CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE : LIVE WITHOUT FEAR

Tom Goff (Blandford Bloodstock) and Angus Gold
(Photo : Barronstown Stud, Grangecon, Co Wicklow, Ireland)

CAPE PREMIER YEARLING SALE
Cape Town International Convention Centre
Cape Town, South Africa
26 - 27 January 2012

Mick Goss
Summerhill Stud CEOJust recently, The Economist magazine, Europe’s leading voice on global economic opinion, carried a foreboding graphic about an uncertain future on its front page, with the words “Be Afraid”. The message is misleading, representing as it does a world view of historical western political, economic and social dominance that is struggling to come to terms with its own relative decline, and with the emergence of another world, stepping boldly into a future of momentous change and great opportunity.

The results of the past week’s thoroughbred trade at Cape Town’s International Convention Centre tell us to their credit, that few of those at whom The Economist’s warning was directed, namely the Brits and our European friends, took any notice. To the astonishment of many, and especially our foreign visitors, the international community splashed out of the order of USD$ 5 million (around R40 million) of the gross turnover of R107 million. When you factor into the equation the suspension of our exports and the fact there is no resolution in immediate sight, it says something for the esteem in which our horses are held, and the marketing job the organisers did. In the end, an average of R403,000 (last year R404,000) was a satisfactory performance, given the entry of an extra 60-odd lots, and while there are still some questions to be asked regarding the future structure of the sale and where it goes from here, in broad terms it was a great way to begin the New Year.

The disparities between the top end and the rest which were apparent at last year’s inaugural version, were still there, however, and while the national propensity to concentrate largely on the progeny of those sires that have proven track records, is understandable, you can’t help thinking that it’s taking risk-aversion too far when it’s done to the point of almost ignoring the stock of a troupe of freshmen which carry some of the best credentials we’ve known. One of the world’s top “bloodstockers”, Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock, was among several who made that observation during the week. We all know the attractions of the proven sires, but in some respects, that’s a little bit like kicking for touch. Back in Europe, the old adage ‘get in, before they get out of reach’ is very much on the minds of those with a respect for the first crop of a top class racehorse, and an eye for a good looker. In a country in which courage and enterprise have been the foundation stones of what we are today, it’s strange to find that being “fearful” is the characteristic of South African horsemen these days, and it seems our people are paying more attention to The Economist, than their own.

Another man whose name is known around the world, racing manager to Sheikh Hamdan, Angus Gold, pointed to the yawning gap between the top and the bottom of the sale, and especially the hole in the middle market, and wondered whether the concentration of resources by so few on so many of the top lots, isn’t a deterrent to outside investors. It is a point, though it’s fairly typical of what happens in boutique sales wherever you go, and was a hallmark of the old days at Keeneland July, scene of the world’s most famous slugging matches between the Maktoum family and the old O’Brien, Magnier and Sangster firm.

There is something though, about a horse sale that transcends all cultures and all tastes. This was a triumph for the organisers, bringing together players from 15 different countries. The lure of a good horse is as compelling today as it ever was, and in a world in which government debt and sovereign bonds are demoted to junk status, the international currency of horse trading is right back in vogue. Nowhere in the world can you hook up with a greater diversity of people, and in this lies a salutary lesson. We teach history the wrong way around. The first thing we should learn as a child, is that we’re part of the human race, the last thing we should learn is that we’re Protestant, South African and of European descent. The horse world, and raising horses, teaches you that.

www.summerhill.co.za

BANKING ON DUTCH ART

Dutch Art
(Photo : Cheveley Park Stud)

“His runners are making a meal of things…”

Investors in renaissance art are aware of the fortunes some have made in their pursuits of the works of the Dutch masters, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Van Gogh, Caspar Netscher and Floris van Dijck. Their works are priceless, and we know of at least one friend who made a personal fortune through her inheritance of Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers”, so much so that in her lifetime at least, there was no longer a need to get up with the sparrows in the morning to attend a day job like the rest of us.

No doubt, the connections of the most precocious English two-year-old of the 2006 season, were hopeful that this miracle might be repeated for them when they named him Dutch Art, whose appeal to Blanford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff was such that he put his hands on him for 16,000 guineas at the Doncaster Yearling sale. The son of Medicean was a very smart juvenile, and included among his victories the stallion-making Middle Park Stakes (Gr1), contested since 1866 at October’s Champion Stakes meeting at Newmarket. As a three-year-old, he claimed the Greenham Stakes (Gr3) on his way to a third in the English Guineas, and looked like the real deal.

Retired with a Timeform rating of 124 to Cheveley Park Stud, home of his own sire, Medicean, Dutch Art has his first runners at the races this year, and to say that he is making a meal of things is an understatement. He already has 21 individual juvenile winners, including the aptly-named, Caspar Netscher (Gimcrack Stakes, Gr2), and several other Stakes performers. He’s not only a shoe-in for the title of Champion Freshman Sire, (from some formidable opposition, mind you, including the similarly named Excellent Art, who stands at Coolmore), but he could well turn out Europe’s overall champion sire of juveniles.

From a Summerhill perspective, the news is encouraging. Like our own Kahal and Darley’s American-based Street Cry, Medicean is another successful son of Machiavellian (also sire of Summerhill resident, Mullins Bay), and just arrived at the farm, is another equally well-performed son of Medicean, Bankable, a much-loved racehorse among the South African public for his exploits at the Dubai Racing Carnival over the past couple of years. Bankable proved his mettle against world champion Raven’s Pass, as well as Eagle Mountain and Passage Of Time in England, and while the rush for services to Bankable is probably due more to local fans appreciation of what we knew of him in Dubai, the news of Dutch Art’s early success is bound to rub off on his bookings. We don’t know Dutch Art in the flesh, but he’d have to be a helluva horse to match the physical attributes of our man, who weighed in at a hefty 560kgs in training with Herman Brown Jnr.

FEELING THE HEAT AT THE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE

National Yearling Sale 2011
(Photo : Summerhill Stud)

EMPERORS PALACE NATIONAL YEARLING SALE
15 - 17 April 2011

(From the Emperors Palace National Yearling Sale…) The usual tepid mood that engulfs breeders when the sale grounds are quiet, has been heightened this year by concerns as to how much of the annual spend had been taken up by the Cape Premier Yearling Sale.

But if the traffic yesterday was anything to go by, the temperature’s definitely moving in the right direction.

Among the industry’s legends seen thus far in the vicinity of Summerhill’s Block “A”, we’ve had sightings of Form Bloodstock’s Jehan Malherbe and Charles Faull, new “bloodstocker” Eamonn Cullen, Chris and Johnno Snaith, John Freeman, the boys from Alexander Racing, Sean Tarry, Dean Kannemeyer, Gavin van Zyl, John Koster and Grant Knowles from Klawervlei, Mary Slack, Ormond Ferraris, Gavin Hunter, John Kramer, Vaughan Marshall, Mark Tarry, David and Yoshi Allen from the UK, the “Menere” Spies and last evening’s revellers, Mike Bass, Joey Ramsden and Alec Laird.

Mike de Kock has issued an early warning to stock the fridge for today, while England’s Tom Goff had fellow Etonian, Archie Watson, out scouting for him under cover of darkness. Germany’s Rupert Plersch touches down tomorrow, while French bloodstock agents, Xavier and Nathalie Bozo, together with their daughter Valentine, will be arriving on the weekend. We’ve even had calls from as far afield as the Democratic Republic of Congo. All good reasons to pick up the chins. And SWEET SONETTE’S famous win over one-time world champion sprinter, SACRED KINGDOM on Friday in Hong Kong won’t have done any harm either.

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

Kerry Jack +27 (0) 82 782 7297

Tarryn Liebenberg +27 (0) 83 787 1982

TOPPER GOES TO SUMMERHILL'S ADMIRE MAIN CONNECTIONS

Click above to watch Azeri selling at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale
(Footage : Keeneland)

KEENELAND NOVEMBER BREEDING STOCK SALE 2009

International connections have been the lifeblood of Summerhill going back twenty years to the time the Maktoum family arrived with their first stallions. More recently, Summerhill has connected with Japan’s headline breeding dynasty, the Yoshida’s, and one of the family was in the news again yesterday.

Multiple champion Azeri made her second appearance of the year in the Keeneland sales ring Monday, and the second time was a charm, with the chestnut mare bringing a final bid of $2.25 million from Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida to top the opening session of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale in Lexington. Azeri, in foal to Ghostzapper, failed to reach her reserve at $4.4 million at Keeneland in January. She sold yesterday in foal to Distorted Humor. The auctioneer looked to start the action at $1 million, but bidding began at a more modest $300,000. From there, bids came in rapid-fire succession in $100,000 increments, with Blandford Bloodstock’s Tom Goff among the bidders inside the pavilion. Bidding began to stall approaching the $2-million mark, but with encouragement from the auctioneer’s stand Azeri’s price tag inched up to the final figure. Shunsuke Yoshida, on the phone with his father Katsumi, did his bidding behind the pavilion and signed the ticket on the prized mare.

“We didn’t expect that we could buy this mare,” Yoshida said. “We just kept bidding up to our budget, and finally she came to us.”

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

Crisis! What crisis? Trade races ahead.

Lot 294 : Montjeu - Vanishing Prairie
(Tattersalls)

The British Government may have taken £50 billion out of tax-payers’ pockets yesterday to shore up the banking industry, but no one in the bloodstock world seems to have noticed there’s a financial crisis going on outside.

The European Bloodstock News reports that this was the overwhelming conclusion from another remarkable day’s trade at Tattersalls’ blue-blooded October Yearling Sale Book One, which created turnover of 17,428,000gns from the sale of 146 horses.

A clearance rate of 82%, an average of 119,370gns and a median of 86,000gns, are figures that can only have surprised and delighted the sales company. It is hard to believe that only a week ago trade was suffering at Goffs’ Million Sale, as it has done at the majority of yearling sales this season.

The day’s most-prized performer was a cracking-looking half-brother to top-class Vespone and Melbourne Cup runner-up Purple Moon. A son of Montjeu (Lot 294), his sale for 650,000gns left consignor Caroline Green of Templeton Stud in a state of breathless excitement.

Caroline Green’s new personal best was created after a tussle between John Magnier and Tom Goff that ended in victory for the Coolmore Stud chief.