SA Horseracing recently took time out to chat to Hadlow Stud’s Cathy Martin, about her background, goals in racing, and experiences with the great Dancewiththedevil.
Are you from a racing family?
No, I come from a sheep farm in the Karoo but we all grew up riding horses.
How did you get involved with racing/horses?
I have always ridden horses and competed in showjumping and showing.
When I moved to Kzn I had my 2 competitive geldings and a mare in foal to a warmblood stallion. We sadly lost her shortly after she foaled and Craig Ramsay lent us a foster mare. After that the rest just happened.
Have you always been based in KZN?
No, I grew up on a farm just outside of Grahamstown. I went to school, Kingswood College, and university there. Once I finished I moved to Johannesburg to start a career in the field of Human Resources and Labour Law.
How did you meet your husband and was he also involved in racing?
I met him while working in Johannesburg. He had no racing background either. We are obviously fast learners.
Who is the best horse you have been involved with?
That has to be Dancewiththedevil. I wonder if we will ever be involved with another 5 time group winner again. We can only hope so. I was very happy to see her full brother win his second start the other day. She was quirky and he is too. ( I'm not suggest that makes a great racehorse) If he can be half as good as her we will be more than happy.
Who is the best horse you have bred?
The most success we have had with a stallion is Bezrin. He has produced our most successful horses. They are Thunderflash who won 11 races including the Champion Juvenile Cup and the PE Gold cup and of course former East Cape horse of the year, Celtic Fire who won ..... races including the Listed Memorial mile ....... times. (Help please). Then Jimmy Choo who won the Stormbird stakes. I think Bezrin is one of the most underrated stallions in this country.
What is the latest news on Dancewiththedevil?
She's well and in foal to Silvano. Her yearling filly by Silvano will be going into pretraining towards the end of the year. We look forward to watching her run in the not too distant future although it is quite a late maturing family.
How did you get involved with Hadlow Stud?
We acquired the farm as a quarantine farm for chickens. My husband is a chicken farmer. Once we moved to Mooi River and met all the racing people in the district we were hooked and the horse population grew quickly. It is great when your passion becomes your work and I have to say that now we are horse Breeders and part time chicken farmers.
The farm name was Hadlow so we just went with the name.
How big is the farm and how many mares do you keep there?
We have approximately 70 mares on 220 hectares of land. We bale our own roughage, eragrostis, oats and teff. Our pastures consist of Kikuyu, Rye and cocksfoot.
How many resident sires do you have?
We currently stand Announce, Bezrin and Modus Vivendi for Graystone stud.
Would you consider taking on more stallions?
Yes, but at the moment we only have accommodation for one more.
What race would you like most to breed a winner of?
I think we would all like to breed the July winner.
Have any of the first crop sires impressed you?
What a Winter and Oratorio have had a very exciting start to their careers in this country.
Who, if anyone, has inspired you?
There are many people who inspire one in this game. I have to give credit to Craig Ramsay for encouraging us all those 18 years ago. Our vet back in those days, the late Dr Dave Mullins was a very patient teacher as well. Encouraging us to learn more of the veterinary aspect and help us become more confident and informed and enabled me to learn to do a lot of the work on my own.
What aspect of the game would you most like to see changed?
Stakes need to go up. They seem to be very stagnant while everything else in our industry escalates out of control. Feed, wages and vet bills. It's becoming prohibitively expensive for people to own races horses. This has a backlash effect on both the trainers and the Breeders.
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