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South Africa poised
There’s a new sales company in South Africa. David Allan takes a look at its implications for the future as well as the latest developments in the South African bloodstock industry
W
hen it blows in Cape Town, it really blows. At Kenilworth on the straight course, those horses drawn stands’ side use the rest of the field for shelter. But it is a metaphorical wind of change in South African racing and breeding that is now gusting to gale force in and around the “Mother City”. South Africa as the “Rainbow Nation” is busy dealing with internal problematical issues that are by no means unique to itself, but it has a very solid infrastructure on which to build. An excellent road system is in place and is one that has not crumbled in 20 years of new government and has even been enhanced; required street and airport improvement for the FIFA World Cup was achieved on time; enlightened legislation protects all manner of flora and fauna, preventing otherwise obvious development of fringe city lands, while good manners are the norm and many of the country’s attractions are simply magical. The country’s thoroughbred industry has its own long-established infrastructure. There may be glitches as new administrators from non-traditionally involved backgrounds have come in, but that’s the deal. The once, almost unique practice, of breeders naming sales yearlings is lessening, and more owners of the passionate kind, so necessary to sustain the whole enterprise, are changing names to their own preference. However, such things do not disturb the good-to-excellent production on the best farms and the good-to-outstanding veterinary services available to this mature industry. The restrictions of the dial-up email servers of just a few years ago are a distant memory,
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www.internationalthoroughbred.net
many SA thoroughbred professionals now live on smart phones and tablets and the great South African welcome that so many racing visitors enjoy, has seen further innovation in the form of caramelised vodka shots and a vicious tall green drink that consumers ruefully recall some hours later... Purveyors of generous hospitality include industrialists, financiers and associated farmers whose goal is to make Cape Town the absolute SA centre, as well as a major international one, with the Cape’s attractions, most of the top stallions and many good farms nearby, complemented by the Royal-Ascot-in-a-day (and night) J&B Met raceday and the Queen’s Plate Day. Markus Jooste of Steinhoff Corporation (think Harveys the Furniture Store sponsors of Coronation Street and recognise it as one spoke in a huge commercial wheel) and Bernard Kantor of Investec Bank, whose sponsorship of Epsom’s Derby meeting confirms the passion, are prolific owners of good horses and are men who combine steel-trap thinking with the genuine geniality that goes with an understanding of client entertainment. Their strong investment in the multigenerational Koster family’s Klawervlei (Clover Field) Stud sees John Koster, another who knows how to welcome people on a grand scale, overseeing an expansion of Darleyesque proportions. But the latest move is the most dramatic so far.
The new beginning of the Cape Thoroughbred Sales
In January 2011, those men and other strong associates drove into existence the inaugural Cape Premier Yearling Sale (CPYS), which saw nearly 300 horses offered under one roof
Above: David Allan leads in a winner at Kenilworth, and, below, the temporary sales ring set up for the Cape Premier Sale, while, far right, bloodstock agent Angus Gold looks to be enjoying himself