Main Man Striking

Timing is everything, no doubt about it. Who would have thought that a stallion of Admire Main’s pedigree and aptitude would be a sire of quality juveniles. It just goes to show, class counts.

While Admire Main ran off with his juvenile debut over 1400m by some seven lengths, it was late in the season, and everyone knew that his mission was the jewel in the Japanese racing crown, the next year’s Japan Derby (Gr.1). Never challenged in his first four racecourse visits, including a four length romp in the Japan Derby Trial (Gr.2), he went down just a neck to the seasonal champion in the big one, despite an injury, claiming his spot as the joint-second highest rated three-year-old of his year.

It was a long-cherished ambition of ours to find a worthy son of his phenomenal sire, Sunday Silence, for this continent, and it eventually came about in the early hours of a Sunday morning (very early!) over a diminishing bottle of Rupert and Rothschild Classique. The font of all Sunday Silence blood is the Shadai Stallion Station in Hokkaido, where the Yoshida family holds court, and our company that evening included Shunsuke Yoshida on a rare visit to South Africa. A consummate horseman and as affable a young man as you could wish for, Shunsuke said “we’ll fix it,” and he did.

The logistical complexities in getting a horse from Japan to South Africa are such that Admire Main had to cut short his covering season in Japan almost as soon as he had started it, as a consequence of which he left just a handful of foals behind. Surprisingly, for a horse who was very much at home over 2400m, these have counted eleven runners to date, including three winners already and seven who’ve made the money. The evidence tells us they’re as much at home over 800m as they are at 1700m, and while we’ve always maintained that nothing will suit them better than the punishing 2000m of the Summer Cup down Turffontein’s torturous straight, it’s reassuring that they appear competitive at the shorter trips as well.

Recent international events have reminded us (and for those who were still oblivious, of the enormous class of the lineage) how potent the Sunday Silence tribe can be. Just last Sunday, Orfevre (by Stay Gold by Sunday Silence) was pipped at the post in Europe’s greatest race, the Arc de Triomphe (Gr.1), while on the same weekend, Hat Trick celebrated his second international Group One winner in the USA from his first crop. Yet, by some distance, Sunday Silence’s outstanding sire son is Deep Impact, who’s not only already outdoing his famous father, but whose daughter Gentildonna became the island nation’s fourth Triple Crown heroine on the self-same Sunday. South African’s will need little reminding of course, of the outstanding talents of Lionel Cohen’s Sun Classique (by Fuji Kiseki), not only a champion at home, but a stirring Group One ace at the Dubai World Cup meeting.

The message: those who are nearest to our Ready To run entries, will tell you that you miss the Admire Mains at your personal cost!

The catalogue for the Emperors Palace Ready-To-Run Sale is available for viewing at www.tba.co.za.

2012 Emperors Palace Ready-To-Run Sale
TBA Complex, Gosforth Park
Friday, 2nd November @ 17h00 Lots 1–75
Sunday, 4th November @ 14h00 Lots 76–202

Gallops
17th October – Turffontein @ 12h00
19th October – Summerhill @ 11h00

Visit Summerhill’s Blog and Website at www.summerhill.co.za