IN THIS EDITION:
- KING'S APOSTLE’S - first 3 mares tested in foal – his grandsire KINGMAMBO forced into retirement
- CAPTAIN AL – leading sire overall and by % number of winners
- COUNT DUBOIS – leading sire by 3yo AEPR and by % of winners/runners
- MORE EXCITING NEW FOAL REPORTS
- SA TURF DIRECTORY - production is in full swing – new printers.
- SA STATISTICS – will we ever internationalise our statistics?
KING'S APOSTLE – first mares in foal:
Against the background of the sad news of his grandsire’s forced retirement, we are delighted to report that KING'S APOSTLE’S first 3 mares have been tested in foal. The stallion has had a short layoff caused by a minor injury and will be back in action next week. Klawervlei’s management team work like a well tuned machine. They have a very interesting season ahead of them, as they will be attending to the covering of a very large percentage of SA’s broodmare population again this year. We are happy to report that the stallions in our portfolio at Klawervlei are all very well supported. Our sincere thanks to the Klawervlei team and to all of the breeders that are supporting these sires again this year. Rest assured that you will have our best support throughout the season and in the marketing of your horses in future.
We have been given the go ahead to publish the following extract from Sarah Whitelaw’s item published by ARO about King's Apostle’s grandsire Kingmambo which is relevant to King's Apostle’s career here. Having a direct descendant of this important link to the Mr Prospector dynasty is a dream for us. His pedigree has so many important and well proven nicks in this country – the most relevant aspect of all is that he is ideally suited to our racing conditions. The fact that King's Apostle won at Gr1 level in Europe and all of his races on the grass, underscores his suitability – it’s not just about the fact that his pedigree works for us, but his racing aptitude is the most important ingredient and we are delighted that this has been recognised by so many of the countries leading breeders:-
The ARO item reads: - KINGMAMBO’S STUD CAREER AT AN END: “The stud career of the outstanding stallion, Kingmambo, looks to have ended. The 20 year-old son of Mr Prospector covered just one mare this year, and failed to get her in foal. Kingmambo has suffered from neck problems, which have made it difficult for him to cover mares. He is currently based at Lane’s End Farm, where he has spent his entire stud career. His 2010 crop, according to the US Jockey Club, consists of a single foal.
Kingmambo was one of the best horses of his generation. After showing promising form at two (he was runner up in three group races, including finishing 2nd in the Gp1 Prix de la Salamandre), he went onto confirm his class at 3. After downing the brilliant Zafonic in the Prix Djebel, Kingmambo went onto win all of the French 2000 Guineas, St James Palace Stakes and Prix du Moulin. He was also placed in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Prix Jacques le Marois.
The first foal of the brilliant, 10 time Gr1 winning mare Miesque, Kingmambo has sired over 86 stakes winners to date. His best horses include Lemon Drop Kid (champion older male in the USA, a leading sire), Henrythenavigator (2000 Guineas, 2ndBreeders Cup Classic, sire), El Condor Pasa (Horse of the Year in Japan, successful sire), Divine Proportions (Champion 3yo filly in France), Virginia Waters (1000 Guineas) Rule of Law (St Leger, 2nd Epsom Derby, sire), Russian Rhythm (English 1000 Guineas), King’s Best (2000 Guineas, successful sire) King Kamehameha (Japan Derby, successful sire) and Student Council (Pacific Classic, sire).
Apart from Gr1 winning grandson King's Apostle, Kingmambo is represented in South Africa by successful sire Parade Leader, and exciting new sire Mambo In Seattle, the latter being a three parts brother to Lemon Drop Kid.”
CAPTAIN AL – the leading sire:
Captain Al recorded 5 more winners in the past 3 days. The 2 that won yesterday are not yet included in the statistics attached, he now has 25 winners so far this season – that’s 7 more than his nearest rival. He is the:-
- leading sire overall by stakes
- leading sire by number of winners and by number of races won
- leading sire of 3yo’s by number of individual winners and by number of races won
- 2nd leading sire by % of winners/runners (all ages)
- 2nd leading sire of 3yo’s by stakes won
COUNT DUBOIS – once again at the top of the log:
Knowing the calibre and number of mares that Count Dubois covered in the years that produced his current crops of 2 and 3yo’s, we never lost faith in the fact that he has to be set for a fantastic season again this year and from here on. Having ended the last breeding season as on of the top sires of 2yo’s, he has entered the 3yo season with that same crop with a bang: he is currently:-
- leading active sire by AEPR (sire of all ages with 20 or more runners)
- leading sire of 3yo’s by % winners/runners – 36%
- 3rd leading sire on the 3yo log by AEPR
- 4th leading sire (all ages) by % of winners/runners – 33%
MORE EXCITING FOAL REPORTS:
Thanks to everyone who has sent us reports of their foals by our first crop sires. It’s so important to know what the new sires are producing. We cannot believe our luck at being associated with such exciting new blood and to get such encouraging reports of their new foals.
JAY PEG has become a big report horse. He has been getting new foals at a rate of knots this week and will enjoy even more as we approach mid-season. We got an email this morning that said “I don’t know whether to report to you that the filly is nice or really super, either way she’s a very good first foal”, another said “I have never seen anything like this – most beautiful foal” and another from Veronica Foulkes that said “I had a really nice Jay Peg colt this morning with 4 white socks”, Alec Hogg sent me an email that read “our filly has the face of a Duchess and the backside of a cook - this daughter of Jay Peg certainly does! I'll definitely be sending another mare to Jay Peg in future”.
REBEL KING had to get them looking like himself and thankfully they do: John Koster is delighted with his and told me that “he’s definitely stamping them” , Craig Carey’s fantastic compliment to Rebel King was reported in our new last week but he followed up again this week with “he’s doing all the right things, keeps growing stronger and has a super positive attitude”, Lindi Garlicki wrote last week that she had a “big good looking Rebel King colt at 9 this morning - very promising start to his stud career if they all look like this!”
Thanks to all of you for your fantastic reports – I look forward to being able to share some pics of these foals in the near future. Please send them.
SA TURF DIRECTORY:
The forthcoming 2011 edition of our popular SA Turf Directory will be our 26th. Production is in full swing. We have changed printers – not because the last did anything wrong but because we want to support those who support racing. Bidvest own Lithotech who have a massive state of the art factory near the Cape Town airport. They head hunted the man that has looked after our printing account and we are happy to support Bidvest – proud and regular sponsors of racing.
SA Turf Directory update and order forms were sent out by mail over a month ago – if you have not already returned yours please do so as soon as possible. We rely on this information to update our records. We can only be as accurate as you help us to be.
If you want to advertise in the next edition please call us right away – we are paginating now and must have all adverts confirmed soonest. The SA Turf Directory is the best way to reach everyone in the SA racing and breeding industry. There are thousands of our books in use every year. We know from research, that because our book is an annual which is used by anyone that matters in the industry on a daily basis, your advert has a far greater chance of being seen in our publication.
SA STATISTICS:
As more and more of our best horses move into quarantine again this year for export to race abroad we ponder the question yet again: when will those that keep record get the info we need to produce internationalised statistics for breeders and stallions who, are denied the record of horses raced abroad. The lack of this information is a serious indictment against our industry. Imagine what the effect is on a promising young stallion whose best horses are sold to race abroad and he is denied all of their successes there in the local statistics – simply because we cannot or will not work out how to incorporate these performances into our breeder and stallions statistics.
We know that the local authorities have access to this data. It’s so easy to rearrange it using simple excel spreadsheet and add it to statistics here so that we can see a separate set of statistics with international earnings added.
