What a year it has been for Ambleway! We sold our highest priced horse at a sale, have had graduates that won both ARCSA Awards and KZN Racing & Breeders' Awards and have been associated with the top trainers in KZN. Apart from the stars mentioned below we have also many graduates who have won and been featured in Graded races.

WHAT A YEAR 2013 has been for us...

We sold a son of Western Winter CHILLI AFFAIR for the massive amount of R1,2 million at the Ready-to-Run Sale at Germiston. Later in the month at the Lanzerac Ready To Run, another son of Western Winter was the sales topper and set a new SA Record of R 4,5 million. The full brother to Red Ray-Brutal Force made history emphasising what a stallion Western Winter is as he can produce stars.

The KZN Horse Of The Year, BEACH BEAUTY received the highest accolades last season winning the KZN Older Mare Category as well as the ARCSA Award Trophy in the same category. "Beach" was Horse of the Year in Natal and only failed as Horse of the Year in SA to Variety Club, who has now been exported. This mare made a winning debut in the Cape in the new season and followed up this easy win by running a good 3rd in the Green Point Stakes Grade 2 over a mile

ALONG CAME POLLY was the star two year old at both the ARCSA Awards and the KZN awards. She was then rested in the Cape and after running a disappointing race in her debut there ran a close third in the Cape Fillies Guineas Grade 1 following a really difficult passage where she ran on very strongly indicating she is still a force to be reckoned with.

The Kahal horse LOVESTRUCK won "The Classic" Grade 1 and was voted the KZN Champion bred Middle Distance and Champion 3 year old Awards and the only horse to win more categories was the current Horse Of The year in KZN-Festival Of Fire.

Apart from these successful horses that won Awards, there were many graduates that had made their presence felt on the track this past year winning races all around the country. Some of the stars this last year include:

MASTER OF MY FATE             Won Grade 2 Premier Trophy

LINK MAN                                  2nd in the Grade 3 JHB Spring Sprint

CHAVA DE OURA                     2nd in Grade 2 Merchants

                                                   4th in Grade 1 Cape Flying Championship

JACKSON                                  Won the Grade 1 Champions Cup

                                                   2nd in the Grade 2 Green Point Stakes

                                                   2nd Grade 1 Queens Plate

BEACH BEAUTY                       Won the Grade 1 Paddock stakes

                                                   Won the Grade 2 Drill Hall Stakes

                                                   Won the Grade 1 Garden Province Stakes

                                                   2nd in Grade 1 Gold Challenge

                                                   3rd in the Grade 1 J&B Met

ALONG CAME POLLY              Won the Grade 1 Thekwini Stakes

                                                   2nd in the Grade 1 Allan Robertson Stakes

                                                   2nd in the Grade 1 Pretty Polly Stakes

                                                   3rd in Grade 1 Cape Fillies Guineas

LOVESTRUCK                           Won the Grade 1 SA Classic

THUNDER DANCE                    Won the Grade 1 Empress Club Stakes

JET EXPLORER                        Won the Grade 2 Greyville 1900

                                                   3rd in the Grade 1 Champions Cup

                                                   5th in the Grade 1 Durban July

MISS OCTOBER                       2nd in Grade 2 Poinsettia Stakes

                                                   3rd in Grade 2 Sceptre Stakes
KINGS TEMPTRESS                Won the Grade 3 Three Troikas Stakes

                                                   3rd in the Grade 2 Gauteng Fillies Guineas

                                                   4th in Grade 2 KRA Fillies Guineas
FORMATION                             2nd in the Grade 3 Acacia Handicap

TIGER QUEST                          Won Listed Gardenia Handicap

CHAVE DE OURA who had won several races last season and got up after a long break to run second in The Betting Worlds Merchants G2 in this seasons debut in the Cape. Well done to Knut Haug and Dennis Drier getting this talented colt back to the track with such an impressive return run.

In one of the final feature races of the year Dennis Drier had his high regard in MASTER OF MY FATE rewarded when the colt easily disposed of a field of J&B Met G1 hopefuls when winning the Grade 2 Premier Trophy. The Premier Trophy is one of the main lead up races to the "Met" and this beautiful colt is now due to compete for favouritism come Cape Town's big race day. Well done to Annetjie Papageorgiou on this win! She had a very emotional week having won with the same team earlier in the week with VIVA LA VAR!

We have been honoured to be associated with Dennis Drier and Duncan Howells over the past season. Both of these trainers won awards at the KZN Awards Dinner: Dennis was the champion trainer at Summerveld and Duncan was the champion trainer at Ashburton. Lets hope that our association continues to prosper

With South Africa's racing almost done for the year so overseas has another exciting year drawn to a close. Breeders' Cup day in the USA provided another thrilling day of racing where Horse of the Year Wise Dan joined an elite group of horses - Miesque, Goldikova and Lure - to have successfully defended his Breeders' Cup Mile G1 victory. In the main race of the day the big story was Hall of Fame jockey Gary Stevens (who starred in the movie Seabiscuit as George "Iceman" Woolf) coming out of retirement this year to win America's richest race. The horse he was on, Mucho Macho Man, has just got better with age and will remain in training in 2014.

In Europe racing was always going to feel a little anticlimactic after Frankel retired, however there were still stars out to be found. Dawn Approach winning the English 2000 Guineas G1 by five lengths and the filly Treve winning the "Arc" Grade 1 by the same margin are the two performances that stand out. Across the Indian Ocean and we had the famous Gai Waterhouse win her first Melbourne Cup, South African born 19-year old jockey Chad Schofield winning Australia's second biggest race - the $2m Cox Plate, and in Japan their star filly Gentildonna made history by becoming the first horse to defend a Japan Cup G1 crown.

Thank you to all our supporters over the past season. It has been a great year for everyone.

We wish all of you a Festive Xmas Season with your family and a safe prosperous New Year. Let us hope that 2014 treats us all as well.

I will be having my break in the New Year when Rod and I go to San Lameer with friends from the 3rd January until 10th January. The animals, especially your horses will be taken care of by Kelsey Ford(072 859 2988) and Rachel White  ( 079 561 3703) Please contact them if you have any queries regarding your horses during that period.

Enjoy your racing

Jane Trotter