COOLMORE vs DARLEY : THE WINDS OF CHANGE

“Rumblings within the Godolphin Camp”

The announcement this week that Frankie Dettori would be taking the mount on Camelot in Sunday’s renewal of Europe’s greatest horse race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1), was pretty matter-of-fact. Yet there is a strong underlying political message in it. You see, Frankie Dettori is one of the world’s top jockeys of all time, and for well over a decade, he has been the unrivalled favourite of his employer, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Ruler of Dubai. His annual retainer was rumoured to be in the millions of dollars, and besides being rewarded for every ride and the commissions that accrue to jockeys on their prize money, he was showered with lavish presents for big race victories.

Some seven or eight years ago, Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin racing operation was pretty much at the summit of the sport’s most successful racing operations. Ironically, the Sheikh chose that time to declare war on their principal adversaries, Coolmore. Nobody really knows the reasons behind it, but it was suspected that the Sheikh felt the commercial traffic between the two operations was “one-way”. He was providing liberal patronage for the Coolmore stallions, and was spending vast sums on their progeny at sales venues around the world. Coolmore were seldom if ever seen to put their hands up in the auction ring for a Darley (Sheikh Mohammed’s breeding arm) sired yearling, and they never sent a mare to any of the Sheikh’s own stallions. Besides, Sheikh Mohammed had established a global showpiece in Dubai’s World Cup meeting at the end of March, boasting the world’s richest prize money, and there was scarcely a Coolmore horse in sight.

It has to be said though, that at the time Coolmore presided over the most formidable band of stallion material in Europe (if not the world), and that really was the reason behind the Sheikh’s regular dominance of the market for youngsters sired by these stallions. In simple terms, he wanted to be the best, and so he had to buy the best. At the same time, Coolmore were also his principal opposition at the races, and they too wanted to own the best, so that they not only competed with the Sheikh in the sales ring, (which meant that quite often they were pushing him to pay substantially more for stock in which they may sometimes have owned an interest as well), but they had the luxury (and indeed, satisfaction) of being able to sell him services in numbers to their stallions. They had obviously taken a commercial decision as far as the patronage of the Sheikh’s stallions was concerned, and felt they could do better by continuing to use their own, a point borne out by results at the races. And when it came to the World Cup, Coolmore considered the timing inopportune: by March, their horses were in need of rest after demanding  European campaigns.

For obvious reasons, lean times followed for the Godolphin operation in the wake of the declaration of war, and Coolmore have pretty much had the European racing scene to themselves since then, with the progeny of Sadler’s Wells, Galileo, Montjeu, Danehill, Giant’s Causeway and Danehill Dancer, and the associated Maktoum entities have pretty much been feeding on the left-overs.

In the midst of all this, Frankie Dettori remained staunchly “Sheikh Mohammed”, and those who follow the game closely will recall many an embrace, particularly in their heyday, between jockey and master following a big race victory.

In more recent times though, there have been rumblings within the Godolphin camp about Frankie’s position as the “chosen one”, and that of the new pretender to his throne, Mickael Barzalona, who has had the pick of the rides in recent seasons. That there is a rift developing, whatever they may say, is unavoidable, and in his appointment to ride Camelot, arguably the best middle distance three-year-old Europe has seen in some years, (perhaps decades), there are two messages. Coolmore have laid down a challenge by employing Sheikh Mohammed’s darlin’ and the winds are certainly a changin’.

EIGHT IS THE NEW NUMBER

Summerhill Stud - Equus Champion Breeder 2005 - 2012
(Image : Summerhill Archives)

SOUTH AFRICAN BREEDERS CHAMPIONSHIP
1 August 2011 - 31 July 2012

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOThe Jockey’s Championship may still be hanging on a thread, but the Breeders’ version is done and dusted. Saturday’s racing finally put paid to any sniff any pretenders may have had to the crown, and so, at last, we can tell the printers to proceed with the 30^th edition of the “Summerhill Sires,” including all references to “EIGHT CONSECUTIVE BREEDERS TITLES”.

There was a point in May, when Summerhill lagged Klawervlei by some R400,000, that we looked like “toast”, particularly considering that we were at a distinct disadvantage in terms of numbers, and there were more to come: the impis were lining up in waves!

It is a tribute to one of the best teams in the world, their sacrifices and their dedication, that the margin in the end will be close to R1,5 million in our favour. It is a tribute to those who support us, to the loyalties of those who keep their horses with us, who buy our stock at the sales, to those that train and ride them, and to our fans in the stands.

It is a salute to the uncertainties of the game, to the adage that inspires the belief that kids from the “sticks”, like us, can prevail against the odds. That you don’t have to own a fortune in order to know the top of the mountain. That hard work, obsession and the sheer love of the game can take you to new worlds of conquest. That “eight” is a brand new number in the modern world of breeding, and that it’s attainable by anyone with the will and the resolve to make it happen.

Yet in the end, it will always be a tribute to our horses. Mankind would do well to recall that our histories were written on the backs of these noble creatures in warfare, on the roads, in the workplace, on the sports fields. It is no different at Summerhill.

This is an enterprise unlike most others of its kind, built solely on the skills of its people and the achievements of its horses. It has given birth not only to the home of the champions, but to a world-class hotel, to the continent’s second largest equine insurer, to an elite horsefeed business and to the only school of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere.

To those of you who’ve made it happen, and to those that fought the good fight, thank you.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

THE THOROUGHBRED : THE NOBLEST CREATURE ON EARTH

Click above to watch Mick Goss speaking on Lifeblood Of Racing…
(Image and Footage : Tellytrack)

Lifeblood Of Racing

Mick Goss shares his passion for the Thoroughbred with Andrew Bon on the 2012 National Yearling Sale edition of Lifeblood Of Racing, aired on Tellytrack 23 April 2012.

Enquiries :
Linda Norval 27 (0) 33 263 1081
or email linda@summerhill.co.za
www.summerhill.co.za

THE PILLARS ON WHICH OUR BUSINESS WAS BUILT

Summerhill Stud
(Photo : Gareth Du Plessis)

“Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams” William Yeats, Irish poet laureate.

The storybooks tell you, growing up is supposed to be fun. Ours was. For me, it happened in the remotest part of South Africa surrounded by the wonders of the wilds. Were it not for Marconi, who gave us the “wireless”, our isolation might’ve denied us the staccato of the race commentary. From the time I first sat on a potty, horses were part of my life. I don’t remember a visit to the loo without a Duff’s Turf Guide clutched in my hands.

You quickly sensed, if you lived where we did, that the crust of the earth is a vast museum, entombed with the history of mankind, and the secrets of our being. Where Mother Nature was in charge, our upbringing taught us to make her our partner. Nature has plenty of patience, and in the end she will get her way if you step on her.

These truths were the keys to Summerhill’s rise to the mountaintop. Unlike St Pauls Cathedral, where the bulk of the columns end a few inches below the roof and were erected to placate the sceptics, understanding the land, the climate, the people, the plants and the animals of the kingdom, were the pillars on which our business was built. As well as the realisation that right here, we’re custodians of some of the finest “dirt” on the planet, that in those great clouds which belong to this country alone, there rests a bounty that makes us, surely, the chosen people.

We are not mired though, in a religion of old fashioned beliefs. Nature matters, but so does nurture. Technology has revolutionised the world, and Summerhill has been at the forefront of its application, provided it found a bedfellow in the environment. In its nuclear disaster of this year, Japan sacrificed nature at the altar of technology, and was punished by both.

One thing technology can’t give us, though, is time for discovery. We need to re-invent free time. Inventions have always had many parents. “Doubt is the father of invention” said Galileo. Necessity is its mother, according to Plato. And in the modern era of convenience, sloth gave us the electric toothbrush, the universal remote and the drive-thru’ McDonalds.

In the world in which we live, there’s no substitute for the 10,000 hours at the grindstone. Inspiration comes to those that earn it. If there’s been a constant in our three decades at Summerhill, it’s been sticking to the truth of our roots. Ever since, we’ve pandered to the herd instincts of our horses, letting them run outside, remembering they are creatures of habit. That, despite their intelligence, like their cousins in the wilds, they display little reasoning in the face of danger. That some traditions, like an hour’s grooming, may not be every horse’s cup of tea.

Racehorses made the Summerhill way, tell the stories of their upbringings everyday on the racecourses of the world. In their association with the landscape, their histories, the characters of the soils and the people.

Like you we like to ask questions. We don’t pretend to have all the answers. But with a history of six Breeder’s titles, we don’t mind the questions either.

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

VODACOM DURBAN JULY : RAGS AND RICHES

Click above to watch the 2011 Vodacom Durban July (Gr1)
(Image : John Lewis - Footage : SABC 3)

VODACOM DURBAN JULY (Grade 1)
Greyville, Turf, 2200m,
2 July 2011

Let it be said. The Vodacom Durban July is the biggest sporting event on the African continent.

If you’re in the horse game, the first thing they ask you is: “Have you won the July?” And this year’s 115^th edition ranked with the best. Record crowds, record turnovers, and fifteen equine millionaires stepped out of the tunnel into the sunshine of the Greyville circuit. It was a sports presenter’s dream. The quality of the field all but guaranteed the heroics, and the fans were tasting them already.

In the end, the fairytale unravelled itself. A princess by birth, Igugu was crowned Queen of The Turf. Pierre Jourdan was equally heroic in a history-making Summerhill exacta. This was the fourth “July” for a racehorse known to these pastures, but the first “one-two”. That saga was born as long ago as 1946, which tells you how tough it is to be one of the twenty at the start.

Last year, Pierre Jourdan was the nation’s biggest earner. This year, Igugu holds the distinction with a haul exceeding R5million. In common, they’re both graduates of the Emperors Palace Ready to Run. What separates them, is their histories.

In the past twelve months, Igugu has dominated our sport in the way Muhammad Ali dominated the heavyweights in the 1970s. The analogy is not meant to be trite. Like Ali, Igugu is that rare phenomenon: a natural. Which is to say, she makes the hard things look easy, the mundane look graceful; the qualities which in any sport, distinguishes the gifted from the sloggers. When Igugu turns on the afterburners, she leaves the field in the same way Usain Bolt exits a bunch of neighbourhood joggers.

“PJ” on the other hand, isn’t that big, his parents aren’t famous and he didn’t cost much at the sales, but he doesn’t know any of this. PJ inspires affection. He has come to be loved before he is admired. Because of the way he does things, he makes people feel good and the sport seem grander. His connections are from a good old Catholic family, and it’s said the parish priest consented to bless the horse’s season. In the past few months alone, he’s added another million to his racing resumé. The priest took joy in his affirmation of the power of the Lord. We took the 10/1.

And with his heroics in the July, PJ delivered up another Championship for the champions. It is one of racing’s truisms: you never get used to winning. It is always fresh, always intoxicating. Even when it’s your seventh on the trot.

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