John Everett’s Narrow Creek Stud, founded in May 2011, increased their number of Grade 1 seconds to seven when Sprinkles (Elusive Fort) finished runner up in the Wilgerbosdrift SA Fillies Classic at Turffontein Standside on Saturday.
John said, “We were thinking when will we ever go one better and then when least expected Red Saxon (Red Ray) came and gave us our first Grade 1 (WSB SA Classic)! He and Safe Passage (Silvano) were next to each other far too long for my heart! It was an awesome finish and that is when the second braai started!”
John had watched at home with his family and said it was a pity the rest of the races had been cancelled because they had bred the two favourites Big Burn (Elusive Fort) and Homely Girl (Querari) for the next feature.
“If either of them had won I would still be sleeping!” he quipped.
John had actually bred one Grade 1 winner himself before, African Appeal (Model Man), who was officially registered under Lionel Cohen’s Odessa Stud, but he owned the mare, Kentucky Lass (Kentucky Slew).
Joe Soma trained the dam of Red Saxon, Rodeo Sioux (Casey Tibbs), a Grade 3-winning stayer, and also trained the grandmother Dancing Sioux (Qui Danzing), a one-time winner who was out of a Northfields half-sister to Grade 3 winner Major Hero (Rambo Dancer).
Joe races Red Saxon in partnership with S Bhana.
Rodeo Sioux’s first foal only won once over 2600m despite being by speed influence Seventh Rock.
John said, “She will make them stay, so we had to get some speed into the pedigree and that’s why we went for a Western Winter (Gone West) stallion. Red Saxon does have some speed. He has gone close over 1400m and was second in the Dingaans.”
Red Ray, trained by Joey Ramsden, was much vaunted as a youngster and although never quite living up to his reputation and having plenty of issues he did win the Grade 1 Mercury Sprint by a cosy two lengths as a five-year-old.
John recalled Red Saxon as a youngster, “He was a beautiful yearling, not big but strong and full of quality.”
Red Ray was standing at Klawervlei Stud at the time of the mating to Rodeo Sioux, but is now with Birch Brothers in Cradock, which is too far afield. Therefore, John is now planning to send Rodeo Sioux to Western Winter stallion What A Winter.
John has always loved the big outdoors so searched for a way to leave a mundane job many years ago and finally landed a position with Laurence Allem of Allem Brothers in Viljoenskroon. Laurence bred the like of Respectable (tie 3rd in the Durban July), Champion race mares Thatch Attack, Night Diva and Bamboogie; Golden Prerogative, Chaplin, Combustion, Helenita, Face The Pace and Buds Of Springs.
John stayed there for about three years.
Allem Brothers boarded a Model Man (Elliodor) mare at Odessa Stud and John took a suitable opportunity to talk to Lionel Cohen and thus landed a position in the breeding hub of the Western Cape.
He had nine-year stud manager stints with both Odessa and Wilgerbosdrift before deciding to go on his own.
He looked at close to forty farms in the Western Cape and it was in fact the first one he viewed at Wolseley in The Breede River Valley he ended up buying.
Wolseley is an ideal location as it is central to all of the Cape stallions.
He tries to keep his stock down to 50 mares but has a few more than that at present and he owns about 65% of them which is more than his ideal 50/50 make up.
Breeding is known to be a tough game but he said, “it is not easy but I would not change it for a lot. It is rewarding when you wake up in the morning and see horses everywhere.”
Sprinkles is progressive and is by the suddenly in demand again Elusive Fort, sire of Kommetdieding.
John said, “She’s got to win a Grade 1 soon. I don’t think she will get the distance of the Triple Tiara third leg and maybe the Garden Province (Jonsson Workwear sponsored Grade 1) is the race. I think Paul will keep her to a mile.”
He added, “Sprinkles was bred from the heart and she only cost R50,000. Her dam Jin-Go-Lo-Ba(Tiger Ridge) is owned by my daughter who is now going to get the money!”
Another Elusive Fort Narrow Creek Stud-bred was the perennial bridesmaid Catch Twentytwo, whose overseas career they will follow closely.
Narrow Creek’s first Grade 1 runner up, in the Tsogo Sun Sprint, was Pinnacle Peak (Querari).
John was born in Cape Town, but grew up in Northern Natal and the racing bug bit thanks to his father, who used to take him racing at Greyville.
Picture: The Joe Soma-trained Red Saxon gave all of jockey Julius Mariba, sire Red Ray and breeder Narrow Creek Stud their first respective Grade 1 wins when narrowly landing the WSB SA Classic at Turffontein Standside on Saturday. (Candiese Lenferna).
