Elusive Fort
I’m currently experiencing pc problems and the SO has kindly lent me his laptop. Which is wonderful. Except for the fact that it’s a Mac. Now that probably sounds terribly ungrateful. Macs receive rave reviews from folks all over the world. The problem is that the reviews are generally from terribly cool, creative types who do well with whizzy things flying across their screens and making exciting popping noises as they download the latest Katy Perry video. I’m afraid I don’t speak Mac (terribly first world problem I know, but there it is).
One of the joys of Mac (or at least my husband’s one) is that it makes the most exciting ‘ta-da!’ noise as it boots up. It’s almost as if the computer is saying “I’m fantastic! Now expand your horizons and be awesome. Create wonderfulness!” It’s terribly irritating. So here I sit, having been “ta-da’d” and challenged. And now I need to create wonderfulness. So I’m rather pleased that this week’s column is about someone else!
Racing, as well as most other sectors, is having a rather challenging financial time of things and so new sponsors, and particularly media friendly ones, are really wonderful and deserve to be embraced and thoroughly celebrated. And so I’m terribly pleased to tell you that we have a brand new sponsor to kick start the 2013/14 Cape Racing Season. The 2013 “Summer of Champions” will raise the curtain on Saturday 26 October 2013 with the Elusive Fort Cape Classic at Kenilworth Racecourse. This important Gr3 event over 1400m with an attractive purse of R200 000 has traditionally been a Guineas Trial and is an early indicator of the season’s up and coming classic horses. With the honour roll boasting the likes of Colorado King, Sea Cottage, Hawaii, Mazarin, Archangel amd more recent stars such as Jay Peg and personal favourite, Blue Tiger, it’s credentials as not only a king maker, but a sire maker as well are beyond reproach.
It is therefore appropriate to have the race sponsored by up and coming young stallion, Elusive Fort. The beautiful son of Fort Wood raced with distinction in South Africa, winning the Gr1 SA Derby, Gr1 Daily News 2200, Gr1 Horse Chestnut Stakes and Gr2 Hawaii Stakes among others and being crowned Equus Champion Male Stayer in 2006. Exported to the USA, he finished 2nd in the Gr 3 Appleton Handicap, before injury put paid to his international aspirations and he retired to stud in South Africa in 2010, where he has been enthusiastically received.
Launch
To launch the new initiative, Peter de Beyer, along with his brother Chris and Niresh Ramklass of Cape Town Child Welfare, hosted a cozy breakfast meeting at the Radisson Blu recently. Press launches are not always the world’s most exciting outings, but it would be hard to imagine more genuinely kind, warm and thoughtful hosts. Peter has been a fixture on the local racing scene for a number of years now and it was a privilege to get to know this gracious man a little better.
Probably best known to racing fans as Princess Victoria’s companion in the winner’s enclosure, Peter de Beyer has been a racing enthusiast for many years, but only took the first plunge into ownership when he bought his first horse in 1995 as a 40th birthday present. However, he says even that was only after 10 years of studying catalogues! He invested in a filly, who went into training with Stephen Page and went on to win him a few races before retiring as a broodmare. His first big track success was the wonderful Lady Windermere who won the Sceptre and Southern Cross stakes as well as the SA Fillies Sprint and Garden Province double. Fans will be pleased to know that she has retired to Drakenstein Stud and that her first produce is destined for Singapore under the watchful eye of Patrick Shaw. Field Flower was another real find and then of course the “horse of a lifetime”, Princess Victoria. Peter says he’s always been fascinated with the breeding aspect of the industry and having a penchant for fillies, he has enjoyed the journey of picking horses on the sales, watching their racing careers and then coming full circle by returning them to the paddock. In this way he has built up a small broodmare band and is developing a stud in Robertson, with the help of manager Jane Gray.
Although he tends to prefer fillies to colts, Peter says Elusive Fort’s catalogue page caught his eye at the National Sales, but the colt went for a big price and that seemed to be that. Fast forward to 2009 and a phone call from Tony Mincione to say that the horse had come up for sale. Peter says he much prefers to take shares in stallions than buying one outright, but “we made them a cheeky offer”. It was rejected, but when the other options fell through, the connections reopened negotiations.
“We made another cheeky offer and this time they accepted!” And so Elusive Fort made his way back to South Africa and settled in at Arc En Ciel for the 2010 breeding season. The handsome stud is well into his third season now and although getting a young stallion off the ground is always a precarious business, it is no surprise that he has been enthusiastically received. His sire Fort Wood needs little introduction and his damline is equally impressive as he hails from the famous E-family which has produced the likes of Empress Club, Ecurie and Epoque. Better yet, Elusive Fort is stamping his foals with such quality, that his bookings have doubled since his freshman season. “We obviously don’t know much until the first crop hit the track, but if they run as good as they look, we’ll be very pleased” says Peter with a chuckle. With the changes at Arc en Ciel, this will be Elusive Fort’s last season in Wellington and he will transfer to the capable hands of Bennie Marais at Klipdrif Stud at Christmas to give him ample time to get settled in for next year.
Charity Pairing
The partnership with Cape Town Child Welfare is an interesting one and Peter’s brother Chris became involved via his wife, Jenny who did some work for them on the events side. Hopefully child protection is an issue that won’t come up on most of our radars, but we live in an interesting, diverse and mixed socio and economic society, with all the advantages and disadvantages those bring. The roots of Cape Town Child Welfare stretch all the way back to 1908, when The Society for the Protection of Child Life opened its first emergency home for children.
In 1978, The Society changed its name to Child Welfare Society Cape Town and it is a tribute to their reputation and the quality of the work they do that its head, Niresh Ramklass was unanimously elected President of The International Forum for Child Welfare in 2012, becoming the first African to receive this honour. The Society covers a huge geographic area, including the Cape Flats and Kenilworth, so it operates literally on racing’s doorstep. Like all charities, they do incredible work with limited resources and I highly encourage anyone who is interested in finding out more or supporting the work to visit their website for more information.
Peter explains that it was important to him to incorporate a charity element. “Racing and owning race horses in particular is a luxury. So by definition, people who own horses are privileged and it seemed obvious to me to have a community angle. All charities perform incredible work, but there can few more worthy causes than looking after the children in our community.”
“Obviously it’s an opportunity to market our stallion and we hope he’ll be at the forefront of people’s minds when it comes to sales time, but we also wanted to do something meaningful to contribute to local racing and what better way than to sponsor a race. After all, racing is part of the entertainment industry so we are in the business of helping people have fun. The Cape Classic is an exciting race as it comes early in the season and is such a wonderful barometer of the strength of the up and coming Classic contenders.
“The 1400m distance is also ideal as it is short enough to be within reach for the sprint horses and comes early enough in the season to suit the types that will go further later in their careers. The Cape is enjoying increasing numbers of visiting trainers again, which is wonderful for the local season as it adds to the spectacle and the quality of the fields. With the likes of Dennis Drier, Duncan Howells and Gavin van Zyl we have some very strong visiting strings and feel that we’re in for a very exciting season. We are very proud to be part of it.”
Race Day Activities
Ice Cream Ninjas
The Kenilworth Racing marketing and events team have risen to the challenge and there are going to be a host of activities to make the day a memorable one. The Peninsula Room, with its incomparable views across the track and the city is already filling up fast. For those who prefer something a little less formal, the Somerset Room will be offering ‘pub grub’ for the day with fare including burgers, fish and chips and prego rolls.
There will of course be plenty of family entertainment with lots of fun activities for the kids including an exciting slant on the jumping castle, Ice Cream Ninjas (you heard it here first!) and staff will be on course with some fun soccer activities to keep the young ones entertained.
The jockeys have also come on board and there is an exciting addition to the race card at the end of the day when we have a full field of our local jockeys lining up for a 100m dash. Local owners can sponsor a jockey of your choice to run in your silks (all proceeds to go to Cape Town Child Welfare) or you can simply support the jockey of your choice on the day in the lucky draw. Local company SNooZA manufactures a clever little Ottoman which folds out into a single bed and have donated two SNooZA’s to two lucky prize draw winners. SNooZA’s are terribly handy for folks who have a premium on space, but still like to accommodate extra visitors and I”m told that the products are excellent, hard-wearing, come in an attractive selection of colours and offer a very comfortable night’s sleep.
Lastly, I also want to say huge kudos to our jocks for stepping up to the plate and supporting this great initiative and I hope everyone will be on the rail to shout their favourite home.
So Ta-da! There you have it. Great horses, great racing, great entertainment, great prizes and all in aid of a great cause. So book your table, block your diary and get to Kenilworth on the 26th!
– Robyn Louw
