KWAZULU NATAL RACING AWARDS 2010

KwaZulu Natal Racing Awards
(Photo : Gold Circle / Durban Country Club) 

NINE OUT OF TEN :
THAT’S THE SUMMERHILL STORY

The Breeder’s trophy at the annual KZN Racing Awards was inaugurated ten years ago, and its recipient is determined by stakes earned in Sharks’ territory. It’s easy to be blasé about a provincial award when you’ve already won the National title, but there’s always something to be said for being acknowledged in your own backyard. Friday evening’s gala function at the historic Sir Herbert Baker-designed Durban Country Club, was attended by some big hitters from out of town, notably champion trainer Mike de Kock, Sean Tarry, Chris van Niekerk and Sheikh Mohammed’s personal representative, Jehan Malherbe.

Getting over the line in a competition of this sort, often depends on the plans trainers make for the horses you’ve sold them, so achievement in the bigger scheme of the nation’s racing and breeding affairs, doesn’t necessarily guarantee you the top spot in any particular locality. Once the hammer falls at the auction, your horse’s fate is in the hands of the conditioner, and he will take you where he chooses, and where he sees the pickings.

It’s also true that he might not take you anywhere in particular, as was the case with last season’s biggest earner, Pierre Jourdan, whose racing year ended with a well earned rest after his exertions in the SA Derby (Gr.1). As much as he might have muddied the waters of the Three Year Old Championship if he’d come for the KZN winter season, it wasn’t to be, nor was he going to contribute to Summerhill’s local earnings as a result.

That said, Friday evening we were the proud recipients of our ninth KZN Breeder of the Year title in ten years, wresting the trophy back after a season’s “grace” from the Scott Bros’ Highdown Stud, a beautiful farm on the Fort Nottingham side of Nottingham Road. Perennially among the country’s top breeders for several decades, Highdown achieved its zenith during the Jungle Cove era, when they ranked second on more than one occasion to the mighty Birch Brothers. Their achievements in those days were the stuff of legend, notable for the fact that even after Graham Beck’s acquisition of five times champion sire, Jungle Cove, the Scotts continued to breed the best of that stallion’s progeny from the few shares they retained. This year, the local title was no forgone conclusion either, as these fellows came rattling back with a late flurry from their excellent galloper, Orbison, winner of the Champions’ Cup (Gr.1) at Clairwood, following a third placing in the Vodacom Durban July.

We salute them as worthy competitors.

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

NAAS BOTHA WAS RIGHT

SOUTH AFRICAN BREEDERS’ CHAMPIONSHIP

“The Currie Cup is not won in (October)”. But it’s a comforting thought that with barely 3 months of the new season expired, five times Champions, Summerhill, hold a healthy advantage on the National Breeders log, in what is, without parallel, the tightest held Championship in racing, anywhere.

Breeder	Wins	Stakes (R)
SUMMERHILL STUD	55	5,692,362
D COHEN & SONS	24	1,848,037
LAMMERSKRAAL STUD	28	1,716,550
HIGHLANDS FARM	25	1,584,000
KLAWERVLEI STUD	19	1,507,275
THE ALCHEMY	19	1,467,825
SCOTT BROS	18	1,359,375
MAURITZFONTEIN STUD	24	1,331,400
MAINE CHANCE FARM	17	1,310,950
BD OPPENHEIMER	6	1,296,825

  CORRECT AS AT 10 NOVEMBER 2009

 

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

If it needs to be done, do something about it, and don't leave for tomorrow what can be done today.

It’s all so easy to sit back and go with the flow, particularly in a well regulated, highly organized industry like horse racing. When Summerhill first embarked on its breeding enterprise under its current regime way back in 1979, racing presided over a betting monopoly which made it, in the economy of those days, one of the top five industries in South Africa in terms of its turnovers. There were no casinos, there was no sports betting, and every tote and bookmaker had to be licensed under the auspices of those that controlled racing. What a world of comfort and indulgence.

Besides racing’s monopoly, the government of the day was strongly inclined towards its farmer-based electorate, and the tax dispensations afforded to farmers, were the best in the world. This made the agricultural and racing sectors a comfort zone of note, yet both industries operated in fragile territory, vulnerable to the whims of a legislature that could amend matters at a stroke of a pen or the change of a government.

At Summerhill, we always felt we needed to position ourselves away from the calamities that might follow any amendments, or at least be in a position to influence their course, providing us with the proverbial parachute or soft landing. As a result, as long ago as 1985, we initiated an approach to the Natal Racecourse Betting and Wagering Board, requesting it to consider the establishment of a Breeders Premium scheme for the benefit of the local industry. While the motivation, which was drawn from the Summerhill boardroom table, took time to formulate following several visits to other countries across the world, and a good deal more time persuading the trustees responsible for the welfare of racing to understand our thinking, the scheme materialized 20 years ago in 1988. Today, it remains the only premium scheme in existence in the country, though we did assist the Western Cape at one time to get one of their own, which has since fallen into disuse.

Immediately after the inaugeration of the Breeders’ Premium scheme, serious stallions of the ilk of Northern Guest, Foveros, Rakeen and Secret Prospector found their way into the province, and this became the land of milk and honey, when it came to new investors entering the industry. Yet that alone was not enough to fend off the impact of the withdrawal of the tax concessions which had been primarily responsible for the attraction of business people into the breeding industry, and the deep recession the South African economy found itself in following the democratization of the country.

Farm after farm, big name after big name, came up for dispersal, as the breeding economy was decimated by the death in discretionary incomes. Remember the establishments developed by Cyril Hurwitz, Ross & Gardiner, Henry Kahn, Roy Meaker, Hylton Hale, the Scott Bros, George Rowles, Alan King, the Ellises, Bobby Jameson, “Bushy” Hamilton-Brown, all neighbours, all under the hammer. Those were tough times, with tough consequences.

Nonetheless, we’ve known the lasting value of the premium scheme, and we’re the first at Summerhill to acknowledge its contribution in attracting people like the Maktoums into the province, and its role in the building blocks which led to our first Breeders Championship in 2005.

Posted by Mick Goss

KZN Breeders Awards : By all accounts a glittering affair

                                                                                                               Summerhill Team

As we reported on Friday, the weekend saw the recognition of breeding achievements among our breeding colleagues in KZN. The respective winners in each of their categories were as follows:

Outstanding Two Year Old (Female)
Winner : Gilded Minnaret     
Sire/Dam : Al Mufti/Chasing Gold     
Breeder : Kjell Foundation

Outstanding Two Year Old (Male)  
Winner : Mr. Flatley
Sire/Dam : Alami/Bella Lea
Breeder : Somerset Stud

Outstanding Sprinter (Female)
Winner : Evening Attire
Sire/Dam : Kahal/Persian Guest
Breeder : Connington Stud

Outstanding Sprinter (Male)
Winner : Rebel King
Sire/Dam : Kahal/Cousin Linda
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

Outstanding Middle Distance (Female) 
Winner : Bold Ellinore
Sire/Dam : Kahal/Ellinore
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

Outstanding Middle Distance (Male)  
Winner : Emperor Napoleon
Sire/Dam : Kahal/Ellinore
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

Outstanding Stayer (Male)
Winner : Buy and Sell
Sire/Dam : National Emblem/Trade Enquiry
Breeder : Spring Valley Stud

Outstanding Three Year Old (Female) 
Winner : Evening Attire
Sire/Dam :  Kahal/Persian Guest
Breeder : Connington Stud

Outstanding Three Year Old (Male)
Winner : Pick Six
Sire/Dam : Rambo Dancer/Choice Field
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

Outstanding Older Female
Winner : Bold Ellinore
Sire/Dam : Kahal/Ellinore
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

Oustanding Older Male
Winner : Malteme
Sire/Dam : Rakeen/Grecian Gale
Breeder : Rathmor Stud

Broodmare Of The Year
Winner : Trade Enquiry
Breeder : Spring Valley Stud

Stallion Prospect Of The Year
Winner : Mogok
Breeder : Scott Bros

Stallion Of The Year
Winner : Kahal
Breeder : Summerhill Stud

KZN Breeding Achievement
Winner : Summerhill Stud

KZN Breeders Special Award
Winner : Spring Valley Stud

Anita Akal’s Industry Award
Winner : Pip & Penny Davies

KZN Breeders Special Achievement Award
Winner : Hugh & Margaret Jonsson

Horse of The Year
Winner : Buy & Sell
Sire/Dam : National Emblem/Trade Enquiry
Breeder : Spring Valley Stud

In all, Summerhill took home seven awards, and it’s probably appropriate that we should give credit where credit is due. Our people deserve everything they have achieved. They are as gifted, hard working and dedicated a workforce as you’ll find in breeding anywhere in the world. We’re extremely proud of them and delighted that at least 11 of them got to attend the function. We tried to get 30 seats, but they weren’t available, and we owe apologies to those that didn’t get to attend.

Watch our champion Kahal in action in the Nearctic Stakes.