LOW FLYING CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP

Click above to watch JJ The Jet Plane’s last run in South Africa; The Mercury Sprint (Gr1) in July 2010
(Photo : Gold Circle - Footage : Tellytrack)

CAPE FLYING CHAMPIONSHIP (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 1000m
21 January 2012

For as long as we can remember, the time-honoured Cape Flying Championship (Gr1) has been one of the better subscribed sprints in the land. That there are only six competitors for Saturday’s renewal would’ve been remarkable if it weren’t for the fact the line-up includes three current champions, the emerging rocket, What A Winter, the amazing filly Val Da Ra, and it marks the return of the globe-trotting international Group One hero, J J The Jet Plane. He hasn’t been seen on a South African course since July 2010, and that was at the end of an unbroken sequence of seven consecutive victories.

JJ of course, has a strong genetic connection with Summerhill and Hartford. His mother was a Stakes-winning daughter of the world record equalling broodmare sire, Northern Guest, our most famous resident, and she was bred here by Gordon Sigcau, brother to the reigning King of Pondoland, Mpondimbini Sigcau. The family traces to an old Hartford taproot, so this man’s prowess, up there with the best sprinters the country has known, is not surprising.

Equally unsurprising is the size of the field. Champions have always got something to prove when pitted together, but when at best, all the others are doing in the line-up is running for fourth place money, you may as well reserve your talents for other fish. Whatever the outcome though, the presence of these three champions guarantees purists one helluva contest.

For the record, Summerhill’s recent history in the event surpasses all-comers. In the course of the first decade of this millennium, graduates of these paddocks took the laurels three times (Nhlavini in 2005 and 2006, and Rebel King in 2009) while each of them were runners up in other years.

FINAL FIELD

#	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	J J THE JET PLANE	60.0	122	3	B Fayde’Herbe	Lucky Houdalakis
2	WHAT A WINTER	60.0	117	6	K Neisius	Mike Bass
3	COPPER PARADE	60.0	108	4	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
4	CAPTAIN’S SECRET	60.0	107	5	M Byleveld	Mike Bass
5	RABATTACHE	60.0	107	2	R Fourie	Glen Puller
6	VAL DE RA	57.5	111	1	A Forbes	Dennis Drier

SHEA SHEA WINS GOLDEN HORSE CASINO SPRINT

Click above to watch Shea Shea winning the Golden Horse Casino Sprint (Gr1)
(Image : Gold Circle - Footage : Tellytrack)

GOLDEN HORSE CASINO SPRINT (Grade 1)
Scottsville, Turf, 1200m
28 May 2011

David Thiselton
Gold CircleThe Golden Horse Casino Sprint day at Scottsville was held in fine weather Saturday and was enjoyed by a festive crowd, while punters had a good day with fancied horses winning all four of the Grade 1 1200m features on the card. The penetrometer reading for the day was a good 22, but the inside draws appeared to hold an advantage.

The Geoff Woodruff-trained three-year-old National Emblem colt, Shea Shea, won the feature race, the Golden Horse Casino Sprint, a handicap race, under jockey Anthony Delpech, who, wary of horses diving for the inside, kept Shea Shea away from the rail and rode a patient race, delivering him late. He responded superbly and went past August Rush who had found the inside rail and finished a fine 0,75 length second. The bottom weight Polar Moon, drawn three, finished just 0,25 lengths further back in third. Winking Jack set the pace alone on the outside, hanging on for fourth ahead of Gaultier. The 13-20 favourite What A Winter took a bump early and from a draw of 11 was always going to battle to make up the ground.

Woodruff said the team had been left a bit deflated after the Grade 1 Computaform Sprint in which they were always chasing the lightning fast Val De Ra, before finishing third, but he revealed that Delpech believed Shea Shea would win the Golden Horse. Shea Shea is owned by Brian Joffe and Myron Berzack and was bred by Klawervlei Stud. The horse is named after Joffe’s grandson, Shea. Woodruff also won the Golden Horse two years ago with Earl Of Surrey.

GOLDEN HORSE CASINO SPRINT (Gr1)
Final Results

#	LBH	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	0.00	SHEA SHEA	58.0	110	4	A Delpech	Geoff Woodruff
2	0.75	AUGUST RUSH	57.0	105	6	B Fayd’Herbe	Neil Bruss
3	1.00	POLAR MOON	53.5	98	2	M V’Rensburg	Sean Tarry
4	1.10	WINKING JACK	56.0	103	13	G Lerena	Lance Wiid
5	2.35	GAULTIER	57.5	106	7	S Randolph	Mike Bass
6	2.85	WHAT A WINTER	59.5	113	10	K Neisius	Mike Bass
7	3.60	SPLASH GOLD	57.5	109	12	A Fortune	Dean Kannemeyer
8	4.10	BUSH PIRATE	57.5	106	9	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
9	4.85	ELUSIVE RIVER (AUS)	54.0	102	5	A Marcus	Charles Laird
10	5.35	ARABIAN MIST	58.5	108	8	D David	Gary Alexander
11	5.60	RUSHING WIND	58.5	108	15	A Domeyer	Mike Bass
12	6.35	DANCE WITH AL	55.5	102	11	F Coetzee	Justin Snaith
13	7.10	RABATTACHE	60.0	111	3	I Sturgeon	Glen Puller
14	8.10	TWO TONE	58.0	107	1	* JP v’d Merwe	Mike Azzie
15	8.60	KAVANAGH	56.0	106	14	K Shea	Mike de Kock
16	14.85	GOOD THING	59.5	110	16	M Mienie	Wendy Whitehead

Extract from Gold Circle

BREED-SHAPING US RACES : MET MILE AND KING'S BISHOP

What A Winter - Cape Flying Championship (Grade 1)
(Photo : Gold Circle)

THE MET MILE AND THE KING’S BISHOP STAKES

While you’d have to respect the Kentucky Derby for the stallions it’s produced in its 136 year history, in modern times, there are no two more influential breed-shaping American races than the Met Mile (Gr1) and the King’s Bishop (Gr1).

The 1996 renewal of the King’s Bishop Stakes at Saratoga (then a Grade 2) has been widely recognized as a vintage edition, mostly because it produced a number of today’s top sires. The first three across the wire - Honour and Glory, Elusive Quality and Distorted Humor - have all sired Eclipse Award winners.

The following year’s Met Mile (Gr1) probably wouldn’t be given a second thought by many, but the last two weeks have shown that it’s a fine sire-producing race in its own right.

Winner Langfuhr, sire of champion Lawyer Ron and others, saw his veteran son Euroears get a deserved first graded stakes success in the Palos Verdes Stakes (Gr2) at Santa Anita January 22.

Western Winter, a son of Gone West who is little known to North American breeders, had two three-year-old Group 1 winners in South Africa - What A Winter won the Cape Flying Championship (Gr1) on January 22, while Covenant took the Klawervlei Majorca Stakes (Gr1) on January 29. Western Winter also concluded South Africa’s recent Cape Premier Yearling Sale as the fifth-leading sire, with 11 of 13 sold for R591,818 - roughly $82,500.)

And Northern Afleet, third by a length in the 1997 Met Mile, landed a lucrative trifecta during last weekend’s Sunshine Millions event. At Santa Anita, his four-year-old daughter Evening Jewel, in return to form, won the $300,000 Distaff, while the gelding Amazombie captured the $200,000 Sprint Stakes. Back east at Gulfstream, his daughter Aegean upset the $200,000 Filly & Mare Sprint.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

MIKE RATTRAY : THE CHESHIRE CAT

Solo Traveller - Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas (Gr1)
(Photo : Gold Circle)

BLOODSTOCK SA CAPE GUINEAS (Grade 1)

One man who’s grinning from ear to ear this week is Mike Rattray. The man who brought the Santa Gertrudis cattle breed to South Africa, founded Mala Mala game reserve and imported multiple champion sire Western Winter, has no need to bother where his next stallion is coming from. In the R1million Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas (Gr.1) on Saturday, his Solo Traveller (son of Western Winter) went to the top of the Three-Year-Old class with a famous victory over a deep entry of sophomores, including his principal Cape rival, What A Winter (also Western Winter), and Mike de Kock’s pair of Perana (Rock Of Gibraltar) and Kavanagh (Tiger Ridge).

Whether this lot will measure up to last year’s remains to be seen, but if Robert Bloomberg’s prophecy is correct, there’s depth to the crop, as the first five or six finished within a couple of lengths of each other.

One thing’s for sure, the race was a triumph for Justin Snaith and his team. Not only were they first and second across the line, but they earlier won the Fillies’ version, and it seems from Justin’s comments, that there are big things in store for Solo Traveller. It’s conceivable he will go the route that put Horse Chestnut on the map, and toss his ticket into the sweep for the J&B Met at the end of January. The trip shouldn’t be a problem, given that his dam is a daughter of the former champion sire Jallad, and comes from a family with no shortage of stamina. Western Winter gets them to go from 1000m t0 3200m.

BLOODSTOCK SA CAPE GUINEAS : THE NEW GIANTS

What A Winter - Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas (Gr1) Challenger
(Image : Gold Circle/Atlantica/TBA)

Or are they “Paper Tigers”?

There’s a helluva scrap brewing in the Western Cape. As the Proteas take on India in Pretoria, the nation’s “Mother City” is cooking up another kind of storm, unrelated to the South-Easter which has been blasting Cape Town for the past several days.

Last year, racing fans were treated to a series of staggering performances from one of the deepest and most talented crops of Three-Year-Old colts our sport had ever witnessed. Any one of Irish Flame, Pierre Jourdan, Bold Silvano, Noordhoek Flyer, Bravura or Ancestral Fore, and even Curved Ball or Galileo’s Galaxy might have been champions in any other year.

Readers of these columns will remember the Summerhill mantra going into the 2009 Emperors Palace Ready To Run Sale, that this was meant to be the “Year of the Filly”.

Ebony Flyer, Igugu and Hollywoodboulevard (the latter two both graduates of our draft at that sale), have revealed just how prophetic that judgment has turned out to be, but it seems the colts may be serving up a dish almost as formidable.

You’ll never know just how good the Cape’s What A Winter and Solo Traveller or Perana and Kavanagh (from Gauteng) really are, till they’ve faced-up to one another and then eventually been tested against their elders, but for the time being at least, the prospect of an all out “North vs South” war in Saturday’s Bloodstock SA Cape Guineas, beckons.

One man who won’t be budged from a powerful conviction that these four will stand comparison in time with those of last season, is Robert Bloomberg. He knows this game as well as anybody, and he puts down more money than most. When he speaks, we listen. Best tune-in to Tellytrack DSTV Channel 232 Saturday, and give the cricket a break.

R1,000,000 BLOODSTOCK SA CAPE GUINEAS (Grade 1)
Kenilworth, Turf, 1600m
18 December 2010

FINAL FIELD

#	Horse	Kg	MR	Dr	Jockey	Trainer
1	WHAT A WINTER	58.0	109	9	K Neisius	Mike Bass
2	COPPER PARADE	58.0	104	5	K Teetan	Joey Ramsden
3	KAVANAGH	58.0	104	2	J Geroudis	Mike de Kock
4	SOLO TRAVELLER	58.0	104	3	B Fayd’Herbe	Justin Snaith
5	PERANA (AUS)	58.0	102	12	K Shea	Mike de Kock
6	CASTLETHORPE (AUS)	58.0	101	4	A Marcus	Mike Bass
7	TOP SELLER	58.0	101	11	M Byleveld	Vaughan Marshall
8	IL SAGGIATORE (AUS)	58.0	98	7	G Hatt	Joey Ramsden
9	BRILLIANT CUT	58.0	97	15	*A Domeyer	Vaughan Marshall
10	M’LORDS THROAT	58.0	96	14	M Neisius	Glen Kotzen
11	RUN FOR IT	58.0	95	1	F Coetzee	Justin Snaith
12	KING FAHIEM	58.0	93	10	M Latorre	Glen Kotzen
13	LUCKY MOON	58.0	93	13	C Segeon	Joey Ramsden
14	WOLF ON THE FOLD	58.0	93	8	R Fourie	Brett Crawford
15	GREEN KEEPER	58.0	92	6	A Fortune	Justin Snaith