Rock On! Heavy Metal storms ahead to win the Vodacom Durban July
The fight for supremacy at the top of the breeders and trainers logs caught the public imagination last season. That is, of course, not to undermine the brilliant runaway successes of Maine Chance’s super sire Silvano and the unstoppable Piere Strydom, in their respective categories.
The Equine Group recently released a fascinating over-view of the season’s highlights and the story makes for a fascinating keepsake tapestry for all of us involved. The trainers championship dominated racing news in the final few weeks as the battle between Sean Tarry and Mike de Kock went down to the final days.
Mike de Kock sealed his 8th National Trainer’s Championship with stakes earned throughout the year of about R16.9million, approximately R350.000 ahead of Tarry. The Snaith’s would finish back in third in what has been a highly successful season, finishing the season on a record breaking 198 wins and also having trained 7 winners on a card down in the Eastern Cape.
The big races this past year have been properly dominated by Sean Tarry, Joey Ramsden, Dennis Drier, Mike de Kock and Mike Bass – between them winning half of the Grade 1’s on offer throughout the year. Sean Tarry led the way with four Grade 1’s, including his defense of the Durban July crown, while the others were all tied for second on three a piece. It’s worth noting that in every one of the criteria used above De Kock was in the top three.
Breeding The Best
Duncan Barry: Riverton Stud
The other Championship which dominated the news over the last few weeks was that of the National Breeders’ Championship between incumbent champion Summerhill Stud in Natal and the rising power of Klawervlei Stud in the Western Cape.
The results of these two breeding juggernauts are remarkably similar across all counts – their leading horses, Love Struck (Summerhill) and Vercingetorix (Klawervlei), have even earned almost the exact amount throughout the year. As with the trainer’s championship the defending title-holders Summerhill were able to hold on by about R300 000 and win their 9th Breeders’ Championship.
Klawervlei meanwhile were the country’s leader in terms of number of winners (131) and wins (195) throughout the year and third placed on the log Highlands were the leader in producing the most stakes winners (11) and stakes wins (12) led by Champions Cup G1 winner Jackson.
The major goal of any breeding operation must surely be to produce stakes horses, and for that reason one has to make special mention of Riverton Stud who had the highest strike rate of stakes winners this past season (excluding farms with only a few runners) with 18% stakes winners/runner.
Riverton Stud produced the winner of the Gr1 Tsogo Sun Medallion three out of the last four years (Captain of All, Link Man and Potent Power). A few other farms with notable stakes winning percentages are:
• Avontuur (15%)
• Highlands (13%)
• Varsfontein (12%)
• Lammerskraal (12%)
• Backworth Stud (14%)
• Daytona (15%)
• Ascot (14%)
• Cheveley Stud (12%)
• Milkwood (16%)
• Ambiance Stud (12%)
Leading Stallion
Mike De Kock: Another Trainer Championship Title
Maine Chance’s Silvano won the National Sires Championship by more than R5m, breaking the previous record with almost R21million in stakes earned this last year. The fact that he was also easily the country’s leading sire by Average Earnings per Runner (nearly R100.000) and that he sired a massive five Gr1 winners this past year (six if we include overseas runners) including the country’s leading money earner, Heavy Metal, should be the numbers that put his achievement into true perspective.
Though the ill fated Jet Master relinquished his position at the top of the log for the first time in seven years, he hardly had a bad season in second. The defending champ was the leader in terms of number of winners (113), wins (185), stakes winners (16), stakes wins (17), stakes performers (20) and was tied with Silvano at the top of the log with the best percentage of stakes winners/winners with 14%.
Jet Master was also only beaten by Trippi and Var in terms of having the best winners/runner strike rate. Trippi and Var both had a 52% strike rate while Jet Master had 50%. The Average Earnings per Runner statistic is useful because it helps highlight successful stallions that do not have as many runners as the boys at the top of the log. Following behind Silvano are Tiger Ridge (R83K), Var (R75K), Dynasty (R71K) and Jet Master (R69K).
Similarly the stallions with the leading stakes winner percentages are those who are the most prolific at producing top class horses. Western Winter (13%) and Captain Al (12%) were hot on Silvano and Jet Master’s heels among the big stallions. Grade 1 winners ultimately are what we are all aiming for in racing. There were only six stallions which produced two or more Grade 1 winners this past year:
• Silvano (5)
• Var (3)
• Tiger Ridge (2)
• Western Winter (2)
• Dynasty (2)
• Captain Al (2)
• Judpot (2)
Leading Owner
Chris Van Niekerk: July Double and a great season
Ingrid and Markus Jooste successfully defended the title, easily measured by stakes earned or by number of wins throughout the year. The Jooste camp was led by reigning Horse of the Year Variety Club who had an unbeaten season including two Grade 1’s and also had the talented Captain of All and Blueridge Mountain bring home Grade 1 wins.
Chris van Niekerk had a huge year in second once again with horses such as Heavy Metal, Pomodoro, Whiteline Fever, For the Lads and Kolkata representing him in major races throughout the year. No horse earned anything near as much as Heavy Metal this last year with his Champions Challenge G1 and Durban July G1 wins. To cap the season off for Van Niekerk he made history this year in successfully defending the Durban July Gr1 crown.
Fred Crabbia, Bridget Oppenheimer and Sabine Plattner rounded off the top five while the best win strike rate among major owners were Lady Laidlaw (31%), Shanks Syndicate (25%), Sheikh Hamdan (23%) and Al Adiyaat (22%).
