EQUUS AWARDS FROM AMBLEWAY

The Champions from the 2009 season have been awarded the Equus Awards including LINK MAN who was the Two Year Old colt of the Year. He was against a competitive group of juveniles and it was really great to see him bestowed the honour! He won a hat-trick of races and defeated some of his opposition when flying to win the Gold Medallion Grade 1 over 1200 metres. Congratulations to his conditioner Dennis Drier, owners Larry Nestadt, Greg Blank and to Riverton Stud's Duncan Barry who raised him.

Ambleway was also connected to several other awards - in particular to Pat and Henry Devine the owners of Champion Stallion Jet Master who won the award for an amazing record of four consecutive seasons in succession! They are loyal supporters of the farm and send us many of his progeny to grow out and school. Congratulations to you both for another amazing season and I know that following his success has been fantastic for you both!

Mike De Kock was associated with 9 of the Awards and of particular interest to us was the international success story he had with LIZARDS DESIRE who was spelled here before starting his international campaign. At the recent Equus Award evening his small time breeder, Albert Boshoff, received the International Breeders Award for breeding this gelding. His story is now history with LIZARDS DESIRE having won a Grade 1 race in Hong Kong and been pipped for second in Grade 1s in Dubai and Singapore. I am so sad to hear that his racing career is now threatened by laminitis and it is doubtful that he will race again.

The Champion Horse of the Year, Irish Flame, is by current up-and-coming stallion Dynasty. This local racehorse himself was a star and is now making headlines as a stallion! After being recognised for his achievements as a stallion last year he was very popular at the National Two year Old Sale. He amassed the highest aggregate for his 11 babies sold and also lays claim to the top priced colt - Jackson who was sold for R1,000,000 to Ian Longmore a solid supporter of Ambleway. The top vendors at the sale were Highlands stud farm who prepared this top priced colt.

We are delighted to be closely connected to Highlands Stud farm who have just sent us their latest draft of horses to be prepared for the next sale -The Ready To Run Sale . Included in this draft of 12 horses are 5 progeny of Dynasty among other well known stallions Jallad, Windrush, and Spectrum. More about these horses will be discussed in the next letter.

The Sale was tough for sellers as buyers were very slow and discerning, only showing interest in good pedigrees with fashionable stallions and proven dam lines being of interest. We were delighted to be sent 12 youngsters to be grown out and schooled at Ambleway over the next few weeks. Included are babies by Champion Stallion Jet Master (3), Silvano, Kahal (2), useful stallions Mogok (2), Tamboulaine, and new boys on the block Solskjaer, Indigo Magic and Overlord. We will watch these horses progress over the next few months with interest.

Many of the Cape and National Sale horses have gone into training with conditioners Dennis Drier and Michael Roberts and it will be of interesting to hear how they progress in the yards. Most of these horses are mature and now ready to start more work on the track. There are still plenty of National horses here at the farm that are immature and still need time to develop.

At the end of last season it was great to see some of our graduates show a return to form in some of the bigger races in KZN. GOLDEN PARACHUTE ran a cracking second in the Gold Vase Grade 2 over 3000 metres. He was very well ridden by Geoff Lloyd who placed him handy in the race and then hit the lead coming into the straight. He was only caught in the last few strides and looked much happier running freely like that. Surely on that run he can give his connections Marsh Shirtliff, Des Scott and Rupert Plersch a big one and will vindicate conditioner Mike Bass

Dennis Drier saw two of his yard make the big time at the beginning of the new season. STAR EMPIRE had showed that he was an improving horse by winning the Chapter Challenge. He then surprised the public by hacking up in the Darley Arabian Open, a listed race over 1900 metres. He was second favourite to Galileo's Galaxy, a star from Charles Laird stable. His opposition had the race sown up until he unleashed his run to fly past him and to win going away! He was then being aimed at the Cape Met by the yard until Mike de Kock made an offer to purchase him to race in Dubai. These offers come up like a Christmas present and could not be refused! He is now in quarantine to go north with the rest of the De Kock string.

CLEARLY SILVER ran over a sprint distance again and showed plenty of cheek to run into third place in the Umngeni Handicap, a listed race over 1000 metres. He was only beaten by a length for the Hong Kong owner Mr Lau. He now leaves the Dennis Drier yard to race in Hong Kong and we can follow his career path over there for the next few months.

It is sad to see these horses leave our shores but it is very financially worthwhile for the connections and gives us interested folk horses to follow internationally.

SHARKS BAY returned to the winning enclosure after a gutsy performance over 1600 metres. He won his race coming home full of running to make his proud owners, Steve Sturlese, Greg Blank and The Summerveld Trust (George Naidoo) very happy. The Drier yard was again in the pound seats.

The supporters of champion stallion Jet Master were rewarded by his son RAMPANT JET winning his debut in fine fashion over 1600 metres. This flashy colt had taken time to come to hand and Michael Azzie had him turned out successfully for Pat and Henry Devine. It has been a quiet time on the track for the Henry and Pat Devine so it was great to see their colt feature in the winning enclosure!

In our first draft we prepared 3 colts for Highlands stud - one of them SNOW SPECIAL came out and won again for the Alexander team. He had won his first sprint soon after hitting the track and it was rewarding to see him come back well now and win over 1450 metres for the team.

In some of the smaller centres we had success with VUYANI and SPANISH ARMADA in Kimberley and in Port Elizabeth we had success with SCULPTOR who won two races, HARBOUR LIGHTS and HIGH JESTER now an eight year old! Well done to all of their connections!

Plenty of horses have started to come to hand and need following in their next few starts on the track: WE HAVE LIFT OFF, STREET CRED, THE SNEAKER, NEVER FOREVER, JET TYCOON, LA DESTINA, NATASHAS PRIDE, SNAPPY, TARRAGON, MEDICIAN WOOD, HARD WOOD, EVOLUTION, SOLO FLIGHT, STORM THUNDER and SOPHISTICATED SUZIE who should win soon!

The passing on of well known racing personality Graham Beck has been both a sad event and also a relief for him as he was suffering for a long time with his health. We have been associated with him for many years and have been schooling horses for Highlands Farms back to our early years. When Mr Beck embarked on the importing of American mares to upgrade the local gene pool in South Africa we prepared the first two drafts of horses, including Equus Award winner, OVERARCHING, as well as many other mares you may now see progeny being sold under auction - ARCH MISTRESS, RIVIERSONDEREND, ROYAL POLLY to name but a few. We offer our condolences to all his family and members of staff at Highlands. It is good to see their flag still flying high.

Racing now returns to smaller fields in KZN and the feature season will start to shift to Gauteng and then the Cape in the next few months. We wish all fellow breeders the best during this forthcoming foaling season. This is where all our hopes and dreams are made with the coming of new foals. We are delighted to have a strong colt by Dynasty, the stallion of the future, out of our good race mare FINE FEATHER. A big thank you to Craig Carey and his staff at Arc En Ciel for foaling him down. We await news of any other arrivals in the near future.

Enjoy your racing and see you soon!

JANE TROTTER