TAKE-OFF FOR TRIPPI

Click above to watch Agra winning the Summer Juvenile Stakes (L)…
(Image : Gold Circle - Footage : UpInClass)

TRIPPI (USA)
End Sweep (USA) - Jealous Appeal (USA)

David Thiselton
Gold CircleTrippi, who finished 23rd on the General Sires List in the USA last year having finished 20th the year before, has made a big impact during his short stay in South Africa to date, although this was not unexpected.

On J&B Met day his first South African runner, the Justin Snaith-trained Agra, who had won on debut, became his first stakes winner in South Africa when easily winning the Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes and maintaining her unbeaten record, while at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale, Trippi finished third on aggregate behind Jet Master and Captain Al and second on average behind Jet Master at R566,667 per yearling of the 21 sold.

Charles Faull of Form Bloodstock recommended the son of End Sweep to Drakenstein Stud’s Gaynor Rupert on his racing record (he won a Grade 1 and two Grade 2s over 1400m at Belmont) and his pedigree, while his progeny had made a good start, he was throwing nice looking foals and, not least, on his “beauty”.

Rupert and her stud manager Ross Fuller went to see Trippi in the USA and were equally impressed.

The decision to purchase him in 2008 paid almost immediate dividends as Trippi was Florida’s leading sire by the end of the season, a title he would have won every year since had he still been standing there, and the following year he had a Royal Ascot winner in Jealous Again, who won the Grade 2 Queen Mary Stakes over 1000m.

To date Trippi has bred 33 American Stakes horses, including a champion, three Graded stakes winners, track record holders and a Breeders Cup place getter.

A few hours after Agra had won at Kenilworth on Saturday, Trippi’s four-year-old son Soaring Stocks collected US$90,000 for his connections when winning the Sunshine Millions Sprint Stakes over 1200m on dirt at Gulfstream Park in the USA.

Agra looks a splitting image of her father, so it would appear Trippi stamps his foals.

Justin Snaith said he would rest Agra now and would not be taking her to Durban for the Champions Season.

Trippi received an outstanding book of 120 mares last year and this season Ross Fuller will drop him down to 100 mares although his fee of R30,000 nomination fee plus R70,000 for live foal might rise.

Trippi’s stallion companion at Drakenstein Stud is the legendary Horse Chestnut. 

Horse Chestnut, regarded by many as the greatest racehorse South Africa has ever produced, received poor support during his spell in the USA and had dropped down to half a handful of mares by the time he was brought back home.

He had gained a reputation for being infertile, but Fuller revealed that this was a false impression created by a condition he has which does not manifest if he is kept busy.

Horse Chestnut, who is an absolute gentleman in terms of temperament, was kept busy last season with over 100 mares. Another reason he didn’t get good mares in the USA is that his only start there yielded a Grade 3 win and he was probably viewed as only a Grade 3 winner, but in South Africa his famous eight length J&B Met win and his facile wins on the road to Triple Crown glory still live strong in the memory.

Even without the support he deserved, Horse Chestnut sired 141 individual winners in the USA at a rate of 61% winners to runners, while he sired 28 stakes horses and 13% stakes horses to runners.

Extract from www.goldcircle.co.za

OF HORSE CHESTNUT AND A VERY PRIVATE TIP

Horse Chestnut
(Photo : Drakenstein Stud)

HORSE CHESTNUT
DRAKENSTEIN STUD

Tuesday, we undertook the traditional pilgrimage (for us at least, as they’ve been with us at Summerhill since the gates opened 30 years ago) to Gaynor Rupert’s Drakenstein Stud, which shares one of the most spectacular pieces of real estate with the L’Ormarins wine estate. So that you can understand the place, husband Johann has the wine side as his “baby”, while Gaynor jumps out of bed in the mornings for the horses.

We’ve said enough in these columns about their fine stallion Trippi, so while seeing him was confirmation of the wisdom of participating in his shareholding, it was Horse Chestnut that we needed to renew our vows with.

We last saw him in the flesh, burying a high class field in the J&B Met on his way to international fame and glory, and we remember the day he demolished the best of our Three-Year-Olds in the Derby at Turffontein. His victims that day included second placed Summerhill-bred Dangerous Donald, whose heart was irretrievably broken after a ding dong 300m tussle up the murderous Turffontein straight. So this for us, was a moment for the ages.

Stud Manager, Ross Fuller swears he only stands 16.1 hh, but to our minds he has at least another inch on him. He’s in great shape, and you only have to see him walk to recognise the fluidity of his movement in his heyday. A grass horse in a “dirty” country, Horse Chestnut might well have been better off at stud anywhere else but in the United States, yet his record out there (and abroad) was not without distinction. Let’s hope, for the sake of our local breds, that he can get up and salute as Jet Master, Captain Al and National Emblem have done in recent times, and deliver the goods as he delivered at the races.

Oh, and by the way, let’s not forget the lunch. Gaynor, as gracious as ever, is a wonderful host and we were lucky this time to be joined by a long-serving member of the Rembrandt board, Jennifer Preller, who happens to have graced the portals of Stellenbosch University in an era concurrent with my own. Little doubt, if Drakenstein Stud were to get into the restaurant business, we’d have a devil of a time at Hartford taking home the accolades that’ve befallen us in the past few months. And a very private tip: the L’Ormarins Sauvignon Blanc, 2007. Like the rest of the place, in its own class.

Thanks Gaynor and Ross, as always, for a class act.