Go Indigo
Three cheers to the Racing Association for introducing the 25 year industry service awards to long-suffering trainers who make up the survivor base of this industry. Between that sentimental touch and Go Indigo’s brilliant win in the Gr2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas, it wasn’t a bad weekend for the ordinary man.
Other than owner Johan Botha, trainer Leon Erasmus and breeder Professor Ian Sanne, most of us believed that the Three Troikas winner Go Indigo was just making up the numbers in the fillies’ classic. Drawn out wide at 15, she doesn’t stay a mile we reckoned and her grinding battling action, complimented by the urgings of the very capable ‘Bouncing Brown’ up top, doesn’t exactly make her the epitome of grace and style on four legs. But boetie, this chick from the wrong side of the track can sure as hell run like the bloody wind!
A commentator’s blissful denial certainly sums this one up too! There are few more talented and experienced race-callers in South Africa than Clyde Basel, but one only has to listen to the final stages of the Fillies Guineas commentary to understand what a total shock Go Indigo’s win was. Despite the fact that she loomed up menacingly inside the 400m mark, all the usual colours were attracting the publicity and the exhortations. The grey in the blue and red silks was almost invisible as she was grinding her way to glory up the middle. And the hole we thought was coming just never opened – she simply powered on to a memorable win.
In fairness and maybe like the rest of us, Clyde Basel is conditioned to Group races and Mike De Kock. To Sean Tarry. To Gavin Van Zyl. And to the yellow and blue of Sheik Mo. To the scarlet and black of Wilgerbosdrift. To the yellow, green and black of Mr Jooste. To the red and blue of Chris Van Niekerk, and latterly to the red and orange of Winston Chow. They do after all win most of the silverware, most of the time. So when a Botha horse is challenging a Wilgerbosdrift, runner, especially one piloted by Anton Marcus, one tends to shout the latter.
Botha and Erasmus’ cheapie feature win was a small flicker of light in the darkness on a big day when SA Breeders once again took a back-seat. Consider the stark reality that four of the six feature races in South Africa on Saturday were won by horses bred off-shore, and three are trained by Mike De Kock.
Europa Point
Irish bred Europa Point is by Rock Of Gibraltar and won the Gr3 Acacia. Australian bred Golden Chateau is by Chateau Istana and won the Gr2 Gauteng Guineas. Australian bred Atyeb is another by Rock Of Gibraltar and won the Listed Aquanaut. Dean Kannemeyer, currently at the Inglis Premier Yearling Sale in Melbourne, trains the Argentinian bred In Writing, who is by Editor’s Note and won the Gr3 Chairman’s Cup at Kenilworth by six lengths.
The RA’s website carries a story about Mary Slack’s ‘rainy day being brightened by two Group wins’ but tells us nothing about the Bothas and even the low-profle Leon Erasmus. We know all about the famous industry leaders.Even Mrs Slack would probably concede that the story of the ordinary man’ success may make for so much more interesting reading at this stage.
Leon Erasmus
Go Indigo’s win was a fillip of note with this weekend’s ‘all South African’ Cape Premier Yearling Sale upon us. The ‘local’ label, travel incentives and softer credit granting approach attached to a Sale that has effectively replaced those that produced the likes of Pocket Power and Mother Russia, probably indicates that the breeders are hoping to draw the guys with the smaller cheque books, happier in cases to take their chances with less flashy pedigrees.
The grey filly’s breeders Oldlands Stud have no Indigo Magic progeny on the sale in their five-strong draft, but they are no doubt pretty excited about her half sister, Egyptian Love. She is catalogued as Lot 375 and is by Casey Tibbs – realistically not exactly everybody’s first choice as a Sire – but then neither was Indigo Magic prior to 4pm on Saturday!
RA Awards
The RA acknowledgement of 25 years service awards to trainers is an excellent initiative. But I could find out very little about it other than that touched on by Joe Soma who said that he had lobbied for something to be done for the longserving servants of the industry. There is no mention of it on the RA website.
The problem is that positive initiatives like this are not broadcast to the industry at large. And, for goodness sake, why on earth would it be kept a secret? The simple gesture of sending a one paragraph press release with supporting photographs would mean that the good news reaches as many racing enthusiasts as possible. We live in a world of bad publicity and one questions why the RA are not making use of the vast reach of the Sporting Post as a start to air the clean laundry?
One hopes too that the acknowledgement can be done on a national basis and placed under the umbrella of the Equus Awards. A nice cheque and a framed certificate could also accompany the bottle of bubbly. Men like George Uren, Alan Higgins, Stan Elley and Bill Prestage, to name a few, would be long overdue.
Bezrin To Rathmor
New Zealand-based fomer leading SA breeder Craig Ramsay informs us that the striking son of Danzig, Bezrin, will be standing at Mike McHardy’s Rathmor Stud in Nottingham Road. Bezrin stood one season at Spencer Cook’s The Rock Stud in Paarl.
The move, due to popular demand, is hardly surprising considering the stallion’s consistent results over the past number of seasons and his high standings once again this year, coupled with the lack of stallions standing in KZN with proven stud records. Last year he finished the season as the leading KZN sire on AEPR and returns as a leading sire once again on the 3yo log and 3rd on the list of Leading Sires by AEPR, behind Summerhill stalwarts Kahal and Muhtafal. Ramsay says that no better value is available to KZN breeders and that his syndicate weren’t willing to allow him to stand another year in the Cape.
He will be managed by Manny Testa, Director of Midlands Thoroughbreds. “I have had a great deal of success with Bezrin, having bred Filly Bushwacker and Detzkey’s Darling,” says Testa. “When there was an opportunity to bring him back to KZN, I jumped in to make it happen. I would like to thank the syndicate members for their support and hope that he gets the support he deserves. My only thought is that breeders should never underestimate the “Danzig factor” and given a chance, this stallion can really set the tracks alight. He will be getting a lot of support from my mares.”
To be a leading sire now, substantially, and to have been a leading sire last season must tell the market something. Ramsay closed by saying: “He is going to be attractively priced and I’ve no doubt any breeder wanting to take the ‘mystery’ out of trying to breed a winner will take advantage of having him available in KZN.”
