KIP ELSER : READY TO RUN INTERNATIONAL GUEST PANELIST

Kip Elser
(Photo : Gareth du Plessis)

KIP ELSER
Kirkwood Stables, USA

Dear Mick and Cheryl,

I cannot thank you enough for your hospitality at Summerhill and Hartford House.

I am lucky enough that the horse business has taken me all over the world. This visit with you has been truly a highlight! The setting, operation and staff are unmatched. I feel honored that you included me.

I hope your sale goes as well as I believe it should and hope that this visit is the first of many.

Regards,
Kip

Kirkwood Stables, USA
www.kirkwoodstables.com

READY TO RUN 2011 GRIPS RACING PUBLIC

The preparations have begun…
(Photo : Leigh Willson)

THE EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
TBA Sales Complex, Gosforth Park, South Africa
6 November 2011

Bloodstock South Africa - 185, two year olds go under the hammer on Sunday 6th November in the 2011 Emperors Palace Ready To Run sale at the TBA Sales Complex at Gosforth Park from 2pm.

The sale has grown in stature over the years and has produced last season’s champion racehorse, Igugu.

The horses will arrive at the sales complex by Sunday this weekend and there will be a full week’s viewing for the public. Sales catalogues have been posted and are also available online at www.tba.co.za.

The added bonus is the ability to contest the R2 million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup in November 2012 at Turffontein. By ticking the box when you purchase, and for a mere cost of R4560 including VAT, your purchase will get the chance to chase total prize money of a minimum of R2 million.

Over the last few weeks, potential buyers have had a chance to view the gallops of all the entrants of the sale. Breeze-ups took place at Turffontein racecourse on Wednesday 12th October and at Summerhill Stud on Friday 14th October and the general consensus amongst all attendees was a very high standard of racehorse.

For those who did not manage to attend either of the 2 breeze-up sessions, video clips are available online on both the Summerhill Stud website, www.summerhill.co.za, and the Bloodstock South Africa website, www.tba.co.za. DVD’s are available at the Bloodstock SA Offices.

Another great benefit of the sale which will suit all buyers is the up to 6 cheque payment scheme dependant on the amount of the purchase. This, in the current economic climate will generate massive support from not only local but international buyers as well.

The panel assembled at Summerhill have made their picks and it is now up to you to decide on which horses you will bid for next weekend. The roll of honour from past years’ sales speaks for itself. 2008 and 2009 graduates, Pierre Jourdan and Igugu fought out the exacta in the 2011 Vodacom Durban July; great testimony to the bloodstock on offer at this sale.

Extract from www.tba.co.za

For more information please visit :

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

2011 READY TO RUN GALLOPS VIDEOS NOW LIVE

Summerhill Gallops videos online now…
(Photo : Gareth du Plessis)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
6 November 2011

We’ve received a deluge of enquiries as to when the broadcasting of the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Gallops would commence. While the full gallops will be be hitting the Tellytrack rotation soon, good news is that the Summerhill Gallops are now live on the Summerhill website.

Visit www.summerhill.co.za and click the Ready To Run Draft button top left.

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

BY JINGO, THESE ARE PROPER JOCKEYS

Kip Elser presents John Motaung with the award for Rider of the Day
(Image : Leigh Willson / Michael Nefdt)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN GALLOPS
“Rider Of The Day”

JOHN MOTAUNG

If it’s nothing else, the Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale stands out for its innovations. The concept of selling a ready-made racehorse was unique enough, but in its relatively short history, the Summerhill team have introduced any number of “world firsts” into the recipe. Locating the gallops on a farm (as opposed to a racecourse), has never been done before; televising the performances was a first-time innovation; filming and converting them onto a website and onto a DVD, was a pioneering invention; connecting the sale to a dedicated race was a first-off; and then making it the richest race of its kind in the world, was another “topper”.

Summerhill assembled a panel of judges to select the horses for the first time at any sale of any kind, anywhere in the world. Our six-instalment payment scheme goes back some thirteen years now (in one form or another), and it remains the only concept of its kind in the world. Besides a R2million race for graduates of the sale, we gave the event the best trophies in racing, and introduced five dedicated trials country-wide, so that race aspirants could be qualified without facing the danger of elimination. That doesn’t happen anywhere else, either.

This year, we introduced an award for the Rider of the Day, the jockey who displayed the greatest skills at the gallops. Kip Elser, our international guest this year, (he’s consigned horses to breeze-up sales on both sides of the Atlantic), was asked to adjudicate. His brief was simple, to select the rider that most impressed him from every aspect, given that they were aboard unraced two-year-olds galloping down the track for only the second or third time in their lives. This takes some skill, and a bit more. Professional jockeys aboard juveniles in races proper, will tell you how unpredictable they can be, even after a number of preparatory workouts, and you begin to know how skilful our boys have to be.

Kip’s man was John Motaung, who in his more than ten years at Summerhill has been the beneficiary of two international scholarships, one to Gainsborough Farm in Kentucky, the other as an intern at Becky Thomas’ renowned Sequel Bloodstock programme in Florida. This lady, Becky, is something of a saint. She’s taken our young men in, year after year, and treated them as her own. She’s not a native of South Africa, but she has an intuition of what’s needed in this country, particularly in the upliftment of our previously disadvantaged community. Like so many other young Summerhill “jocks”, she treated John as a son, she honed his personal and professional skills and sent him back a better man and a damned good rider. It says something for Becky Thomas that four of the top five riders on Friday, were graduates of Sequel.

Kip’s selection of John as the day’s best rider, is a tribute to you, Becky and it’s the unanimous view, one day we will have you here to do Kip’s job.

The Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale
Sunday 6th November

*Six cheque payment scheme for qualifying buyers.

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

READY TO RUN GALLOPS 2011 : THE JUDGES HAVE SPOKEN

The judges have spoken…
(Photo : Gareth du Plessis)

EMPERORS PALACE READY TO RUN SALE
TBA Sales Complex, Gosforth Park, South Africa
6 November 2011

Nico KritsiotisThey have an impossible task really, especially when the draft for this year’s Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale is as deep as it is. It was the universal view at Friday’s gallops at Summerhill, that this was by some stretch the best catalogue the Ready To Run had assembled, so having to pick a handful of horses from those on display is at best, unenviable, at worst, downright outrageous. Nonetheless, the judging panel they’ve convened, is not only drawn from the country’s most astute and experienced horseman, but the bulk of them have had five years “practice” now, and the results tell us, they’re getting smarter at it with every passing year.

Given the size of the foreign-bred entry this year, at 25 the biggest of its kind at any sale in South African history, and our penchant as a nation for the Colonial belief that all things foreign are better (witness the Hollywoodboulevard / Igugu exacta in last year’s Ready To Run Cup), it was inevitable that a number of the judges’ choices would include the imports. It’s a tribute then, to the local breds that the “hardy annuals”, Kahal and Muhtafal, as well as Silvano, Tiger Ridge and Victory Moon, stood their ground in the vanguard of selections.

But it was the performances of the two first crop sires, Mullins Bay and the ill-fated European champion, Stronghold, that took the numerical honours. There were five Strongholds among the elect, while Mullins Bay was the outright victor ludorum, with no fewer than eight first choices. Before the judges delivered their verdicts, the man who’s regularly referred to these days as the world’s best trainer, Mike de Kock, labelled the Mullins Bays and the Strongholds as standouts. When he speaks, we’d do well to listen.

Horsemen the world over are forever looking for a new edge in life, and these two young stallions, former racehorses of the highest calibre, look like the goods. “Hot” stallions are the prime currency of the horse trade. They triumph over Wall Street crashes and lift rough mares, and their very names tempt buyers into abandoning price limits arrived at so carefully in the calm of the hotel room the night before. So how do you pick them before the rest of the world? There are some who gave up long ago, who believe that Lord Byron had hot stallions in mind when he penned “Luck’s All”.

Difficult, you might say, particularly when you have to guess whether or not the youngster being paraded before you at a conventional sale, will turn his good “walk” into a good “run”, when that time comes. The beauty of the Ready To Run, is that you can actually see them in their quicker paces, (as against what you think you can see), you can judge their actions, their turn of foot, and in many respects, their demeanours and their “tick of the heart”. That’s what I’d call a leg-up!

Here’s how the panel voted :

MIKE DE KOCK	Fillies
	17 NANDI (AUS) Danehill Dancer (IRE) - Celtic Queen (IRE)
	97 DYLAN’S PROMISE (AUS) Dylan Thomas (IRE) - Madonna (AUS)
	45 EXCEPTIONAL (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - Exact (USA)
	Colts
	35 UNNAMED (AUS) Royal Academy (USA) - Dubai’s Fairy (GB)
	136 ROCKY AFFAIR Mullins Bay (GB) - Rock Anthem
	180 DUKE OF MEDINA (AUS) Rock Of Gibraltar (IRE) - Amah Dramas (AUS)
	111 GOTHIC Silvano (GER) - Mysterious Land

MICHAEL ROBERTS	Fillies
	71 HOPE FOREVER (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - Hopeitsadiamond (USA)
	89 ILHA DA ROCK (AUS) Rock Of Gibraltar (IRE) - Les Ry Leigh (USA)
	51 DUKUDUKU Muhtafal (USA) - Fragrant Forest
	Colts
	35 UNNAMED (AUS) Royal Academy (USA) - Dubai’s Fairy (GB)
	143 KITE SURFER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Seeking The Wind
	135 WHITE TIGER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Refined Gold

SEAN TARRY	Fillies
	19 GOLDEN DYNASTY Mullins Bay (GB) - Class Will Sell
	107 TINCHY STRYDER Mullins Bay (GB) - Model K
	162 CRITICAL MIND (ARG) Johannesburg (USA) - Tough City (ARG)
	Colts
	135 WHITE TIGER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Refined Gold
	143 KITE SURFER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Seeking The Wind
	176 THE ITALIAN JOB (AUS) Street Sense (USA) - Albanella (GER)

GRAEME HAWKINS	Fillies
Allowed a bit of latitude to cater for the ‘value’ choices	43 ORLANDO MAGIC Mullins Bay (GB) - Entice The Gold
	51 DUKUDUKU Muhtafal (USA) - Fragrant Forest
	109 MY ARGENTINE LADY (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - My American Lady (USA)
	65 NEGEV Stronghold (GB) - Haifaa (IRE)
	45 EXCEPTIONAL (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - Exact (USA)
	Colts
	184 NOBLE STAR Kahal (GB) - Arabian Magic
	34 COOKIE MONSTER Kahal (GB) - Dream Starling
	135 WHITE TIGER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Refined Gold
	116 GALLIPOLI Daylami (IRE) - Northern Duel
	118 UNNAMED Windrush (USA) - Ode To Joy
	62 BINGELELA Cataloochee - Greet The Greek (SNL)
	176 THE ITALIAN JOB (AUS) Street Sense (USA) - Albanella (GER)

KIP ELSER	Fillies
Allowed a couple of ‘discretionary’ choices on account of his ‘special guest’ status	109 MY ARGENTINE LADY (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - My American Lady (USA)
	144 ROARING WATER Mullins Bay (GB) - Shirley Singer
	104 FORTITUDE Stronghold (GB) - Mininski (SNL)
	Colts
	180 DUKE OF MEDINA (AUS) Rock Of Gibraltar (IRE) - Amah Dramas (AUS)
	139 RED ROVER Victory Moon - Rosella
	79 BRIGHT AND BLUE Mullins Bay (GB) - Jibe
	116 GALLIPOLI Daylami (IRE) - Northern Duel
	176 THE ITALIAN JOB (AUS) Street Sense (USA) - Albanella (GER)

JEHAN MALHERBE	Fillies
	17 NANDI (AUS) Danehill Dancer (IRE) - Celtic Queen (IRE)
	109 MY ARGENTINE LADY (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - My American Lady (USA)
	125 QUE BONITA Stronghold (GB) - Perfect Lady
	Colts
	35 UNNAMED (AUS) Royal Academy (USA) - Dubai’s Fairy (GB)
	143 KITE SURFER Tiger Ridge (USA) - Seeking The Wind
	169 THE MUTINEER Mullins Bay (GB) - Wanted

DEAN KANNEMEYER	Fillies
	109 MY ARGENTINE LADY (ARG) El Prado (IRE) - My American Lady (USA)
	37 STONE TOWN Stronghold (GB) - East Africa (ARG)
	65 NEGEV Stronghold (GB) - Haifaa (IRE)
	Colts
	184 NOBLE STAR Kahal (GB) - Arabian Magic
	111 GOTHIC Silvano (GER) - Mysterious Land
	35 UNNAMED (AUS) Royal Academy (USA) - Dubai’s Fairy (GB)

JOEY RAMSDEN	Fillies
	107 TINCHY STRYDER Mullins Bay (GB) - Model K
	55 KHANYA Kahal (GB) - Glitz
	17 NANDI (AUS) Danehill Dancer (IRE) - Celtic Queen (IRE)
	Colts
	111 GOTHIC Silvano (GER) - Mysterious Land
	35 UNNAMED (AUS) Royal Academy (USA) - Dubai’s Fairy (GB)
	170 WENDY’S MAN Black Minnaloushe (USA) - Wendys (ARG)

Extract from www.sportingpost.co.za

For more information please visit :

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