Graceland Farm

Australian great Bart Cummings, trainer of 12 Melbourne Cup winners most of them selected himself as yearlings, shares what he looks for in a young horse

Thanks to the ever-efficient Amanda Carey, my catalogue for the 2012 Cape Premier Yearling Sale arrived yesterday.  Whatever the future holds for sales companies – and we’ve got to believe the TBA will respond to the Jooste/Kantor Money Machine’s guaranteed payment to breeders – it’s already obvious competition brings benefits.  The CPYS catalogue is an improvement on the TBA’s National Sales book which has hardly changed in 25 years (my back copies prove it!).

Apart from professional layout maps and liberal use of colour, the short profiles and photos of represented stallions will be a very welcome addition for new buyers. Congrats to Robin Bruss and team, too, for the iPad App which downloads in a flash and slots into the global Equiline offering. It’s something the TBA should repeat with its sales. The iPad App is pretty logical really – most buyers surely own iPads because if you can’t afford a tablet it’s hardly likely you’ll be in the market for a yearling.

Not sure how true it is, but the CPYS team has apparently been charged with hitting a R500 000 average price on the 349-catalogued yearlings. Quite a hop from last year’s R404 205, especially as there are 59 more yearlings catalogued. But this looks to be an even stronger entry than 2011’s debut sale and with a few substantial buy-back here and there, and some aggressive targeting of foreigner buyers, I wouldn’t bet against the sale achieving that targeted 25% increase.

On the subject of acquiring young horses I’ve been looking for an excuse to share my recently read advice from the great Aussie trainer Bart Cummings’ advice. Starting on page 375 of the Sir Patrick Hogan biography, Give A Man A Horse, author Dianne Haworth shares Cummings’ response after she asked him what he looks for in a horse at an auction.

Cummings told her “Champion horses invariably look similar in conformation…” So here’s part of his checklist:

• Short cannon bone and long arm.
• A fine leg with a hock closer to the ground.
• Deep girth that follows through to a sloping shoulder.
• Obviously a nice rein: “a long rein gives you better balance, a horse turns over a lot of ground and he’s got to be well balanced. The centre of gravity of a horse is the wither.”
• When the horse walks, it’s got to be balanced, got to “walk through” – a fluent walk is like poetry in motion.

Mostly, though, Cummins talks about being blessed with having an eye for a horse: “I teach people. I show people, but they don’t see the obvious. I’ve always been able to see something unusual and with horses it’s essential to see that.”

One of the casualties of Saturday's heavy storm - an old Cypress knocked over by the gale force winds. Andreas (left) and Four wonder at the power that did this. On the bright side, there's plenty more firewood for winter.

A heavy storm, the worst we’ve had in two years, hit the Mooi River area on New Year’s Eve. Graceland lost a large Cypress, upended with its roots ripped out; another big Cypress was virtually spilt in half. Not sure why these trees were so popular in our area – their shallow root systems are completely unsuited to the weather conditions. Lots of branches were also ripped off other trees, including the far hardier Pin Oaks, and many of the fly traps – such critical tools at this time of year – were blown off their moorings.

The storm happened quickly, dark clouds building in the south just a few minutes before gale force winds and rain hit us. Even though it was a Saturday afternoon, Graceland’s team were alive to the danger; Andreas, Four and I were able to get the last of the foals into the stable block moments before the worst of the storm arrived. Not quickly enough to avoid a good drenching though. After losing two foals in the aftermath of a storm last year, we now have a set policy on the farm to bring foals and their mothers in whenever lightning and thunder threatens.

At one stage it felt as though the roof of the stable barn was about to fly off. Some split pole fencing did, but apart from that and the trees, we got off pretty lightly. Thankfully, none of the horses were hurt. As usual, those in the fields went into open ground and turned their backsides into the rain, stoically waiting out the chaos. Master breeder Federico Tesio says this is instinct, absorbed from the early horses that surely braved far worse on the great Steppes of Asia.

Eskom’s service was disrupted for a few hours after one of its poles was knocked over by the storm. Summerhill’s general dealer store had a large tree fall on it, smashing the roof. Fortunately, nobody was hurt but it was a close thing. Speaking to her shortly after the storm, Cheryl Goss told me there were three trees knocked over on the driveway between their home and the Giant’s Castle Road – and one of her recenyl planted acacias was ripped out of the ground. The Gosses live two hills away on the same ridge so would have experienced just what we did.

The luckiest escape was by a lady who pulled over for safety under an oak tree on the Lower Lotheni Road near Rosetta – just moments before a giant branch crashed into her vehicle, missing her by inches. It took hours to cut the unfortunate woman out of her car. She broke a few bones on her arms and hands but, again, will count herself lucky. Reminded me of the story of the bird, the jackal and the cowpat. Sometimes apparent safe havens can be even more dangerous than staying exposed.

No harbour was available for commuters on the Joburb/Durban N3 who felt the worst of the storm – as will their insurance companies. The toll road between Mooi River and Nottingham Road looked like a battleground with cars littered along both sides of the road, windows smashed and bonnets buckled by hailstones. Our thoughts are with them, and local crop farmers who are probably still counting the cost of Mother Nature’s power. Farming has never been easy. As extremes conditions, like Saturday’s storm, keep reminding us.

Pocket Power, photographed by Hamish Niven. The book about the Champion is worth the investment, but I was left with the distinct feeling the writer was given a tight brief - stick to the facts and don't ruffle feathers.

If I ever have another horse suited by Western Cape conditions, he or she will be offered first to trainer Mike Bass. No more than nodding acquaintances as long-standing racing people tend to be, my respect for Bass the Trainer has skyrocketed in the last few days after breezing through the paperback tribute to his Pocket Power.

For those intimately involved with the Jet Master gelding – Bass and his team especially daughter Candice, groom Boy Boy Jevu and farrier Greg Dabbs; breeder Dan de Wet;  jockey Bernard Fayd’Herbe; and owners Marsh Shirtliff and Arthur Webber – Gary Lemke’s Pocket must be a walk down memory lane. For the rest of us, the book offers some idea of how great a challenge it was to keep Pocket Power in one piece during his five and a half mostly dominant years on the racetrack. We’ve all heard about his infamous near fore – but only through these pages does one get an idea of how bad his feet really were and what an achievement it was for Bass to get those 20 wins out of the Champion.

It’s taken me a quarter century of owning horses to appreciate that the difference between a great trainer and a good one is not readily apparent. All trainers worthy of the name must be disciplined, focused, dedicated, optimistic and possess a deep love for the breed. Where the great ones rise above the rest is when faced with the unusual personality, the “difficult” horse whose individuality they not only appreciate but celebrate. They make the difference between an otherwise long-ago retired-through-injury hack and the star patiently nursed to fulfill his full potential, often against the odds. Mike Bass, I now realize, is one of the greats who deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Millard, Heming, Ferraris and De Kock.

Not since Charl Pretorius’s superb biography on Horse Chestnut has one of South Africa’s Champion Thoroughbreds had a book dedicated to them. So I was excited to see this project. But next to Pretorius’s spicy, punchy offering, Lemke’s book is like a baked potato without sour cream. Sanitised. It reads like a very long press release, even down to contrived almost cheesy quotes (everyone speaks in perfect sentences; nobody swears, ever).

Lemke is clearly no Bill Finley. Or Pretorius, for that matter. He’s a reporter rather than a storyteller. But Lemke has done a proficient job documenting Pocket Power’s four Queen’s Plates, three Mets and his dead-heated Durban July. Much of that is old hat for racing fans. What isn’t, though, is what went on behind the scenes. And it is here that Lemke’s reporting talents are seen to advantage. That rescues the book from the mediocrity almost guaranteed by a brief which seems to read: stick to the facts, don’t ruffle any feathers, don’t dig too deep. Which suggests this book was a commissioning to a wordsmith rather than the product of a free, enquiring mind.

We learn almost in passing that Pocket Power’s co-owner Marsh Shirtliff is fabulously wealthy, a huge punter, a “bloke’s bloke”, exceedingly generous and owes his good fortune in horseflesh to relying on Bass, the late Terry Silcock and others to find him horses to buy. He is painted too good to be true. His expertise, the source of the wealth, is the successful vehicle insurance business Motorite. But the company gets a single mention. Shirtliff’s life outside of the winner’s circle and Bass’s box at Kenilworth seems to have been strictly off-limits.

If ever there were an opportunity to get under the skin of this larger-than-life racing personality here it was. But I turned the last page knowing little more about Shirtliff than the broad descriptions. Even worse, all we get to learn about Pocket Power’s co-owner Arthur Webber is that he’s a pig farmer from Pretoria who retired to PE and believed Pocket Power was invincible. Oh, and is married to a lady called Rina who thought his underbid of R180 000 was madness.

Bass, too, could have been fleshed out a lot more. We read he is a family man, likes golf, doesn’t particularly like the up-country Press, adores his horses and is fiercely competitive. Also, his English-born roots are deep – one of his proudest moments apparently was getting a response to the letter he wrote to Queen Elizabeth. OK. But what really makes him tick? Why did he devote his life to training thoroughbreds? Does he have a weakness for punting, or is it his wife Carol who is the gambler? (One of the surprises is learning how R80 000 Carol won at a casino was used to buy Met winner Bunter Barlow).

But those are all minor irritations. Lemke’s book carries some lovely photographs. And Pocket did keep the long-awaited biography on Steve Jobs unopened on the bedside table. Which, given that I’m one of the Apple founder’s greatest fans, says a lot about the way the horse book pulled me in. It’s well worth the two hundred bucks. Just a pity about that feeling it could have been so much more.

Big Boy Wild - a facile win last week by the half brother of our mare Winging It Wild brought plenty of smiles to the Graceland team.

Some good news for our equine families this week.

Graceland mare Winging It Wild’s half brother, Big Boy Wild, came home lonely at Scottsville last weekend. It was his fourth start and although the opposition wasn’t any great shakes, he won easing up by three and a half lengths, and in the manner of a horse who is likely to go on from here. Trained by Mike de Kock, this son of Right Approach is also quite a looker.

Our mare’s first foal is a colt by Mullins Bay called Fun Police, also trained by De Kock. Last word I had from Michael and his wife Diane (who looks after the stable’s babies) is that the two year old colt is doing well, but far too early to tell what kind of a racehorse he’ll be.

On that topic, I’m really looking forward to the first Mullins Bays to run. At least the legion of Trippi’s followers don’t have to wait any longer. Seeing his first runner, the filly Agra, cruise home at Kenilworth on Guineas Day whets the appetite for the future. That the filly is owned by the Barry Irwin/Anant Singh partnership made is even more special.

We popped across to Keith Russon and Ian Todd’s Backworth Stud on Saturday for a splendid lunch and Cape Guineas Day racing. It was a bit like being in the steward’s quarters at Greyville, with Matthew and Richard McElligott and one of the grand ladies of racing, Mrs Mary Liley, among Keith and Ian’s guests.

As a fully recovered Alistair Gordon was with us, we were all pulling for Gauteng Raider Silver Flyer, the Dingaans-winning Silvano colt. Alistair selected and bought Silver Flyer as a yearling, but when he fell ill and was away from the yard for three months, many of his horses were switched to other trainers, Silver Flyer among them. Fickle game sometimes.

The Silvano went to Mike de Kock, who quietly told Gordon 5% of all stakes won by the colt would be sent to the KZN trainer. Says Alistair: “It says a great deal about Mike’s character to offer this – and he’s been as good as his word.” Silver Flyer’s second place in the Guineas will swell the Gordon bank account by another R10 000.  He battled to get a clear run, but even so, on the day he’d have struggled to be much of a threat to winner Variety Club. The Joey Ramsden-trained son of Var is now six wins in nine starts – and at this stage must be the best three year old in the country.

At the Backworth lunch Keith seated me next to Mary Liley, who tells me she will probably miss out on the local sales this year and head instead for Karaka to find another New Zealand-bred star. Another, because although the conversation never got there, Mary owned a horse who did as much as any other to fan my appetite for this wonderful sport.

Growing up, my favourite horse by a mile was Mary’s New Zealand-bred gelding Bold Monarch. He was the 1970s equivalent of an equine Piere Strydom – loping along at the back for most of the race before coming with an electrifying finish. Too often the jockeys left the run a fraction too late – like in the 1977 Durban July when he got to rank outsider Lightning Shot on the wrong side of the winning post. I loved the gelding so much that one of the first horses I bred was named after him. But, sadly, Bold Monarch (SAF), a liver chestnut son of Mistral Dancer, had none of the ability of Mary’s Bold Monarch (NZ), ending his racing career with a hatful of places but still a maiden.

Moon Ray as a yearling - the daughter of Victory Moon cost our partnership R160 000 at the 2009 NYS. Here's hoping she's now over her troubles

There are many reasons to be grateful for the day my jockey friend Piere Strydom introduced me to his brother Jacques who trains in Port Elizabeth. Our National Assembly gelding Major Decision had raced well on the Highveld but seemed to be in his place. Our trainer Ormond Ferraris suggested we send him to Port Elizabeth; Striker suggested his brother, and a great partnership was born. Eight wins and half a million rands in stakes later, we finally bid “Major” adieu to a life as a pampered riding horse.

So when Jacques invited us to join him and a few others in a Victory Moon filly he’d bought for R160 000 at the 2009 National Yearling Sale, there wasn’t much hesitation. The filly works like a steam train but has had her share of problems. Like so many of the good ones (slow horses don’t go fast enough to injure themselves…..)

She never raced as a juvenile and hurt herself soon after an educational debut in October last year. On her second run back, very underdone, she surprised everyone by breaking her maiden at 50/1, a 1200m dash at Arlington last June. Just when it looked like she was ready to start challenging for PE’s three year old features, she hurt herself again.

Six months later and Moon Ray is back at the races this afternoon. She’s entered in a 14 runner Graduation Plate over 1300m. On merit rating she’s badly out at the weights, but as she pulled a great draw and as Jacques was able to engage the talented young rider Juan Paul vd Merwe, she’ll be taking her chances. Jacques says the filly is nowhere near her best yet but she’s coming along the right way and with a bit of luck in the running could end up in the quartet.

Hope springs eternal in this game. So I’ve taken a hundred bucks of the 10/1 a place that was available on Interbet this morning. Not being much of a punter, this is the kind of interest I love to have when my horses are running. And with a talented filly who surprised us all last time, even though the trip should be far too short, why not?

Whatever happens today, if she stays sound we should be seeing her to best advantage over more ground. All three of her half brothers have needed a trio to show their best – the very useful Hot Tip who has won 5 on the Highveld; Glen Kotzen-trained Asgard won in October over 1800m at Durbanville; and the other, Milesanmore won a staying race at the Vaal.

We’ve agreed that on the strength of her work at home, Moon Ray deserves a chance at stud so will be coming to Graceland when her racing days are over. The Victory Moon fillies are hot property – and as Moon Ray is a daughter of Let’s Be Cool who won two staying features she certainly has the blood. But let’s hope that before then she gets to add quite a few more wins to that single victory.