GRAEME HAWKINS' PICK SIX

Graeme Hawkins aka Mr Racing
(Photo : Gareth Du Plessis)

“MR RACING”

Some people are liberty takers. Yet some are entitled to be. A man who received his “honours degree” at the Al Maktoum School Of Excellence on Thursday evening, and whose almost thirty years of excellence in racing have earned him the title of “Mr Racing”, Graeme Hawkins ranks among the most successful of our Ready To Run judges. That distinction alone allows him as many “picks” as he chooses.

His outright selection for the first Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup, was the “hero”, Umngazi, and let it be said his vote was the only one cast in this fellow’s direction. Despite our urgings that the family had failed us, Graeme stuck to his guns, and Umngazi came home smoking. He was in the money again the following year, and while he was just an “also-ran” with all the other panellists when it came to Pierre Jourdan in 2009, he had both the runner-up and the third placed horses on his list.

For this year’s event, he picked his usual quota of six, four of which have run, and all of which have won at the first time of asking. All four are “ranked” with a run for the R1,5million event on the 6^th November.

In an attempt to preserve his credibility, he went a bit wider this year, because, as he announced on Friday, he thought the offering was a little deeper, and he had a dilemma in arriving at the best three in each of the colts and fillies categories. We thought it worth providing our readers with his other choices, given his history as a “picker”.

TOP 6 COLTS AND FILLIES

Colts	Fillies
49 (NATIONAL EMBLEM)	10 (WAY WEST)
61 (ELUSIVE QUALITY)	14 (DAYLAMI)
63 (CAPTAIN AL)	84 (EYEOFTHETIGER)
132 (GREYS IN)	92 (WAY WEST)
134 (RIGHT APPROACH)	94 (SOLSKJAER)
143 (DANSILI)	121 (CATALOOCHEE)

Dates to remember :

Saturday 6 November 2010 - Raceday
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup

Sunday 7 November 2010 - Auction Sale
Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale

For more information please visit :

www.tba.co.za
and
www.summerhill.co.za

SHOT THE BOOZE...

Shoot The Breeze
(Photos : Gold Circle)

“SHOOT THE BREEZE”
THE INDEPENDENT PUNTER CLUB

Well not quite, but certainly Shoot The Breeze, a three parts sister to the 2007 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup hero, Umngazi. Retained out of sentiment from an ageing Summerhill family, Shoot The Breeze went to post last weekend under the colours of the IOS Punter Club racing syndicate, whose principal protagonists, ex racing editor for the Independent Group, Chad Cooke, editor of the Independent On Saturday (IOS), Clyde Bawden, and Praveen Naidoo, PR and Communications Manager at Gold Circle, had put together a syndicate of Independent readers. Their purpose was to introduce the everyday fan to racing at minimal cost, and Summerhill obliged by leasing them the career of this beautifully bred filly.

As it turns out, the concept got off to a startling beginning, when Mark Dixon’s charge literally “charged” home by an astonishing 6 lengths, boosting readership of the independent on Saturday by several thousand! Some people wait an eternity for their first winner; others never quite get to know what Graham Beck once famously described as “the best sensation known to man”. Let’s hope these guys don’t think this is par for the course, though with Shoot the Breeze, it looks like they can expect to be regular visitors to the most hallowed piece of real estate in the world, the Winners Circle.

For more information on the IOS Punter Club please email :
roshnee.pillay@inl.co.za

REFLECTIONS OF A SHEIKH

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Matoum
(Photo : Summerhill Sires Brochure 2008/2009)

It’s a strange marvel of human behaviour that racing induces such incredible emotions in us. When all is said and done, true racing people are made of the same stuff, and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifah Al Maktoum is no different. Speaking to his right-hand man, Mohammed Khaleel, in the wake of Thursday evening’s events in Dubai, he spoke of the Sheikh’s ecstasy at Asiatic Boy’s grand run, but he was no less complimentary about the efforts of Art Of War and Imbongi.

You’d think their thoughts were riveted solely on racing’s big night at the end of March, yet it’s a measure of Sheikh Mohammed and his team that, at times like this, they have the grace to think of the origins of these horses. Sheikh Mohammed was quick to recall that all of Imbongi and Art of War, Galant Gagnant and Umngazi were graduates of the Emperor’s Palace Ready To Run Sale, and he wished us long life with the sale henceforward. In his view, this is a prime source of top thoroughbreds, and he was quick to add the hope that this year’s crop would be comparable with the class of 2007. No doubt, music to the ears of Bob Yearham and his merry team at Emperors Palace.

It seems Imbongi is not the only one who might’ve booked his ticket for World Cup night. It’s possible little Art Of War gets his moment in the sunshine (or should we say the moonshine, too) in the Dubai World Cup itself.

No doubt, the likes of Barry Clements, Rodney Thorpe and Roger Zeeman had little inkling that the matings of their respective mares to Russian Revival and Kahal that year, would yield results which would one day have their names in lights at the richest racing spectacle on earth.

GALANT GAGNANT : Nice guys come second

Galant Gagnant and Kahal
(Gold Circle / Summerhill Stud)

If money ever had anything to do with the outcome of a race, it was always going to be prohibitive odds-on that Russian Sage would prevail in the ten furlong nominal championship event for the Classic generation, the Daily News 2000 (Gr.1).

Whether his sale last week to the master “picker”, Barry Irwin’s US-based Team Valor was at the reported $1,2 million or $1,75 million is immaterial here. The fact is, he won, even if it was a last stride affair, and pocketed a cool R625 000 in the process, not bad for a couple of days old investment. And he looked like he’s got some improvement in him, so he’s bound to make his presence felt in Dubai next summer.

We did say though, that while we appeared (we speak of Summerhill now) to be outgunned with our three entries from the perspective of pure handicapping, we simultaneously cautioned that you should never count us out. And so, till the last stride of the race, that very nearly proved to be the case as Sheikh Mohammed’s Galant Gagnant (G.G.) seemed to have it sewn up with 150m to go, having turned for home abreast of Russian Sage.

A week in racing is a long time, and so it proved as there has been a miraculous transition in Galant Gagnant’s (G.G.) powers of concentration since he was fitted with blinkers, and we’d say this performance, which puts him up there with the best of his generation at the trip, was close to a stone better than his previous. He was acquired by His Highness at the for a mere R150 000 and like 2006 Ready To Run Imbongi and Umngazi, was a runner in last November’s R500k Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup.

Galant Gagnant (G.G.) is another product of the “lethal cocktail” that exists between his sire Kahal and Northern Guest mares, already revered for producing Champion Bold Ellinore and her massively talented brother, Emperor Napoleon, while the same pattern has thrown Bhekinkhosi, Evening Attire and Khebraat.

This chap was bred in partnership with (you guessed it again) the old rugby mate, Barry Clements of Australia, and American based Robert Lynch. The former’s hit rate (he co-bred Imbongi too) verges on the early years of Cassius Clay, when it comes to big race successes, and it seems that for all his prowess as a Provincial class winger in his day, he’s an even brighter breeding prospect.

DAILY NEWS 2000 : Big Weekend of Racing

Those people who regularly read our “propaganda” will recall our claim that where there’s Group One racing, there’s almost invariably a Summerhill horse in the vicinity.

This weekend’s no exception, with the renewal of the Daily News 2000 (Gr.1) at Greyville. While most of the principal suspects in contention for this year’s Champion Three Year Old Classic Horse are in the line-up, including Russian Sage, King’s Gambit, Tan Can and Lion’s Blood, a notable absentee is one of the prime contenders for Champion Three Year Old Sprinter, Imbongi.

That said, Summerhill is nonetheless represented by almost 20% of the field in the form of Sheikh Mohammed’s Galant Gagnant, Craig Eudey and Co’s Thandolwami, (can you believe it, he’s drawn in the sticks again?) and Mike Miller’s The Big Ask, who was placed behind Umngazi and Imbongi in the R500 000 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup back in November.

We might be among the relative lightweights in the field, but the Summerhill horses have never been afraid at the prospect of boxing above their weight, and while the odds seem to be stacked against them given the conditions of the race, don’t be surprised to see a joker pop up in the pack.

Either way, it’s going to be one helluva race, and at post-time (4:05 pm tomorrow) tune in to Tellytrack on DSTV channel 232, and you’ll get the whole show.