#kznbred Hero’s Honour Nominated For Two Equus Awards
Summerhill Stud had a terrific season once again, not only finishing a close second in the national Leading Breeders Championship, but having several Graded Stakes winners this season and amongst them two Gr1 winners, with Takingthepeace and Hero’s Honour.
Hero’s Honour by Await The Dawn, the Gr1 SA Derby winner, has been nominated for Equus Champion 3YO Colt and Equus Champion Stayer. The last #kznbred to win the Equus Award for Champion Stayer was Wild One in 2015.
In the process he gave owner Lawrence Wernars his first Gr1 winner! The son of Await The Dawn, who has been a huge loss to the KZN breeding ranks, is owned in partnership by Messrs J F & L M F Wernars, B G Gardner & G P Sadie & Mrs J P Gardner.
Trained by Gary Alexander, Hero’s Honour is lightly raced with two wins and two places from only six starts and earned over R 1,354,600 in stakes. He sold for just R300 000 at the 2016 CTS Ready To Run Sale in Johannesburg.
Superbly bred out of Galileo mare Grail Maiden, his Trippi half-sister Railtrip impressed to finish second in the Gr1 Thekweni Stakes on Gold Cup Day.
Hero’s Honour won the only Gr1 staying race in South Africa and shares the nomination with Gr3 Gold Cup winner It’s My Turn.
The voting panel comprised of Matthew Lips, Robert Garner, Roger Smith, David Thiselton and Larry Wainstein as non-voting chairperson.
Summerhill produced over the past season Takingthepeace who won two legs of the Triple Tiara and placed in the final leg, along with Gr2 winner The Thinker, Gr3 winner Witchcraft and Champagne Haze, Commanche Run in Zimbabwe, whilst Railtrip, Riding Shotgun and Unagi were all Gr1 placed.
In total, Summerhill produced 20 Black Type horses for the season and earned a total of R20,136,788 in stakes.
They finished with a winners to runners percentage of 37.1% with each runner averaging R57 045 each – interestingly, Summerhill topped the latter two statistics over and above the overall winner.
More interesting statistics show that the 2o Black Type Summerhill-breds for the 2017/2018 season sold at sales for a combined total of R3,205,000 – but earned their owners an incredible R16,059,058 in stakes!
Congratulations to all concerned on an outstanding season once again and we look forward to the results of the Equus Awards on Tuesday evening.
Save the date for the KZN Breeders Awards, taking place 1 December 2018 at Fordoun in Nottingham Road.
