The judges
Chris van Niekerk made a telling remark at the conclusion of last Wednesday’s Summerhill Ready To Run gallops. He is of course, a man who’s donned the mantle of Owner of the Year, but he was speaking here as chairman of Cape Thoroughbred Sales.
As astute as they come, he knows that owning racehorses is a luxury in the world we live in, and he knows that while some are impervious to the state of the global finances, there are others whose indulgence of their passions in the game calls for sacrifice.
On the other side of the sales spectrum, he’s sensitive to the plight of producers too, and he knows what it means to get the cash in the bank.
So the gist of his statement was this:
- To accommodate the needs of the buying bench, CTS would be continuing their 90 day credit policy, interest free, which means that purchasers would have until the 18th January to settle up. With a precocious type, you could be in the starting stalls by then.
- At the same time, CTS will absorb the cost of this facility while sticking by their pledge to vendors of paying them within 30 days. Simply put, theirs is an act of generosity unmatched anywhere else, and they deserve acknowledgment for it.
The next big one?
I should mention that I’ve attended Ready To Run sales all over the world, and remembering the remoteness of yesterday’s location and the logistics involved in achieving this, I have never seen a more beautifully appointed venue anywhere.
For those of us who are in the business of horse-peddling, it’s a comforting thought to know that having set the bar where it is, for these fellows, there’s no turning back; it can only get better from here, though that’s going to take some doing.
A spectacular breakfast was accompanied by printed menus tantalizing attendees with the promise of a lunch from heaven; it didn’t take a genius to explain the number of fans who stayed for the judges’ to speak.
CONSIDER YOUR VERDICT
We’re all for pulling their legs on the good horses they’ve missed over the years, but it’s a fact that with more than 300 years of collective experience at their disposal, our judges’ panel has a remarkable hit rate of the ones they’ve uncovered.
While we’re about it, we should recognise that they share their wisdom willingly, gratuitously, and in disclosing their personal preferences, very generously, more so when we remember that the lots they’ve identified at the gallops are most likely the lots they’ll be bidding on at the sale.
Here they go:
- While you might’ve expected it on the back of his Freshman Sires’ title last season, you can’t take anything for granted in this game. Nor can you take anything away from Visionaire, whose stock were predictably popular among the judges.
- The recent exploits of Rabada and Easy Street made the Brave Tin Soldiers a natural “pick”.
- There was broad admiration for the four “Australians”, the colts by Lonhro and High Chaparral and the fillies by Exceed And Excel and More Than Ready, while there was also a vote for the Hard Spun colt out of the former South African Group One-winning filly, Noble Heir. Given the current rate of exchange against the Aussie dollar and the limited likelihood of further forays into those markets while matters remain as they are, there’s bound to be a healthy contest among the big-hitters for these prizes.
- From the commentary box, Craig Peters and Nico Kritsiotis were hard at the promotion of the first crops of the freshman stallions; they’d obviously done their homework ahead of the time. No horse was more highly touted than Golden Sword on the back of Mike de Kock’s claim that “in any other year, he would’ve won the Derby”. Of course, the maestro was probably right: few horses came within two lengths of beating the world champion, Sea The Stars, at any time in his career, let alone in England’s greatest horserace. A statistical comparison of the half dozen Derbys before and since the 2009 version leaves little doubt that had Golden Sword enjoyed the opportunity of repeating his run that day in any other company, he would’ve been a Derby winner. In which case, he wouldn’t have been standing at stud ten kilometres outside the little “dorp” of Mooi River at the southernmost tip of what the civilized people in the north call “the darkest continent”! In the event, and in an extension of the appreciation leading horsemen had exhibited for his debut offering at the National Sales, throughout the marquee and especially up on the podium, there was universal acclaim for the way the Golden Swords had acquitted themselves.
- Not to be outdone, but remembering that he had far fewer representatives, our good man Traffic Guard, who like Golden Sword had celebrated his greatest racing moment in a half-length defeat to the world’s best three year old of his generation, New Approach in the Irish Champion Stakes (Gr.1), there was similar respect for his progeny who were also doing their thing for the first time. As a studman, you dream of a time when your boat comes in, and for a place like Summerhill, where stallions are the sultans of the farm, that means the advent of a “stallion strike”.
That “big horse” not only changes your fortunes at the races, but he leaves his mark on the balances at your bank, and the prospect that either one (or God help us, both) could come home for Summerhill is what will keep us getting out of bed at five every morning for the next twenty four months.
We’ve always said of the Ready To Run that you “get what you see, not what you think you see”, and that “there’s a horse for everyone at the Ready To Run”. That means different things to different people, depending on the size of their pockets, the sharpness of their instincts or the accuracy of their observations.
The one reality of our sport is that money alone can’t buy you the road to Eldorado: we all know how much it helps, but there is salvation in the recollection that throughout its history, and in particular in the steeds we’ve consigned from Summerhill, there was value in knowing that when a horse can run, it no longer matters who his Mom or his Dad are; if you just take the trouble to watch or to listen, you can still take home the undiscovered diamond.
A glance at the names of those who’ve joined the ranks of the twenty-seven millionaires since we first conceived of the idea of the “Cup” nine years ago, who bought the 59 Stakes winners, 12 “Group Ones” and 8 Horses of the Year, is a telling memorial. To the last, they’re likely to know the gallops will be flighted this weekend on www.summerhill.co.za; they’ve exploited the “insider” knowledge of our jockeys and grooms, and as critical as any, their noteboooks are etched in the opinions of the world’s only panel of elite judges.
In a world in which there are few “free lunches” these days, here are their verdicts, free, “gratis” and for nothing. Read them, or risk the possibility you’ll be the “lunch”!
