Vaal trainer Coenie de Beer said he had looked on the bright side after his beloved R1 million Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Sprint hero Talktothestars had had a rare episode of not eating up the night before Saturday’s big race at Scottsville.

“A lion doesn’t catch a buck on a full stomach,” he had thought to himself.

Coenie De Beer and his Grade 1 winner Talktothestars (Nkosi Hlophe)

And so it proved as the sales outcast gave weight and a thrashing to many regally-bred, expensively purchased horses. He was brilliantly ridden by the peerless Piere Strydom, who was winning the big race for the fifth time. Having him more handy than usual might have been the key, as he often runs on too late. This time he found extra from a handy position and going through the 100m Strydom felt he would still have had enough in the tank to fend off a late challenger.

It was the first Gr 1 win for both De Beer and also for Talktothestars unfashionable sire Overlord.

However, it was yet another Gr 1 accolade for the horse’s breeders Scott Brothers, who also stand Overlord. Scott Brothers had previously won this race with their home-bred Bold West in 1987.

De Beer, who has been training at the Vaal since 1998, is the son of former trainer Dawie de a Beer. He has a mere seven horses in his yard.

He owns Talktothestars outright and has fulfilled the old adage “have horse, will travel” in no uncertain terms.

The four-year-old gelding’s “calm” temperament has made this possible. It was Talktothestars’s third journey to Scottsville and he stayed there overnight before the race. He made the long journey to Cape Town in the summer, where he earned three cheques in five starts at Kenilworth. He has also raced at Flamingo Park in Kimberly on top of his regular runs at his home province courses of The Vaal and Turffontein. In mid-July he will experience another new course, Greyville, as De Beer said he would definitely bring him down for the Gr 1 weight for age Mercury Sprint, where he will attempt to exact revenge on his Computaform Sprint conqueror Carry On Alice. That race will likely decide the Equus Champion Sprinter award.

Talktothestars’ half-sister Star Voyager had caught De Beer’s eye at the Sales a few years back . De Beer said, “She was a good filly with a lot of promise and after that I bought all the progeny until I got this one.” Their dam Tellittothestars by Spaceship won one race over 1600m. Her daughter Star Voyager (Mogok) won five races for De Beer, another daughter Planet Queen (Mogok) won two races for him and Talktothestars’ three-year-old full-sister Lady Starlett has already won two races for the yard.

Talktothestars, with a reserve of R30,000, was a vendor buy back at the National Two-year-old Sale due to a lack of interest. De Beer later bought him cheaply off the farm as part of a package offered by Scott Brothers owner Robin Scott.

He is a big, strong horse and amazingly, as was the case on Saturday, usually runs without shoes. De Beer said, “I don’t mind running him in shoes if he has a problem. I did run him here once with shoes because he had a crack in his hoof (and he won).”

Talktothestars is the highest rated sprinter in the country and has earned R1,529,575.

It is South Africa’s equivalent of the Australian Takeover Target fairytale.

Race fans around the country at last know who Coenie de Beer is as the camera shy man gave a rare TV interview in the winner’s enclosure.

His few humble words said it all, “I tell you he is a great horse. He is a healthy, sound horse and he did it all himself.”

David Thiselton
Picture: Coenie de Beer and Talktothestars (Nkosi Hlophe)

The unstoppable combination of Dean Kannemeyer, Anthony Delpech and Khaya Stables added a Gr 1 to their recent feats when landing the City Of Pietermaritzburg Sprint at Scottsville on Saturday with Real Princess and Kannemeyer described it as an emotional win.

Real Princess (Nkosi Hlophe)

He said later, “I had always said to Lady Christine Laidlaw and Jehan Malherbe this filly WILL get the Gr 1. She had been rolled a few times earlier in her career and I felt she would be better as a four-year-old, she is a big filly and has matured and found her strength. By the end of last season I didn’t quite know what her distance was as she is bred to go 2000m, but she’s a speed horse and has a helluva turn of foot. She ran Carry On Alice to three-quarters of a length over 1000m at Kenilworth, so I thought she could have a big chance today. She loves Scottsville and you have to ride her with confidence and Anthony rode her confidently, because there was always a gap on the outside but he waited until the last 300m of the race and won going away. She has tremendous substance, a deep girth, a beautiful quarter, she’s one of the nicest specimen fillies I’ve ever seen. Lady Laidlaw had always wanted to buy a filly and Jehan and I told her, after viewing Real Princess on the farm before the sale, if you want to see a filly just come with us and have a look at this one.”

The Klawervlei Stud-bred Trippi filly’s sales tag, a staggering R2,7 million, confirmed those sentiments, but she has now proven worth it.

It was Delpech’s sixth Graded success of the SA Champions Season and three of them have been for Kannemeyer and Khaya Stables.

By David Thiselton

Top Cape-based trainer Vaughan Marshall admitted, after adding two more Gr 1’s to his glittering CV at Scottsville on Saturday, the Captain Als were always the first horses he viewed at the sales and he always viewed every one of them.

Marshall trained the great Klawervlei-based champion stallion and both of his yard’s big race winners on Saturday, The Secret Is Out and Always In Charge, are by Captain Al.

MJ Byleveld rode a race out of the top drawer in the Gr 1 Allan Robertson Championship, remaining calm when short of room at the 500m mark, easing The Secret Is Out back slightly and then bursting through to win cosily.

Owner and breeder Garth Miller’s intuition when buying The Secret Is Out’s dam Secret Of Victoria a few years ago due to the speed in the pedigree has led to his BBP syndicate, consisting of himself and Basil Nelson, being in possession of one of the best families in the South African stud book.

Secret Of Victoria herself finished second in the Allan Robertson for Marshall. The Secret Is Out has now become her second daughter to win the prestigious two-year-old event.

Miller owned a half-share in The Secret Is Out’s full-sister All Is Secret, who won the Allan Robertson for Marshall in 2012.

The Secret Is Out did not go to the sales and on Saturday became Marshall’s fourth winner of the big race. Nelson was there to accept the trophy and Miller was sure to have been tuned in from his holiday venue.

The small filly has a “wonderful temperament”, “a big action and a big heart”. Furthermore, Marshall said, “We have not got to the bottom of her yet.”

Later, The Klawervlei Stud-bred and Markus and Ingrid Jooste-owned Always In Charge gave Marshall his second career win of the Gr 1 Tsogo Sun Gold Medallion.

Jockey Anton Marcus said it had not taken him long to agree with stable jockey Byleveld’s assessment of this being a “special horse” after he had begun working him ten days before the race at Summerveld.

Marshall purchased him for R650,000 at the CTS Emperor’s Palace Select Yearling Sale and Jooste had later taken ownership.

Marshall, recalling the sale, said, “He wasn’t a big horse, he was very athletic and had a lot of quality about him.”

He won in fine style on Saturday, beating the field by three lengths in a time 0,37 seconds quicker than the fillies race.

A lot more will be heard of him and Marshall believes he will be even better when he goes around the turn.

David Thiselton
Picture: Always In Charge (Nkosi Hlophe)

Mike Bass has decided to run his four-time Grade 1 winner Inara under top weight in the Tibouchina Stakes at Greyville on Saturday rather than go for the Rising Sun Gold Challenge.

Daughter Candice Robinson said: “Inara galloped last week and she worked well. She has raced at Greyville before (in last year’s KRA Fillies Guineas, Woolavington and Garden Province) but she wasn’t at her best then so we will have to see how she handles it.”

Grant van Niekerk again takes the mount while Bernard Fayd’Herbe will team up with Cape Fillies Guineas winner Silver Mountain for the second time in this seven furlong test. Bass runs Paterfamilias (Van Niekerk) in the Gold Challenge but Helderberg Blue will miss the Cup Trial.

The stable, buoyed by Fly By Night’s return to form at Scottsville, also had the satisfaction of seeing Whose That Girl make up for her March disappointment by responding to Robert Khathi’s urgings to get up on the line in Saturday’s Kenilworth Maiden Juvenile.

“She was feeling her shins quite a bit last time and she didn’t really travel as a result but she still needs to mature a bit more,” Mrs Robinson reported.

Bernard Fayd’Herbe turned his back on the big bucks at Scottsville to stay loyal to his Ridgemont retainer and he was rewarded with success on joint top weight Make It Raine in the Place Your Bets Handicap even if the pens proved a fraught affair.

He related: “I knew I was in a bit of trouble – she was obviously still thinking about the bad experience she had last time – and she tried to flip over with me.”

Ridgemont manager Craig Carey added: “She is a little hot and, while I like them to have a bit of fire if they are going to go to stud, we will have to keep an eye on her temperament. She also has a breathing problem – you can hear it when she works on the track. It’s no problem racing on the straight course but I don’t know how it would affect her if she goes 1 400m.”

Fayd’Herbe was also riding for Brett Crawford when he was at the centre of the action in the mile maiden. His mount Navasha started a prohibitive 9-20 and looked like overhauling the pace-setting Dontknowhy only to falter in the closing stages and go down by a short head.

Her rider promptly lodged an objection and the close-circuit suggested he might get it but, as so often, you had to see the boardroom head-on to really tell what happened. Brandon May switched his whip from his right hand to his left and his mount promptly began to hang away from it. She moved two or three metres to her right and in the process her quarters twice slammed against those of the favourite like a wet sail in a gale.

The stipes had little hesitation in reversing the placings and in suspending May for a week (June 5-11). He and Darryl Hodgson had some compensation when Ocean’s Swell won two races later but the apprentice was promptly back in the boardroom, this time to be fined a grand for celebrating before the line.

Table Bay could be under consideration for the Langerman on June 25 after proving much too good in the 1 400m Juvenile Plate with Donovan Dillon predicting: “I think he will go a long way. He is getting better and better.”

Captain Bagg, who usually makes the running, benefitted from a switch to waiting tactics under Grant Behr in the Itsarush.co.za Handicap – although the change was not by design. “Normally we can’t stop him going to the front but this time there was a pace and he settled,” explained Eric Sands.

It was disturbing to see three horses having to be scratched from the last because there weren’t enough jockeys available but that didn’t worry Paul Reeves who took over Grant Knowles’s Declarator from Shane Humby a month ago, slapped on a pair of blinkers and let Richard Fourie do the rest.

Michael Clower

The Cape Breeders Club will be hosting their annual auction of stallion services at Highlands Farm on Friday, June 10. And the auction will take place just after the inaugural CTS Mares & Fillies For Stud Select Sale takes place.

The 2016 Stallion Services auction will offer breeders a rare and final opportunity to acquire a service to some of the top sires in the country.

Among the sires with services on offer at this year’s auction are Captain Al (pictured), Dynasty, Silvano, and Var –four elite stallions all of whom are already fully booked for the upcoming breeding season. Other top class sires have top class books of mares for the season ahead and are filling fast –making this a not to be missed opportunity for any serious breeder.

Other top class and promising sires with services set to be offered include Byword, Captain Of All, Count Dubois, Duke Of Marmalade, Elusive Fort, Flower Alley, Gimmethegreenlight, Go Deputy, Greys Inn, Ideal World, Jay Peg, Judpot, Kingsbarns, Mambo in Seattle, Marchfield, Master Of My Fate, Oratorio, Pathfork, Philanthropist, Pomodoro, Potala Palace, Querari, Seventh Rock, Soft Falling Rain, Twice Over, Vercingetorix, Warm White Night, What A Winter, Where’s That Tiger, and Wylie Hall.

The Cape is also home to a number of really exciting new sires, and these horses (with services on offer) include Oratorio’s G1 son Fencing Master, Horse Of The Year winners Futura and Legislate (both sons of outstanding Cape sire Dynasty), Galileo’s well performed son Global View, Triple Crown winner Louis The King, and Lammerskraal’s exciting recent acquisition, Visionaire.

A number of young and up and coming stallions will have the services auction as silent bids.

Unfortunately, the stallion parade, which was scheduled to take place on the same night has had to be cancelled due to the recent outbreak of African Horse Sickness.

Interested parties are requested to contact Wendy at: secretary@capebreeders.co.za