Summerhill’s striking son of High Chapparal, Golden Sword, has got off to a smart start with his daughter, Summerhill-bred Belle Rose winning her third career start for trainer Mike De Kock, who trained her sire in Dubai.
“He is not only our and the province’s flagship stallion, but he’s a lovable character to whom every last soul on the farm has an attachment.”
The KZN Grooms Training Course took place this week over three days and finished yesterday, taking place at Summerhill’s School of Equine Management Excellence. A big thank you to Sam Sharkey for all her effort, Leigh Adams, Elize and Kabelo Pitori for all their teaching assistance, as well as the Thoroughbred Breeders Association of South Africa, Elsenburg Agricultural College and Singayenza for making it possible.
Summerhill’s young resident sire Golden Sword, the only son of High Chapparal at stud in South Africa, has seen his full-brother, All Body And Soul, get his second in Ireland over 2400m for trainer Tracey Collins. The 2012 gelding has had just five starts, winning twice and placing once.
Another daughter of last season’s national leading freshman sire Visionaire, added to his Graded Stakes winning accolades as a sire with the aptly named Summerhill-bred Heaps Of Fun, winning the Gr2 Wilgebosdrift Gauteng Fillies Guineas yesterday for her owner Mr Nchakha Moloi
Graeme Hawkins once again did the honours as auctioneer on behalf of Michael Holmes Bloodstock, with buyers from across the country descending on the leading stud farm in South Africa to find another of the likes of No Worries, Tomorrow’s Miss and Flyfirstclass, graduates of this sale in the past recent years.
Summerhill Stud’s exciting stallion Traffic Guard came out of the blocks flying when he broke the ice with his first raced runner at Greyville on Sunday. The Kom Naidoo-trained Sovereign Magic built on her three placed efforts with a courageous performance to win the Maiden Juvenile Plate run over 1000m on the polytrack.
It was a 1-2 past the winning post for Kahal as the Kjell-Foundation-bred Symbolik won the Fairview Mile for the stable of Dorrie Sham, whilst his Stakes winning paternal half-brother Distinguished finished a close second.
The Emperors Palace Summer Ready To Run sale takes place on Tuesday 23 February, 2016 at Summerhill Stud. The catalogue in pdf format has been made available online for viewing.
“Crowned Champion Freshman Sire for the South African racing season of 2014/2015, it was thanks to Team Valor’s Barry Irwin and his vision of what he wished to achieve from the breeding of his mares based in KZN that we have Visionaire standing in the province of KwaZulu Natal.” – International Racehorse Magazine.