The underrated sire Mambo In Seattle has relocated from Moutonshoek Stud to the KZN Midlands where he will stand at Peter and Jenny Blyth’s Clifton Stud.

The syndicate members are still the same and he will stand for R10,000 a live foal.

The Kingmambo sire has produced a number of stakes horses but the statistic which caught Peter Blyth’s eye above all before accepting him was his good winners to runners record.

In his first season his 28 male runners returned 22 winners and in his second season his 32 female runners returned 21 winners.

Mambo In Seattle, whose dam is a half-sister to the great AP Indy, is suited to South African-bred mares as his second and third dams are the blue hen mares Weekend Surprise and Lassie Dear respectively. These two mares have had a great influence on the South African thoroughbred breed.

Lassie Dear is the dam of Al Mufti, who was SA Champion Sire, SA Champion Broodmare Sire and also sired the SA Champion Sire Captain Al as well as the Grade 1 producing sire Victory Moon.

Weekend Surprise is the dam of the late Wilgerbosdrift stallion Tiger Ridge (Storm Cat), who has had a lot of success in South Africa, including producing Triple Tiara heroine Cherry On The Top.

Weekend Surprise’s greatest progeny was AP Indy, who was the US Champion three-year-old colt in 1992, the US Horse Of The Year in 1993, the leading sire in North America in both 2003 and 2006 and the leading broodmare sire in North America in 2015.

Current AP Indy stallions standing in South Africa include the successful sire Judpot, who has produced three individual Grade 1 winners, KZN sire Just As Well and Marchfield. Furthermore, Jay Peg’s sire Camden Park was by AP Indy.

Mambo In Seattle is bred on the same lines as the prominent USA stallion Lemon Drop Kid. Both stallions are by Kingmambo, both of their dams are by Seattle Slew and Lemon Drop Kid’s second dam is Lassie Dear, who is the third dam of Mambo In Seattle.

All in all, Mambo In Seattle provides a good opportunity in SA for fans of line breeding.
As a racehorse his finest moment happened when he came second by a nose in the Group 1 Travers Stakes at Saratoga to Colonel John despite running six wide. The Travers Stakes is the third-ranked race for American three-year-olds according to international classifications behind only the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes.
Mambo In Seattle also won a Listed race over 1800m at three.

His best progeny to date is Same Jurisdiction, a twice Grade 1 winner who went on to place in a Group 3 in the U.K.

He has also produced stake performers like Majestic Mambo, runner up in this year’s Grade 1 Daily News 2000 and fourth in the Vodacom Durban July; Saratoga Dancer, who has a number of Graded places to his name and finished fifth in the July; and stakes winners Mambo Mime, Smart Mart, Fortune Fella, Night In Seattle and Mambonick.

Mambo In Seattle finished 14th on the National Sire log of the season just past.

Blyth said he had settled in well since arriving in Mooi River a month ago. “He is fine, is doing well and is as relaxed as anything.”

He said the handsome bay, who was born in 2005, had a lovely temperament and was easy to work with.

Clifton Stud produced the like of Horse Of The Year Classic Flag when based in Mpumalanga. Since relocating to Mooi River there have been a number of black type winners born and raised at Clifton Stud, including Kangaroo Jack, who won two Grade 2’s and a Grade 3 from 1200-1450m, Bezanova, who won the Grade 2 Charity Mile, the Grade 2 Victory Moon and the KZN Breeders Million Mile and finished third in the Grade 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge, as well as Covered In Snow, Whatalady and Midnight Serenade. Cutting Edge, born and raised at Clifton, won the KZN Yearling Sale Million.

Horses born and raised at Clifton won 44 races last season, 56 the previous season and 58 the season before that.

Blyth has a policy of letting foals loose with their dams five days after foaling and they are then only brought in again for sales preparation. This ensures they are brought up tough.

Mambo In Seattle joins promising young sire Crusade at Clifton. The latter was relocated from Scott Brothers after their recent dispersal sale.

Blyth has taken care of a class stallion before, Allied Flag, who was the sire of Classic Flag but unfortunately passed away prematurely.

Mambo In Seattle and Crusade are in good hands and should both receive good support.

By David Thiselton

Aldo Domeyer is to concentrate once more on Cape Town – and in particular on his first-jockey job with Candice Bass-Robinson – after riding winners all over the country in the final few days of last season to achieve his objective.

Much has been made of his third in the national log earning him a place on the South African team to ride in Singapore next month but in fact his aim was focussed much nearer home.

He said yesterday: “I was trying to win the Cape jockeys championship which was decided on national winners’ basis. From this season, though, it is back to a Cape racemeeting only basis and Richard Fourie could be hard to beat in that.”

Domeyer rode 18 winners in the last 11 days of the campaign. For four of those days he didn’t ride but the other seven were scattered from Flamingo Park to Fairview and from the Vaal to Greyville.

He said: “I had a mountain to climb and I didn’t think I was going to do it but I don’t think I have ever been on a roll like this one.

“However I missed a lot of work, Candice has a lot of horses and I need to be fair to the clients so I won’t be doing all that again. I will go to Jo’burg to ride for Ashley (trainer wife of his father Andrew Fortune) when they need me but I doubt that I will go to other centres for them.”

The new season began on just the right note for Paul Reeves at Durbanville yesterday when the consistent Photocopy benefitted from a positive ride from Donovan Dillon to finally get his head in front where it mattered.

Reeves, 51 on Tuesday, reckons this could be just the first of several wins, saying: “He has been frustrating but he is still a big baby and he has always shown so much. He has a future.”

Justin Snaith only waited until race two to start the ball rolling in his bid to land a third trainers’ championship and younger brother Jonathan reckons punters should make a note of the Richard Fourie-ridden Margrethe.

He explained: “She is a bit light so we will probably stick her away for a bit but she has a lot of scope and is definitely one to follow. Over 1 400m and a mile she will be even better than this.”

African Night Sky has joined Mike de Kock and is in quarantine prior to being campaigned in Dubai. Fred Crabbia’s Winter Series winner started favourite for the Durban July but suffered more than any other horse from the long delay at the start. By the time the runners were eventually loaded all he wanted to do was gallop as fast as he could and Grant van Niekerk found him impossible to settle. He finished an expensive fifth.

*  Michael Clower won with four of his five selections at Durbanville yesterday.

By Michael Clower

Justin Snaith was officially crowned National Champion trainer when the season closed on Tuesday. Snaith led for much of the season on his way to his second championship, finishing R6 million ahead of reigning champion Sean Tarry.

The Championship is judged on stakes won and Snaith runners, that included 162 winners, earned R26 794 988. Tarry had 138 winners and his runners earned R20 522 775.

Mike de Kock finished third with Brett Crawford in fourth place.

The unfortunate fall that side-lined Anthony Delpech for the final three months of the season left the door open for apprentice Lyle Hewitson who took full toll. Hewitson racked up 184 winners in a memorable season that saw him land the National Jockey’s Championship as an apprentice, emulating the legendary Michael Roberts who was the last apprentice to win the National Championship.

Muzi Yeni finished a clear second on 149 winners and Aldo Domeyer edged out Delpech for third by just a single winner with Greg Cheyne, two back in fifth.

The battle between Domeyer and Cheyne went down to the last race meeting of the season with the pair fighting it out for a place on the three-man South African team to take part in the Singapore Jockey’s International taking place on September 25. Domeyer will join Hewitson and Yeni.

Naturally, Hewitson also took the National Apprentice title with Denis Schwarz and Ashton Arries in second and third places respectively.

Sun Met and Woolavington 2000 winner Oh Susanna was the leading stakes earner followed by Undercover Agent and Vodacom Durban July winner Do It Again.

In sixth place was Yulong Prince, the re-named Surcharge, who will resume his racing career in Hong Kong.

The race for the National Breeders Championship was again a close-run thing but reigning champions Klawervlei Stud retained their title from perennial rivals Summerhill Stud.

By Andrew Harrison

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
* Mr L Hewitson (APPRENTICE)	1471	184	12.5	186	156	334	676	46	12,560,000	20,168,963
Mr M A Yeni	1447	149	10.3	164	190	309	663	45.8	11,494,938	18,108,375
Mr A Domeyer	695	137	19.7	107	96	152	355	51.1	8,698,750	13,732,220
Mr A C Delpech	527	136	25.8	98	59	83	240	45.5	9,708,063	14,482,075
Mr G M Cheyne	801	135	16.9	110	118	168	396	49.4	6,932,375	11,242,150
Mr C Murray	940	120	12.8	102	90	140	332	35.3	8,083,125	12,584,325
Mr R D Fourie	668	119	17.8	82	92	128	302	45.2	8,871,125	13,203,963
Mr K de Melo	1020	114	11.2	123	112	199	434	42.5	7,480,625	12,693,845
Mr G van Niekerk	552	107	19.4	82	68	117	267	48.4	15,718,125	19,106,325
Mr R Munger	1334	107	8	100	109	248	457	34.3	5,219,088	8,777,038

Top 10 apprentices

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Mr L Hewitson	1470	184	12.5	186	156	334	676	46	12,560,000	20,168,963
Mr D W Schwarz	722	50	6.9	40	75	112	227	31.4	2,837,500	4,651,625
Mr A Arries	421	45	10.7	45	46	62	153	36.3	2,545,000	4,036,325
Serino Moodley	424	31	7.3	24	36	92	152	35.8	1,690,000	2,780,275
Mr L J Ferraris	224	26	11.6	14	18	41	73	32.6	1,738,750	2,368,850
Mr D de Gouveia	287	22	7.7	25	20	49	94	32.8	1,225,000	2,051,850
Mr D R Lerena	264	22	8.3	19	14	41	74	28	1,226,875	1,827,475
Mr E Ngwane	350	16	4.6	20	25	57	102	29.1	934,375	1,800,125
Mr S Mbhele	188	16	8.5	13	24	34	71	37.8	885,000	1,453,725
Mr M Mjoka	485	13	2.7	25	28	65	118	24.3	710,625	1,589,900

Top 10 Trainer

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Mr S J Snaith	1154	162	14	135	121	240	496	43	18,806,250	26,794,988
Mr S G Tarry	1269	138	10.9	127	121	247	495	39	13,445,000	20,522,775
Mr M F de Kock	766	131	17.1	84	77	150	311	40.6	11,207,688	16,308,058
Mr B J Crawford	739	101	13.7	97	79	147	323	43.7	7,813,000	12,379,188
Mr A C Greeff	1020	148	14.5	127	108	213	448	43.9	7,100,250	10,669,525
Mrs C L Bass-Robinson	934	98	10.5	99	112	190	401	42.9	5,814,375	10,463,900
Mr P A Peter	634	88	13.9	52	55	104	211	33.3	6,022,500	9,145,720
Mr G S Kotzen	821	80	9.7	73	73	148	294	35.8	5,419,250	8,985,000
Messrs M G Azzie & A A Azzie	498	61	12.2	63	50	87	200	40.2	5,279,375	8,583,600
Mr J A Janse van Vuuren	477	67	14	62	54	89	205	43	5,083,750	7,676,970

Top 10 horses by stakes earned (restricted races excluded)

Name	Runs	Wins	Win%	2nd	3rd	Other	Places	Place%	Win Stake	Total Stake
Oh Susanna (AUS)	6	3	50	1	0	2	3	50	4,100,000	4,312,375
Undercover Agent	11	5	45.5	3	0	1	4	36.4	3,860,000	4,220,000
Do It Again	7	3	42.9	1	1	1	3	42.9	2,917,500	3,257,500
Dutch Philip	9	1	11.1	2	2	0	4	44.4	2,987,500	3,113,100
Coral Fever	9	2	22.2	2	2	1	5	55.6	2,650,000	3,085,000
Yulong Prince	9	5	55.6	3	0	1	4	44.4	1,625,000	2,695,000
Legal Eagle	6	3	50	0	1	2	3	50	1,812,500	2,115,500
Snowdance	7	3	42.9	4	0	0	4	57.1	1,500,000	2,016,000
Magical Wonderland	7	2	28.6	2	1	2	5	71.4	309,375	1,466,875
Nother Russia	8	3	37.5	1	1	3	5	62.5	956,250	1,449,250

 

The Equus Awards voting panel met at Greyville on Saturday evening, 28 July to finalise the nominees and winners for this season’s awards.

The first round of nominations were submitted after Vodacom Durban July Day.

The voting panel comprised of Matthew Lips, Robert Garner, Roger Smith, David Thiselton and Larry Wainstein as non-voting chairperson.

The categories and finalists are:

Champion Two-year-old Colt – distance immaterial: Soqrat, Van Halen

Champion Two-year-old Filly – distance immaterial: Mighty High, Return Flight

Champion Three-year-old Colt – distance immaterial: Bold Respect, Do It Again, Eyes Wide Open, Hero’s Honour, Lobo’s Legend, Surcharge, Tap O’ Noth, Undercover Agent.

Champion Three-year-old Filly – distance immaterial: Oh Susanna (Aus), Snow Dance.

Champion Older Male – distance immaterial: Captain America, Coral Fever, Legal Eagle, Will Pays.

Champion Older Filly/Mare – distance immaterial: Nother Russia, Redberry Lane, Sommerlied.

Champion Sprinter – (1000 – 1200m; age/gender immaterial): Attenborough, Bold Respect, Sergeant Hardy, Will Pays.

Champion Miler – (1400 – 1600; age/gender immaterial): Legal Eagle, Snow Dance, Undercover Agent.

Champion Middle Distance – (1800 – 2200; age/gender immaterial): Captain America, Coral Fever, Do It Again, Oh Susanna (Aus).

Champion Stayer – (2400 and up; age/gender immaterial): Hero’s Honour, It’s my Turn.

Voting Criteria
The awards are based on graded races and in particular Grade 1 races. As regards the stayer category, the winning horse will be at the discretion of the voting panel. This decision was taken as the only Grade 1 race in SA is the SA Derby, which would mean that this should be the obvious winner based on a single run. This would also have excluded fillies and mares.

Breeder Awards:
Stallion of the Year
Broodmare of the Year
Breeder of the Year

The Thoroughbred Breeders Association may include outstanding and/or international achievement awards.

Individual Awards:
Champion Apprentice
Champion Jockey
Champion Owner (based on stakes earned)
Champion Trainer (based on stakes earned)
Industry Merit Awards
Horse of the Year Award

The awards are a glittering black-tie gala event that takes place at the Convention Centre at Emperor’s Palace on Tuesday, August 14. Clyde Basel will be the master of ceremonies for the evening and guests will be treated to an array of entertainment. There will also be an after party at the same venue.

If you wish to purchase tickets (R700 per person) for this event, please contact Penny Morsner at the Racing Association on (011) 683-3220 or email penny@racingassociation.co.za

The Vaal Inside track stages a competitive ten race meeting tomorrow and once again the exotics looks the best way to approach it.

Psychic ran on well to win over 1800m last time and will relish the step up to 2000m in the seventh race. He was only given a two point raise in his merit rating and this Visionaire gelding is on the way up despite being a five-year-old so can win again from a plum draw of three. He is selected to be the Pick 6 banker. Zeal And Zest is a fair sort and has bounced back to form recently having dropped to his current mark and looks the main danger. Samar can also be a threat if repeating any of his last three runs which have been over distances from 1800m to 2400m.

The first leg of the PA over 1000m is an uninspiring event and a bit tricky. However, Mischievous Green looks to have scope for improvement and What A Fizz ran a fair race in his only start back in March. They can fight it out with the exposed Deago Deluxe, who ran on well the last time he went this trip and beat the debuting Mischievous Green by 2,9 lengths in that race.

In the first leg of the Pick 6 there is an interesting runner in the R220,000 British-bred filly Loja Lady. She was born on July 29 2015 and technically should be a four-year-old but the authorities appear to have given her three days leeway and accepted her as a three-year-old along with all other South African three-year-olds born on August 1 and onward. She makes a belated debut as the authorities did earlier stick to the rules and did not allowed her to compete as a two-year-old. She is by the Group 1 Dewhurst and Epsom Derby winner Sir Percy out of a Brazilian-bred Grade 2 winner and she would not have to be a star to win this 1400m event under Muzi Yeni. Little Sparrow and Soul Of Wit are still unexposed and have shown promise so are taken o be the chief contenders of those to have raced. Pachanga has hard knocking form but is a touch one-paced and limited. Rustling Leaf is another interesting first-timer, being a R140,000 purchase by Pathfork and a half-sister to Grade 1 winner On Her Toes, who also won the Grade 2 KZN Fillies Guineas.

The fifth race over 1400m is open and as many horses as possible should be included. Topweight Gold Shades is selected to win on the grounds of her fast finishing third in her penultimate start over 1700m when beaten a length by the well regarded Lady Val. She disappointed last time and has the same 4kg claimer aboard, but if he can revert to the off-the-pace tactics she enjoyed in her penultimate start she could go close from a plum draw.

In the sixth race, a MR 84 over 1400m, Bold Coast has been consistent in a higher class than this and off a competitive merit rating over an ideal trip he can go close from a fair draw. Dan The Lad and Sail For Joy are also ideally distance suited and are the main dangers.

The last two legs of the Pick 6 are tough 1200m handicaps and punters should go as wide as possible.

In the first of them Operetta has her first run out of the maidens but looks to be on the up and can get it right off a reasonable opening merit rating of 75. Kungfoofighting has dropped to an attractive merit rating and should make her presence felt. River Ayre has won over the course and distance and is only two points higher than that win.

In the last race Wottahottie is an honest and versatile type who gets on well with Keagan de Melo. He was raised only two points for his recent win over this 1200m trip and proved he was up to that mark by going close over 1600m last week. He now drops back to the trip of that last win but it will be tough.

By David Thiselton