Now we know where we stand. That’s the best thing about a Ready To Run. Unlike other sales of racehorses, the evidence at a Ready To Run is right there in front of you, in big black type. It doesn’t matter who your parents are anymore or how many “July winners” there are in your pedigree, the acid test is the racecourse, and you’ve either got it, or you haven’t.
Yesterday was the day of definition, when the draft for the Emperors Palace Summer Ready To Run sale lined up for the TV cameras. It’s like lining up for your first day at school, and wondering which class they’re going to slot you into. The gallops separate the men from the boys, the wheat from the chaff, and the anxiety among the consignors is palpable. Do we have a sale, or don’t we? At the end of the day, these are the horses, which, for whatever reason, have been left behind. The late maturers, the injured, defects in engineering, unsold previously, you name it.
Among their predecessors at Summerhill who made up the category in recent years are several giants of the game: Imbongi (dual Guineas hero, Group winner in three countries and R8,8 million earner;) Paris Perfect (the first “South African” to pick up a cheque in the world’s richest race, and the earner of R5,5 million;) Bold Ellinore (Champion race filly;) Emperor Napoleon (millionaire and rated in the top three colts of his generation;) South Africa’s winningmost racehorse, Hear The Drums; Champion Stayer and millionaire, Amphitheatre, and millionaire and thirteen time winner, Vangelis. That’s for starters; the list is long, the achievements enduring.
If you’d come to Summerhill in the February of those years in which these were the “left-overs”, you could have put your hands on them for next to nothing.
The verdict for 2012 is in now, and there’s no turning back. The fellows at Summerhill will tell you, they do have a sale; that means they have the “cattle”.
“We saw some bullet performances on the gallops, and we now know we have some horses to make us proud. The catalogue reads as well as any of our previous Ready To Run sales, and if last year is anything to go by, there’ll be excellent value for those with a nose for opportunity”. That’s the wrap from manager, Tarryn Liebenberg, Summerhill’s Ready To Run supremo.
The sale takes place at Summerhill at 11 am, Wednesday 22nd February, 2012
