MIKE DE KOCK HAS A SWIG OF PIERRE JOURDAN

Trainer Mike de Kock
(Inage : Tab Online / Pierre Jourdan)

BETTING WORLD JUBILEE HANDICAP (Grade 3)
Turffontein, Turf, 1800m
12 June 2011

Karel Miedema
www.sportingpost.co.zaNever underestimate a champion trainer and always exercise caution with Gauteng feature form. The unstoppable Mike de Kock threw punters a curved ball at Turffontein on Sunday 12 June when he produced the Argentinian-bred daughter of Singspiel, Candy Singer, at a generous 18-1 to win the R200,000 Grade 3 Betting World Jubilee Handicap over 1800m. The multiple Group-placed mare picked up her biggest career win at the expense of the revitalised Summerhill-bred star Pierre Jourdan, who looks set for a tilt at the Vodacom Durban July come 2 July.

The Gauteng feature race form continues to befuddle and confuse and one of only two members of the fairer sex in this event caught the boys napping as she sliced through the middle under De Kock’s feature race jack-in-a-box jockey Randall Simons. The flashy Drakenstein Stud-owned mare had not won since January 2010 but she stepped out here under a handy galloping weight and gave her opponents a hiding. One would think that she is destined for stud in a month or two and this Grade 3 event will certainly do her smashing pedigree no harm in the Sales catalogue pages. She is quite a looker too.

Pierre Jourdan ran a champagne race on the comeback trail and he was giving the De Kock mare 9,5 kgs when going down narrowly. He also showed a finger to the second run after a rest brigade. The Gary Alexander inmate’s fighting spirit was evident as he barged his way through a tight gap late and he certainly won’t be out of place in the Vodacom Durban July field where he will get his chance to silence his detractors for once and for all. He is set to carry 57,5kg if Past Master stays in and with a bit of luck and further progress in his health and fitness, he looks like a big runner. He certainly reserves his best efforts for jockey Derreck David and the Alexander gang may yet be booking that lunch table in the Durban View Room for Saturday 2 July.

The Jubilee Handicap form though may once again prove a little suspect as the first bunch finished right on top of one another. There were also a few dented reputations. Happy Landing blotted his copybook after an impressive Champions Challenge payday at the end of April, but it would have been 200m too short for him - even though he won the Drum Star Handicap over the 1800m trip, the Ormonde Ferraris trained Magical ran on for third but was beaten without excuses. Galanthus jumped from the best of the draw but after showing toe, dropped out to nothing. The highly vaunted Geoff Woodruff Jet Master gelding, Soul Master, moved up threateningly but after winning three of his first five career outings, appears to have lost the plot and may be out of his depth at Group level.

BETTING WORLD JUBILEE HANDICAP (Gr3)
Final Result

#	LBH	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.00	CANDY SINGER (ARG)	52.5	91	10	R Simons	Mike de Kock
2	0.75	PIERRE JOURDAN	62.0	110	5	D David	Gary Alexander
3	0.90	MAGICAL	59.0	104	3	A Delpech	Ormond Ferraris
4	1.40	WITTENBERG	54.5	95	2	M Van Rensburg	Geoff Woodruff
5	1.75	MAHOGANY	55.0	96	11	* N Juglall	Weiho Marwing
6	2.00	SOUL MASTER	52.0	92	9	F Coetzee	Geoff Woodruff
7	2.50	QUEEN’S BAY	58.5	103	6	* JP van der Merwe	Mike Azzie
8	2.55	REGAL RANSOM	58.0	102	4	M Mienie	Sean Tarry
9	6.00	HAPPY LANDING	60.5	107	8	M Yeni	Joe Soma
10	6.75	ROYAL ARROW (AUS)	52.0	87	12	* J Greyling	Geoff Woodruff
11	7.00	GALANTHUS	59.5	105	1	S Brown	Tyrone Zackey
12	10.00	MPUMELELO	53.5	93	7	S Khumalo	Joe Soma
13	10.10	CARIBBEAN COAST	52.0	85	13	* A Mgudlwa	Erico Verdonese
14	12.75	CALL TO COMBAT	58.0	102	14	G Lerena	St John Gray
		Late Scratching
15	0.00	CRACKER JACK	56.0	98	5	A Marcus	Geoff Woodruff

Extract from Sporting Post

MALHUB : MORE MUSIC, MORE DANCING

Malhub
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

MALHUB
(Kingmambo - Arjuzah)

Last week Midnight Serenade went to the top of the Juvenile rankings in the Storm Bird Stakes. A week before, Maji Moto doubled up in great style. And this week Malhub’s Oil Tycoon waltzed to his 3rd consecutive win for Ormond Ferraris while Onehundredacrewood blitzed the field in the Bauhinia Handicap.

ABOUT TIME, YOU MIGHT SAY,
BUT HE’S MAKING A MEAL OF IT.

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

or contact Linda Norval
+27 (0) 33 263 1081

MALHUB : IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING…

Malhub winning the Golden Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot
(Photo : T.Jones/Summerhill Stud)

Not “if,” but when.
Apologies to Rudyard Kipling 

Nobody would’ve believed it, but the time Malhub has taken to reveal his class as a stallion has been unusually long. A Group One winner by one of the best stallions in the world, Kingmambo, his Timeform rating of 126 suggested that he was one of Europe’s top sprinters of his year, so there were high expectations of this fellow. Those with memories, will remember how long it took the first crop of multiple champion sire and our most famous resident, Northern Guest, to get out of the starting blocks, so with hindsight, it’s no surprise that some stallions take their time to develop their reputations.

The past two weekends have been illuminating from a Malhub perspective however, Maji Moto posting a 6,75 length runaway victory on his third racecourse start at the Vaal, while Midnight Serenade looks like one of the better youngsters from the current two-year-old crop, as evidenced by his 3,25 length romp in Johannesburg. And then this Saturday, Ormond Ferraris’ Oil Tycoon, who’d shown such promise early on, made it two in a row with a commanding success over the highly rated The Assayer.

It might’ve been a while in coming, but it’s been worth waiting for. As breeders, you’d always want to accept some responsibility in circumstances like these. Different stallions need different mates, and it sometimes takes a while to get the recipe right. For the first time, we’re entirely comfortable about the talents of the Malhubs in the Ready To Run Mark II (Shongweni showgrounds 23^rd February). It seems we’ve found the right mates, and there are some crackers among them. Our advice is that you make sure of watching their gallops and inspecting them (www.summerhill.co.za), and get in before the prices get out of hand. The events of the past couple of weekends won’t have an inordinate impact on prices, so they’ll still represent real value.

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

OR CALL

Tarryn Liebenberg
083 787 1982
tarryn@summerhill.co.za

THE SUMMERHILL SOLSKJAER CONNECTION

Solskjaer and half brother Yeats
(Photo : Getty Images / Summerhill Stud)

Second crop head and shoulders above his last

As 2010 comes to an end, it marks the start of another Tattersall’s December Mare Sale at Newmarket in England. Listed are 1,097 broodmares, fillies and horses out of training set to go through the ring over the next four days.

Seven of these lots have a Summerhill connection for they are in foal to Solskjaer’s half brother and Coolmore resident, Yeats, who lit up the tracks as a record breaking four time winner of the Grade 1 Ascot Gold Cup, followed by top level victories in the Grade 1 Coronation Cup, Irish St Leger and the Prix Royal Oak. Yeats covered 174 mares in the heart of Tipperary this year including Listed winner Oblique (Giants Causeway x On Call) and dual Listed winner Attila (Tiger Hill x Akasma), both of whom are set to go into the ring.

Rated as the best two year old in the yard by Aidan O’Brien and the Ballydoyle team, Solskjaer has just seen his second crop through the sales rings of South Africa, many of whom earned the plaudits of leading trainers Ormond Ferraris, Herman Brown Senior, Mike Bass, Charles Laird, Barry Irwin and the legend himself, Mike de Kock who believes his second crop is “head and shoulders” above last year. “Burn marks” are still evident on the 2010 Breeze Up track at Summerhill and for us it is only a matter of time before buyers will be rewarded.

"CHU CHU" : IT'S GETTING HOT IN THE KITCHEN

Catechuchu
(Photo : JC Photographics / Summerhill Stud)

…THE CATALOOCHEES CAME OUT “SMOKIN”

The old-timers will tell you that when a stallion dies or gets sold, look out for his runners. It’s possible our memories are dimmed by the failures, but there are so many striking examples of the truth of this statement, it’s almost worth remembering.

We were at the Ready To Run two years ago next week, when the news of Cataloochee’s passing reached us. It was a helluva blow, as we’d followed him throughout his stellar career, from the day he lathered the field in the Protea Stakes as a juvenile, to the days when he achieved the unthinkable. In the Computaform Sprint (Gr.1) of his three year old season, and again in the Golden Spur (Gr.1) a few months later, he became the only horse ever to come from behind Nhlavini and leave him for dead. Nhlavini was not only raised here, he was the only horse in history to have lined up for six consecutive Equus awards, so we know how good he was. And here was a horse who not only came from behind to beat him, but did so in the fastest time in recorded history.

From the time they arrived, we had faith in his stock, yet that faith was never greater than when we saw his first candidates at the Ready To Run. They literally came out “smokin”, and they promised they’d be good. Cataloochee duly obliged. The freshman sire with his first crop at the races, with a Group winning daughter from Summerhill, and a group-performing son from elsewhere, he rewarded our judgement. And in the past few weeks, they’ve put up their hands again, telling us that with time, they might be even better.

There was disappointment in Michael Azzie’s camp last weekend, when June Bug was scratched at the start for the Joburg Spring Fillies & Mares Stakes (Gr.3), but within 24 hours, Single Tempo had settled the dust. A candidate for the R1,5 million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup, his explosive burst at the end of the Greyville “thousand” and the three lengths he put between himself and the rest of the field, told us he had benefited from a couple of months off. This weekend, it was Catechuchu’s turn, and while her 2,25 lengths margin for Ormond Ferraris was gained at 1800m, it might’ve been good enough to earn her a “cut” for the big event as well.

Though we’ve come to expect it from him, we saw two more glittering performances from the progeny of Kahal. At Turffontein on Saturday, Selborne Supremacy was the closest thing to “jet fuel” we’ve seen in a while. Sean Tarry’s own brother to Desert Links was relatively easy to back at 5-1 in a hot market, largely because of a stable perception that he might still lack maturity. That wasn’t evident though as they entered the last two furlongs, and the 4,25 lengths he put between himself and his field, happened in an instant.

As impressive as Selbourne Supremacy was in Joburg, so was Pisces Star in Cape Town within the hour. While both of these youngsters were raised at Summerhill, Selbourne Supremacy was obviously a National Sales graduate, while Pisces Star (a granddaughter of the mercurial Melting), was sensibly retained by her owners, Peter and Alex Walichnowski. Here was a case of patience and sentiment rewarded; 6.75 lengths as the measure of her supremacy.

Meanwhile, there are a fistful of Catacloohees and Kahals in the Summerhill draft for the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale, Sunday 7^th November.

Dates to remember :

Saturday 6 November 2010 - Raceday
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup

Sunday 7 November 2010 - Auction Sale
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

For more information please visit :

www.tba.co.za
and
www.summerhill.co.za