THE "IN" SCENE

Thoroughbred Farming in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands
(Image : Summerhill Stud)

KWAZULU-NATAL MIDLANDS
SOUTH AFRICA

It wasn’t that long ago that our district was the “in” place among investors in stud properties. Graham Beck, Cyril Hurwitz, John Ellis, Brian Jenks, Ronnie Rosen, Peter Moss, Bobby Jameson, Peter Koster, Guy Landon, Roy Meaker, Hilton Hall, Henry Khan, Ghait Schumacher, the Pappas family, they all threw in their dosh with the established entrepreneurs, the Scott Bros and George Rowles, in the plains between Mooi River and Fort Nottingham. The Oppenheimers and Gary Player were a hair’s breadth away from joining the rush for local farms, too.

While they were not in the same league in terms of resources, the young Goss brothers Pat and Mick, had just kicked off their endeavours at Summerhill, and their All-Black neighbour, Alan Sutherland and his Miss South Africa wife, Vera, secured the farm next door. It was a vibrant time in the Midlands, as it emerged from a thirty year slumber in horse breeding terms. There was a golden era in the 40s, 50s and 60s, when great farms like Hartford, the Labistours of Dagbreek, Joyce Tatham’s Springfield, and Harry Barnett’s Springvale took out half a dozen Durban Julys in a ten year stretch between 1946 and 1954, and threatened the supremacy of the all-conquering Birch Bros for the Breeder’s Championship.

Along with this investment, came a period of overwhelming prosperity in the horses emerging from these valleys. Success bred success, and the arrival of the stallion greats Northern Guest and Foveros, and right behind them Secret Prospector and Rakeen, witnessed the national sires’ log hosting four Nottingham Road, KwaZulu Natal-based horses in the top five for the first time ever. Then there were those like the Maktoum family of Dubai, who, whilst not landowners, established the most profitable horse division they’d ever owned at Summerhill, through the support of local breeders. The KZN Breeders Premium scheme, the only one of its species to survive in this county, was an obvious drawcard, though it wasn’t without howls of protest from other regions about its existence, and what it was doing in concentrating the resources of the country in one area. In a manner of speaking, KwaZulu Natal was exploding in the growth of its stud farms, though it’s fair to say, that while they were long on capital, we were relatively short on skills. That’s always the case when new businesses suddenly proliferate. The old centres of excellence, the Karoo and the Eastern Cape, whose economies were largely based on sheep farming, were suddenly battling, and were a shadow of their former selves, the product no doubt of the decline in demand for wool.

By contrast, the traditional bastion of breeding, the Western Cape, was farmed by old families with what the old people used to call old money, though the latter was in relatively short supply. While the dough was in KZN, the strength of the Cape lay in its traditions of horsemanship and the intimacy of its farmers with their land. This was Natal’s moment, when the advantages of a spectacular environment and a quartet of the best stallions on the continent converged, yet somehow we let it slip, by underpromoting the virtues of their land, their climate and by then, their horsemen, and crucially, their Breeders Premium scheme.

The pendulum swung west again, and an unprecedented scramble for Cape properties manifested itself among the wealthiest families in the land. Mary Slack, diamond and gold heiress; the greatest industrialists of our time, the Ruperts; Andreas Jacobs, heir to a family fortune in the coffee business; Sabine Plattner, whose husband Hasso had founded one of the giant IT companies of the world; Shirley Pfeiffer, whose cash cow was Rainbow Chickens; the Rattrays of Mala Mala fame; Markus Jooste, Bernard Kantor and Chris van Niekerk, furniture king, banker and builders merchant respectively; one of Africa’s greatest coal miners, Graham Beck, Tony Taberer, tobacconist extraordinaire; senior counsellor Altus Joubert, and a raft of others including Gold Circle chair, Ken Truter, all joined the rush for the rediscovered El Dorado, and once again established the Western Cape as the principal “provider”.

If there was a glimmer of hope for KwaZulu Natal, a thread by which it could be saved from a retreat to the forgotten land, it lay in the perseverance and the guts of those who had nowhere to go, and the rise to the mountaintop of Summerhill. The history of breeding in South Africa, is unique, in that it has been dominated by just a few farms over the centuries. In its infancy (and we speak of the early 1900s as opposed to the hitherto relatively small industry of prior centuries,) the champion producers were principally the Randlords, the fabously wealthy monopolists of the diamond and gold businesses. Sir Abe Bailey, Sir Alfred Beit, Cecil John Rhodes, Henry Nourse and the ex Governor of Griqualand West, Sir Richard Southey, all had their businesses (and hence most of their residences) in Johannesburg, while their diamond interests were in Kimberley. The Karoo was perfectly placed, bang in the middle and it made sense to visit their Karoo farms en route between the two. As the biggest breeder in the world at the time, Nourse was the undisputed “King Henry” of his era, and his throne was usurped after his death by the rise of the Birch Bros of Doordrecht (Eastern Cape) whose famous conglomerate counted several farms belonging to three brothers.

The official records date only as far as the early 1900s, but it’s a remarkable fact that since then, only a handful of farms (or family entities, such as the Birches and Kosters were), have aspired to the most tightly held premiership in the world. Highlands Farms, the Koster Bros, Maine Chance Farms and the Cohen’s Odessa were the main protagonists and challengers to the Birch supremacy, and each of them held the crown at one point or another. We know of course, that the Ellises of Hartford (now part of Summerhill) were their most ardent pursuers for two decades, but with fewer than 30 mares at any one stage, it was a pastime in vain.

They didn’t let up though, in KwaZulu Natal, and in 2005, Summerhill became the first farm this side of the Drakensberg, to inscribe its name in the history books. By the closure of the curtains on the 2011 season, they’d strung together a record for the most recent 50 years, of seven consecutive titles. That, and a tenacious reminder from several other farms in the area, told the world, they were still in business, and that we were here to stay. At last, the cock is crowing again across these verdant plains, and there are signs that Rip Van Winkle is coming back to life.

The boys at Backworth have one of the most beautiful properties in the province; Englishman Mike Smith has revived Aldora, one-time banker to the bankers, Koos de Klerk became our biggest landowner in a very short while, and Moneyweb’s Alec Hogg (founder of SA’s first tipping guide, Racing Digest) has become the celebrated neighbour at Summerhill.

He’s not alone in abutting with the champion breeders, though; on the ridge, they call Beverley Hills (more appropriately “heavily bills”!) is the man the country’s pinning its mining hopes on these days, Bernard Swanepoel and his lovely lady, Tracey, also looking down upon Summerhill.

And “looking up” from their fine spreads in the Mooi River valley, are ex Capetonians William and Claire Meyer (who’ve obviously woken up to the fact that there is life on this side of the Drakensberg) and “Group One” French breeders, Xavier and Natalie Bozo, who in celebrating landmark birthdays last week, are the best proof that it’s never too late to put down new roots. If you’ve any doubts about the sincerity of their intents, take a drive past, and check the activity.

www.summerhill.co.za

LOW FLYING CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP

Click above to watch JJ The Jet Plane’s last run in South Africa; The Mercury Sprint (Gr1) in July 2010
(Photo : Gold Circle - Footage : Tellytrack)

CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 1000m
21 January 2012

For as long as we can remember, the time-honoured Cape Flying Championship (Gr1) has been one of the better subscribed sprints in the land. That there are only six competitors for Saturday’s renewal would’ve been remarkable if it weren’t for the fact the line-up includes three current champions, the emerging rocket, What A Winter, the amazing filly Val Da Ra, and it marks the return of the globe-trotting international Group One hero, J J The Jet Plane. He hasn’t been seen on a South African course since July 2010, and that was at the end of an unbroken sequence of seven consecutive victories.

JJ of course, has a strong genetic connection with Summerhill and Hartford. His mother was a Stakes-winning daughter of the world record equalling broodmare sire, Northern Guest, our most famous resident, and she was bred here by Gordon Sigcau, brother to the reigning King of Pondoland, Mpondimbini Sigcau. The family traces to an old Hartford taproot, so this man’s prowess, up there with the best sprinters the country has known, is not surprising.

Equally unsurprising is the size of the field. Champions have always got something to prove when pitted together, but when at best, all the others are doing in the line-up is running for fourth place money, you may as well reserve your talents for other fish. Whatever the outcome though, the presence of these three champions guarantees purists one helluva contest.

For the record, Summerhill’s recent history in the event surpasses all-comers. In the course of the first decade of this millennium, graduates of these paddocks took the laurels three times (Nhlavini in 2005 and 2006, and Rebel King in 2009) while each of them were runners up in other years.

FINAL FIELD

#	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	J J THE JET PLANE	60.0	122	3	B Fayde’Herbe	Lucky Houdalakis
2	WHAT A WINTER	60.0	117	6	K Neisius	Mike Bass
3	COPPER PARADE	60.0	108	4	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
4	CAPTAIN’S SECRET	60.0	107	5	M Byleveld	Mike Bass
5	RABATTACHE	60.0	107	2	R Fourie	Glen Puller
6	VAL DE RA	57.5	111	1	A Forbes	Dennis Drier

SIRS PATRICK AND TRISTRAM; MESSRS JOOSTE AND GOSS

Sir Patrick Hogan
(Photo : Racing Victoria)

“Proving it’s better to be lucky than brilliant”

Alec Hogg
Graceland FarmWe’re in the process of building an equine library at Jeanette’s Graceland Gallery. With the gallery now specialising in equine art, it makes sense to also stock horse books. Good books about thoroughbreds are hard to find in South Africa, especially since the TBA cancelled its annual pre-National Yearling Sale book sale. Although, in truth, the library is more of an excuse for me to indulge two passions - reading and racing - while investing in my own education.

The idea of an equine library came from my pal Mick Goss, whose leadership has given the country its seven-time Champion Breeders, Summerhill Stud. Always one who believes actions speak louder than words, Mick followed up the library suggestion with a donation - a book about New Zealand’s master breeder Sir Patrick Hogan. Called Give A Man A Horse and written in conversational style by Kiwi journalist and biographer Dianne Haworth, the book’s an inspiration for anyone, not just those in the breeding game.

Haworth’s writing reinforces how life’s lessons come from different places. Reading about Sir Patrick often reminded me of Nassim Taleb’s argument in Fooled by Randomness, a book that changed the way I look at just about everything. Taleb’s classic uses many examples to show how success needs dedication and a passion for what you’re doing - but with the important rider that getting to the very top is dependent not on these everyday attributes, but on a huge dollop of luck.

In my other life as a financial journalist, three decades of observation proves the accuracy of Taleb’s thesis. Every big success story I’ve come across owes a great deal more to luck than good judgment. Where beneficiaries of such providence go wrong is when they believe some super-human talents are the real reason for the success. Appreciating this reality helps keep perspective in a world where society wants heroes, often putting personalities onto pedestals they cannot possibly retain, tumbling after getting caught up in the hype. For me, the difference between a great man and a lucky poser often begins with their realization - or not - of life’s randomness.

Warren Buffett, for instance, had the good fortune as a young man to meet his teacher Benjamin Graham and then lifetime business partner Charlie Munger. Without the influence of these two, Buffett would surely have done well. But without them it’s hard to believe he could have become the best in the world. Buffett acknowledges he was in the right place at the right time, calling himself fortunate to have been born in the USA when he was; and to have a brain “hard-wired for capitalism”. His strongest message to young people is that they realize we’re all knowledgeable and perhaps even talented in some areas; success comes from knowing where these sweet spots are and sticking to them.

Well known personalities in local horseracing provide more examples. Table topping owner Markus Jooste, for instance, owes much to being fractionally the lower bidder for SA Breweries’ furniture manufacturing assets at the absolute peak of the market in the late 1980s. The winning bidder, Pat Cornick, offered a mere 25c more a share (R19.50 versus R19.25), and ended up going bust because of overpaying. Had Jooste’s Steinhoff won the auction, it would surely have suffered a similar fate. Instead, Steinhoff was around to pick up the same assets from a bankrupt Pat Cornick at a fraction of what it had been prepared to pay just a year or so earlier. That was the enterprise making deal which created the low cost asset base from which Steinhoff’s global empire was built. Jooste was blessed with good fortune once more when he dipped his toe into the racing world. His first investment: a share in a yearling called National Emblem who became the country’s Champion racehorse and then a leading stallion.

Mick Goss tells a similar story. The mighty Summerhill Stud, he readily explains, was the result of two pieces of great fortune - the first, flight cancelling bad weather that put him together for an extended period with the country’s greatest tax and legal minds (from which tax-incentive breeding partnerships were created); the second, a chance bumping into Northern Guest when he and brother Pat were visiting Ireland to see a different horse. Every barn, stable and pasture at Summerhill, Goss reckons, owes its existence to Northern Guest, the unraced marvel who became South Africa’s multiple Champion stallion.

The benefit of good luck seeps right through the Hogan book. Feted around the world as a genius in the Tesio tradition, Sir Patrick’s talent might never have been recognised had it not been for a nasty natured, poorly conformed (“terrible hind quarters… shocking hind leg”) Irish racehorse who he was strongly advised against buying. That stallion was Sir Tristam who became the greatest producer of Group One winners worldwide, putting Sir Patrick’s Cambridge Stud and, indeed, New Zealand breeding onto the global map.

Hogan’s real talent - something shared in breeding by Goss and in business by Jooste and many others - was an ability to use his random good fortune as a base. He kicked on. Strongly. Doubling up through buying back one of Sir Tristam’s best sons, Zabeel, from Sheikh Hamdan. The Dubai Prince had bought the Cambridge-bred Group One winner as a yearling for $650,000. For reasons best known to the Sheikh and his advisors at Shadwell, he decided not to stand Zabeel as a stallion (or to send him, like Kahal and Muhtafal, to Goss’s Summerhill Stud - what a difference that would have made to South African racing). Instead, Hogan was invited to submit a bid in a private auction and prevailed by a mere $50,000. Over three dozen Gr1 winners later, Zabeel has proved that in racing, sometimes lightning does strike twice. What makes New Zealand’s most famous horseman so extraordinary, though, is how he appreciates this, never losing his humility or his humanity. It’s that part of the man, even more than his amazing breeding achievements, which is most inspiring.

Extract from www.gracelandfarm.co.za

THE IMPORTANCE OF BROODMARE SIRES

Northern Guest
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

“How important is the Broodmare Sire?”

SARAH WHITELAW - When first looking at a pedigree, particularly in a catalogue, I first look at the sire, then I look at the dam, and then I look at the female line, or at least the first two dams.

But how important is the broodmare sire? When looking at such modern day champions as Horse Chestnut and Dynasty (out of mares by Col Pickering and Commodore Blake respectively), it is easy to believe that the broodmare sire pays little part in the pedigree, as both the aforementioned horses are out of mares by failed stallions.

There were 25 winners of 32 G1 races run last year in South Africa. Of these 25 horses, eight were produced by daughters of champion sires. Genetically speaking, the broodmare sire will contribute 25% to the DNA makeup of the individual horse.

It is hard to see this when looking at a horse like the mighty Smarty Jones - by a good sire in Elusive Quality out of a 12 times stakes winner. Smarty Jones’s broodmare sire Smile was a disaster at stud - and it is hard to see quite what part he plays in the pedigree of one of the finest racehorses of the 21st century.

It is also surely more than a coincidence that often a champion racehorse, but poor sire, who covers good books of mares when first retiring to stud, can produce at least one G1 producing daughter. One such example is the mighty Dancing Brave, a stallion who was largely a disappointment, but whose daughters have done very well at stud.

Ironically enough, a horse to fall in the same category as Dancing Brave, is his old rival Shahrastani (who beat Dancing Brave somewhat fortuitously in the 1986 Epsom Derby). Shahrastani, who has spent his stud career in all of the USA, Japan and Ireland, was a very poor sire, but his daughters have produced such G1 winners as Alamshar (Irish Derby) and Caradak (Prix de la Foret).

It is also worth noting that sometimes ordinary stallions can leave their mark on the breed through their daughters. One of history’s greatest ever stallions, Danzig, is out of a mare by Admirals Voyage (himself a son of champion handicap male, Crafty Admiral). The latter sired just a handful of minor stakes winners during his time at stud - none of which won at the highest level. But through the deeds of Danzig and his legions of successful sons and daughters, Admirals Voyage’s name will survive in the modern day pedigree - outlasting sires who enjoyed more stud success!

Another ordinary sire whose name lingers in the modern day thoroughbred through a daughter is the Promised Land stallion, Understanding. Winner of the G3 Stuyvesant Handicap, Understanding sired just two stakes winners in a brief stud career - but one of those stakes winners was Wishing Well. She not only won the Gamely Handicap (today a G1 race), but at stud she produced US Horse of the Year and legendary Japanese sire, Sunday Silence.

Poker was a son of the top-class sire and broodmare sire Round Table. While he himself was an ordinary sire (his only champions coming in Norway and Puerto Rico), Poker’s daughters produced numerous champions including champion sire Seattle Slew. The latter twice topped the US broodmare sires list, and his daughters have produced a host of champions. Poker is also the maternal grandsire of US champion, Silver Charm, as well as the useful sire, Lomond (himself a champion sire in Italy). Through Seattle Slew alone, Poker is guaranteed to be around in pedigrees for decades.

In contrast, history has produced a number of truly exceptional broodmare sires. In North America, arguably the greatest broodmare sire of all was Sir Gallahad III. Sir Gallahad III led the US broodmare sires list on 12 occasions - and his daughters produced over 130 stakes winners (in an era where stallions covered 30 mares a season). Sir Gallahad III’s daughters produced champions Challedon and Gallorette as well as high-class stakes winners such as Mars Shield (Kentucky Oaks), Boswell (St Leger), Galatea (Epsom Oaks), Black Tarquin (St Leger), Aurelius (St Leger) and Nothirdchance (Acorn Stakes, dam of Hail To Reason).

Another truly phenomenal broodmare sire was Princequillo. A stout stayer, he dominated the US Broodmare Sires list in the 1960’s and 1970’s. He not only headed the list on eight occasions, but remarkably enough, his son Prince John and grandson Speak John (by Prince John) also became champion broodmare sires. Princequillo is best known as the broodmare sire of the US Triple Crown winner Secretariat (also a great broodmare sire), with his daughters also producing such luminaries as champion Mill Reef, leading sire and broodmare sire Kris S, G1 winners Squander and Sham, champion half brothers Fort Marcy and Key To The Mint, as well as champions Bold Lad and Successor.

In South Africa, the trend in recent times has been for champion sires to become champion broodmare sires. The broodmare sires list has recently been dominated by Northern Guest, who has been champion broodmare sire in this country nine times. He is certainly bred to be a champion broodmare sire with both his sire, Northern Dancer, and broodmare sire, Buckpasser, having topped the broodmare sires list on more than one occasion.

So how relevant is the broodmare sire? Clearly it helps to have a successful sire/broodmare sire as a maternal grandsire of a horse, but it is also clear that it is not the sole defining success factor.

Extract from www.sportingpost.co.za

DEATH OF JET MASTER : FAREWELL TO THE LEGEND

Jet Master
(Photo : Racing South Africa)

“And on the third day he rose again…”

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOOn the very day that “Boeing” unveiled their latest stratospheric invention, the horse by the same name, Jet Master, ascended to the heavens. One thing that’s sure about the passing of Jet Master, is that he’s going upwards, not down. If ever there was one, he was South Africa’s saint of the turf. He didn’t deserve to go the way he did, for all the virtues he represented. He didn’t know his father, and he only briefly knew his mother, but what he did know, was that he was born to run. Few people, besides Pat Devine, saw in him what he turned out to be. At R15,000 South Africa’s most famous weanling purchase, Jet Master belied his origins to become one of the greatest equine athletes of all-time.

His 126 merit rating at the height of his career, placed him squarely among the best racehorses in the world, and in hindsight, it’s a sadness that the age of the international adventures of the likes of Mike de Kock were not yet upon us, when he was strutting his stuff on the racecourses of his homeland.

In so many respects, Jet Master was a triumph over circumstances which might have stopped lesser mortals in their tracks. To begin with, his life was a victory of the plebs over the pedigree patricians, of a struggle with the afflictions of a defective breathing mechanism over the trials of the racecourse, and of the South African-bred stallion over the colonial-era belief that what comes from outside, is better than the inside.

As a young man, he bestrode the racecourses of our land like a colossus, displaying remarkable agility for a horse of his size, and the gatespeed of a quarter horse. He finished off his races in the ruthless fashion we’ve come to expect from All Black rugby teams, yet his retirement to stud was greeted by the usual scepticism about his pedigree (or the lack of it), his wind afflictions, and anything else we could throw at him. In many ways, if it was possible, his career as a stallion exceeded that of his life as a racehorse. His numbers tell us he was as effective a stallion, (and perhaps a bit more), than any single horse in the history of the South African breed.

We knew Jet Master, or should we say his family, well. His great grandmother lived at Summerhill, a daughter of the Platberg Stud resident, Joy 11, and the only Black Type horse in several generations of her pedigree. We knew his grandmother as well, because she was bred and raised here, and we knew his mother too, for the same reasons. We also knew the family of one of his greatest offspring, the internationally celebrated J.J. The Jet Plane. His mother, too, was bred at Summerhill by our own giant, Northern Guest, and his grandmother, his great grandmother and beyond, were all residents of the old Hartford.

We shall all miss Jet Master, as his passing leaves an enormous hole in the ranks of our stallions. But the one thing South Africa will have gained from his being, is that we no longer need to stand back when it comes to our local bred as stallions. The one thing he’s demonstrated so well, and he’s done so time and again, is that the highly performed racehorse; bred, raised and tested on our home tracks, is as effective a weapon in the production of good horses, as any.

Our thoughts go out to Pat and Henry Devine, to Benny Marais and his team at Klipdrift Stud, and to the nation as a whole.