NEWSLETTER AUTUMN SEASON IN GAUTENG BUILDS UP

The first few months of the racing season in South Africa is always relatively quiet compared to the build up of the Champions Season to the climax of July and Gold Cup day. However overseas, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, the racing is really heating up towards the big championship events of the year. Last week we witnessed a strange renewal of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe where the Japanese superstar and Triple Crown winner Orfevre looked certain to win the race by daylight when in the last 100m he hung onto the rail and was caught by outsider Solemnia. Orfevre now joins Deep Impact, El Condor Pasa, and Nakayama Festa in becoming the 4th Japanese horse to finish 2nd in the Arc in recent years. Combining their success at the Arc with their victories at the Melbourne Cup and Dubai World Cup and it is a telling sign of how strong Japanese horses have become and it wont be long before they finish one better in Europe's showpiece event. In last month's newsletter we spoke of Frankel continuing his unbeaten brilliance while Camelot unfortunately relinquished his perfect record. Two champions overseas who deserve attention this month are the champion two year olds of England and Australia respectively. This last weekend saw Dawn Approach win Europe's most prestigious two year old race - the Dewhurst Stakes G1. In so doing he finishes off his two year old season a perfect 6 for 6. This colt is from the first crop of record breaking young stallion, New Approach - a son of Galileo who also won Dewhurst to be Champion 2 year old, only to come back at three to win the Epsom Derby. So there is likely much to come from Dawn Approach! Unfortunately for Australian racing fans, their young champion last week faced his first career defeat. Pierro as a two year old was an unbeaten winner of their two year old Triple Crown. He won his first start back as a 3 year old and was being aimed at taking on older horses in Australia's Championship WFA event, the Cox Plate G1 in late October. His prep race for the Cox Plate was never going to be easy however - being arguably Australia's most prestigious 3 year old race, the Caulfield Guineas G1. It was here that he tasted his first defeat in 9 starts last weekend to none other than the half-brother of Black Caviar called All Too Hard by Casino Prince. Though it is never nice to see a champion defeated, it was difficult not to smile this time around, seeing that we are consigning a colt by Casino Prince for the National Ready-to-Run Sale next month! Casino Prince was Champion Freshman Sire in Australia last year so it was promising to see his progeny train on to win a Grade 1 at three. Back in South Africa and we were proud to have two Ambleway graduates BEACH BEAUTY and POTENT POWER bring home awards at the Kwazulu-Natal Racing Awards dinner. BEACH BEAUTY won the award for Champion Older Filly/Mare and POTENT POWER for Champion Two Year Old Colt. Both of these horses were conditioned by Dennis Drier and it's a testament to what a great year Dennis had that both these award winners were in his stable. Congratulations to all the connections of these two and we hope this year can somehow live up or be better than last!

Speaking of Champion Two Year Olds it was great to see the "Grey Ghost of Toreador", as the Sporting Post referred to him last week, come with his customary late kick and win the G3 Joburg Spring Challenge over 1450m last week. LINK MAN has been a bit erratic since his brilliant early days when he won the G1 Gold Medallion, but he has had his problems, and so we can only hold thumbs that he is over all those now and that we can see some big performances from him this coming season. Congratulations to his owners Messrs Blank, Burg and Nestadt and Mike de Kock for the win. Down in Cape Town we saw the return of another promising colt from last season. CHANGINGOFTHEGUARD came out and won the G3 Matchem Stakes at Kenilworth over 1400m for Justin Snaith's team and owners Team Valor and Anant Singh. It was great to see him back and rejuvenated! This son of Go Deputy was always an incredibly good-looking horse growing up, so much so that we ended up sending our Western Winter mare to Go Deputy two years ago largely because of being impressed by the looks and potential we saw in this horse when he was at Ambleway. He showed good promise as a 3 year old and was aimed at the Cape Derby, however it seems now that Justin has thinks that his ideal distance may actually be from a mile to 1800m with his goal this season being the Queen's Plate G1. Though there haven't been many feature race events over this past month we were fortunate enough to have another graduate, FORMATION, win the Listed Emerald Cup Fillies Handicap by 7 lengths over 1450m on the Vaal dirt. This filly seems like she has potential as her very next start she came out and led from start to finish over 1800m to win by over 3 lengths on the grass at Turffontein. FORMATION has now won 6 races for St John Gray and should be adding more to her tally in the near future. Besides the two wins for FORMATION, St John Gray had 6 other winners this past month including two days where he had doubles come in. The first of these doubles was when BREATHLESS and CHESTNUT CHARGER won at the Vaal over 1200m and 1600m respectively. BREATHLESS is by Doowally out of Zip It Up while CHESTNUT Charger is by Announce out of Sweet Suffrogate. The next double came when THE FIXER (Announce x Hold That Thought) won over 1600m by 1¼ lengths and ROLL CALL (Sarge x Scent of Summer) cruised home by 4½ lengths over 1450m. What's interesting is that we also broke in the dams of most of these horses for St John, a few years ago now. EGYPTIAN (Sarge x Goose Time) gets a regular mention for St John in this newsletter and came out and won again for St John, this time over 1600m, while the gelding MASTER OF HOUNDS (Sarge x Scuffelbird) won easily by 4½ lengths over 1800m. It certainly was an exciting and successful month for Mr Gray - well done! Down in Natal it has been a great month for Dennis Drier reeling in the winners. The most anticipated start of the month must have been BEACH BEAUTY's return to the racetrack, and she couldn't have been more impressive winning her first start of the season by an easy 4½ lengths. The daughter of Dynasty is one of the best horses in training in this country and we hold thumbs and look forward to some exciting things from her in the coming Cape Summer Season. Dennis had a double at Clairwood when two smart looking 3 year olds won for him down the straight. The first of these was BARBOSA who was making his 2nd start over 1000m and overcame a less than ideal start and some traffic trouble to win comfortably in the end by 1½ lengths under Sean Cormack. This son of Captain Al is owned by Messrs Trotter, Alexander, Campbell and Longmore. The second win for Mr Drier on the day was when the big Jet Master colt CHAVE DE OURA led from start to finish to win by almost 4 lengths for Knut Haug. He has now won 2 from 3 and looks a quality sort. Both these colts will be worth watching when they join the Drier string down in Cape Town over the next few months.

The handsome son of Jallad, ROMEO BRAVO won over 1450m at Clairwood when he came with a late run under a good ride by Keagan de Melo. ROMEO BRAVO is owned by Tim Keating, David Abery, Mike Fullard and James Drew and hopefully has more to come in the future. Dennis had another easy winner when PANAMA MAN won over a 1000m easily by 5 lengths beating another Ambleway graduate MOUNTAIN THUNDER into second. This colt of Miesque's Approval is owned by Messrs Chetty, Naidoo, Singh and Deokynarain and looks to have plenty of speed. Finally Dennis also had a duo of bothers win for him and owners Mr & Mrs Jooste. KRUGER RAND and REAR ADMIRAL are both out of the Rambo Dancer mare Duchess Drive and both found the winner's box this last month. KRUGER RAND came from behind to win over 1200m by ¾ length. This son of Goldkeeper is a good looking horse and should also hopefully have more to come. Two weeks later and his younger brother REAR ADMIRAL by Captain Al came out and won over 1200m at Scottsville and is unlikely to be finished here. It certainly was a good month for the Drier team and we wish them well with their string down in the Cape feature season coming up. We had an Ambleway double when ORANGE BLOSSOM and MALKIA both won at Clairwood. ORANGE BLOSSOM is a daughter of Miesque's Approval and was winning her second start for owner Ian van Schalkwyk and trainer Duncan Howells. MALKIA has had lots of places and so deserved this win for trainer Garth Puller. She was bred by Warick and Karen Render who also own her along with the Moodley's Racing Team. Congratulations to all the connections involved! Down in Port Elizabeth we had NEVER FOREVER winning for his owners Fullard & Drew over 1000m. NEVER FOREVER always showed some talent when racing in Natal and he has already won 2 races since relocating to the comparatively weaker centre of PE. It will be interesting to see how he continues to fare down there. In Cape Town MADAM ROONEY won again, this time over 1300m for owner Braam "Tekkie" van Huysteen and trainer Burger. This daughter of Windrush was bred by Highlands and sold on their dispersal sale last year. A promising young horse to follow is CANNON who won his second race by 5 lengths over the 1800m at Turffontein last week. This Silvano colt has now won 2 from 4. He won his second start by 7 lengths then failed to act on the sand in his third before coming out and winning again this time. He is owned by Messrs Blank, Nestadt, Currie, Georgios and trained by De Kock. The dam of this colt, Make My Millennium, is in fact a half-sister to Jet Master. And we are consigning the Toreador half-sister to CANNON at this year's Ready-to-Run sale. There is a list of horses that have placed and deserve following in their next few starts: On Emerald Cup day we had IKATI place second in the Listed Banyana Handicap over 1000m for Mayesh Chetty and trainer Kom Naidoo. Other horses that placed were EASTERN GREETING, VIDEO GAMES, SHARK ATTACK, DYNAMIC STAR, HALLOWED, POLE DANCE, STELLAR SEASON, SAMMY SILVER, HEADS UP, TORNADO MAN, THE FLYING MACHINE, PUT THE KETTLE ON, NORDIC LASS, GOLDEN PARACHUTE, LOVE STRUCK, MT THUNDER, SACRED CALL, GRASP YOUR DESTINY, YER MAAN, JET DOT COM, SO YOU THINK, TULLYNALLY and OCTAVIA. We will be up at the National Ready-to-Run Sale on the 2nd and 4th November at Germiston consigning 8 horses, so if you are going to be up there please come by and take a look at them. Look forward to seeing you up there. Enjoy your racing!

Jane Trotter