Gail Bulpitt, long and successfully associated with Mary Slack’s formidable Wilgerbosdrift Stud, has passed away after a short battle with cancer. She was 54.
Gail started in the office at the Piketberg farm in 2003 and worked her way up to Farm Manager. She was the popular go-to-person, the all-rounder for everything at the farm, but an unassuming individual who steered away from the limelight. Described as someone with ‘a big personality to her close friends’, Gail was more reserved and always professional in her dealings with clients, the public and the media.
Gail had a great love for horses (Pic-Candiese Lenferna)
Gail’s career with thoroughbreds started in the mid-1980s, when she joined Allem Brothers Stud in Viljoenskroon, Northern Free State, where she and now Narrow Creek Stud’s John Everett learnt the ropes under top-flight breeder Laurence Allem.
She later moved to the Western Cape, where she and Everett had a son, Dylan.
Gail’s mother, Sylvia, passed away just a few days before Gail was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, just two months ago.
“I went to see Gail in hospital. All she wanted to do was go home to her horses and dogs to die in peace. She was tired, and Mary ensured that she had the best treatment until she passed,” said her friend, Avontuur Stud’s Pippa Mickleburgh.
Mike de Kock and family paid tribute to Gail and said: “Gail was just always there, always relied upon in all our dealings and an important team member at Wilgerbosdrift. She will be sorely missed. Our condolences to her family and friends, also to Dylan who has lost his mother and grandmother in such a short period of time.”
www.mikedekockracing.com
