trouble. He shook the reigns for a moment, and surged through the field to be second before the horses entered the clubhouse turn, then proceeded to destroy his field in the closing 600 metres with a spectacular display of power galloping. It was the same story in the Preakness Stakes, and while Cruguet maintains to this day that Seattle Slew’s best trip was at a mile, his class carried him unchallenged to heroism in the Belmont Stakes, to complete the third leg.

In a moment which still occupies the columns of journals more than 35 years down the road, attracting praise and derision in equal measure, with more than 30 yards to the finish line, Cruguet raised himself out of the saddle in triumph in the manner of a gladiator, extending his right arm over his head and saluting jubilantly to an equally jubilant mass numbering well over 150,000. It’s against the rules, we know, but this was a Triple Crown hero in the true sense of the word, and in any event, there was nothing in sight to alter the outcome.

Seattle Slew
Career Record

MAJOR WINS
Champagne Stakes	1976
Wood Memorial Stakes	1977
Flamingo Stakes	1977
Kentucky Derby	1977
Preakness Stakes	1977
Belmont Stakes	1977
Woodward Stakes	1978
Marlboro Cup	1978
Stuyvesant Handicap	1978
AWARDS
US Champion 2-year-old Colt	1976
US Triple Crown Champion	1977
US Champion 3-year-old Colt	1977
American Horse Of The Year	1977
US Champion Older Male Horse	1978
Leading Sire in North America	1984
North American leading Broodmare Sire	1995/1996

While Cruguet was equally effective on both American surfaces, he was without peer on the turf, and a year later he was on board Mac Diarmada, whose victories in the Washington DC International and the Canadian Turf Championship saw him voted Champion Turf horse. The journeyman announced his retirement at 41 in July 1980 to join his wife as a full-time trainer, but the lure of riding had him back in the saddle two years later. His last major Grade One Stakes victory came aboard Hodges Bay, again in the Canadian International at Woodbine. Today he lives in historic Midway just outside Lexington in the vicinity of one of the world’s great stallion stations, Winstar Farm, and the late Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum’s Gainsborough Stud. It’s no coincidence that the Woodford Bourbon Distillery is in the vicinity. For many years after his retirement, he made guest appearances for organisations such as Old Friends, a retirement and rescue facility for pensioned thoroughbreds. He almost completely disappeared from the public eye when he became the caregiver to his wife Denyse, when bedridden from a stroke in 2003, until she passed on in 2010 at age 80.

At 74 he remains active, working horses daily at the track, and he’s in excellent shape for a man who came off horses more often than he’d care to remember. He puts that down to a determination to make the number one box his home, and the fact that it often involves calculated risks which turned nasty. His pluck, his natural intuitions, his athleticism and dare we say, his upbringing, took him to the winner’s circle countless times, yet you know this is a man who remains comfortable in his own skin, “I crossed the line in front in more than 7000 races, but the truth is, I only won 500 them. Good horses did the rest”.

A couple of hours with Cruguet is riveting, and he speaks easily of the legends that forged the golden years of the game, Penna, Maurice Zilber, (for whom he rode the great Dahlia), Luro, Bill Mott, Woody Stevens and Charlie Whittingham. When you ask him to name the greatest horse of all time, and you toss in the names of Secretariat and Affirmed, he’s unhesitating: “There was none better than Slew. He could do a mile in 1 minute 31, and seven furlongs in 1 minute 20, and there’s no horse in history could go with that”.

If it’s at all possible, Cruguet offers that Slew’s legacy at stud may even have eclipsed his feats at the races. The dominant sire-line of the current era comes courtesy of his son A.P. Indy, and we owe it to Slew and his masterful rider, that we have A.P. Arrow at Summerhill today.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval +27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

ADMIRE THE MAN

Progeny of Admire Main - Gallops Playlist
Emperors Palace Summer Ready To Run Sale

EMPERORS PALACE SUMMER READY TO RUN SALE
School Of Excellence, Summerhill Stud, Mooi River
20 February 2013

It’s remarkable how often we turn to history for our lessons when little else makes sense. In the early fifties, the mighty American breeding industry was doing just fine with the Calumet stallion, Bull Lea, in full cry. But it wasn’t the international giant it was destined to come. Just about then, a new prophet emerged in the form of the legendary “Bull” Hancock who had recently taken over the reins of the family property, Claiborne, from his father. His vision was that if America was to fulfil its potential, it had scour the world for the best genetics. He realised that if America was to leverage the best results from what was already the largest breeding industry in the world, as well as putting the country’s new-found prosperity to best use, he would have to trawl the gene banks of the world for that magical beast that outbreeds his own bloodlines and performances.

Bull Hancock went out and paid the Irishman, Joe McGrath, a world record sum for Nasrullah, whose legacy lives on through the most potent American dynasty of the modern era, A.P. Indy. Nearby at Spendthrift Farm, the indomitable Lesley Combs was not to be denied, acquiring Nasrullah’s three-quarter brother, Royal Charger, who founded the enduring male lines of Roberto and Halo. While at one time, the former looked like making the greater impression, the tribes greater destiny appears to have landed firmly in the lap of Halo, through the likes of Southern Halo in South America, More Than Ready in North America and Australia, and decisively in Japan, where Sunday Silence is all-powerful.

In a more modern era, Hancock repeated the dose with the great Nijinsky, while a fresh force emerged at Gainesway, which snatched the spectacular likes of Blushing Groom, Lyphard and Riverman from under the noses of our friends in France.

At Summerhill, in our own small way, we’ve been no less adventurous in our quest at capturing the best bloodlines in the world, and in the process we brought to South Africa the most successful son in the Southern Hemisphere of the most successful stallion of all-time, Northern Dancer, himself a product of a parallel instance on the part of the Canadian E.P.Taylor, of acquiring the bluest blood in Europe. Hancock’s policy of plundering the best resources wherever they were found, produced a rich vein of success in Argentina, too, with the acquisition of Forli, whose largesse spread to the other side of the Atlantic, and eventually to Summerhill. Home Guard left three Group One winners in Europe, before concluding his career in KwaZulu-Natal, where, in an abbreviated stint, he sired Group One winners from 1000m to 3200m, including a two-year-old champion in Hot Guard, the multiple champion sprinter Taban, and S.A. Classic hero, Last Watch, and the Gold Cup ace Floating Casino.

While there is always hope that there are several Northern Guests and Home Guards in our present band, if you were to ask which of our gambles we would like most to pay off, if only for its uniqueness and if only to prove the value of reaching out to the nether regions of the world, our choices would include Admire Main, son of the Land of the Rising Sun.

Staying horses are never easy to subscribe, and while this handsome son of Sunday Silence oozes class at almost any trip, his sin was to excel at 2400m, so filling him has not been as easy as it might’ve been were he an exceptional miler. Yet his brief record at stud in Japan tells us that he does not need numbers to prove his merit, as he’s already had seven juvenile winners from 14 runners, with another four earning cheques in their first couple of starts. Two of these (and we must remember they’ve just completed their two-year-old programmes) have earned cheques in Group class races; for the nation’s sake, we can only hope that the Admire Mains are as adaptable to the conditions of the South African veld as the tribe has shown themselves to be in America and Europe. Of course, we already have the exceptional record of Lionel Cohen’s champion mare, Sun Classique, to advertise the virtues of the strain, and it has to be said, those that turned up the Emperors Palace Ready To Run in November, waived their catalogues with gusto, rewarding him with an average in excess of R200,000 for his first offerings.

On Wednesday week, you get a second stab at these jewels.

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

IN SEARCH OF A BETTER WAY

Scenes from the Keeneland September Yearling Sale
(Photos : Keeneland)

“It’s not the strongest of the species that survive,
nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”
- Charles Darwin

Last week, we penned a piece about a better deal for broodmare owners. While it is so that markets for young stock in this country have stood up better than in most countries, the truth is, we can make things better, and there are lessons to be learnt from those nations that have suffered to a greater degree than we have. The extreme example of “blood-letting” resides in the United States, where, despite the outward impressions, breeders still lost more than $100million at this year’s marathon Keeneland September Sale. While in some respects the sale could be counted as a success, measured in terms of the improved percentage of horses sold, specific areas of the market which stood their ground and the fact that things seemed to be getting better, it’s a scary thought that breeders have collectively lost a half billion dollars over the last four years, which compounds the problem.

No matter how spinners spin the spin, when an already struggling industry loses a half billion dollars in the “churn” needed to re-supply the overall system, the only word that comes to mind is crisis. Now there are all sorts of things that contribute to this malaise; one is a market that has been over-traded for many years and which has suffered all of the consequences of over-pricing. For an awfully long time, the top-end of the American market thrived to a degree that stallion fees (and hence the overall cost of production) spiralled out of control. When the international economy nose-dived and the principal supporters of that market (and especially the rulers of Dubai), clipped their own wings, the overheads breeders had incurred in developing and operating their farms had reached a point of no return. Coupled with a racing industry in the US which is based almost entirely on private ownership and the need to provide a return to shareholders (there isn’t a model anywhere that works long term along these lines), you had the perfect recipe for a storm.

On the surface, this is a crisis for breeders who form the headwaters or the main tributary for the revenue stream from which many service providers drink. Below the surface, therefore, those suppliers who also depend on the revenue stream from auction sales feel the pain as well. This is obvious, because as the river shrinks the fiscal health of every other group is affected downstream. So when a half billion dollars in “churn” disappears (along with a lot of other breeders and mares), everyone needs to sit up and think. In the simplest scheme of things, basic principles of economics suggest that making things better for the breeder makes things better for stallion owners, for boarding farms, sales companies, consignors and agents, vets, feed companies, transporters, farriers, industry publications and insurers.

Like us, breeders in America are the foundation of the revenue pyramid, and the bulk of them, like us, are producers who depend upon the income of their farms to sustain themselves. Quite clearly, neither breeders in America nor anywhere else, can continue to sustain the losses they’ve had to bear in the last four years. In order to understand this, there were those who thought that the Keeneland September sale was a “good” one with a gross of $219million. Yet in 1999, the gross for the same sale was $233million, which converts roughly into $322million in today’s dollars. In order to achieve 1999’s result in 2013, breeders would have to see an increase of 40% to get back to where they were 13 years ago. What differentiates today from 1999 though, is the magnitude of cumulative losses breeders have suffered in the US, and are having to carry forward. Somewhere, surely, there is a tipping point where resilience gives way to debilitating weakness.

There is only one choice, and that is to acknowledge the crisis and to respond to the financial landscape by finding new ways to do business. There is little comfort in knowing these lessons apply mainly to markets far away from us. We are not so far removed that we are immune, and if we keep doing what we’re doing ourselves, sooner or later we’re going to get what the Americans are getting. In the end, remember what Charles Darwin had to say on the topic: “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

The one hot topic that appears to top most slates in the United States, is the subject of stud fees. Those of you that study these columns, will know that for many years now, we’ve been encouraging our colleagues in the stallion business not to out-price the market. In the end, there are just 6 or 7 entities that control the tight number of commercial stallions in this country, and quite clearly a re-alignment of stud fees would help in keeping breeders afloat. The conundrum lies in the fact that most semen sellers are unable to drop their prices much, because we overpaid for our stallion corps in the first place, and we’re all stuck trying to protect or recoup our investments. The other thing is our fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders, which, like shareholders wherever they are, create upward pressure on the need to maintain dividends. All of these are understandable fundamentals of the economic cycle.

The limited number of stallions commanding commercial lustre or “bling” and the fact that in tough times people seek sanctuary in the tried and tested, does not help in solving the problem. In the context of stallions, horsemen appear to have an hereditary obsession with the proven horse, at the expense of all else. When you recall that Northern Guest and Foveros, Jet Master, Western Winter and Fort Wood, all had first crops, and those with a sense of adventure were the ones who cashed in, it’s difficult the grasp the concept of a singular concentration on a handful of elder statesmen, particularly in a business where we know that fashion switches from pinstripes to polka dots in a matter of months, and the older brigade inevitably lose their appeal. It even happened to Sadler’s Wells, remember, and the first signs are when mares carrying to the cover of an aging icon, fetch less than the cost of the service.

Somehow, we have to revive the memory in the minds of those that make up our market, that there is enterprise in identifying the rising freshman. That way, breeders will find a new enthusiasm for the new arrival, and that in itself will take some pressure off the established sires. The longer view of how the world will be in 2015, when the consequences of our choice of stallions this past season will become known, must surely suggest that by then we will be back on our feet. The attributes that have seen this country create more great companies than any other of its size, courage, enterprise and the pioneering spirit, will deliver up a new generation of investors with a fresh sense of where the world is headed. Those who rely more on memory than vision, are driving in the rear-view mirror.

A review of the stallion business worldwide reveals that the bulk of the best commercial stallions are held by just a few individuals or entities. They do not operate in what one might term as a genuinely free market, where widespread competition naturally creates downward pressure on fees. For want of another name, you might call it an oligopoly, a market condition that exists where there are fewer sellers. In this environment, prices generally trend upwards, because it is normally associated with a situation where demand exceeds supply, and buyers have to have the product. In this situation, whatever the long-term consequences, stallion fees are inclined to be set as high as possible, simply because those of us that control them, can.

In the context of what’s happened in America in recent years, while that may provide a better result in the short term, it can’t be smart in the long term, because in the end, it destroys your customer base. Nobody foresaw the 2008 collapse of international financial markets, and nobody anticipated the implosion of the American Thoroughbred market, nor the impact it would have on markets worldwide. The fact that there are still many breeders in business, including smaller operators, says something for their personal fortitude, though it doesn’t say much necessarily for what’s left in their kitties. And while there is some comfort in reminding ourselves that it has not been as bad in South Africa as it has been in many countries abroad, the fact is, many of our colleagues are struggling, particularly the smaller ones, and they in the end, are the bedrock of the breeding community. In the more than 30 years that we’ve been in business, we’ve seen more stud farms go than come, and increasingly, the power of production is concentrated in fewer hands. Whilst rationalisation is an imperative consequence of any downturn in any market, ours is an especially precarious one, and the balance between the number of horses we need to sustain our racing industry and the number that will fail to sustain it, is perched on a thin red line.

If you haven’t already worked it out, we guess it’s time for us to say it. Once upon a time, stallion contracts here and abroad, were universally “90 days in foal”, and the fee became payable. Then the Northern Hemisphere countries introduced a scheme whereby payment was made on the 1^st September (March in our language) in the year in which the mare was bred (ie. within two or three months of the breeding season, but before the foal materialised), on the understanding that if you made timeous payment, you got a live foal guarantee. As we mentioned in a previous article, Summerhill revolutionised this concept by introducing a : “no payment” deal until the foal itself was on the ground, standing and nursing. Yet those in a position to do so saw the standard formats morph into various other forms of payment, including “upfront, no guarantee” (for the likes of Northern Dancer, Nijinsky, Danzig, Mr Prospector etc.), “live foal payable within 30 days of foaling”, then “out of sales proceeds”, and then finally, “out of proceeds with forgiveness”. With forgiveness means that, where the resultant progeny fails to make the value of the stud fee, the stallion owner receives all proceeds, whatever they may be, and simply lets the customer off for the balance. While that may relieve the broodmare owner of the liability of having to pay the full fee, it doesn’t detract from the fact that he’s saddled with whatever his other production costs are, including the keep and maintenance of the mare and yearling to that point.

As we pointed out a while back, the broodmare owner has to carry the accumulated costs of production for three consecutive foals before the first gets to the market, which means that if you have a broodmare band of even say, 10 mares, you need a small fortune in operating capital in order to fund your business, a commitment which is on-going for as long as you are in business. The risk to the broodmare owner is magnified because he and the stallion owner do not share the same timetable. Stallion owners operate annually from the 1^st September to the 15^th January (in Southern Hemisphere parlance), while breeders are effectively, as we’ve said, on a two and a half year calendar from the time they breed the mare to the time the yearling makes the auction, and even longer if you’re attending a later sale. In a world where lots can happen in a day, having to spin the wheel for two and a half years, particularly when the market is battling, can be daunting.

Another way stallion owners can help, and especially in South Africa where we have a relatively small market, is to limit the number of mares their stallions serve. That way, the broodmare owner has a bigger chance of recovering his expenses and in the end, because it has to be the object of the exercise, of generating a profit. By making the commodity scarcer, we improve the level of demand, and we also ensure a spread in the patronage of a broader base of stallions. In the Northern Hemisphere, where stallion books long ago soared past the 100 mark and are now, incredibly, surpassing the 200 level, breeders are not only regularly compromised in getting their mares covered by a stallion because of congestion in the line-up, but they’re also putting themselves at the mercy of an over-crowded yearling market, when that time comes.

We have thought long and hard about these issues at Summerhill, and we’re wondering whether there isn’t another and a better way to extend the life expectancy of a breeder. Perhaps the answer lies in a combination of the terms we offer and an element of relief where the yearling does not cover the value of the stud fee (provided of course that the breeder has given the horse every chance to be what it can be). There are many ways of skinning this cat, and we need to put our thinking caps on before we find ourselves in similar straits to our colleagues in the United States and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval +27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

HAIL EMPEROR

An unique photograph of the great Nearco leaving his bomb shelter in wartime Great Britain.
(Photo : The All Clear by Anscomb)

“The story of Nearco is a story of one man’s work of a lifetime.”

Nearco was bred and trained by Signor Federico Tesio, an apparently chauvinistic but gifted ex-Italian cavalry officer, who was almost solely responsible for putting the Italian-bred racehorse on the international map. Tesio was said to be a short, fussy, fastidious man who combined an egocentric nature with a brilliant mind and an ill-concealed contempt for his intellectual inferiors. In wartime 1915, he travelled to the English bloodstock sales and bought the mare Catnip for 75 guineas. Although an unprepossessing individual who gained her only success at the races in a £100 nursery, Catnip was nonetheless beautifully bred, by the 1906 English Derby winner, Spearmint, out of Sibola, winner of the 1899 1000 Guineas. These days, a filly of such breeding would stand you in at something close to 200,000 guineas.

Catnip proceeded to breed a slew of important winners, among them a filly called Nogara, heroine of the Italian 1000 and 2000 Guineas (the latter against the colts.) More importantly, Nogara became the dam of Nearco, and as so often happens, there was an element of luck in Nearco’s breeding. One thing Tesio was especially conscientious about, was the mating of his mares, and after considerable thought he decided to send Nogara to Lord Derby’s outstanding stallion, Fairway, but he was late in applying for a nomination. The stud were rigidly strict in limiting Fairway to 42 mares, and an outraged Tesio reluctantly agreed to take up Lord Derby’s offer of a nomination to Fairway’s own brother, Pharos, who was standing in France. The resultant foal was small, but strong, stocky and robust. Back in the lush paddocks of Olgiata near Rome, the youngster soon stood out as the dominant one in the pecking order, and his companions quickly learnt to respect him.

Tesio (the trainer) was something of a modern day Mike de Kock, decades before his time, and one of the basic tennets of his training regimen, was to have his horses in the peak of fitness. Nearco was able to absorb all the work Tesio grafted into him, and would shrug off the daunting exertions expected of him with his brilliant speed. He won all seven of his two-year-old races with considerable ease, and at three he improved again. He won the Italian 2000 Guineas by six lengths, the Italian Derby by a distance, and went on to to win both the Gran Premio d’Italia and the Gran Premio di Milano. A week later he faced his greatest challenge in the Gran Prix de Paris at Longchamps at a distance of 1 mile seven furlongs. In truth, Tesio never considered Nearco a staying type, and always believed his victories over ground came courtesy of his class rather than his stamina. His rivals in Paris included the English Derby winner Bois Roussel, and the French Derby winner Cillas. Nearco took the lead early in the straight and drew away effortlessly. At the line he had a length and a half to spare over the good stayer Canot, with Bois Rousel third. In that moment, he became the undisputed champion of Europe.

With the dark clouds of war looming over Europe, Tesio sold Nearco four days later to the English bookmaker, Martin Benson, for the then world record price of £60,000. A handsome, perfectly moulded horse now standing 16 hands, he immediately made his mark as a stallion at Beach House Stud, Newmarket. For fifteen consecutive years he was in the top ten stallions, leading all sires twice. His best racing sons were Dante, Nimbus and Sayajirao, though at stud, it was the less effective racehorses, Nasrullah, Mossborough and Royal Charger, which had the greatest long-term impact on the breed. His male-line descendants from those stallions included Sir Ivor, Nijinsky, Mill Reef, Roberto, The Minstrel and Shirley Heights. He was also three times the leading sire of broodmares.

However, his greatest legacy to the breed came courtesy of a horse who was born on the other side of the Atlantic, and became a Canadian champion. This was the E.P. Taylor-bred Nearctic, whose conception came about in a novel way. Mr Taylor’s agent was instructed to secure a service to Nearco before the December sales, on the understanding that Taylor (founder of Carling Breweries) would buy the best mare in the sale as his part of the bargain, and send her to him. It was only after some hard bargaining that the Canadian’s request was agreed to, yet in the end, at something of a premium, he managed to secure two services for consecutive seasons. Taylor proceeded to buy Lady Sybil, a daughter of the legendary stallion, Hyperion, and she was sent to Nearco’s court.

The first outcome was of little account, but the second was Neartic, who became not only the champion of his generation, but also multiple champion sire of Canada, where he was foaled. As good a racehorse as Neartic turned out to be, his lasting legacy, arguably the greatest gift ever to the thoroughbred tribe, was a little horse called Northern Dancer, and the rest, as they say, is history. Northern Dancer alone occupies the pedigrees of 85% of the world’s racehorse population in the first five generations.

Considering that Nearco also sired the exceptional stallions, Nasrullah and Royal Charger, founders respectively of the great dynasties of Bold Ruler, Seattle Slew, Roberto and Halo, it’s fair to say that his name must feature in more than 90% of the ancestries of thoroughbreds. It’s doubtful that any single species on this earth has been influenced in such a remarkable way.

Yet that was not the end of Tesio’s work. In the early 1950s, he bred another colt, just as good if not better, who was to put a seal on Tesio’s genius. Ribot was unbeaten in 16 starts, including a King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes, and two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes, and while Tesio knew him as a somewhat unprepossessing foal, he never lived to see Ribot at the races. From a personal perspective then, Nearco’s famous day in Paris was the apex of a lifetime of achievement for the doughty little man who was to change not only the way we thought about breeding, but also revolutionised the art of training racehorses.

THERE'S A HORSE FOR EVERYONE

Click above to watch…
(An iKind Studio Production)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
TBA Sales Complex, Germiston
2nd and 4th November 2012

There’s something about a racehorse auction that you find nowhere else. Not at Sotheby’s nor Christie’s, nor anywhere. By the nature of the beast, a racehorse evokes a greater passion, considerably more ego, and there’s nothing a rich man wants more than something another rich man wants.

You get lucky as a breeder when you the market likes your horses. Customers, and especially those in the horse game, don’t really know what they want till they see it in the flesh. It’s not about market surveys though; it’s more a case of clairvoyance, of responding to your instincts and knowing what it takes to raise a good horse. In a way, it’s a bit like Alexander Graham Bell: he didn’t do much market research when he invented the telephone, he just knew it couldn’t miss.

At a yearling sale some years ago in America’s thoroughbred heartland, Kentucky, two groups of very rich men staged a duel one expert witness called “confrontational”. Understand, this was the heavyweight championship of the world, the battle for dominance of the international market for the elite racehorse. They were jousting for a bay Northern Dancer colt the vets and laboratory types couldn’t fault. One group included the horse trader Robert Sangster, and the storied Irish trainer, Vincent O’Brien. The other was led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, present ruler of Dubai.

The bidding quickly raced to $4,5million, surpassing the record for a horse sold at public auction. But this one wasn’t sold yet. When the price reached $8million, a member of the Sheikh’s entourage lent across to the Sangster huddle, and confided “You’re never going to beat us. Why try?”

They didn’t know Sangster. Mortal he may have been, but he was still there at $10million. And that’s when his mortality came home to him. The electric bidding board couldn’t handle the Sheikh’s final $200,000 bid; it only ran to seven digits. The story flashed around the world and put racing on the front pages; even the Wall Street Journal was impressed. Ten million dollars for an untried horse. The only higher bid, according to one William Shakespeare, was made by King Richard III at Bosworth Field in 1485, when he offered his kingdom for a horse. Fortunately, the auctioneer missed the wave of his catalogue, otherwise England may have belonged to someone else these days, and there’d have been no Diamond Jubilee for Queen Elizabeth in 2012.

The Sheikh, who’d watched the bidding with a “magnetic glare”, left the pavilion at once for the Lexington airport, where his Boeing 747 was parked, much as the locals might park a Chevy pick-up. Within the hour, he was winging it home. The contest had been about muscle and desire, about power and collision, and a smack of avarice. It is often the way at the top end of the racehorse market. It’s no longer a matter of what you pay. It’s what you get that matters. In its many guises, it’s what you find at yearling auctions the world over, and it makes for good theatre, particularly when they show up with their treasure chests.

The lesson here is that at a sale like this, where the cream is supposed to be concentrated, the trainer with limited money to spend, with perhaps one or two modest sponsors, is at an apparent disadvantage. But this may not be as severe as it looks at first blush, and it certainly doesn’t take him out of the hunt. Poverty imposes discipline. You can’t engage in games of vanity and bluster. You don’t turn up at the sales ring with an entourage. You go out and look at the yearlings in the paddock before they are tizzied up for the sales. You casually ask the stud manager for some clues. You don’t look for the ideal pedigree or the perfect conformation, because you can’t afford it. You compromise. You sometimes surrender to intuition, because when it comes to horses, it can be better than reason. Small faults can be forgiven. When the yearling is presented, you look for its good points first, rather than the defects. You do everything you can to shorten the odds in your favour, because it can be a bit of a lottery as it is, and you can’t have too many losing tickets.

The Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale has taught us many things, one of the standouts being that you don’t have to be especially rich to own a good horse. Pierre Jourdan cost R60,000, Hear The Drums R42,000, Mannequin R80,000, Catmandu R60,000, Bhekinkosi R60,000, Amphitheatre R30,000, Icy Air R60,000, Fork Lightening R70,000 and while he was a slightly loftier R210,000, Smanjemanje has already earned R1.6million, and came within a hair’s breadth of claiming the biggest one of the lot. To a man or a lady, they’re all millionaires, and if they weren’t already when they bought them, so are their owners.

Finally, if you’re looking for clues, look at the performance logs. Some farms have a habit of finding themselves at the top, year after year, and a few, very few, you’ll find only when you reach the summit.

Read more about the
2012 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

For more information please visit
www.tba.co.za