“V” is for Victory

It was Winston Churchill that immortalised the two-fingered sign of triumph, yet those who’ve raised their catalogues at the past two editions of the Emperor’s Palace Summer Ready To Run Sale, would have good cause to do the same. Not only for the victories they have under their belts, but particularly for the value their intuitions have earned them.

Let it be said, this sale is about those that were left behind by reason of their immaturity, the odd injury on their way to the November version of the same sale, or an “unsold” sticker on their backsides at a previous vendue. Others for their flaws in the good Lord’s architecture which might’ve put customers off at conventional sales, where the benefit of seeing them run is never on the menu.

Horses are fascinating to look at, not only those with the “look of eagles”. More interesting are the ones that triumph despite their engineering or their lack of illustrious parents, like the Group One performers Pierre Jourdan, Hear The Drums, Black Wing and Imbongi, all unwanted urchins of the recent past.

Often, the great ones do what they shouldn’t. In the age of computers, satellites and DNA, the racehorse is proof that the maths doesn’t always add up. The one thing good horses all have, is character. When they should’ve lost, they didn’t. No horse can be great without grit. The history of Summerhill at the Ready To Run, is littered with stories of racehorses that have made mockeries of their pedigrees and their prices.

The Emperor’s Palace Summer Ready To Run  is just two years old, the first draft consigned to Michael Holmes Bloodstock’s Horses-in-Training event at Shongweni, the second a popular party at Summerhill last February. Those that follow these columns will know that there are already 21 individual millionaires among Summerhill’s recent Ready To Run graduates, with numerous champions among them. Nonetheless, to satisfy the sceptics, they’ve published a list here of the bargain buys of 2011 and 2012, to illustrate the point. Some of these are just beginning their careers, others have been at it for a short while, none of them have reached the halfway point. Others, like Gida, have already been sold on to international interests for many times their original cost.

These are almost irresistible odds, if you go to the website (www.summerhill.co.za) and click the Summer Ready To Run tab on the left hand side of the main page, you’ll understand why. They say there’s gold again in “them veins”, besides a “feed” by Visa/House & Leisure’s No.1 National restaurant.

P.S. There are seven entries which carry a “ticket” for the R3million Emperors Palace Ready To Run Cup in November.

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