Nine years ago, our grooms brushed the worst of the mud off a furry yearling colt before presenting him for auction at the Klawervlei Farm Sale.
Normandy’s Oscar Foulkes writes that he was from the fourth crop of Rebel King, who would be retired the following year, because of a below-par start to his stud career.
The colt’s dam had two previous foals, neither of which had won. To make matters worse, he had four white socks and a blaze, which is not a universally popular look for a chestnut.
The evergreen Normandy bred Nordic Rebel (Pic – JC Photos)
He was knocked down for R15k, which was to be expected, given his credentials.
The name of this colt? Nordic Rebel, who has now won 13 races – two of them at the age of 10 – with earnings just shy of R2 million. He’s earned at most of his starts, and even when he hasn’t run into the placings, he hasn’t been far off.
On 6 June, we’ll gather at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth for the Cape Racing Sales Winter Yearling Sale, which grew out of the Farm Sale.
In keeping with the environment, it’s unlikely that any yearlings will be sporting any mud, and the worst of their winter coats would have been kept at bay by blanketing them at night (inside actual stables).
It’s your next opportunity of tapping into an extraordinary flow of top runners. While there have been multiple Equus Award winners from the sale, horses like Nordic Rebel are a wonderful version of racehorse ownership.
This year, our draft is headlined by three colts that are almost certainly going to be sprinters.
Two of them are also eligible for both sales companies’ juvenile bonuses. With the Cape Racing programme for two-year-olds set to ramp up yet again next season, these colts represent a great opportunity.
We also have three athletic fillies, representing some of our top families.
The Nordic Rebel connection is close by this year, in the form of lot 47, whose dam is a half-sister to the dam of Nordic Rebel – yes, and to the dam of Equus Champion Rio Querari.
We’ll have a bucket of mud on stand-by should you prefer your yearling purchases to be less polished!
View the Normandy Cape Racing Sales Winter Yearling Sale draft here!
