MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME

Photos from Claiborne Farm…
(Image and Footage : Mrs LW)

“If you keep quiet and listen,
it’s evident you can learn a lot at Claiborne.”

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOA year ago to the day, and fresh out of a Warren Buffett presentation of epic proportions, we were winding our way to Churchill Downs for the curtain-raiser to America’s greatest horse race, the Kentucky Derby. The first Saturday in May marks the “Run for the Roses”, and in 2011, we were there to witness a famous victory for Summerhill clients, Team Valor, and their new-found hero, Animal Kingdom. Our friends at Team Valor bid for a double tomorrow with Went The Day Well, though they could’ve been represented in a three way assault if things had gone their way, double-handed as they are in the talent at their disposal.

For several days we traversed the pikes and turnpikes of Lexington, from one great farm to another, renewing our acquaintances with old friends like A.P. Indy, Pulpit, Distorted Humor and Dynaformer and a few new pretenders, Tapit, Malibu Moon and Giant’s Causeway. We kicked off deep in Bourbon County, just outside of Paris, Kentucky, like Mooi River, a slow town alongside a little railway station which looks as if it was a remnant of the Civil War. Everywhere are the fields of dreams, dotted with oak trees and enclosed by identical four-rail fences, all stained black. Wisps of fog hover low over the blue grass which has been washed bright green by a summer shower. Every so often, the columns of a white mansion peek discreetly through a cluster of trees. The mood is such that if Scarlett O’Hara was suddenly to glide by in hooped skirts, carrying a parasol and cooing, you would probably think, yes, she fits well enough. We are, after all, in a rare place, some of the richest farming dirt in the world. Old families, old money, nicely understated. A warm hand of friendship greets you, much like your arrival at Summerhill, but this time with a greeting “good to see y’all”, which can be confusing if, as often happens, there is only one of you. Like us, the racehorse is the reason for it all.

The Hancock’s Claiborne Farm is just outside Paris. No farm anywhere has more influenced the evolution of the American thoroughbred this last century. Claiborne is all about the brotherhood and, God knows, it is understated: no bragging, no hussle, no brochures in technicolor. Claiborne has been going so long it is a shrine as much as a business, and like us, it’s only as good as its current batch of stallions. You learn soon enough why Claiborne is what it is. All you need do, is watch and listen.

I recall my visit to Claiborne in the dead of winter, 1988. We were there to buy Coastal, the first American classic winner to set foot on African shores. Clay Arnold, one of the stallion men, was stooped by his 70 years, yet there was a boyish serenity in his face. You figure this was because he liked horses and the place, and never wanted to do anything else, and Clay said “you figured right”. He clipped the lead shank on the old bay stallion who was bathed in a pale yellow glow by the sunlight streaming into his box. Most things at Claiborne are in pale yellow, including the paint on the stables. The stallion stepped out calmly, tall with a great length of rein, and a head that was surely what the man meant when he coined the line about “the look of eagles”. But the bay was light of flesh on top and behind, the near-hind was swollen up to the hock, the off-fetlock was so thickened as to be deformed, turned way out and filled so tightly that pink skin flared through the white hairs just above the hoof.

The old horse was grinding away on courage at the end of his career: he was not about to play the invalid now. The light still burnt brightly in his eye. He let us rub his forehead, but he did not acknowledge us. Like any good stallion, he does not look at you, but over and beyond, out over the fields of dreams. He was Nijinsky, the last winner of the English Triple Crown in 1970. Here was another Claiborne legend, the genuine article, the sire of 125 Stakes winners and a sales yearling who brought $13 million (about R104 million). Clay Arnold had handled a few legends. He merely touched the old horse on the neck and drawled: “yessir, he’s a nice horse… a nice horse… I like him a lot, yessir”.

Claiborne is also about ghosts. To feel them you need but step into the stallion cemetary, and read the names on the grey headstones. Nasrullah, died 1959, one of the immortal sires… Secretariat, the great red horse with flaring nostrils who won the Belmont by 31 lengths… Bold Ruler… Round Table… Princequillo… Blenheim… Galant Fox… Buckpasser… Court Martial. Go to a yearling sale anywhere in the world, Dublin, Buenos Aires, Sydney or Johannesburg, and these names appear on practically every page of the catalogue. Claiborne was running out of burying room, but there was a place for Nijinsky. Standing there though, he seemed happy to stay out of the place. He stood quietly for us, and never thought to fidget.

Clay brought up stallion after stallion; not one played up. At last there was Mr. Prospector, whose blood runs so thick and so deep here at Summerhill these days, and who stood for around $300,000 in those days. And little Danzig, commanding much the same fee and built in the classic Northern Dancer mould: neat, strong through the body and with a lovely head and jowl. As I’ve said, all you had to do to learn was to watch. These stallions were so well behaved, so content, because generations of stallion-handling were built into Claiborne. The place has always believed in the primacy of stallions, in the farming truism that a good bull is half your herd, and a bad bull is all your herd.

Claiborne has been chasing stallions since Captain Richard Hancock came back from the Civil War, determined to breed the best. He chased stallions in Europe, South America and Australia, looking for hybrid vigour, for that magical beast who outbreeds his own pedigree and performances, and South Africa has not been exempt from their shopping list. Hawaii, officially a son of Utrillo, but rumoured in fact to have been sired by Joy II, was one South African who had the distinction of getting a winner of England’s most famous race, the Epsom Derby, as well as a second and a third in the same race. Horse Chestnut, as good a racehorse as this country’s known, was another to grace those historic pastures. No family has done more to turn the American thoroughbred into an international commodity than the Hancocks.

And so the story goes on, one great stallion after another, and sooner or later we will provide you with a little more of the history of this great farm.

The most intriguing building on Claiborne is not the white stallion barn with its yellow trim and the brass name plates that tell you that Bold Ruler and Secretariat lived here. It is the breeding shed. In recent times, some very elaborate breeding sheds have gone up in various parts of the world, complete with hot and cold running vets, lasers, rubber floors, videos, and all the software of the hi-tech age. They have the décor of hospitals. The breeding shed at Claiborne is clad with warped slats on which the black paint has blistered and peeled. The shingles on the roof are stained green with mildew. Inside the floor is uneven and covered with bark. The only concession to modern times is the yellow padding around the walls. Yet heaven knows how many great horses have been fashioned in greatness here.

There’ve been only 11 Triple Crown winners in the history of American racing, which brings us back to tomorrow’s race, the Kentucky Derby, the first leg of this illustrious treble. No less than five of these heroes were conceived in this rough old Claiborne shed. A Kentucky horseman, one of the brotherhood, explained it this way: “Yessir, it’s not the fancy things inside the shed that count: it’s the quality of the horses that grow up outside of it once their mothers have passed through the middle”. If you keep quiet and listen, it’s evident you can learn a lot at Claiborne.

A FIRST TAKE ON KENTUCKY

Lexington, Kentucky, USA
(Photo : Donamire Horse Farm)

“THE BLUEGRASS STATE”

Alec Hogg
MoneywebEver since Pride and Prejudice, I’ve tried to stop forming opinions from first impressions. But after nearly a week in The Bluegrass State, it’s pretty clear that I’m smitten. If we were ever to be forced to live outside our beloved KZN Midlands, it would be be here in the horse capital of the world.

Even without South Africa’s six time Champion Breeder Mick Goss as our host, the trip would have been marvelous. But being able to visit North America’s greatest horse farms in the reflected affection heaped on him by his peers has made this an adventure of a lifetime.

It’s hard not to feel overwhelmed by a place where post and rail is standard. We saw tens of thousands of acres of rich Fescue pastures, the “bluegrass” that gives Kentucky its nickname, but not a strand of wire fencing. The buildings strike you as something out of an architectural digest - stallions are revered here, their barns styled like the farm stone and wooden homes and offices. Long avenues of leafy pin oaks, masterful horse art on the walls, statues of Seattle Slew, A.P. Indy, Secretariat… and stallion graveyards that beat any human version I’ve seen.

The place exudes old money. Certainly not the materialism you’d see from coarse, Wall Street  speculation. This is a world where the long-term rules, where everything spent is judged by a return on investment measured over decades, not months. Each door latch, every head collar, seems to have been selected on the basis of getting stuff that lasts, never mind that it costs more.

So, too, the stars of Kentucky. Although they’re virtually finished the breeding season, every stallion we saw – and there were dozens – was in prime condition. No falling away after covering 150 mares. Their grooms are knowledgeable, engaging and devoted. For them, caring for their charges is a prized career, not a stopgap.

What are the lessons to take home?

Perhaps it’s that the biggest thing holding back South African racing is a collective mindset that while not exactly encouraging it, certainly enables comfortable mediocrity.

The Kentucky experience shows the horse business, like any other, thrives on high standards. The benefit of intense competition and the virtuous circle of long-term investment delivering superior products is evident everywhere. Long may the Darley vs Coolmore contest continue. Similarly the practice by US billionaires redirecting cash from their construction or self-storage empires into blue bloods. Ditto continued success by from-the-ground horsemen like the Taylors whose experience, skill and sheer hard work provides its own edge.

South Africa has its Oppenheimers, Ruperts, Scotts, Rattrays and Joostes. It must also replace the departed Becks and Jaffees. And the sector would do well to attract more rich foreign investors like the Plattners and Jacobs’, further developing the goodwill of friends like American heavyweight Barry Irwin. This business needs far-sighted, deep-pocketed people who love the breed. Not just to inject their cash, but to sharpen the competitive instincts of self-made horsemen like Summerhill’s Goss and the prolific Koster family.

Another big learning is that lightning strikes in the most unlikely places. There are no absolutes in this game. Time and again we were shown top stallions who had started their careers as low priced coverers in relative backwaters. Some who were moderate on the track have been unbelievable in the shed. The South African tradition of gelding males as a matter of course must surely be re-looked. It’s the racehorses who make bloodlines, not the other way around.

The other lasting impression is how big an advantage South Africa enjoys through its well-regulated, drug-free regime. Everywhere in American breeding one hears grumbles about the lax medication standards. Horsemen bemoan the legal and hence liberal use of Lasix which ensures the passing on of inherited weaknesses like bleeding. It also masks potent pain-killing medication that overcomes physical defects which would severe restrict a horse’s career in jurisdiction like SA. This opaque influence means the US stallion business carries the kind of unnecessary risk that any logical investor would love to eliminate. 

Overall, I’ll be leaving Kentucky inspired and with renewed enthusiasm for this Sport of Kings. Confident that issues holding back the South African industry are not insurmountable. Indeed they are easily overcome in an atmosphere of trust, far-sightedness and collective will to do the right thing. We’ve given the world any number of great jockeys, Mike de Kock, Ipi Tombe, Jay Peg, Gypsy’s Warning and, indirectly, Pluck. But that should just be the start. How exciting to be part of an industry with such great potential.

Alec Hogg - Kentucky, USA

IT WASN'T JUST FRANKEL'S 22-SECOND QUARTER

Frankel - QIPCO 2000 Guineas (G1)
(Photo : Sky Sports)

“THE 22-SECOND QUARTER”
From the desk of Bill Oppenheim

It’s shorthand, really, for the blistering turn of foot which only the really top horses have: in Frankel’s (Galileo) case (in last Saturday’s English 2000 Guineas), it wasn’t just a 22-second quarter. After a first eighth in around :13 seconds (from which probably at least two ticks should be subtracted, as James Willoughby points out, since European races are timed from a standing start, American ones from a running start), it looks very much like Frankel ran the next half-mile in :45 and change, maybe :46 at the outside. I say “it looks like” because, as American handicappers are always incredulous to hear, there is no sectional timing in British racing. So Willoughby and an associate, and Jamie McCalmont and an associate, timed last Saturday’s Frankel demolition job in the G1 English 2000 Guineas, with stopwatches off the TV. The Racing Post did, too, and everybody I’ve talked to has come up with pretty nearly the same thing: after the first eighth, a 22-second quarter, a :45-and-change half. They were all dead after that. The only two to come out of the pack, Dubawi Gold (Dubawi) and Native Khan (Azamour) had both had a run already this year, and it was 11 lengths back to the rest of the field.

It wasn’t just “visually impressive,” either. Racing Post assigned the race an RPR of 133, highest for a 2000 Guineas since 1988, the year for which the Racing Post figures were first compiled. Timeform gave him a provisional figure of 142, which rates him among the greats. Then there was the question of where he should go next. If, like Secretariat, Frankel could lay down that :22-second quarter and :45-and-change half any time during a race, he could get a mile and a half, all right. That’s what Secretariat did when he looped the field on the backstretch in the 1973 G1 Preakness; he went from last of six to 2 1/2 lengths in front of Sham in two furlongs, and cruised home in the next six furlongs to beat him by 2 1/2 lengths.

But Frankel may not have wanted to be rated that first mile of the G1 Epsom Derby, which is probably one of the reasons for Tuesday’s announcement from Henry Cecil. Also, it was interesting to read in Andrew Caulfield’s column yesterday that Frankel resembles his dam, the sprinter Kind (Danehill) more than his sire, Galileo, or the other staying influences in his pedigree, such as the second dam’s sire, Rainbow Quest, and the third dam’s sire, Stage Door Johnny. There is a common misconception that many people have about pedigrees, which is that horses are somehow a blend of the names you see on the page. In fact, my observation is that most horses throw to one or maybe two names on the page (although usually not as good, given the law of genetics that populations naturally breed back to the middle).

In Frankel’s case, there is sure an awful lot of Danzig about him. That’s the same Danzig that sired six fast-ground winners - I think it was - of the six furlong G1 July Cup, and is the tail-male ancestor of five more. Danehill himself, of course, was a sprinter who could get a mile. Even though he sired plenty of horses who got much further, it’s entirely possible the roll of the genetic dice has resulted, in Frankel’s case, in a pulverizing miler.

Fortunately, even given all of us armchair quarterbacks with an opinion, the decision lay with Henry Cecil, now trainer of 25 British Classic winners. Frankel’s future program is in safe hands. What we know now for sure is that Frankel is a superstar, and for European breeding to have produced Sea The Stars and Frankel in the space of three years just about qualifies this to be called a Golden Age.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

A.P. INDY RETIRED

A.P. Indy
(Image : Lane’s End)

A.P. INDY (USA)
Seattle Slew (USA) - Weekend Surprise (USA)

Lane’s End stallion A.P. Indy (Seattle Slew - Weekend Surprise, by Secretariat) has been pensioned due to fertility issues. “He was bred to 25 mares, and none has come back in foal,” confirmed Lane’s End’s Will Farish.

“He’s been tailing off a little bit the last two years, but nothing like this. This was definitely not expected.” Farish added that every effort had been made to address the problem. “We have had all kinds of veterinarians in to check his semen,” he said.

“He only has one testicle, and it has just deteriorated to the point where he isn’t producing live sperm.” Farish continued, “This is a very sad time for the farm. He’s just been such a wonderful horse for us - a wonderful yearling, a wonderful racehorse and a wonderful sire.”

Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old in 1992, the 22-year-old stallion was the nation’s leading sire in 2003 and 2006. His nine champions include Classic winners Bernardini and Rags To Riches.

“A.P. Indy will remain in the stall he has occupied for almost 20 years,” Farish said. “I feel blessed to have been the co-breeder, along with my friend Bill Kilroy, of this great horse, who was a champion on the track and is proving to be one of the most influential sires of our time. It is our fondest wish that he will live a long and happy retirement.”

Bred in partnership by William S. Farish and William S. Kilroy, A.P. Indy was a handsome youngster, and the emergence of his half-brother Summer Squall (Storm Bird) as the 1990 G1 Preakness Stakes hero enhanced his pedigree by the time he was offered at Keeneland July two months  later. The bay duly topped that boutique venue when selling to BBA Ireland for $2.9 million on behalf of Tomonori Tsurumaki, and joined a rare group of multi-million-dollar yearlings to earn back their purchase price on the racetrack.

Turned over to Neil Drysdale, A.P. Indy finished fourth as the favorite in his debut at Del Mar, then underwent surgery for an undescended testicle. He returned to rattle off three straight wins in 1991, capped by the G1 Hollywood Futurity, and picked up where he left off in 1992 with wins in the G2 San Rafael Stakes and G1 Santa Anita Derby. That winning streak would have ensured him favoritism for the G1 Kentucky Derby, but a quarter crack kept him in his stall during the Run for the Roses.

Drysdale regrouped and sent the colt to New York, where he captured the G2 Peter Pan Stakes and G1 Belmont Stakes. A.P. Indy made his next appearance in Woodbine’s Molson Million in September, but ran fifth at 3-5.

After a terrible start in the G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup the following month, he put in a strong late bid to claim third behind eventual champion older horse Pleasant Tap (Pleasant Colony) and 1991 G1 Kentucky Derby hero Strike The Gold (Alydar). Three weeks later, he put matters to right in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic, rallying under regular rider Eddie Delahoussaye to seal Eclipse honors as Horse of  the Year and champion 3-year-old.

His career mark stood at 11-8-0-1 with earnings of $2,979,815.

In Demand at Stud…

A.P. Indy headed to Lane’s End breeding shed as a mouth-watering stallion prospect, and delivered the goods. His first yearlings averaged $298,750 in 1995 (topped by the $700,000 Cromwell) and, from 45 named foals, he was represented by four black-type winners in 1996, headed by GSW Accelerator. Pulpit emerged as the favorite for the 1997 Kentucky Derby following wins in the G2 Fountain of Youth Stakes and G2 Toyota Blue Grass Stakes, but sustained a knee chip when fourth on the first Saturday in May.

A.P. Indy had a trio of fillies - Royal Indy, Runup The Colors and Tomisue’s Delight - win at the top level later in 1997, and those results kept breeders clamoring for his services.

The ill-fated Tempera became his first Eclipse Award winner when she secured the 2001 G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and another 1999 crop member, Mineshaft, followed with a Horse of the Year campaign in 2003.

Bernardini gave the stallion his first U.S. Classic win with his success in the 2006 G1 Preakness Stakes, and went on to earn honors as the year’s champion 3-year-old with additional wins in the G1 Travers Stakes and G1 Jockey Club Gold Cup. Rags To Riches came along in 2007 with an epic win over eventual Horse of the Year Curlin (Smart Strike) in the G1 Belmont Stakes, and claimed the Eclipse Award as the nation’s top 3-year-old filly.

A.P. Indy led the general sire list in 2003 and 2006, and has been represented by 132 black-type winners (12% of foals) to date. His progeny have earned over $112,901,838 since hitting the track in 1996.

According to equineline.com, a total of 355 A.P. Indy yearlings have sold at public auction in the U.S. for a total of $191,223,182. Their average price was $538,657, and the median is $375,000. A.P. Indy’s highest-priced yearling to date came last year, when a colt out of Balance (Thunder Gulch) sold for $4.2 million to Besilu Stables.

The Next Generation…

A.P. Indy’s daughters have produced a total of 51 black-type winners to date. That group is headed by five Grade 1 winners thus far, including 2006 champion 3-year-old filly Wait A While and 2010 G1 Kentucky Derby hero Super Saver - both by Maria’s Mon. His sons, in particular, have been the headline grabbers.

Pulpit has established himself as a desirable stallion at Claiborne with top-level winners Corinthian, Ice Box, Pyro, Rutherienne and Tapit, and the latter has emerged as one of the country’s most promising young stallions. Malibu Moon has transferred his early success in Maryland to being in serious demand at Spendthrift in Kentucky, and Mineshaft, after a cautious start, has come alive with last year’s G1 King’s Bishop Stakes hero Discreetly Mine - now alongside his sire and grandsire at Lane’s End - and recent G1 Florida Derby victor Dialed In.

The 2010 freshman sire race came down to a pair of A.P. Indy sons, with Florida-based Congrats edging Darley’s Bernardini by earnings. Both stallions sired two Grade 1 winners last year.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

MUHTAFAL

Muhtafal
(John Lewis)

Nicola Hayward Thoroughbred InternetMr Prospector has had a huge impact upon thoroughbred breeding worldwide, both through his sons and daughters. While the success has perhaps been felt most on the dirt tracks of America, there have been horses like Machiavellian, Kingmambo and Gone West who have left an indelible mark on the turf tracks of the world.

Arguably the most successful son of Mr Prospector to stand in South Africa is Muhtafal. Out of Canadian Broodmare Of The Year Polite Lady (Venetian Jester), Muhtafal is a full brother to Canadian Horse Of The Year and Champion 3YO Colt Afleet. He was born in 1992 and he won 2 of his first three starts over 1200m setting two track records in the process. In the Derby Trial G3 Muhtafal was injured and his racing career brought to an untimely end. Ironically it was an injury sustained in the 1973 Derby Trial that had ruled Mr Prospector out of the Kentucky Derby (won by Secretariat) of that year.

Muhtafal was retired to Shadwell Farm in Kentucky in 1997 where he stood for 2 seasons. From his first crop of 15 foals he produced 13 winners, 3 Stakes winners and 2 Stakes-placed. Notable progeny include Polite Lil Lady, Ya Lateefah, Charmu, X Country and Saudi Sadie. In 1999 he was moved to South Africa where he stood his first season at Summerhill Stud.

Over the years Muhtafal has sent out a steady stream of tough, sound and honest horses that have seen him rise up the General Sires Log from 18^th spot at the end of the 2004/05 season to 5^th at the end of 2007/2008. What makes this performance all the more remarkable is that 85% of his progeny have had success over distances of a mile or less. Thus the lucrative classic races generally do not go the way of his offspring, yet the statistics bear testament to his success.

In August, his son Battlestar Express took the first Listed race of the new season when he won the Umngeni Handicap over 1000m. Battlestar Express is out of the National Assembly mare National Empress who is a daughter of Off To War the dam of Captain Al. Captain Al is the sire of Captain’s Lover who won her first Graded outing on foreign soil in France on Sunday.

While there are a number of dirt tracks in South Africa, all the major meetings take place on turf with the most important dirt race being the G2 Emerald Cup at the Vaal over 1450m at the end of September. This year, Muhtafal has had a significant impact upon the build up to the race. Ten days ago on the sand track at the Vaal the Listed Riviera Handicap was run over 1450m and went the way of Alejate a 6YO daughter of Muhtafal out of the Northern Guest mare Tristam’s Frolic. In the previous race, the Listed Banyana Handicap (1000m), Nottgalashia a daughter of Muhtafal out of the National Assembly mare Isle Of Plenty was too good for the rest of the field giving Muhtafal a unique Listed double for the day.

The purple patch continued into the weekend past when Paris Perfect was named East Cape Horse Of The Year and Champion 3YO Colt/Gelding at a ceremony in Port Elizabeth. Paris Perfect is out of the Honor Grades mare Candle Princess and won the Listed Racing Association Stakes and the East Cape Guineas and was runner up in the G3 East Cape Derby. In 18 starts he has only been out of the money on 3 occasions.

To date Muhtafal has sired 3 Group One winners. Disappear a son of the Coastal mare Vanish won the Mercury Sprint over 1200m and the Post Merchants G2 while Outcome, a daughter of the Elliodor mare Culminate won the G1 Garden Province Stakes over a mile. The colt Lets Rock ‘n Roll who is out of the Northern Guest mare First Arrival won the G1 Golden Horse Shoe sprint (1200m). The very good filly Veiled Essence who is out of the Foveros mare Fovesta broke from the expected Muhtafal mould by winning the 2400m G2 Gold Circle Oaks in 2005.

He has also produced some runners that carry very uniquely African names – Umngazi is a G3 winner named after the Transkei river that flows into the Indian Ocean just south of Port St Johns. Nondweni is a Listed-winning filly named after a settlement near Nqutu close to the site of the Battle of Blood River in Northern Natal. The chestnut filly Mzwilili won the G3 Pretty Polly Stakes; her name is the Zulu word for the Cape Canary – a delightful little yellow bird found along the entire coast of South Africa. Uzuma is translated as ‘he surprises’. Uzuma is a chestnut gelding and was Stakes-placed on three occasions.

Mick Goss has always said of Muhtafal that if he were going to war, Muhtafal would be his General. And it is not hard to understand why: he is a horse that consistently produces what is expected of him, and sometimes even more. As a result his progeny are as popular with local owners and trainers as their sire is with all who deal with him at the stud.