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Posted 2013-07-23 13:06:02  
Ambleway Newsletter July 2013

BUSY SEASON IN KZN  

The past few weeks have been hectic in KZN with the Sales, July, Summerhill Stallion Day, and the KZN Mare Sale!  

The racing at the July Day was awesome for everyone as we had experienced a cold wet week for the sale and the July Day was perfect! The racing was great too and Ambleway graduates competed successfully on the day. ALONG CAME POLLY ran a cracking 2nd in the Golden Slipper (Grade 1) for juvenile fillies. She came from way off the pace to run an amazing race for Gavin van Zyl and Buffalo Bill! She has done well for herself having won over R260 000 and you could say she may lay claim to being the best maiden in the country! In the July we got excited about a 100 meters from home as JET EXPLORER hit the front and looked a likely winner. The heavy going got to him and he did not stay in front but ran a game finish 5th for Pat and Henry Devine, his owners, and an elated Justin Snaith who has trained the second horse Run For It. Watch him in the Champions Cup over 1800 meters when the distance will be more up his street!   The Garden Province was the 4th Grade 1 for the day and it had an amazing field competing in it, won by the favourite BEACH BEAUTY. She overcame a very wide draw, sat handy, and took the lead some way from home to win in a hands and heels ride by Sean Cormack who was elated at the post. Her victory in this race gave her owners the Shanks Syndicate plenty to celebrate as she has amassed over R3 million in stakes having won 12 of her 23 starts and been placed in 8 of them. Dennis Drier had a very successful season with this "darling of the track" as she had already won the Grade 1 Paddock Stakes, the Grade 2 Drill Hall Stakes and the Grade 3 Premier Trophy - the latter two races beating the colts. What a filly!  

Later in the month JACKSON saw the track for the first time in a while when he ran a cracking 4th in the Mercury Sprint Grade 1. He was running in this sprint race as a warm up for the Champion Stakes over 1800 meters on Gold Cup day. He showed some of his mettle being up with the pace and he ran on well at the death and should account for himself well over further.   The July capped off what has been an incredible year for Silvano, with the sire having no less than 6 horses in the final field. To think that both Vercingetorix and Tellina could quite easily have made it 8 horses in the race makes the achievement even more outstanding. Apart from Heavy Metal and Do You Remember finishing 1st and 3rd for Silvano in the July, on the same weekend a son of his called Lucky Speed won the German Darby G1 and will very likely be crowned Champion 3 Year Old there. Quite an amazing day to cap off a season where he has sired 6 Grade 1 winners and 12 Stakes winners and broken South Africa's all time Stakes Record by a substantial margin.   As racing peaks and comes to a close in South Africa so in Europe it is just gathering speed. This last month has been terribly exciting watching Shea Shea make South Africa proud in both Royal Ascot and the July Cup G1 at Newmarket. In the first race you could say he was a little unlucky, whereas in the second race you'll find that hard 1200m may have just taken the brilliance out of him. On top of that he was beaten by a top horse in Lethal Force. His next step will be to drop back down to 1000m which appears to be his game and run on quicker as found in the Nunthorpe Stakes G1 at York and the Prix I'Abbaye G1 at Longchamp, a race won by by Var in course record time. So there may be a European G1 this season for Shea Shea yet!   Away from the South African connections we have seen the arrival of new stars on the European racing scene. The sprinter who beat Shea Shea and won the Diamond Jubilee Stakes G1 at Ascot. Lethal Force, being one of those. Meanwhile, in the older horses division we have seen the arrival of Al Kazeem - who has now strung together three G1's over 2000m and is co-favourite for the Arc, along with French Derby winner Intello. That's a match up to look forward to! The three year old milers division is also extremely exciting with Champion 2 year Old of last year, Dawn Approach, claiming revenge in the St James Palace Stakes G1 at Ascot over who looks to be his foe for the rest of the season: the handsome Toronado. The two will meet at the end of the month in Sussex Stakes G1 and it will be interesting to see how Toronado improves as he matures into his stature and catches up to the precocious and brilliant New Approach, who his connections rate the best miler in the world!   The KZN sale was held in Durban the week before the July and the weather was really awful - rain and wind availed most of the time we were there! We were happy to sell both our lots: the colt by Elusive Fort was sold for R110 000 bought by Bradley Mc Hardy and the filly by Lake Conistan was bought by Glen Kotzen. The market at the sale was up and down and horses that were in demand sold well with the overseas trend visible again. The sale was about 30% up on the previous year showing the resurgence of the bloodstock industry world-wide. The incentive offered last year where only yearlings purchased from this sale could enter the Million Rand race the year later did produce interest and the inaugural race of its kind was won by Ace Antonius who had good form already running second in the Umkomazi Stakes, a Grade 2 race.  

We were also delighted to have been sent 11 babies to grow out and school form this sale including progeny by successful stallions Var, Count Du Bois, Mogok, and newer sires Rebel king and Miesque's Approval, and yearlings from the first season sires Kings Apostle, Admire Main, Mambo in Seattle and AP Answer. These yearlings are setting down and are out in paddocks with other yearlings from the farms. These yearlings include a son of Rebel King and daughters of Imperial Dispatch and Lateral that were from the Cape Sale Book 2. These three horses spent a few months on stud farms before coming here to be schooled. We also have recently been sent a daughter of Jet Master out of the good mare Rei Rei and a Brazilian fully by Pure Prize from a good Brazilian family, and a strong filly by Seventh Rock from the Klawervlei Sale.   Ambleway graduates have been winning races in the different centres during this KZN season - MASTER OF FATE, PANAMA MAN and DANSEUSE won for the Drier yard, TARET FIVE won for Garth Puller, TURKISH DELIGHT and OPENING SALVO won for the St John Gray yard, TIGER QUEST was successful for the Dom Zaki yard and in PE JETTIN ALONG won for Mike Bass and GOLDEN SLIPPER won in Kimberly for trainer Miler and COPY CAT won for her connections!  

The beautiful colt by Jet Master, MASTER OF MY FATE, is a very well bred horse and at the yearling sale he cost over R3 million to secure. It was a win full emotion as his former owner Andrew Papageorgiou had chosen him and sadly passed on so never saw him run. His success on the track was left to his wife Annetjie and to the Drier yard. A very happy and sad day for all….. PANAMA MAN got up on the line by a head to win his second race, the sprint on Breeders Day for his team of owners Messers Mayesh Chetty, Colin Naidoo, Kumran Singh and J and N Deokoynarain. DANSEUSE won a good race for the same team as BEACH BEAUTY earlier that week, so they were delighted to lead this victorious daughter of Joshua Dancer who got up to win a great race for them beating a useful field of fillies in the process. Well done to the Shanks Syndicate!   The horse TARGET FIVE, also a son of Jet Master, has been running very consistently for his connections and made it an easy win for them by 2 lengths. Well done to Garth, Moodleys Racing Team, Ralph Katzwinkel, Messers Pillay, Kalil, Moodley and Naidoo.  

St John Gray's yard is hitting form again now and several have been placed with two winners over different distances - TURKISH DELIGHT won over the trip of 2600m and OPENING SALVO won over 1450m. Both these horses were by Sarge, one of St Johns stallions out of mares we schooled, EASTERN HONOUR  and  APPLE FAIR some years back!  

TIGER QUEST has been very rewarding to own and breed as she has won two of her starts and has been 2nd twice. Her last win at the Vaal was full of merit where she toyed with the opposition to win the sprint easily for Messrs Nesdadt, Kantor and Bott from Australia, where she was also bred. Her one second was in the Grade 2 SA Nursery which was early in her career and she will now join ALONG CAME POLLY in going for the G1 Thekwini Stakes on Gold Cup day!   It was great to see both JETTIN ALONG, COPY CAT and GOLDEN SLIPPER break their maidens for their connections.   We have a list of placed horses that need to be watched in their next few starts: FORESTATION, NEW RELIGION, NOMENCULTURE, TELL MY STAR, SOARING FREE, COME WITH ME, WILD TYPE, SAMMY SILVER, VIDEO GAMES, GARY THE GREAT, AIR PATROL, WEST VIRGINIA, SHIMMERING JET, ORANGE BLOSSOM and BADGER FRIENDLY.  

We are going up to Gauteng for the National Two Year Old Sale on the 15th and 16th August so will be available to assist people look at horses and we will be able to organise any purchases to come home to be schooled at Ambleway. We also are attending the Equus Awards Dinner on Wednesday 14th  August and would really like to wish all the Ambleway graduates that are in line for any awards and their connections the best of luck!   Enjoy your racing!   Jane Trotter  

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