In this edition:
Cape Sales
Snow Fairy – Globeform Report
Racing Recap
CAPE SALES:
Never mind the economy, as always, at the recent record offering of horses on auction in the Cape there was plenty of support for the right horse. A well made son of Silvano topped last weekends back-to-back dual sale billing at R700 000. Buyers have been spoilt for choice in the Cape these past 6 weeks and one has to say that they have stepped up to the plate. Bottom line: any yearling that looked the part and read well sold well – the lower end of the market was fatal and sadly over-stocked. But as we all know – horses don’t know what they cost. Just ask JJ The Jet Plane or the 2010 Gr1 Investec Oaks Heroine Snow Fairy – she cost just $2500 and has won over $3.25m to-date. See extract from www.globeform.com report about this fantastic filly below.
The exciting new format of the Cape Sales season kicked off with an unexpected reduction sale of 61 lots for the Est Late Graham Beck which collected R10m. Two weeks later the same sale company staged the Equimark Ready to Run Sale on the 25th January where the 62 lots offered generated a turnover of R2.3m – barely two days before the Inaugural Cape Premier Yearling Sale which catalogued 290 yearlings and another R89m of spend. Then just a month later Bloodstock SA and Equimark went head to head with rival sales a day apart offering a staggering 440 more yearlings which generated another R13m in sales. And on 23rd February Mike Holmes Bloodstock in Durban offered 200 lots of which 95 were yearlings.
In a period of just 2 months buyers have been asked to consume an unprecedented 856 horses in the Cape and they forked out a shade over R114m. We are facing yet another 600 yearlings in Johannesburg next month – therefore an all-time record 1650 horses in the first quarter of this year. Clearly a case of over-production. Yearlings that were under prepared or lacked scope or had really poor catalogue type were ignored as buyers had so much else to choose from. Of the 154 yearlings catalogued by BSA only 84 sold, 22 were withdrawn and 48 failed to reach their reserve or simply failed to find a bid at all. The BSA sale was largely “end of the range stuff” – yearlings that did not make the grade for either the Premier or the National Yearling Sale and were not worth keeping for the Two Year Old or Ready to Run Sale. This does not mean that they can’t or won’t win races – quite the contrary – that’s the beauty of racing. They don’t know what they cost – consider Snow Fairy and hosts of other “cheapie” heroes from past sales!!!
The Equimark sale had stronger offerings overall. A few Cape Stud Farms have come to use this as the venue for all of their yearlings instead of making the long arduous trek to Jhb – and who can blame them? Litchfield and Arc-en-Ciel have supported this sale with their entire drafts for some years and Zandvliet split their draft between the two events. Even so there was little between the averages of the two sales:- BSA’s average of a shade under R48 000 was remarkably just a few thousand below Equimark’s R49 562 despite a top lot at R700 000 and 23 others realizing 6 figures and more.
A daughter of Trippi topped the BSA sale at R360 000. Consigned by Zandvliet Stud and bought by Mike Bass Racing, this well-made, deep girthed filly was out of the Damascus Gate mare Gem Queen who won 2 – her first foal Victoriana is a stakes placed winner of 3 races and hails from a family that has produced a host of stakes winning fillies. Second highest price of R170 000 was made by a son of Casey’s Tibbs. A Caesour filly from Varsfontein was bought by Corne Spies for R160 000 and Magico’s trainer Paul Peter paid joint 3rd highest price for a superbly made son of Dupont at R110 000.
The Equimark Sale topper at R700 000 was paid by Mike Bass for the Arc en Ciel consigned colt by Silvano (who recently also made news by virtue of the fact that Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum has purchased a share in this leading stallion and former German Horse of the Year) and Silvano also accounted for the 2nd top lot at R300 000 a colt out of a Qui Danzig mare consigned by Drakenstein as agent. Other sires that sold for 6 figures were: 3 newcomers Ashaawes, Black Minnaloushe and Tobe or Nottobe, as well as proven sires Captain Al, Jet Master, Toreador, deceased Victory Moon, Var and Windrush who got R200 000 each for two fillies. Right Approach had a yearling half-brother to Cree Lodge (out of the Goldmark mare Fiery Spirit) that sold for R110 000.
A remarkable feature of both sales was that despite the heat wave that buyers had to endure there was a great vibe. The sale at Sandringham saw an average of 35 horses sell per hour and there-in lies the tale. Buyers don’t want to hear auctioneers bang on hour after hour with wasted repetitious pleas for more. Get on with the job – keep the tempo up and the vibe follows – especially when battling with bids that are never going to happen.
SNOW FAIRY – GLOBEFORM REPORT:
DUBAI SHEEMA CLASSIC CONTENDER:
SNOW FAIRY – BARGAIN GIRL ON TOP OF THE WORLD
Having cost just 1,800 euros at the sales as a yearling – approximately $2,500 – the English trained Snow Fairy must be the cheapest horse set to compete at Meydan on Dubai World Cup night. She will also be one of the best, having won championship events in England, Ireland, Japan and Hong Kong last year.
The first of those four wins came in the Investec Oaks (G1) at Epsom Downs outside London in June. The Oaks is the one of most prestigious events in the European racing calendar, and Snow Fairy was not expected to make appearances at such a high level. As a juvenile she was pretty useful, though some way below the best in her division, but rapid improvement was shown early into her three-year-old campaign. After an impressive win in the Height Of Fashion Stakes (LR) at Goodwood in May it was decided to supplement her for the Oaks at Epsom 16 days later. The price for a place in the line-up was £20,000, more than twelve times her yearling price.
Snow Fairy lost ground due to a bad stumble at the start in the Height Of Fashion at Goodwood, and it was quite a performance to get back on terms, and then draw off for such an emphatic win. Still, was she up to running in a Group One? The bookmakers had her at long odds the week before Epsom, though on the day they were forced to revise it – as shrewd money came for the Ed Dunlop trained filly. Dunlop had tasted incredible success with Ouija Board a few years earlier of course, and any filly from this yard merits respect. As the gates opened, Snow Fairy was a 9-1 shot, from having been 16-1 in the morning. She did not enjoy the best of starts here either, and was still at the rear of the 14-runner field entering the home straight. Snow Fairy advanced gradually but found her path blocked, then jockey Ryan Moore switched her to an opening by the rail, and the filly accelerated past horses to get to the lead about 150 yards from the post. She kept on gamely, to hold on by a neck from the staying-on Meeznah (later disqualified). Ireland’s main hope, the Aidan O’Brien trained Remember When was 2 lengths further back in third. It was not a particularly strong Oaks field, but any theories of Snow Fairy being a sub-standard classic winner were silenced as she followed up in the Irish Oaks (G1) at The Curragh in July. She won that by no less than 8 lengths, outclassing Miss Jean Brodie, Lady Lupus and Meeznah. Snow Fairy was a bit special, no doubt, and she was improving. Once more, she had justified a supplementary fee, and she became Dunlop’s third winner of the race, following Lailani in 2001 and Ouija Board in 2004.
Two defeats followed, as Snow Fairy had to settle for second behind Midday in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1), where she ran a bit one-paced and went down by 3 lengths, and fourth in the St. Leger (G1), where she failed to stay the 1 3/4-mile trip and was beaten the same margin behind Arctic Cosmos.
After a two-month rest, Snow Fairy was shipped to Japan in mid-November, to take on some of the best local fillies and mares in the Queen Elizabeth II Commemorative Cup (G1) over 2200 metres at Kyoto racecourse. Not among the most popular in the betting, she proved much the best – beating the two favourites Meisho Beluga and Apapane very easily. She passed the winning post 4 lengths ahead of the runner-up. Mesiho Beluga had beaten males in a G2 on her previous start and Apapane was coming off a nice win in the Shuka Sho (G1), having landed the Japanese Oaks (G1) earlier in the year. Beating these fillies in such a manner indicated that Snow Fairy was not done improving, and confirmation came in the Hong Kong Cup (G1) at Sha Tin in December, when she beat another strong field to close out what was indeed a ‘dream year’ for the bargain filly. Dropping back up to 2000 metres, she came with her usual charge from off the pace, to get up for a neck win over the ex-German colt Irian , with Packing Winner third, followed by the two French contenders Vision d’Etat and Planteur.
Snow Fairy won 5 of her 7 races as a three-year-old, she has earned over £2 million, and retiring her to the breeding shed must have been tempting for her owners, Anamoine Limited, but it was soon made known that she would race on at four. She will be making her seasonal debut in the Sheema Classic (G1) and she has a big chance. Her connections also considered the World Cup – where she would not be out of place either. Snow Fairy is a daughter of the top-class miler Intikhab and her dam, Woodland Dream, is by another accomplished miler, Charnwood Forest. Woodland Dream won over 7 furlongs (1400 metres) as a three-year-old and she is a half-sister to the smart 10-furlong performer Big Bad Bob, who has become a good stallion in Ireland. This is also the family of Epsom Derby (G1) winner Oath.
RACING RECAP:
Results of last weekend’s racing countrywide produced some useful results for the sires in our portfolio:-
Captain Al produced Captain’s Cove the winner of the Listed Lady’s Pendant over 1200m, 2ndplace went to Dynasty’s daughter Roxie Heart. Captains Cove is out of a Complete Warrior mare that I bought with Rodney Dunn at the KZN Broodmare sale specifically to breed to Captain Al. We got a filly and sold her to Raymond Koopstad in foal to Captain Al with a booking to Goldkeeper. The mare has since produced Gr2 stakes placed winner of 8 races and just short of R1m in the Qui Danzig gelding Renegade as well as this new stakes winner Captains Cove and has a smart sort from the Goldkeeper mating in Splash Gold who has won 5 of his 9 starts and been placed 4 times. Captain’s Cove had a serious leg injury as a yearling which has been brilliantly healed in the care of trainer Justin Snaith – she has a solid form line with 4 wins and 8 places in 15 starts and was 2nd to the star filly Covenant at the start of the season.
Just halfway through the season Captain Al has scored 6 more winners since breaking the 100 win barrier last week. He holds a strong lead as the leading sire by number of winners (106) to date and looks set the break yet another SA record this season. The all-time record for the number of winners (all ages) in a single season by any sire is 166 and we still have half a season to go. The good Captain is also leading sire by number of individual winners and leading sire of 3yo’s by number of winners.
Count Dubois’ 2yo daughter Kinematic Countess (Roy Magner) ran 2nd in the Ruffian Stakes (L) at Turffontein on Saturday and Dynasty had two more winners and the feature 2nd place reported above. Count Dubois is joint leading sire of 3yo’s by % stakes winners and is on the rise again – watch this space!!
John Freeman
