Kundanika’s ‘Hooked For Life’!

Just when longstanding KZN owner Preggie Somasundram was enjoying a perfect balance between horseracing and life, the sport of kings grabbed him and touched his heart again at Hollywoodbets Greyville recently.

The charismatic Preggie enjoyed a memorable family double with his own debutante Regeneration winning the opener, and his daughter Kundanika celebrating her personal first winner, courtesy of Queen Amina in the third.

Both winners are trained by Robbie Hill at Summerveld.

“This game is amazing, isn’t it? Just when we are cool and relaxed and ticking over nicely, it dishes us a beautiful day like Sunday!” enthused the Grade 1-winning owner, who less than a year ago decided to scale down and rationalize his then large string for a variety of, what he said at the time to be, management and mathematical challenges in the sport.

But things are slowly getting better every day in many respects and, pragmatism aside, when it comes to raw passion, Preggie has clearly not lost an ounce of the dreamer’s disease that has seen him spend north of R60 million for keep and associated costs – that’s capital outlay excluded – in just over two decades in the game.

First-timer Regeneration, a Varsfontein Stud-bred daughter of Danon Platina blew out on the betting boards from 4’s to 12’s in the opener, while Preggie’s daughter’s first winner Queen Amina started at 16-1 when shedding her maiden at her third start in the third race.

The Somasundram pair cost a combined R110 000 at sale and gave Dad and Daughter a rare owners’ moment when it comes to everyday racing.

“I asked Robbie (Hill) if we could have a serious bet. You know trainers. We are dealing with flesh and blood and nobody wants to see you burn your fingers. So he was understandably cautious. Maybe she needed another gallop. Maybe she needed another few weeks. It’s easy for all of us to be clever afterwards. But, despite the should’ve’s and would’ves, what a day!  I’m just so glad and thrilled that Kundanika was able to enjoy her first winner so soon and with the whole family here. The unbridled joy on their faces was amazing to watch. And all the guys in our office were on the double too – some of them got 200 to 1 plus.  So there were a number of big winners created in the process. That’s good for racing,” enthused Preggie as he proudly encouraged us to contact South Africa’s youngest newest racehorse owner – his daughter, Kundanika.

Clearly the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree and talking to the Sporting Post on Monday, the delighted 22 year old, an honours student studying Strategic Business Management at Vega University, and who also works for Dad, bubbled over with joy, admitting that she was now probably ‘hooked for life’.

Clearly with her feet firmly planted on Mother Earth, Preggie’s only daughter told us about her first horse, a decidedly slow but cuddly Heavenly Blue gelding named Crystal Blue.

She adds euphemistically that he ‘didn’t really have an appetite for racing’ and has been moved on to more sedentary disciplines.

“Queen Amina is my second horse. How lucky am I? Watching her take the gap and power home under Craig Zackey on Sunday was a timeless and surreal moment for me. Actually, when they jumped out of the starting stalls I stopped breathing. And I only started breathing again when I began screaming in those last few strides. Since I was a baby, my Dad has been crazy about this sport. I have always absolutely loved horses too. But after Sunday I now understand more than ever what has kept him coming back. It’s just plain amazing. Words elude me,” she said as she went on to tell a funny story as to what her thoughts were as she prepared to leave for the races with her family on Sunday morning.

“I thought, let me wear a nice bright pink dress to go with my neon pink and orange racing silks. Then I stopped myself in my tracks and pondered how I was going to make myself look silly if we didn’t win. So I thought low-profile was better and threw on a jeans and an ordinary top. I thus lost out on the ‘confident owner wearing her racing silks once-in-a-lifetime moment’ photograph to show my Grandchildren one day. But hey, I’m not complaining!” she laughed.

Asked about the origin of her, with all due respect, quite ‘gaudy’ racing colours, Kundanika defends the choice with typical ‘Strategic Business Management’ type logic.

“One of the course photographers Anneke Akal Kitching and I were chatting about the significance of racing silks one day, a long time before I had made my personal selection. I never forget Anneke suggesting to me that they had to be sort of bright, and almost atrocious, for want of a better word. So ideally something uncoordinated and what we’d probably never wear ordinarily. Now you can understand why neon pink and orange seemed sensible to me. And I didn’t need a binoculars either on Sunday to watch Queen Amina the whole way around!”

Queen Amina, who was named by Kundanika after a warrior and ruler of Zaria, a Hausa city-state in what is now Northern Nigeria, has defied the statistics and outpaced her KZN Yearling Sale purchase price of R30 000 at this stage of the game.

Asked if she had been something of a giveaway at the price, delighted winning breeder Jonathan Martin of Hadlow Stud, who bred the 3yo in partnership with his wife Cathy, congratulated Kundanika and wished her many more wins.

He then went on to explain to the Sporting Post that sales prices were in the swings and roundabouts of their world, and that they were in the business of breeding, and not training or racing horses. He added that Queen Amina was also out of an unproven unraced mare.

“Robbie Hill has an astute eye for a nice horse and she may have been on his short-list. She was very immature and leggy at sale, but really did have everything in the right place. We are just so thrilled for the Somasundram family and we shall follow her progress with interest. We hope that she trains on as would seem likely to be the case! It’s just a good story of a young mare and a young owner whose paths crossed to share a special winning moment. Our beautiful mare Book Of Verses (Master Of My Fate) is due to foal down any day now to Chimichuri Run. So it’s all hopefully coming together,” added the veteran breeder.

While she has made racehorse ownership probably look a tad easier than it should be, and that in double-quick time, Kundanika says that sharing the momentous day with Dad Preggie, Mum Indira and her younger brother Thaylen was something that would stay with her forever.

“Perfect is the only way of summing it up! And I have watched the replay over and over and over again. And Queen Amina wins every time!” she laughs.