Badger's Drift & Captain Al

Saturday’s racing at Clairwood ranks as one of the most exciting in my 35 years in this game.

Captain Al’s day started off on a high note with the running of the Gr1 Thekwini Fillies Stakes, where his 2yo daughter Possible Dream ran a very credible 3rd in the race. His son Exhilaration then went onto win the equivalent for the 2yo colts, the Gr1 Premier’s Champion Stakes. As a shareholder and manager of the syndicate that owns Captain Al, I am overjoyed at the result and congratulate Dominic Zackey and the connections and, most especially, Klawervlei Stud and The Alchemy for breeding the winner. This was Captain Al’s first 2yo at that level and the cherry on the top to the most magnificent record-breaking season for this young stallion.

Basil Marcus delivered the Captain’s 30th juvenile winner last week and told me that his colt is very special. We celebrated that remarkable milestone and knew that this must make him SA’s most Outstanding Stallion of 2009… Not only is he now unassailably Champion Sire of 2yo’s but he leads no less than 9 categories in the stallions statistics. A truly remarkable feat!

Having these Gr1 performers over the weekend really made this a very special season for those of us connected with The Captain. We thank all of the breeders, owners, trainers and jockeys that contributed to every one of his 127 wins this season. Captain Al is looking forward to covering another top class book of mares in the coming season – this year reads like a who’s who of the nation's broodmare band and includes a host of Gr1 winning mares.

The Gr1 stakes added to Captain Al’s record breaking total this season brings his 2yo progeny earnings to R2.9m and his overall earnings to R9.4m with about just one week left in this season. His 30 juvenile winners have won 40 races and it is hard to fathom how far he has come since shattering the 2yo win record with his freshman crop just 5 years ago. Dare we dream that he could breach the R3m barrier for 2yo earnings before the season ends? Watch this space.

As if having a son of Captain Al win the Premiers was not enough, I fell off my chair as Ivory Trail, a son of ‘our’ stallion Badger’s Drift became a giant killer in the Champions Cup as he swept from quite far back in the field to forge past Pocket Power. I bought him as a yearling for Jack Mitchell (and his daughter Nancy) at the Grandwest Yearling Sale from prolific breeders of Champions, Cheveley Stud, and am delighted with this win, not only for Badger’s Drift’s sake but for Jack, Nancy and Vaughan Koster – a much deserved Gr1 winner for them all. Joey Ramsden has done an amazing job with this horse - he was a smart 2yo and won a Gr2 in January. He has always been a real trier and is extremely honest – he’s got guts! Joey was convinced that he deserved a try at the big races in Durban and with a rating of 109, what else do you do with a horse like that anyway – the J&B Met, the July, The Gold Challenge and then the Champions Cup?

Ivory Trail is a gutsy horse who knows how to dig deep and always gives his best. I am honoured to have had a double association with this horse – a son of one of the stallions in my portfolio that I judged worthy of purchase at the sales - not just for clients, but two very dear friends. Well done guys! All credit to Joey - a top class trainer. Badger’s Drift won two legs of the Triple Crown in Gauteng and still holds an 1800m record - small wonder that his son won the Champion’s Cup over 1800m – his finest achievement. I am in awe of all of this! Where else can on find such heart stopping moments in life? Racing is the most exciting game on earth - a thrill like no other. I consider myself very lucky to be involved.

What is even more significant about the big race day yesterday is that two of the three Gr1 races fell to sons of South African bred stallions. This is THE era of the SA-breds. Our industry has come of age. Ever since we have been able to race on the world stage (albeit with huge disadvantage due to delivery problems) our industry has blossomed. Equally important is that we have reached the stage where we have learned to give respect to home bred champions by giving them the support they deserve at stud. All of Captain Al, Jet Master, and National Emblem have bred champions and now Badger’s Drift has his first Gr1 winner and has a healthy 15% stakes wins/ winner record.

Dynasty is 2nd leading Freshman Sire this season giving further credence to the impact that locally bred horses are making in our record books. Dynasty’s progeny were not expected to come to hand as quickly as they have done. We fully expect them to be better over the sort of trip that he was so good at. Though the wise horseman Peter Kannemeyer always believed that Dynasty was good enough to win at any distance he clearly was best at beyond a mile. His youngsters started winning as early 2yo’s from 1000m and we look forward to seeing them improve as 3yo’s as he did. Dynasty was denied his 12th 2yo win at Kenilworth on Sunday as the highly fancied Opera Diva was slow away (having reared in the stalls) and had to chase Captain Al’s daughter Townsend hard up the straight to be denied the win – another of Dynasty’s daughters ran on well for 3rd. His 10 individual juvenile winners and R800 000 not only make him the 2nd leading freshman sire (that’s a stakes based issue) but also joint 3rd leading sire of all 2yo’s by number of winners – and well ahead of the 4th placed bunch.

We are very fortunate that our portfolio has been boosted by the addition of 3 new home-bred champions in 2009: Equus champion 2yo Argonaut is on his way back from Australia to take up duties at Cheveley with Vaughan Koster; Jay Peg has just arrived back from a record breaking overseas campaign to stand with John Koster at Klawervlei; and star sprinter Rebel King is already at Klawervlei waiting for the season to start. All 3 of these exciting stallions are pitched at fees at well below what they should be selling. Freemantle Stallions