Cathy and Jonathan Martin’s Hadlow Stud will be standing the beautifully-bred Summa Cum Laude for the 2021 season.

The handsome colt by Vercingetorix (Silvano) out of the star broodmare First Arrival – the dam of two Equus Award winners – suffered a nasal injury which has prevented him from achieving a racing career, however based on the strength of his dam’s produce and the impressive physical specimen that he is, it would only have been a mere formality.

He is a three parts brother to Wendy Whitehead’s star filly Keep On Dancing (Silvano), a 6-time winner including the recent Gr2 Track And Ball Oaks. To add to his siblings is the Gr1 winning daughter of Jet Master who was exported, In The Fast Lane – and yet another export, Light The Lights – a Gr2 winner in South Africa who went onto win multiple times in Dubai including the Singspiel Stakes and Mubadala Global Trophy Handicap.

In The Fast Lane stands at stud in Australia and her son by Snitzel, Real Gone Kid (AUS), won three times for trainer Brett Crawford and owners Ridgemont Highlands.

The family doesn’t stop there though – it also includes sibling Gr1 placed Pack Leader (Philanthropist), Lets Rock ‘N Roll and Beat Patrol, both by Muhtafal. First Arrival, a dam by Northern Guest who deserves a Broodmare Of The Year accolade, was no slouch herself at the track – born in 1996, she was Spey Bridge Champion 3YO Filly in 1999 with 6 wins in Zimbabwe and over $514 000 earned in stakes.

She is the dam of 12 foals, two Equus Award winners and seven of them are Black Type with multiple Group wins between them!

It is the family of Morisco, Trademark, Super Trouper and Clifton Queen.

Unraced stallions to make their mark in South Africa include his own broodmare sire, Champion sire and Champion Broodmare sire Northern Guest, as well as Mogok – the latter who produced two international Gr1 winners in America and Gr2 winner in Dubai, and Stakes Winners in just about every crop he produced.

Contact Cathy Martin on cathym@futurenet.co.za to enquire about a booking.

Cathy Martin of Hadlow Stud has given us an update on First Arrival at Hadlow Stud and the mighty mare’s daughter who has joined her, currently in foal to Visionaire.

Both mares are owned by Anne and Bruce Nicholas of Hallmark Thoroughbreds.

First Arrival is worthy of a Broodmare Of The Year accolade – the smart Northern Guest mare is the type that every breeder wishes to have standing in their paddocks, having produced two Group horses that were exported amongst them – that in itself an impressive feat.

Her daughter, The Party’s On (by Muhtafal) is in foal to Gr1 Kings Bishop winner Visionaire and has a Duke Of Marmalade yearling colt at Hadlow. She has bred three winners to date by Jay Peg and Pathfork, and already the grand dam to a winner.

First Arrival, herself no slouch on the track and earning Spey Bridge Champion 3YO Filly in 1999 with 6 wins including two Gr3’s, has produced 10 runners and 10 winners, 7 of them achieving Black Type.

They include Let’s Rock And Roll, a full brother to The Party’s On, voted Equus Champion 3yr old male sprinter in 2006 and include a Gr1 win in the Golden Horse Sprint. The next foaling produced Beat Patrol, another by Muhtafal who was Gr3 placed with 6 wins, and the next to impress was a 2008 colt by Western Winter, Rock The Country, who managed to win Zimbabwe’s major features including the Castle Tankard.

First Arrival produced a Jet Master filly in 2010, aptly named In The Fast Lane, trained in South Africa by the Snaiths. She would also provide another Equus Award for her dam, voted Equus Champion 3YO Filly in 2014, with 5 wins including 2 Gr1’s – the Woolavington 2000 and the Cape Fillies Guineas. She was exported to Great Britain.

Light The Lights, a full brother to Rock The Country, followed after that and won the Gr2 Peninsula Handicap for Glen Kotzen. The gelding was sold on to race in Dubai, where he has won three races including a Gr3 and a Listed in the care of Mike De Kock. He has since changed hands, trained by S Seemar for owner Sean Ewing.

Two more Black Types followed – a filly and a colt by Philanthropist respectively, Gr3 placed Party Crasher and Gr1 placed Pack Leader.

Wendy Whitehead was chosen to give Keep On Dancing a hands on approach, a beautiful daughter of Silvano. Wendy says after winning at Hollywoodbets Scottsville, “We went the extra mile for this girl as she had a severe injury as a youngster which left her claustrophobic, which caused her to box walk (run) her stable. Jane Thomas, thank you for your trust in me – we built her a paddock outside with a shelter roof and we haven’t looked back, she is happy and produced this fantastic result for owners Bruce and Anne Nicholas Hallmark Stud!” It appears we may see more from Keep On Dancing when racing makes a return in SA.

Jane Thomas has a 2yo colt in pretaining named Summa Cum Laude (by Vercingetorix) and First Arrival’s last foal is a yearling filly, another by Vercingetorix who has made a deep impression already in his young stud career.

The top priced yearling sold for First Arrival was Light The Lights, knocked down for R1,2-million at the 2014 National Yearling Sale. Her progeny averaged R494 444 each for 9 babies sold at auction in her lifetime.

Congratulations to the Nicholas family for a mare that has brought them plenty of success and joy, and may First Arrival enjoy her retirement in Mooi River.

South African bred Light The Lights won the Listed Singspiel Stakes over 1800m on turf at Meydan for Mike de Kock and Christophe Soumillon on Thursday evening.

The five-year-old by Western Winter ran along nicely and had plenty in the tank around the bend, about three lengths off the call, but jockey Colm O’Donoghue sent his mount Championship swiftly clear of the pack. Soumillon had to work hard to get Light The Lights to make up the ground on the older horse, who wasn’t stopping, but they got there in the last two strides and posted victory by a neck.

De Kock praised the SA breeding industry for their horsemanship and the way they deliver top horses year after year. “Our horses have won on the world stage for a long time, they keep on winning but I still think the world under-rates us,” he said.

Light The Lights, a gelding by Western Winter from First Arrival (Northern Guest), was a R450 000 purchase for Hugo Hattingh and partners at the BSA National Yearling Sale.

He was sold to Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Maktoum after his fourth to Smart Call in the 2016 J&B Met and De Kock said: “Light The Lights left South Africa early last year and as a result they got to Dubai earlier than my horses normally do.

“Light The Lights was a fit horse tonight, so we will look at taking another early shipment this year.  They have definitely benefitted from getting here sooner.”

Bruce and Ann Nicholas of Hallmark Thoroughbreds have enjoyed much success with their mare First Arrival, a daughter of Summerhill super sire Northern Guest.

She has produced amongst others, British export In The Fast Lane, Rock The Country, and Muhtafal Equus Champion Let’s Rock ‘n Roll.

A Spey Bridge Champion 3YO Filly in 1999 who won two Gr3’s in Zimbabwe, First Arrival has been an outstanding mare with eight runners and eight winners to date, four of them Bold Black Type.

This is an exceptional dam line that includes Zimbabwean winners Newton Power, Print The Pounds and Super Trouper, as well as The Elmo Effect, Visuality, Morisco, American export Sally Bowles, Jackson Square and Trademark amongst many others.

Congratulations to all concerned!

– extract turftalk.co.za