Monbeg Dude beats Teaforthree
With the Cape Premier Yearling Sale upon us this week, bidders will play the grand game of cat and mouse poker in the sophisticated environs of the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Whether your approach is scientific and calculated, or you opt to rather utilise the Tindall method, some will get very lucky.
There is surely no other place on earth that one could buy a lifestyle and a dream under one roof for less than the price of a middle of the range family sedan. If you are lucky that is.
Being royally wined and dined in the shadow of Table Mountain and within spitting distance of the Cape Town Waterfront, while watching the 234 lots pass through the ring like a blur over two days, sounds really hard work.
And to the uneducated eye, particularly after a glass or two of the Cape’s finest, they all start looking the same. And you know you are in big trouble when the name or lot number appeals more than the conformation or the breeding.
If you are feeling lucky, there is always the Tindall method to fall back on to.
The former English rugby captain Mike Tindall has given new hope to those who will not be doing their homework and having a shot in the dark, while just having a good time this week.
Michael James Tindall MBE was playing outside centre for Gloucester against London Irish last month when he got the call at half time that his horse, Monbeg Dude, had just won the Coral Welsh National at Chepstow.
Veteran jockey Paul Carberry produced the 10-1 shot with exquisite timing to foil a nationwide gamble to beat Teaforthree, the 11-4 favourite, under Tony McCoy.
Tindall is married to Zara Phillips. The daughter of the Princess Royal and the eldest granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II, a top horsewoman in her own right, had branded her hubby an ‘idiot’ after he had gone to £12,000 at auction to buy a racehorse he knew absolutely nothing about.
His current partner and Gloucester team mate James Simpson-Daniel recalled: ‘We’d had about five pints and a bottle of wine when Mike started bidding with his back to the sales ring. He probably ended up bidding against himself. And we got Monbeg Dude for £12,000. We didn’t really know what we had bought as the horse had only just arrived from Ireland.’
The former England rugby star explained: ‘I like to bid at auctions without meaning to actually win things. I only went for a bite to eat and a night out. No horse had gone for less than £28,000 so I thought my first bid of £10,000 was pretty safe, likewise when I upped it to £12,000.’
Tindall has spoken of his shock when the sales room fell silent after Monbeg Dude was knocked down to him.
‘I had no intention of buying him and the auctioneer wasn’t keen because he announced that he didn’t have a particularly enthusiastic buyer,’ he admitted.
Wasps and Wales fly-half Nicky Robinson and trainer Michael Scudamore, a youth international with Wales, are the other two shareholders in Monbeg Dude.
Scudamore, 28, played as a flanker for Ebbw Vale, but with a brother, father and grandfather all famous jockeys, it was hardly a surprise that his rugby career foundered through lack of bulk.
With a number of horses having been removed from his yard near Ross-on-Wye in the past year, the emotional victory in January could not have come at a better time for Scudamore.
With their sights set on a bid on the Grand National, the partnership have turned down offers of £200 000 for Monbeg Dude.
