Var progeny on centre stage
It is great horses rather than men in suits who could still resurrect this wonderful game from the ashes of the economic meltdown. This was illustrated in no uncertain terms on Sunday afternoon at Clairwood where the Var star Val De Ra stepped back into the office after over nine months sick leave and put in a performance that was nothing short of dazzling. The mooted match race between her and the year younger Romantic Moon never caught flame but the real excitement now lies in the prospect of a showdown between the Avontuur flyer and the brilliant What A Winter in the Computaform Sprint at Turffontein at end April. What a spectacle that could be!
Sunday’s Listed Kwazulu-Natal Stakes looked like an innocuous little race at first glance. It was in fact the stake of R111 875 that first caught my eye. A sponsored race over the minimum trip, rounded down somewhat bizarrely to a R5 unit, for six smart flying fillies who had won 26 races between them. At second glance, the quality race looked like a match in two between the Dennis Drier-trained speedster Val De Ra, a winner of six of her seven outings, which included the same race last year when run at Greyville, and the Duncan Howells-trained three year old Romantic Moon – herself a six time winner and who has been making a big name for herself in East Coast racing circles in recent months. In the end, it turned into a walk in the Clairwood Park for Val De Ra and true victory theatre of a story of love and patience that featured a cast including a man called Drier, a lady known as Pippa, a stallion called Var, a passionate Vet called Crossley and, of course, the star of the show – a very ill filly who came close to death’s door.
Who can blame Pippa Mickleburgh for shedding a tear or three after the scintillating win just after three o’clock on a lazy Sunday afternoon? The daughter of the four-time winning Elliodor mare Minelli had beaten the odds and overcome adversity. This typical Leo is one of the few racehorses to celebrate her birthday on the day she was actually born – 1 August 2006 – and she has been touted as special since the moment that she first saw the light of an Avontuur day. She won her first five races, literally on the trot, by a combined distance of eighteen lengths. She then went third in the SA Fillies Sprint at Scottsville last year to the talented Captain’s Gal and the brilliant Gibraltar Blue. She bounced back in customary fashion a month later to annihilate the talented Paul Matchett filly Mary Lou in a sprint at Greyville. That was June 18, and Sunday was the first time most of us had seen her again.
And what a lovely race to watch. Compliments are due to commentator Sheldon Peters, who has his own unique style but has learnt so well from his dad, Eagle Eye Craig. He really did a great job in hyping things up in the pre-race preliminaries. Hopefully the marketing gods at WKRP in Rivonia were watching and realise just what a powerful tool television can be with the right races and good horses in the hands of an enthusiastic, informed and excited individual. Once the gates were sprung, it was no race. Alec Forbes bounced her out and she loped along at a breathtaking cruising speed to run right away from her field. As for the flying Romantic Moon ? Mmmm, she just never got into it and her run remains an enigma and puzzle for punters, and maybe even her disappointed connections. She had blitzed away from her field over the Clairwood 1100m just three weeks earlier when her trainer had cautioned pre-race that ‘she was only 75% ready’. Either she has gone backwards in the interim or she just didn’t bring her A-game to the buzz of Durban from the rural tranquillity of Ashburton. Just an off- day as we well know the fairer sex are capable of ? The official Stipes report says she was examined and ‘no abnormalities were found…’.Then what of the other Var flyer, the Alyson Wright-trained Wishful Eye, who ran a nice if not threatening second to Val De Ra? She had run in the Romantic Moon race three weeks earlier when backed to beat the Howells horse. That day she faded inexplicably and the connections tendered the ‘sticky going’ as a possible spanner in the works. The going on this past Sunday was similar , so that theory goes out of the window.Such are the vagaries and emotional pitfalls of punting and owning racehorses!
Talking to Pippa about Val De Ra on Monday evening at Germiston, as she prepared to receive her 15 strong National Sales draft off the New Turf Carriers float, she said that the filly had been ‘terribly ill’ with a liver infection and her miraculous and full recovery was a tribute to Dennis Drier and his team and also to Dr Rob Crossley of Baker McVeigh who made it is his personal goal to get to the root of what was wrong with her: “ We were obviously disappointed to miss the Cape season and I could hear the sadness in Dennis Drier’s voice every time he phoned to ask for a little more time. He kept saying he was trying his best and as an owner I have every faith in him and we know what a valuable filly she is and that our patience would be amply rewarded. Dennis is a communicator par excellence and a great horseman. Her return to racing was emotional for all of us and in the end a great team effort – including a splendid job by Dr Crossley. I don’t think we give our Vets enough credit as we tend to only see the bills sometimes!” she chuckled.
The usual cruel sensationalisation and speculation that punctuated Val De Ra’s lengthy break included rumours that she hadn’t trained on and it is an extraordinary quirk of some racing quarters that they appear to enjoy hanging on the tails of successful horses or seeing others suffer. It is a competitive game and maybe jealousy plays a larger part than it should? Pippa said she had received plenty of support and enquiries from her friends and loyal clients and didn’t waste emotional energy on speculative rumours and cheap talk. “ We like to do our talking in the breeding paddocks and on the racecourses. That’s where it really counts. If Val De Ra had any detractors, they are entitled to an opinion but were pretty well silenced on Sunday. Win or lose, we love our horses. It is just a helluva lot more pleasurable winning I suppose!” she said.
While Villandry remains Var’s Group 1 flag-bearer, Val De Ra looks destined for great things and must be the most talented offspring of the son of Forest Wildcat to step on to a racecourse. Her mission is the SA Fillies Sprint at Scottsville and she will use either the Computaform Sprint or a routine plate race as a stepping stone. Her mom Minelli only has two other offspring racing at present. The one is yet another seven time winner(how’s that for a batting average?) called Mastery who runs on two and a half legs and started his career with Mike Stewart in Noordhoek. The son of Dominion Royale now races with Stan Elley in Phillippi . Surely amongst the best known, well marketed and high profile stallions in the country – he even had one of his former jockeys Frankie Dettori popping in for a visit at Avontuur recently – Var delivers the winners week in and week out with monotonous regularity and it is high time that the market changed perceptions that he has a tendency to produce mainly precocious speedballs. Just witness the great run of the Geoff Woodruff-trained Var daughter Princess Of Light when going down narrowly to Ilha Da Vitoria’s smart daughter Ilha Grande in the 2000m Oaks Trial at Turffontein on Saturday. On the same afternoon the Glen Puller trained Var gelding Bastille Day flew late in a 1400m Allowance Plate to easily beat his contemporary, the highly rated Solo Traveller. He finished within a short head of the same son of Western Winter in the Cape Derby! Var remains the second leading two year old sire and is in the top five of the three year old sire log. But the market says Vars don’t stay , you know! None so blind, as he who won’t see!
Pippa has three Vars on offer at next week’s Sale, including a half-brother to Val De Ra by Caesour. She has called him Tevez. Strange you may say when she doesn’t support Manchester City. She just thinks he is ‘gorgeous.’ I suppose she means the horse and not Carlos, the macho goalscorer. Lot 378 is Valdivia, a classy athletic filly out of an imported mare and then there is Lot 573 – named Twitter and described as a smashing racy colt. Few South African breeders have a track record of delivery and performance that can match Avontuur. Throw in a great setting with world-class facilities including an award winning winery and five start restaurant, an informative website, two top jockey sponsorships and a stallion called Var and it is not difficult to see why the winners keep rolling in. A final word from Pippa on the upcoming Sales: “ I know times are tough but we are in this for the long haul and we all need to stick together and not compromise our standards. I have a great draft and am excited. We shouldn’t forget that life is all about cycles and the wheel turns. Let’s just stay positive and believe in ourselves. We know we have a great product.”
The heat’s on! Roll on the end of April and the Computaform Sprint!
