When Joey Ramsden showered the Cape Premier Yearling Sale Guineas winner’s podium on Saturday afternoon with the liquid lava spurting from a jeroboam of Moet, the fantasy fountain signified new beginnings and milestones in a few lives.
It was Joey’s first Guineas. It was Markus and Ingrid Jooste’s first Cape Guineas. It was Beaumont Stud’s first Guineas. And Var arrived as a serious stallion and the sire of a Mile Classic winner.
We have long debated the legend and reality of the failure mentality that simmers under the mainstream cloud cover of horseracing. When one tries something different or new,a lot of folk somehow want to see you fail. And the introduction of a speed stallion to South Africa in 2005 was no different as it was certainly greeted with some scepticism.
The late Avontuur Supremo Tony Taberer’s mandate to his General Manager Pippa Mickleburgh was simple enough on paper. Replacing their old faifhful long-serving servant Dominion Royale was not going to be easy. But they wanted to acquire the best looking racehorse with the best track record.They wanted to vary Dominion Royale’s rugged tough versatility with a singular overriding element of class.
Robin Bruss came up with the European Champion Sprinter. A son of Forest Wildcat, and a looker to boot. And described by world champion jockey Frankie Dettori as the fastest horse he had ever sat on. But Var wasn’t going cheap. Does real quality ever, though?
A successful breeder and astute businessman, Tony Taberer knew well that he who hesitated was lost. He signed the agreement, paid the money and Var was Africa-bound.
Unlike the usual cautious approach of syndicating the horse prior to his arrival, Taberer had a good feeling about Stormcat’s lightening fast grandson. He was prepared to subsidise the acquisition and this he did. But it only took one stallion viewing and a lunch in the eminent surrounds of the beautiful Avontuur Estate after Var’s arrival, and the twenty shares were taken up. The Var Syndicate was born. Six years and a few minor obstacles later, they have arrived. And that exquisite lunch is now looking rather cheap!
Var’s sire Forest Wildcat has the unique distinction of producing two simultaneous first season champion sires on two separate continents in the same year. Besides Var’s first season successes in South Africa, Wildcat Heir took the champion freshman title in the USA.
Wildcat Heir in fact achieved a new Northern Hemisphere record of 39 two-year-old winners in his first crop. He covered 173 mares in his first season, for a reported total of 123 live foals, of which 109 had been named by the end of last year. His 39 winners therefore represent nearly 36 % of his named foals, which is easily the best percentage achieved by any of the top 20 freshman sires.
Forest Wildcat means pure speed though . Or so we may have rightly thought. But Var produced an Oaks winner in Princess Of Light, and on Saturday he sired a Guineas winner. This is a year when the Classic crop is considered a measure above average. He beat Mike De Kock’s Dingaans winner Silver Flyer by a mile-well almost. And just take a look at some of those big names behind the De Kock horse in the Dingaans.
And let us not overlook Glen Kotzen’s brilliant filly, Princess Victoria. She is pure athletic awe and the daughter of Victory Moon looks to be taking over the crown worn by the likes of Empress Club and Star Effort from great years gone by. She ran her heart out and stayed on for third place, behind Variety Club.
Var’s first ever runner was a winner. The speedy Enchanted won an 800m Juvenile scurry at Kenilworth on 15 November 2008 in 49.8 seconds. She was trained by the late doyen of Eastern Cape trainers, Oom Nic Claasen . The brilliant fast Vaughan Marshall-trained Villandry won his first race over the same course and distance just two months later and then travelled up to the KZN Champions Season to win a Gr2 sprint at Clairwood. He then firmly placed Var on the map of Africa with a scintillating win in the Gr1 Gold Medallion at Scottsville over 1200m at end of May 2009. Var had struck early. A Group 1 winner in his first crop.
But for all that Villandry did to place his fast father’s name in lights, he may also have unwittingly raised other questions. Like, are the Var kids just fast precocious sorts who win early and don’t train on? Nobody will care about Villandry’s health issues that plagued his three and four year old seasons. The records will show that he took over two years to win his next race, That was at Arlington on Monday when he carried too many guns for his nine oponents in an MR90 Handicap over 1000m.
Pippa recalls the obstacles and challenges that faced her ‘boyfriend’ in the early days, and which are not unique to a stallion trying to make a name for himself:
” After we syndicated him, we then faced overcoming the fertility issue- he passed that test with flying colours. Then what would his foals look like? They were beautiful. I remember putting our beautiful black Elliodor mare Minelli to him. I thought their dark coats, would produce a smashing looker with a white face. But out came a chestnut. That was a girl we called Val De Ra- who just happens to be SA’s champion sprinter today! His second foal was a grey. One never stops learning in this game!” she said
Pippa also went on to recount that only twice ever in all her years around horses, has a breeder phoned her to say, ‘wow you should see this foal!’. The first of these was Duncan Barry of Riverton Stud. He rang on a Sunday morning to tell Pippa that he had just delivered the best Dominion Royale colt ever. He wasn’t far off the mark, as Domino Man downed the brilliant Dynasty in the 2003 Cape Argus Guineas.
The only other breeder to do that was Anton Shepherd of Beaumont Stud. He phoned to tell Pippa about a magnificent Var colt, who would go on to make his mark. Joey Ramsden bought the fellow. His name? Variety Club, of course! Interestingly and totally unwittingly Pippa has a sentimental connection to Variety Club’s dam, La Massine, that commenced over two decades prior to Saturday’s Guineas.
About a century ago, Pippa worked for Guy Landon at Aldora Stud. Her boss sent her down to Lammerskraal to look at purchasing a brilliant racemare by the name of Novenna, a winner of the SA Oaks and the Gr1 Summer Champion Stakes. She was in foal to Jungle Cove. She produced the top racehorse Secret Rites, a winner of the Gr 1 Mainstay International. Novenna was eventually covered by Northern Guest and this mating produced Karpakova – Variety Club’s granddam.
From the good looking yearlings, the speed has now passed to classic winners, that really do train on. Var has also shown that he produces top horses of both sexes.
As for Joey Ramsden, Var’s name is in good hands. It has been a surreal champagne streak for him. In November he swept all before with a shock win with the grey Shades Of Indigo in the Gr2 Merchants, then won the Gr2 Green Point Stakes with the revitalised Bravura. Variety Club then came out and won the Gr2 Selangor and on Saturday he followed through with that dazzling display in the Gr1 Guineas. That is quite a run!
When asked to compare Variety Club with probably the best horse he has trained, Ramsden said he and Winter Solstice were two totally different horses. But they shared one important racing trait – amazing gate speed. When final declarations go to book on 29 December for the Gr1 L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate to be run on 7 January, one gets the impression that Variety Club’s name will be there. And what a race that is developing into – with Saturday’s Diadem winner, What A Winter, also likely to be in the line-up. And a small matter of two great ladies in Igugu and Ebony Flyer.
