Sales Topper, Maine Chance Farms-bred Gimmethegreenlight colt (Lot 107) (Wayne Marks).

Ten 7-figure Buys At CPYS 2023

The first seven figure buy at this year’s Cape Premier Yearling Sale powered by Tattersalls came with the very first lot, a Trippi filly from Klawervlei Stud.

Klawervlei’s John Koster had said about this filly in the build up, “She is a beautiful, high quality filly out of a duel Listed winning mare by Captain Al. She comes from the wonderful filly family of stakes winners Moon In June, Shamrock Wind, Golden Belle and others.”

His opinion proved accurate as the Tawny Syndicate went to R1,1 million to purchase her.

The highest price on the sale came as no surprise.

A magnificent Maine Chance Farms Stud-bred Gimmethegreenlight colt, Lot 107, was knocked down to the Hong Kong Jockey Club for R3,8 million.

Dr Andreas Jacobs had gone to great depth to describe this colt before the sale and had said, “Valley Ofthe Kings, is one of the jewels in Maine Chance’s crown for this auction. He is a Gimmethegreenlight colt out of a Listed winning Captain Al mare, Victoria Lavelle – I don’t need to explain the potency of Captain Al as a broodmare sire, and this colt has Western Winter below that as sire of the grandam. And what a beautiful name, Valley Of the Kings. If you go down further, his fourth dam is by Surumu, who is to Germany what Northern Dancer was to the United States. He is a well-bred, early born, well developed type, well-muscled with a dark bay colour. He has a fantastic walk. What is interesting, and not on the page, is that his seventh dam, Crape Band, was bought by my grandfather. We bred with her and she produced Caracol the first G1 winner for our family in 1972. He was a very tough horse who won two G1s in one week and later became a stallion.” (Watch Andreas Jacobs interview about Lot 107, here).

Westward Bloodstock went to R2 million for Varsfontein Stud’s Lot 59.

Varsfontein had said before the sale about this colt called Handsome Prince, who is by Querari out of Judpot mare Maleficent:, “A big, strong colt that stands over ground. Eye-catching and has presence. Precocious, two-year-old type with a pedigree stacked with black type. Top class.”

Maleficent was a strongly built Alec Laird-trained filly who looked set for big things when winning the Listed Devon Air Stakes, but she went a bit off the boil and her best subsequent finish was a second place finish in the Grade 3 Starling Stakes.

Maleficent is a half-sister to the good performer Blackball (Black Minnaloushe) and full-sister to Rocketball, who went oh so close to denying Abashiri the Triple Crown when only just failing to catch him in the SA Derby.

Lot 112, sold By Klawervlei as agent, went for R1,5 million to Greg Bortz.

John Koster had said about this Gimmethegreenlight colt before the sale, ““He is the first foal of African Daisy, by Captain Al, himself a serious broodmare sire running at nearly 6% stakes winners to runners. Gimmethegreenlight over Captain Al is already responsible for 9.7% stakes winners to runners including G1 winner, Gunner.”

A Drakenstein Stud-bred colt, Lot 99, had got the million rand ball rolling for Gimmethegreenlight and went for R1,2 million, signed for by the International Racing Club’s Krish Nagendran.

Kevin Sommerville had described the colt before the sale, “A smashing colt by Gimmethegreenlight out of Supreme Vision (Visionaire), who is a half-sister to Do It Again. He is a beautiful specimen with a beautiful pedigree, by a champion sire, a big, strapping colt who looks precocious but should also go on over further.”

Earlier, Kestorm investments went to R1 million to secure lot 18.

Barbara Sanne had said before the sale, “Lot 18 is a colt by Vercingetorix to be sold by Oldlands Stud as agent. He is Taxi To The Moon, the next in line for the prolific Earn A Moon (Indigo Magic) whose previous foals include Cat And The Moon (5 wins), Light Of The Moon (4 wins) and Summer Sensation (6 wins). “ He is a tall, smart horse.”

Lot 28, sold by Klawervlei as agent, also went for R1 million knocked down to Bass Racing.

This Vercingetorix filly is out of the Mike Bass-trained Mercury Sprint winner Fly By Night (Jet Master), who also won the Grade 2 Southern Cross Stakes.

Avontuur Thoroughbred Farms got R1 million for a Vercingetorix colt (Lot 95) out of multiple Listed-winning Var mare Star Burst Galaxy.

Justin Vermaak signed for him.

Hollywoodbets got in on the act and purchased a Ridgemont Highlands-bred Rafeef colt, out of Western Winter mare Baqueira, for R1 million.

Ridgemont Highlands had described the colt before the sale: “A half-brother to Listed Summer Juvenile Stakes/Listed East Cape Nursery winner Cliff Top. El Capitan, closely inbred to successful sire National Assembly, is out of a winning own sister to the brilliant Cold As Ice.”

“A winner on two different continents, Cold As Ice won five of just seven starts in South Africa including the G2 Choice Carriers Fillies Championship and Sceptre Stakes, and was beaten just a head when runner up in the 2015 G1 Klawervlei Majorca Stakes (beating among others multiple Equus Champion Carry On Alice).”

“Her sister Baquiera also numbers R4 million plus earner Live Life (like Cold As Ice, winner of the G2 Sceptre Stakes) as a half-sister.”

Form Bloodstock went to R1 million to buy a Maine Chance Farms-bred Vercingetorix colt out of Listed-winning Dynasty mare Bella Spumante, which makes him a half-brother to recent Listed Christmas Handicap winner Bella Siccome (Silvano).

Lot 20 made some headlines before the sale.

“Anton Shepherd Can’t Stop Raving About Lot 20!” said the headline about the Rafeef colt bred by Anton’s Beaumont Stud.

He had enthused about the colt, who is out of Caesour mare Elusive Spirit, “He is a big, strong horse, very nice and well grown, from the tremendous ‘E’-family. I think he is tops, I really do. Even at this early stage I am prepared to say he is one of my yearlings of the year, if not the yearling of the year.”

Anton would likely have been pleased to see him knocked down for R750,000 to Amanda Skiffington.

The details of the CPYS 2023 sale are shown below:

CATALOGUED	122
OFFERED	109
SOLD	101
AGGREGATE	44,825,000
AVERAGE	443,812
MEDIAN	300,000

Cousin Casey (Wayne Marks)

Met Is Winnable For A 3YO – Kotzen

Glen Kotzen believes the WSB Met is winnable for a three-year-old under weight for age conditions and also spoke of the formlines which puts his crack colt Cousin Casey in with a fine chance.

He said about his last run in the Grade 1 Hollywoodbets Cape Guineas, “It was a cracking run. Our plan had always been to be in front of Charles Dickens but Cousin Casey was a bit slow into stride and he had a few traffic problems in the straight. But the most encouraging thing was he overtook eight horses in the straight.”

He continued, “He is crying out for the ground of the Met and is a huge runner if you go on Charles Dickens run in the L’Ormarins King’s Plate. Charles Dickens was only narrowly beaten and if they rerun the race I think he would probably win. He came down the inside and had to bear the brunt of the wind, but that is not to take anything away from the winner who is a top, top miler.”

He also pointed out Cousin Casey would now be having his “peak run”, i.e his third run after a layoff.

He said the son of Vercingetorix had been “flying” at home.

Cousin Casey has had bad luck with draws.

However, at least the connections will have some hand in his draw for the WSB Met as there will be a draw ceremony next Wednesday.

Kotzen runs three in the Listed Jamaica Handicap over 2000m at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth on Saturday, Follow The Star, Flower Of Saigon and Winter Scout.

He mentioned Follow The Star and Flower Of Saigon as his chief candidates.

He said, “They are three lovely fillies and I have been waiting for these staying fillies to come to hand. They have been targeted at this race.”

Speaking about which one he preferred, he said, “Going on form Follow The Star and Flower Of Saigon are the best and there is nothing between them, whenever they have met they are within half-a-length of each other.”

Calvin Habib rides Flower Of Saigon, Keagan de Melo is aboard Follow The Star and JP van der Merwe rides Winter Scout.

They are drawn three, four and five respectively.

Kotzen has five horses entered in the Grade 3 Politician Stakes on January 21, which is otherwise known as “The Derby Trial”, as it is a springboard into the Grade 1 Cape Derby to be run on February 25.

Blackberry Malt, Dowser, Famous And Rich, Grinkov and Nothingelsematters are all “nice horses”.

Grinkov is the highest rated of them on 102 after bouncing back with a nice win over 1600m last time and Kotzen said, “Horses don’t lose their form, they just lose their way sometimes.”

Dowser has been a touch disappointing as one who struck as being a Derby type from day one, but he will be tried in the blinkers and bears watching.

Auctioneer John O’ Kelly was thanked by Chairman of Kenilworth Racing Greg Bortz at the conclusion of the successful CPYS 2023 sale today (Wayne Marks)

Auctioneer O’Kelly Gets An Extra Role at Cape Premier Yearling Sale

This year’s sale powered by Tattersalls brought the action closer to the Mother City’s heart but costs far more than last year’s one on a stud farm.

Dave Mollett (Business Day)

World-renowned auctioneer John O’Kelly is a regular on the rostrum at the Cape Premier Yearling Sale in January, but the Irishman had more on his plate in today’s 2023 renewal than in previous years.

Tattersalls in the UK, the company O’Kelly works for, was named as “powering” today’s sale at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. That means he will have had to put in extra work to attract European buyers.

The return to the Convention Centre — on the advice of Grant Knowles — was an interesting move. It was held on a Cape stud farm a year ago and this venue will not have come cheap. But it did bring the action a lot closer to the heart of the Mother City.

One thing is certain, O’Kelly will have done his homework before today’s sale. In a 2018 interview with Racing Post, he said that in preparing for a sale “you do your homework, look at the horse, and talk to the consignor. He or she has put in three years hard work, and you’ve got just two minutes to sell it.”

The home side did their bit to attract buyers with the introduction of the R1m Cape Racing Sales Slipper, a race for graduates of the sale to be run on Met day each year.

Cape Racing executive Justin Vermaak told the Sporting Post: “We are trying to build this sale into a premier platform for forward type of horses, and putting on an early juvenile race for the graduates will hopefully help attract horses of this type to the auction each year.”

Yearling sales are notorious for making big headlines. Here are some of them.

Seattle Dancer: In 1985 Coolmore’s John Magnier and Robert Sangster (who became quite involved in SA racing) bid $13.1m for a son of Nijinsky at Keeneland.

Greek Monkey: Coolmore were also the buyers of this two-year-old named after a golf course in Barbados. The colt cost $16m.

Snaafi Dancer: Here’s proof that big money doesn’t guarantee a top horse as Sheik Mohammed went to $10.2m to secure the colt, who proved a flop on the racecourse and at stud.

Most of the leading studs were represented at today’s sale and — with racing in the province on a better footing than 12 months ago — vendors will have approached the event in buoyant mood.

Cape Racing Sales’ Grant Knowles didn’t name the yearling he expected to top the sale, but Dave Mollett predicted the Winterbach Stud’s Master Caspar (lot 56) as one who was going to get the catalogues waving in the direction of O’Kelly and Andrew Miller. (Dave’s prediction was accurate as the colt was knocked down to Justin Vermaak for R900,000).

Master Caspar is a half-brother (by Querari) to Computaform Sprint winner Master Archie.

Dave Mollet believes the Vaughan Marshall-trained Rascallion will shorten in the WSB Met betting. (Wayne Marks).

Punters Should Hold Their Horses In Wide-open Met

The price of a number of steeds could shorten in the run-up to the race, notably Al Muthana, Make It Snappy and Rascallion

David Mollett (Business Day)

With Charles Dickens out of the equation, the WSB Met, scheduled for January 28, could end up being one of the best races of the season from a betting perspective.

The sponsors of the grade 1 race, World Sports Betting, have Jet Dark (7-2) and Kommetdieding (4-1) at the top of the market. This column’s advice — don’t touch these prices, for the following reasons:

The price of a number of horses could shorten in the run-up to the race, notably the three Saturday winners Al Muthana, Make It Snappy and Rascallion. Add in Durban July victor Sparkling Crown, who finished just two lengths behind Make It Snappy in the Cartier Paddock Stakes.

As in big races in the UK, such as the Derby and Grand National, bookmakers will want to lure punters with special offers on the fancied contenders.

It will be worth checking out the tote prices as the race draws near. Hopefully, the tote dividend will be close to the official starting price which wasn’t the case last Saturday. Al Muthana’s starting price was 80-1 but the tote payout was only R47.

One of the intriguing questions is whether Kommetdieding can raise his game to win this race for the second consecutive year. He has failed to add to that success in his seven outings since that triumph.

His supporters will point out that, on L’Ormarins King’s Plate running, he has only 0.30 of a length to find with Jet Dark. That is presumably why the Justin Snaith inmate is the narrow favourite.

While there were only 11 runners, Kommetdieding and Jet Dark didn’t have favourable draws in the King’s Plate. With a maximum field expected in the Met, the draw will thus be vital for these two horses.

Little consolation

One man praying Gavin Lerena can partner Kommetdieding to a second Met win is breeder John Koster. The son of Elusive Fort has been syndicated to stand at his Klawervlei Stud.

Jet Dark added R190,000 to his bankroll on Saturday but that will be little consolation to owners Tommy Crowe and Nic Jonsson. Do they regret passing up the chance to run in the Breeders Cup when deciding to decline the offer after winning last season’s Queen’s Plate?

When asked by friends who they should back last Saturday, my answer was Rascallion. He has been given time to get over his injury and is trained by a master, Vaughan Marshall.

Business Day readers will know the R350,000 son of Vercingetorix was this column’s selection for the 2021 July when this writer could have afforded six months in Bermuda had he won.

With the Premier Trophy just his third run back since his return from injury, the five-year-old will head for the Met fresher than most and this column cannot see him missing the first four. The quartet always pays well in big races and the gelding is a must-inclusion in that bet.

Regarding Al Muthana, when Ricky Maingard won the Queen’s Plate with Wolf Power in 1984 the grey went on to take the J&B Met.

The Crawford camp’s decision to run Paddock Stakes winner Make It Snappy is an interesting call as she has only contested five races and will be trying 2,000m for the first time.

Ran third

The three-year-old’s dam, Icy Winter Air, is out of the mare Icy Air, Equus champion three-year-old in 2002 who won nine races from 1,400m-2,450m. Her most notable offspring is champion sprinter Russet Air.

Her daughter Icy Winter Air won over 1,200m and ran third in the SA Fillies Nursery. As Saturday’s win by Make It Snappy was over 1,800m she has only 200m more to travel in the Met.

Given her great finishing run in the Fillies Guineas, Glen Kotzen will be bemused by Hold My Hand’s poor performance in the Paddock Stakes. A veterinary examination failed to detect anything amiss.

The word is that the stable are confident of a big run from Cousin Casey, though her current price of 7-1 is decidedly skinny.

Sparkling Water’s fourth in the Paddock Stakes — beaten two lengths — will be viewed as a positive performance by trainer Mike de Kock. She is another Met runner — now on offer at 9-1 — whose price could shorten in the next fortnight.

Keagan de Melo walked away with the 1st jockeys prize.

Hollywoodbets Sizzling Summer Challenge Prize Giving Pictures From Yesterday

(All the below and above pictures taken by Candiese Lenferna)

Alistair Brown

Alistair Brown Requires Funds For Emergency Kidney Failure Treatment

One Of South Africa’s leading bloodstock agents Alistair Brown, who sourced the like of Al Mufti and Fort Wood, requires life saving kidney treatment and has appealed for funding.

CLICK TO READ DETAILS OF ALISTAIR’S PLIGHT AND TO MAKE A DONATION

Dennis Schwarz took six rides to be back in the winners enclosure after returning from Mauritius, scoring on the Phillip Labuschagne-trained Lady Calavera (Mambo In Seattle) (pictured above), and he made it a quick double in the next race. (JC Photos).

De Melo and Schwarz Score Doubles

Keagan De Melo and Dennis Schwarz both scored doubles at the Vaal Classic meeting today.

De Melo goes to 132 wins for the season and has achieved it at a strike rate of 20.66%.

Schwarz has just returned from Mauritius. These were this first winners back, They have come in just seven rides meaning he is enjoying a strike rate of 28.57%.

The picture gives a clue to the answer

Today’s Question

Who is the highest priced placed horse in Epsom Derby history?

Answer at bottom of newsletter

Click Here To See Fairview Turf Fields, Friday

NB Please wait a few seconds for fields to appear.

Terimon

ANSWER TO TODAY’S QUESTION:

Michael Roberts rode the Clive Brittain-trained Terimon to second place in the 1989 Derby at odds of 500/1. In his previous start he had won for the first time in his eighth career start.

Terimon went on to win the 1991 Group 1 Juddmonte International in a ride “Muis” regards as possibly the greatest of his career.

Turf Talk Newsletter – 12 January 2023