Monday was not a good day for me. Got up before the sun (a concept which is uncivilised in the name of fun and utterly barbaric for something as banal as work!!), to find that my dogs had not quite managed to ‘knyp’ through the night, missed my bus, had a foul day at work and got home too late to visit my horse, which is about the worst evil you can visit on me. The cat swore at me on the way in, the dog stole the cat’s dinner (may that be a lesson!) and several of my pot plants expired – you know the sort of day. Suffice to say I had reached the stage where a hot bath, a bottle of gin and a sharp knife were beginning to appeal !
Feeling about as poisonous as it is possible to be, I sat down to tinker around with my piece and then, as if by magic, the stars aligned and the elements conspired. My numbers all dialled through to their desired destinations and I got through to everyone I’d been stalking for weeks. Suddenly, in the magical way they always do, horses and their people managed to turn my horrid, boring, pedestrian day right on its head. There is a special magic that exists around a ‘big’ horse. It’s hard to put one’s finger on exactly, but they create an infectious energy and enthusiasm in those around them that never fails to inspire and lift me.
My story today is, I’m afraid, a rather sad one. One of our racing greats passed away a few weeks ago. On the afternoon of Thursday, 3 February 2011 Winter Solstice, along with his great friend Laat Waai, was sadly struck down during an electrical storm on the hills of Drakenstein Stud. The lightning he had chased on the racecourse had finally caught up with him. He was 10 years old.
Trying to research his story among his friends and connections, the effusive warmth and enthusiasm for Winter Solstice are the standout features in every conversation I had about him – it carried through from his breeder, the understated and charming Veronica Foulkes to his owner, trainer, rider and retirement caretaker. Even the press at the time called him ‘Cape Town’s darling’. Everyone had an incredible regard for this horse that went beyond the mere statistics of his achievements, impressive though they were. It was not what he won that people admired so much, but how he did it. With courage and uncompromising determination and heart.
Winter Solstice started life in the august nursery of Normandy Stud. He graduated to the hallowed interior of the Joey Ramsden yard via the green pages of the 2002 National Yearling Sales. Unlike most Western Winters, Winter Solstice was a light bay. He was a tall colt, although to quote Veronica ‘there wasn’t much of him’ and he was consigned for a relatively modest R180k by Good Hope Racing.
Joey Ramsden describes Winter Solstice as one of the easiest horses he’s ever trained, kind and sociable and that the two of them clicked right from the outset. Glen Hatt, his regular jockey and perhaps the person who knew him best, tells of an unprepossessing horse, unremarkable perhaps to the uninformed eye. But that seemingly ordinary exterior hid tremendous intelligence and character, who did just enough to get by in his work. He was not a great mover and his work gallops are described as ‘shocking’, but he would somehow transform in the competition arena.
Early Career
Despite his less than promising appearance and work on the gallops, Veronica remembers receiving a call from Joey just before Winter Solstice’s first race to say that ‘this is something rather nice’. Winter Solstice duly debuted over 1000m at Kenilworth in race 1 on 28 December 2002, finishing a very good second, 1 length behind Ice Cube.
His second outing, over 1200m at Kenilworth on 15 February 2003, was with Richard Hughes at the reins and would be his only victory in front of owners Jack and Lynda Ramsden.
The 2003 AHS outbreak put the brakes on his career and he had to wait another 7 months to see the track, but finished his 2 YO career just short of 2 lengths off Royal IQ over 1200m at Kenilworth in September 2003.
Winter Wonder
Winter Solstice went on to make the 2004 Cape winter season his own. With Glen Hatt, freshly back from a stint in Mauritius, at the reins, Winter Solstice beat Sporting Treble in the Winter Guineas. Glen was sitting out a suspension and Gerrit Schlechter took the ride, and victory, in the Winter Classic. Winter Solstice was on course to become the first horse to win the Winter Series, when he was narrowly beaten home a memorable and furiously contested short head by Gerrit Schlechter and Set to Music in the Winter Derby.
He finished off his 3 YO career with a win in the A Division Handicap at Kenilworth over 1600m in September 2004. And then, greatness beckoned.
A Year of Winter
An outing over 1600m in the December 2004 Advance Plate at Kenilworth was all the prep he needed and Winter Solstice set out to dominate the turf in 2005. He won the Queen’s Plate and then went on to place 3rd in the J&B Met after being forced to lead almost from the off. These two performances earned him the eye of Robert Bloomberg, who bought a share of the gelding just before he shipped to Durban for his onslaught on the Zulu Kingdom. Joey relates that on receiving the offer, his English parents accepted with the comment that they hoped their new SA based partner would ‘have some fun’ with the horse. And what fun he proved.
The Drill Hall was intended as a prep run, but Winter Solstice won going away from the very good De Kock filly, Real Red. Joey chuckles as he tells that he went to check on Winter Solstice an hour or so before the Grade 1 Gold Challenge. He found his charge prone and stretched out on the straw. Fearing the worst, he rushed in to make sure everything was alright, only to find him having a quick power nap. He had a pet sheep who shared his stable and travelled everywhere with him and I’m told he was not above employing the sheep as a pillow!
The Durban July was perhaps stretching his capabilities a shade too far, but he was not disgraced by finishing 8th, and less than 2 lengths off the winner, Dunford (also owned by Robert Bloomberg). And he came back at them in his usual dogged fashion in the Champions Cup, beating Alastor by 0.75 of a length.
However, his 2005 campaign had been enough to earn him the award for 2005 Equus Champion Older Middle-Distance Male (1600m to 2200m), as well as the coveted Equus Horse of the Year title for 2005. His exploits helped Robert Bloomberg to an Equus Exceptional Achievement Award and Western Winter to achieve the 2005 champion sire title. The Cape Breeders Awards followed a similar vein with Robert Bloomberg named Western Cape Owner of the Year, Joey Ramsden trainer of the year, Western Winter champion sire and Winter Solstice walking away with the awards for Champion Older Male, Champion Middle Distance Horse and Horse of the Year.
Glen Hatt describes him as the most intelligent horse he’s ever ridden, who always knew just how much to give to get the job done and Winter Solstice’s records reflect that his winning (or in fact losing) margin is seldom more than 2 lengths. The only time he ever won by a bigger margin was in the Tabgold Stakes over 1400m in November 2005 under Marthinus Mienie (Glen Hatt was serving out a suspension at the time and unable to take the ride). Marthinus ignored Glen’s instructions not to use the whip and they stormed home by 5.25 lengths.
Back in the saddle Glen Hatt rode Winter Solstice to a narrow victory over Great Rhythm in the Green Point Stakes, and on to a second consecutive Queen’s Plate victory in 2006. Glen relates that the presence of the tough front-running filly Jamaica dictated a tactical race, but they timed it to perfection, winning by a neck ‘going away’ !
Awkward Step
It was on the pull up after the Queen’s Plate that Glen says he felt Winter Solstice give an awkward step. Although subtle, it was enough to warrant a careful post race check. While the initial examination came up clean, 2 days later the tendon injury which would ultimately cut short his career, surfaced.
After a break of nearly a year, Winter Solstice returned to the track for the December 06 Summer Season Stakes where he finished 2nd, but despite the best efforts of all concerned, the tendon injury flared again and it was decided to give him a well deserved retirement.
Retirement
If ever horses dream of heaven, they must imagine something pretty close to Drakenstein Stud and on the slopes of the Franschoek mountains Winter Solstice made his retirement home. He remained a gentleman to the end, often accompanying Ross Fuller on leisurely hacks around the farm.
In many ways, the achievements of today’s heroes are built by standing on the shoulders of yesterday’s giants. As we know, Pocket Power went on to become the first horse to win the Winter Series in 2004 and win the Queen’s Plate an unbelievable 4 consecutive times. While it is quite possible that he would have done so anyway, with an exceptional horse like Winter Solstice leading the way, those achievements might have been just that little bit easier to imagine.
The magic about great horses (or people really) lies not so much in their achievements, as in that special feeling they evoke in you. Tenacity, fighting spirit and above all, heart are the words that came up most often when discussing Winter Solstice and remind me of the Miguel de Cervantes comment that “The guts carry the feet, not the feet the guts.” And so today, although I’ve written somewhat more about a feeling than about a horse, it is true that the one cannot exist without the other.
The word superstar is bandied about all to frivously these days, but the real, true superstars (human and equine) have a way of lighting up our lives that may not necessarily making the onward journey easier, but perhaps lights the way forward and adds a little cheer to the journey. Winter Solstice really was one such super star.
I owe a huge and ongoing debt of gratitude to my friends for so many of my lessons about life. One of the most treasured is the belief that when a special soul passes, they join the heavenly bodies up in the sky and there is forever one more star to light our way. I do believe, that as of 3 February 2011 there is an extra star in the sky and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it somewhere near the constellation for Aries.
Winter Solstice (Western Winter – French Muse)
2000 – 2011
RIP
