Kenilworth Racing marketing team – Jenna Adams & Mandy Kannemeyer
Keep an eye out in the third race at Kenilworth on Wednesday, 25 January 2015. There’s a Jay Peg colt with the rather fun name of Zubbadubbadoo and he comes with a fantastically feel-good story.
It all started on 10 August 2013 when the Kenilworth Racing marketing team of Jenna Adams and Mandy Kannemeyer put together their first Ladies Race Day. The Peninsula Room was lavishly decorated, there was sparkling wine, Oyster Kings, fashion shows and fabulous prize giveaways and the 230 ladies chatted, laughed and networked the afternoon away.
Like most racing events, the day had a very strong charity angle and our innovative marketing team had worked hard to collect a list of items for auction, with the Cancer Association of South Africa (CANSA)’s Reach For Recovery Breast Cancer Association selected as the year’s beneficiary. The main attraction was a Jay Peg colt called Zubbadubbadoo, generously donated by Marsh Shirtliff, Lukas Theron and David Hepburn-Brown of Hemel ‘n Aarde Stud. To sweeten the deal, Brett Crawford donated his training services for free.
Zubbadubbadoo as a yearling
The ladies got behind the cause with enthusiasm and after fierce bidding, the colt was knocked down for R130k. It took a little while, but Zubbadubbadoo (by Jay Peg out of the Jallad mare, Rub A Dub Dub) had his track debut in January. As it turned out, he looked so impressive that he even got a mention on James Goodman and Paul Lafferty’s Winning Ways show as one of their three to follow! The colt has his second outing over 1000m at Kenilworth today and will be facing the starter at 13:25. We thought we’d have a chat to the folks that made it all happen.
Jenna Adams says, “Ladies Day was a great initiative and we’ve had so much positive feedback. Mandy originally came up with the idea of auctioning a horse and putting together a ladies syndicate. She chatted to Marsh Shirtliff and Brett Crawford and the ladies were fantastic and really supported it on the day. It was great fun and Ladies day has actually grown into one of the most prestigious of our in-house events. It’s not difficult to sell tickets anymore!”
David Hepburn-Brown
It’s been a really fun initiative that has drawn people together and forged new friendship from all across the industry. Zubbadubbadoo’s breeder David Hepburn-Brown says, “We decided to get involved because it was a very good cause. They were putting together that Ladies Day for Cancer. I was sitting with Marsh (Shirtliff) at the time and said ‘what about donating this horse?’ and Marsh agreed. Then I put the keep to it, kept him on the farm, broke him in and did everything and there you go. The charity got a nice cheque, it’s a very good cause and it’s nice to give something back to society. Twelve ladies got together and bought the horse as a syndicate and he’s a lovely colt, so I hope he goes on and wins a few for them. Let’s hope they all have fun and maybe even bring a few new people to the races.”
Brett Crawford
Brett Crawford is characteristically self-deprecating, but one can tell it’s a project that has given him enormous pleasure. “It was just one of those things, you know? Mandy Kannemeyer was involved in the whole thing and she got Marsh and David to donate the horse and then asked Jill and myself if we’d consider getting involved. We said definitely. It’s going to a good cause and we were happy to offer our services. We didn’t know anything about the horse, but as it turned out he’s a lovely topped horse, but we wanted to give him time to strengthen up. In the end it took over a year from when he was bought till his first outing and I think some of the girls wondered whether he might ever get to the races!” However, it was clearly time well spent as Zubbadubbadoo ran a very promising debut, flying up from off the pace to finish 1.35 lengths back in third.
“It’s been a real pleasure training for the group of girls. My wife Jill is the nominee and there are 12 of them in the syndicate – Sharki Ressell, Kathy Finch, Trish Sherrell, Melanie Teixeira, Lynne James, Paula Maughan, Noelline Malherbe, Karin Norman, Sandy Hepburn-Brown, Sharon Holland and Shireen Almanza. They’re called the Flaming Flamingo Syndicate and their silks are pink with a white V bib, white sleeves, pink cuffs, collar and cap. Some are existing clients and some are brand new ones, but they’re all terribly excited and it was nice that they all attended his first race. I just hope that he can give everyone a little fun and more than that, give to a good cause.”
“His first run was great. Today we’re bringing him back to a shorter distance. It’s not really in his favour, but racing is about to move to Durbanville, so it was a choice of either giving him the five furlongs or asking him to go round the turn at Durbanville in March, so we’ve opted just to run him down the straight. It’s a bit short for him, but we’ve got Corne Orffer on board and we think he can be competitive. We’re confident that he’ll be running on at the end.”
Syndicate member Sharon Holland told us that expectations were modest for the colt’s first run. “One has to attend when you’ve got a runner – they’re like your kids, really – but I don’t think anyone was expecting anything for his first run. We were all together and he was sitting second last or so, taking it easy and not really doing anything and then coming up the straight, he suddenly picked it up and I thought ‘oh!’. You know what a whole bunch of females is like normally, but we all stood there dumbfounded and just watched. It was hysterical really. All I could see was this cap coming through. He just seemed to accelerate and at the finish he really wasn’t that far off at all, so I think we were all pleasantly surprised!”
Kenilworth Ladies Day
Since its inception in 2013, the Ladies Day initiative has continued to grow. Jenna Adams says, “This will be our third year and we’re actually already planning this year’s event. With it being close to Women’s Day the aim is to make it a fun day out to make all our ladies feel special and important. We chose to pair it with a cancer charity and breast cancer in particular as it is something that touches so many women in South Africa. We all know someone who has had it or been affected by it, so we feel it’s an important charity and it’s important to talk about it. We don’t just want to raise funds, but to actually get involved in a meaningful way, so we invite speakers to come and tell us about their experiences and the charity gets to tell people about the wonderful work they do. We’re just grateful that it’s been such a success. Last year Mauritzonftein donated a Noordhoek Flyer filly that is in training with Dean Kanneyemer. It’s been a great initiative that has grown year on year.”
Kenilworth Ladies Day donates to CANSA
Violet Mureko, who is a Community Mobiliser for CANSA was thrilled to hear that the colt is looking so promising. The organisation does phenomenal work, assisting women all across the country with screening, testing, support and education, most crucially helping affected women in less affluent communities. The funds raised by Zubbadubbadoo in 2013 were specifically earmarked for breast-cancer work and have been primarily directed to their mobile unit.
What a great story! Well done to the Kenilworth Racing marketing team for putting it together; Marsh Shirtliff, Lukas Theron and David Hepburn-Brown for donating the colt, Brett Crawford and his team for donating their time and effort and conditioning the colt and of course to all the fabulous ladies in the Flaming Flamingos. Here’s wishing Zubbadubbadoo a good, clear run today and much fun and success to all the connections in the future.
