Dean Kannemeyer on the Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale... FLYING HIGH DOWN UNDER
Don’t worry about the ones you missed – rather about the ones you got. The late Gerald Rosenberg’s wise words must have echoed through Dean Kannemeyer’s head as he narrowly missed acquiring both the top-priced colt and filly at the recent Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale. He is nevertheless excited about the four high quality horses in his class of 2010, and remembering, of course, that a fellow by the name of Le Drakkar headed his 2007 shopping list in his only previous visit to those parts.
Not a bad strike rate . One visit to an Australian Sale and leading Western Cape trainer Dean Kannemeyer picked up Le Drakkar and Royal Chalon as well as a Giant’s Causeway filly who won first time out and a Gallileo colt who won two quick races. For those short on memory the son of Anabaa, Le Drakkar won the Grade 2 Selangor Cup and the Grade 1 BSA Cape Guineas and was placed third in the Cape Derby behind the brilliant subsequent July winner Big City Life before being sold to Dubai, where he currently campaigns. Royal Chalon is still very competitive and the son of Royal Academy won the Grade 3 Winter Guineas and Grade 3 Winter Classic last year and is now a still lightly raced five time winner with an exciting future –and will be back in action come this Cape winter.
Few racehorse trainers are as genuinely conservative and realistic as the soon-to-be 50 year old Dean Kannemeyer. And few racehorse trainers can boast a track record of two Grade 1 Vodacom Durban Julys, four(seven for the yard in total) Grade 1 Cape Guineas , six Grade 2 Selangor Cups, five Grade 2 Green Point Stakes – not forgetting a Grade 1 Gold Cup, a Grade 1 Queen’s Plate , a Grade 1 Mercury Sprint and a Grade 1 Gold Challenge amongst forty-six Graded races he has won in only ten years since taking over from his dad, the legendary PK. That’s an impressive record by anybody’s standards and when Dean gets excited, then we should sit up and take some notice: “ I know there are folk who will say we got a bit lucky and struck gold in our only previous visit to Australia back in 2007 and there are those that have their differing opinions about the varying Sales. Well good luck to them and to each his own. There is an element of luck in everything we do, but I would like to believe that we have surrounded ourselves with the best support professionals available, and thus veterinary science, pedigree research and years of selection experience play a dominant role in what is not an exactly exact science,” he suggested.
Dean was accompanied on his recent trip by Form Bloodstock’s Jehan Malherbe, who is a regular traveller to international auctions with him and was also there in 2007, and Dr Alastair Cameron of Veterinarians Baker & McVeigh. He is full of praise for the integral role played by both Form Bloodstock and Baker & McVeigh in his success. Dean spoke about the recent trip: “ I cannot say enough about the way we were treated by Sales company, Inglis. They treated us royally from the moment we boarded the flight in Cape Town and are professionalism personified and very highly organised. Then one can also not attend overseas Sales of this nature without the support of top-quality owners. Here I must thank my existing valued patrons who have supported me so loyally and gave me the confidence and financial backing to go out and buy four high quality specimens. We narrowly missed the eventual highest priced colt and filly, but everything happens for a reason and I believe that we really bought very, very well,” he said. Dean secured three colts and a ‘striking’ chestnut Encosta De Lago filly. Two of the colts are by Rock Of Gibraltar , while the third is by Fastnet Rock, sire of the up-and-coming colt Wanted, who registered a great win and wonderful advert as an Inglis graduate , in the Group 1 $1Million Newmarket Handicap recently .
Dean said that an interesting and very pleasing trend for the breeding industry as a whole was that the prices were up on the previous year, and still felt that with the Aussie Dollar currently costing about seven rands, there was still good value to be had : “The second session was up a staggering 50% from a year ago. On the final day 108 horses sold for a gross of $3,001,500 – a huge increase on last year’s figure of $2,009,000. Interestingly also on the final day, 15 horses made $50,000 or higher, in comparison to only four in 2009. That speaks volumes! Turnover for the four days exceeded $31.5million. It was a tiring and busy but very rewarding few days and it was also pleasing to see other familiar faces and South African support in Mick Goss, Justin and Chris Snaith, as well as Cape owner, Hassan Adams,” he said.
Dean has been invited back to attend the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale to be held at Newmarket at the beginning of April and he says that he and his owners are keeping their options open: “ I am going to be pretty busy with my KZN string but I will discuss it with the team and my owners. We need the appropriate horsepower to continue winning the Group races and another trip Down Under remains a very tempting prospect!”
HEAR HEAR
Only ten of the 4000 odd races that are run in South Africa every year, involve false starts. Is this why we handle them so badly when they do pop up? The false start fiasco at the Vaal last Thursday was yet further proof that the use of a siren or alarm as the sole means of informing jockeys of a false start is largely ineffective. The seventh race was eventually declared null and void and this followed on the heels of the ‘Fort Vogue’ false start at Kenilworth in November, when the wind was blamed as the cause of most of the jockeys completing the race. Besides the racing operators who lose valuable betting turnover, the real losers are the long-suffering owners, trainers and punters.
I had a chat to one of the most approachable administrators in the industry, NHA Racing Control Manager Vee Moodley, who made a few pertinent comments: “ The two false starts in question are interestingly very different from the complaint angle. The Kenilworth race generated no complaints as the favourite Fort Vogue was involved and reared up badly. The Vaal race was the complete opposite because it involved a longer priced horse. As I have also stated to many individuals, the NHA has a policing function to perform and we do not discriminate against any participant based on their betting odds, ” he said. I asked Vee about the siren : “ The siren at Kenilworth had been nullified by the very strong wind on the day and this was the official finding of the Enquiry Board where no blame was attributed to any individual. As for the incident at the Vaal, it was obvious that the two Jockeys drawn at Gates 12 and 13 heard the siren. Also from my observation of some of the other jockeys’ body language, they must also have heard the siren. Furthermore, Stipendiary Steward Mr Nicholas Shearer was at the Head- On- Tower situated about 100m after the finishing post and he heard the siren. The Medics in the ambulance also heard the siren, and tried in vain to inform the Jockeys. This surely suggests that there is no real problem with the siren. A flagman may also not help as he could also say that he never heard the siren and that would just aggravate the situation. Maybe we need to employ some scientists to do a re-evaluation to determine at what ‘height’ sound travels at,” he suggested.
The stats show that false starts may not be a major issue in our lives, but only one fiasco a year is enough surely to justify failproof additional technology? What about a red and green robot facility? Or are short people both deaf and blind? Is the fact that the personnel are provided by the NHA and the equipment by the racing operator going to prove a hurdle to reaching an equitable solution? More questions than answers as usual, but it would be interesting to hear , excuse the pun , a jockey waxing lyrical, for a change.
CHARIOTS OF IRE
Shaheen Shaw was hammering at his favourite hobbyhorse, or should I call it battering ram, again on Monday. Yes, it was Swedish Harness Racing, Shaw and blue Monday – a toxic mix if ever I have seen one! But once again the thinking man’s anchor made a very good point. He suggested that the Swedish commentator needed to be given the bullet and recommended hiring the Aussie race-caller and paying him a ‘packet’. Fair comment. The southern hemisphere product certainly seems a lot more exciting – especially on radio!
A staunch supporter of the cart racing, former Champion Jockey Garth Puller was apparently cheesed off with Shaw’s previous Monday’s criticism and SA Harness Racing Chairman Dean Latimer has consequently kindly clarified a previous comment in this column about ‘galloping favourites ‘ in Sweden . Apparently Australian harness racing is ‘ pacing ‘ and the horses are hobbled, so that the driver can be as animated as he likes and the horse can't break stride. Swedish racing, on the other hand, is ‘ trotting’ and no hobbles or whips are used. Shaheen take heed!
Hassen Makes A Splash
Successful Cape owner Hassen Adams was one of a contingent of South Africans at the recent Inglis Melbourne Yearling Sale.
Hassen secured two colts by English shuttle stallion Oratorio (lot 338 and 366), both out of US-bred mares. The shopping basket was filled further, with three fillies, by Hussonet, Encosta de Lago and Rock Of Gibraltar (lot 367, 419, 519). At A$160k, the Encosta de Lago was the most expensive of the Adams’ purchases, which totaled A$365k.
The Cape owner will be sending a powerful string of 2yo’s to Durban for the winter season, including his Australian filly Maureen de Lago.
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