Bezanova wins the 2014 Charity Mile
Racing and breeding are unrelenting games. Spencer Cook has seen the best and the worst in a single, concentrated and highly emotional weekend.
Spencer is one of the brightest splashes of colour on our breeding and racing landscape and stands Bezrin, a stakes-winning son of Danzig, at his farm in the Western Cape. Bezrin has just enjoyed the biggest weekend of his stud career, clocking his first Gr2 victory on Saturday when Chris Gerber’s Bezanova knocked everyone’s socks off in the Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile. Roy Moodley’s homebred Royal Colours made it a double celebration when he notched his 6th consecutive win at Greyville. Despite having surface and distance changes sprung on him rather last minute, it seems versatility is all in a day’s work for the flashy chestnut.
The race track highs were all the more poignant for being set against a backdrop of heartbreak. It’s the middle of the foaling season and an uncharacteristically subdued Spencer relates that 2 weeks ago he foaled down the most magnificent Bezrin colt “He’s an absolute 12 out of 10, honestly. Unfortunately he was born blind. We’ve really tried, but there’s nothing we can do and we have to put him down. It’s tough, I tell you,” he says with genuine feeling.
Bezrin originally stood in KZN for Craig Ramsay, then spent a season in the Cape with Spencer, before heading back to Natal. However, his foals were so impressive that Spencer purchased all of Craig’s shares and Bezrin is now back and very much at home at The Rock.
Despite relatively small books, Bezrin has proved incredibly versatile with first crop produce Thunderflash scoring a Gr3 win over 1400m as well as a Listed victory over 3600m! Spencer responds, “He’s a stakes-winning son of Danzig and that can happen.”
Spencer, who is based on an idyllic little corner of the Boland with his wife Tutti and daughter Ella, says “It’s just a small farm, but it’s our own little piece of heaven. We’re not trying to be clever, we just want to be able to pay our bills and to be honest, the prices for a lot of the commercial stallions just make it too much of a gamble. Craig still takes a keen interest in Bezrin and sends me regular updates and I believe the damline is alive and well abroad. I don’t really follow all the facts and figures, but of his local progeny I’m told that Bezrin’s runners have an average merit rating on par with some of the top sires in the country and he holds his own with his average earnings per runner. We’re very happy.”
Bezrin – ‘A proper son of Danzig’
“I’ve got some 2yo’s and then missed a year while he was in Natal, but last year I gave him 30 of my own mares. We lost a few along the way, but so far we’ve got 10 colts and 10 fillies. He does get the odd outside mare, but basically I’m the only one supporting him and that suits me fine. Bezrin is a proper son of Danzig. He gets everything in foal, he sorts out all my conformation problems and upgrades all my mares. And he’s been very good to me in the sales ring. What more can you ask?”
