The Lanzerac has added its brand to local racing
Cape Thoroughbred Sales exploded onto the local sales scene in 2011 with their inaugural Cape Premier Yearling Sale and their small but dynamic team has had everyone running to keep up ever since.
By 2012, CTS could offer 2 books of Cape Yearlings as well as their first Ready To Run catalogue. Fast forward to 2014 and they now boast two Cape Yearling Sales as well as two Ready To Run Sales and 2015 will see the addition of an April Johannesburg Select Yearling Sale to their stable. And of course there have been a host of stakes incentives and race innovations in their wake.
Almost exactly a year ago, the historic Lanzerac Hotel & Spa hosted a sumptuous event to announce that they were joining forces with CTS and Kenilworth Racing to lend a touch of elegance and history to the inaugural R2million 2013 Lanzerac Ready To Run Stakes. The race, held on 23 November 2013 produced an exciting duel between Captain America and Red Ray.
The Lanzerac team found their foray into racing so rewarding that they decided to extend their patronage and Tuesday, 27 May 2014 saw them host another wonderful reception to announce their collaboration with CTS and Kuda Insurance to create a 4-day racing festival. As CTS strives to be a market leader in everything it does, it was appropriate that they chose to set their 2014 Ready To Run Sale around the date for the Matchem Stakes, a race traditionally regarded as heralding the Cape Summer Season.
Kuda Insurance has sponsored the Matchem Stakes since 2012 and grown the country course race day into a fun and friendly event. Adding the Lanzerac brand to the Matchem’s fillies’ equivalent, the Gr3 Diana Stakes, provided a colts and fillies feature race double, which not only helped supplement the stake, but lent Durbanville some well-deserved prestige and feature race kudos. And of course, CTS added the final flourish, staging their Ready To Run breeze-ups on Thursday, 2 October and hosting their sale over 2 days on Saturday and Sunday, around the day’s racing activities.
On top of that, Kenilworth Racing and Racing, It’s A Rush further complemented the day by building in the second annual jockey dash as well as hosting the first in a series of 6 race days for their new Ambassador programme.
So, how did it all go?
Lot 72 Bonfire Heart (Trippi-Aretha)
CTS have few equals when it comes to pushing out the hospitality boat and Thursday’s breeze-ups were no exception. Although they previously used Durbanville’s concourse buildings, this year CTS erected a large marquee on the infield and the generous awning neatly and conveniently housed everything under one roof. It contained the sales ring and seating areas, the sales office, media centre and of course the bar and catering facilities. For anyone wishing to escape the madding crowd, there was plenty of covered seating outside as well. The CTS team dispatched efficient SMS reminders about the 8am starting time to ensure that everyone arrived in good order and Durbanville’s smart new signs and ample parking made access really easy. The day dawned bright, sunny and unexpectedly warm. Fortunately CTS had prepared for that too, and stocked up on sunblock for patrons (and journos!) who were caught unprepared. The breakfast was generous and the gallops got underway efficiently just after 9am. The Cape breeze ups have made significant progress since 2012. Balmoral had as usual arrived well in advance as was evidenced by some very polished performances from their draft. Others had arrived rather more last minute, giving the babies very little chance of getting their bearings before having to gallop the Durbanville gauntlet, but on the whole, things ran pretty smoothly.
Buyers started arriving in force on Friday and kept vendors busy pulling out horses for viewings. With so many folks flying in from out of town, sales always make for a festive atmosphere.
Sowing Seeds
Instant Fun! Ambassadors get to try out the starting stalls
Durbanville offered an 8-race card, including the Diana Stakes, won in good order by Double Whammy under Greg Cheyne for the Kotzen yard and Glen Puller added another notch to his Matchem post with a decisive victory from Reim, leading from start to finish in a beautifully judged ride by son Chris.
Kenilworth Racing and the Racing, It’s A Rush team also rolled out the first of their 6 Ambassador race days for the year. With the help of local consumer collaboration agency Instant Grass, 5 young urban black well-connected opinion formers were identified and invited to a day at the races. The 5 ‘grasses’ were tasked with inviting 10 friends and the party were collected by coach at the Instant Grass offices in Green Point on Saturday morning and driven to Durbanville. The Kenilworth Racing team pulled out all the stops, laying on a marquee tent, full catering and a big screen TV. However, most significantly, they had roped in folks from all aspects of racing to help educate the group.
The group was split into small sections, which then took turns being shown around the race course. The Stipes took them into the weighing room and showed them the jockeys, the riding equipment and safety gear and explained how and why we weigh jockeys in and out. A number of trainers volunteered to address groups in the parade ring, explaining a little of what goes on behind the scenes to get a horse race ready as well as some of the race day formalities. The jockeys explained race riding, Theresa Esplin gave the groups a tour around the tower, they got shown the start and had an opportunity to examine the starting stalls and a number also insisted on being taken to the sales yard to touch a horse. Jenna had even arranged for Colesdale Equine & Farrier Supplies to have a stall on course to show the difference between hack plates and alumites. It was a fun, noisy, inquisitive group, who were fascinated with the intricacies involved in a day’s racing.
Ambassadors – sophisticated, bright young things
I don’t spend a great deal of time with our local youth, nevermind our local urban youth and found it a fascinating glimpse into their lives, their backgrounds and their hopes for the future. There was a cross section of students finishing their qualifications as well as a number of people who were just starting out in their professional careers. The girls had fun dressing up and socialising and a number of the boys – mainly pursuing medical and financial careers – got very competitive putting their new-found knowledge into practice on the betting side of things.
Rather than being frivolous party-goers, they took everyone’s efforts very seriously and were genuinely appreciative that so many people all across the course had gone to so much trouble to make them feel welcome and show them around. All were friendly and chatty and keen to tell me about the experience and show me their photos of the parade ring, the people they’d met and the horses they’d patted. In just one afternoon, they had absorbed an enormous amount about racing and could even inform me which operators managed which of our centres! The thing I found most encouraging was their fascination for the horses and jockeys and the fact that they found racing fascinating as a sport. Also, despite the selfies (and later the ‘groundies’) being taken and uploaded into the ether, there was a strong conviction that racing was not something you can adequately sell with photographs and social media (although there was certainly plenty of that going on), but that it was something you needed to appreciate up close and personal and on course.
Our bright young things will be back on course at Kenilworth for Cape Classic day on 25 October, so if you see them, please do say hello.
Jockey Dash
Dashing! Our jockeys run for charity
Last year saw the first jockey dash at the end of Cape Classic day. It was unexpected fun and all the jockeys who participated really pulled out all the stops to entertain the crowds. Plus they raised R16,000 in sponsorship for Cape Town Child Welfare as well as an additional R100,000 donation from Mrs Sabine Plattner when Aldo Domeyer showed that he runs as good as he rides!
This year, the dash was turned into a middle distance event over 150m. While sitting on a horse galloping around a track at top speed for 60 seconds or so doesn’t sound particularly taxing, race riding is exhausting and huge kudos to all the jockeys (including birthday boy Brandon Morgenrood) for throwing so much energy and enthusiasm into Saturday’s event.
Like a boss! Aldo Domeyer wins the 2014 Jockey Dash with ease
There was a real carnival atmosphere with fancy dress costumes, a team mascot and even a Jack Russell in the fray, but in the end, our defending champion Aldo Domeyer won like a boss for the second year running. Yogas Govender gave us plenty of confidence going into the race, so well done Plattner Racing and may the season continue in the same vein! Of course, the biggest winner was the Western Cape Association for Persons with Disabilities, which received a cheque for R15,000 and huge thanks to all the sponsors (Plattner Racing, Bryn Ressell, Sorrento Stud, Richmond Stud, Red Carpet Events, CTS Ready To Run Sales, Lanzerac Hotel, Brett Crawford Racing, Paul Reeves Racing, Highlands Farm, Cape Premier Yearling Sales, Warren Laird, Cheveley Stud, Drakenstein Stud, Kuda Insurance, Maine Chance Farms, Fieldspring Racing, Hemel ‘n Aarde Stud, Avontuur Thoroughbred Farm, Ed Bouwer, Klawervlei Stud, Braam van Huyssteen and Marsh Shirtliff) for making it happen.
Ready To Run
Sales Topper – Lot 2 Perpetual Silence (Trippi-Nimley)
Durbanville treated us to a balmy, warm summer’s evening while we shouted the Springboks to victory and then it was off to the sales ring to see the first half of the catalogue led through the ring. The action hotted up straightaway with Geoff Woodruff having to go all the way to R1,5 million to secure lot 2, a Trippi colt from the Klawervlei draft. Warm White Night has produced some eye-catching progeny and lot 20 had been something of the talking horse of the sale. Vaughan Marshall managed to grab him for R1,1 million. By the time the hammer came down on the last lot for the evening, CTS had achieved an aggregate of R13,525,000 an average of R196,014 and a median of R150,000.
Day 2 was equally as exciting with Michael Leaf going to R1million to secure the Archipenko colt from the Balmoral draft (lot 106) and David Allan securing lot 164, a Henrythenavigator colt, also from Balmoral, for R1,15million. The sale ended with an overall aggregate of R32,510,000, an average of R195,843 and a median of R150,000.
Congratulations to all vendors and buyers – I hope you got a good one !
