SIZZLING SUMMER CAPE RACING!

We have just returned from the Cape and it certainly is magnificent there! The sun is shining and the long days experienced in the Cape summer are too awesome.

Racing itself has kicked off to a great start there with the Fillies Guineas having been run and the return match of the two previous stars Pocket Power, twice Horse of the Year, and his younger rival Big City Life, winner of last years July. Racing is about draw-cards and these two horses and any other up and coming stars certainly attract interest. Pocket Power returned to his throne with a convincing win over the younger horse and it will make racing interesting following them during the next few feature races including the Queen's Plate and the Met. We will follow our own star KAPIL who will be there to show his mettle as he has already started off the season in fine style having won the Merchants' Sprint. Another of our graduates to compete in some of these races is SEATTLE ICE who won the November Handicap. He will travel down to the Cape from Gauteng and will compete in some of these races and also put plenty of interest into these races for us.

We will also follow our graduates competing in the fillies feature races including the Majorca Stakes and the Paddock Stakes. Here, LOVE IS IN THE AIR, a big daughter of Jet Master, is likely to compete in these races and she certainly, being last year's winner of the Winter Classic as a three-year old, would have matured into a stronger filly this season. Another horse to follow over the distance races is GOLDEN PARACHUTE, the big son of Montjeu. He is improving and looks likely to set a mark in the stayers' races.

Our trip to the Cape was made really tremendous by the great hospitality we received from the Studs we visited. We were there for only a few days so visited only a few farms where we had personal interest involving horses to see for clients, stallions and foals.

Highlands Stud has for many years been great supporters of Ambleway. We have schooled many of their imported American mares including OVERARCHING who was twice the ARCSA Champion, and locally-bred colts and fillies to race. In the last two years we have also prepared their draughts of horses for the Ready To Run Sales and sold them very well. Their stallions have always been of interest as have sent our mares to them over the past few years we were therefore very interested in seeing what their current stallion band looked like. Very impressive is one of the top three-year old sires of Dynasty who is proving to be very popular at stud. He looked unbelievable - a very big horse - but because he is so balanced one does not realise his size. He really is a very impressive-looking animal. Jallad and National Assembly are now getting older but still hold their own on the track and were looking well. Wind Rush who is making his mark now by siring good colts as well as fillies, is a very big horse and certainly stands over a lot of ground. He is a very active horse and has lots of presence. The new stallion, Antonius Pius, looks typical of a Danzig type of horse and hopefully will follow the footsteps of his predecessor, National Assembly.

We have schooled quite a few Spectrum's in the recent years and it looks exciting to see how well-balanced and powerful this horse is. We hope to see that he produces a classic horse now that his first crop are three-year olds. A big thank you to Mike Sharkey and the team who looked after us while we were there showing us the stallions, watching some coverings and our stay there.

The Robertson area is also the home of Jet Master, the very big and imposing the Champion Stallion of 2007 and 2008 - Jet Master. He stands at Klipdrift, the farm of Benny Marais. What impressed us is how relaxed he was and how well he looked after having covered such a full book and had a busy season! He spends all day in a big paddock in the company of other horses in a paddock next door. We were very hospitably looked after by Shane in the absence of Benny who is laid low at present. While we were there we also looked at some of the young two-year old horses that were by Jet Master that will be coming to us for schooling who were bred by Pat and Henry Devine. It will be very exciting to watch these youngsters maturing as generally the Jet Masters do take a little longer to do so.

Next door to Klipdrift is the Riverton Stud of Duncan Barry. We really enjoyed a few hours there walking around through the lush paddocks meeting all the mares, foals and yearlings being raised on the farm. We have had quite a few youngsters there from the farm to school over the past year including yearlings by Toreador and Victory Moon. It was interesting to see these youngsters' siblings and to compare them. All the horses were very friendly as they are frequently handled.

Our final farm was a visit Arc 'N Ciel to see our own two mares, FINE FEATHER and AHWAHNEE. The former mare has a super muscular colt by Captain Al at foot and we were really thrilled to see he looks a typical sprinter type. Our other mare unfortunately lost a foal by Victory Moon who is now deceased - what a loss that was! She is now in foal to Windrush and FINE FEATHER is in foal to Dynasty. Thanks very much to Craig Carey and his team for looking after them all so well.

Back in KwaZulu-Natal December has been a shocking month in terms of the weather conditions. We have hardly seen the sun and it has felt like we live in Ireland over the last few weeks with lots of drizzle, mist and rain. The muddy conditions have made it very difficult to work with the horses and a lot of racing has been delayed or abandoned. We have been fortunate to have success with a couple of horses: IPSE DIXIT won his maiden for conditioner Dennis Drier. He is owned by the Messrs Jones and Wagenaar and he is the half-brother to the very good sprinting filly of theirs - CHARMING LADY. SCARAMOOSH, a Fanatic Dane filly who was bred by Vanessa Williams at Keivan Stud has a few placed runs for Gavin van Zyl and finally won her maiden for the connections - congratulations to you!

Ambleway then had a bumper day at Clairwood on 9 December where four of our graduates won at the same meeting! Michael Roberts was successful with a trio of winners - AIR POCKET, DAUNTLESS DELANCE and DORIAN GRAY and Craig Eudey won with IRISH DARLING. Amidst all the rain and heavy storms it was really wonderful to have such a great day. Apart from these winners we also had many placed horses - AUTUMN BREEZE, BET ON BLUE, LEOPARD TREE, NATIONAL APPEAL, KING'S WINGS and ROAD TO HEAVEN who ran a cracking second after a long break for his new conditioner. Congratulations to all the successful connections, in particular to Michael Roberts who had a field day!

We have had plenty of horses that have been placed that need watching: SNOW SPECIAL, ZODIAC DRUM, WOODLAND QUEEN, DUAL EMBLEM, LUNAR LANDSCAPE, SPORTING WARRIOR, SPANISH ARMADA, WILD TYPE, EMPEROR RISING, RAHKEE, ARCTIC BEAR, IRISH DARLING, CONNOR McLEOD, PATTAYA BEACH, HIGH JESTER, WEST COAST GOLD, MRS BROCK, BISMARCK, HOT EMBER, SYLVAN SHADE, FANTASTIC LADY, LA DESTINA and PREDESTINATION. Particularly interesting to watch is the filly COSMIC JET who ran fourth in her debut - she is a full sister to LOVE IS IN THE AIR.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our loyal supporters for the support that you have given Ambleway over the last year. We do wish you and your families a Happy Christmas and festive season - enjoy all the parties - but drive safely! We are delighted to have our family home for Christmas - our son, Michael, who has been in London for three years, is coming home as well as our son James who has finished an eight-year stint in Cape Town. It will be lovely to have them for the month over Christmas.

Enjoy your festivities and we look forward to 2010!

JANE TROTTER