South African Venture a Success for Shadwell
by Aisling Crowe
An idea that was planted by Angus Gold, Racing Manager to Sheikh Hamdan, has begun to yield a promising harvest. He first mentioned the concept of having horses in South Africa to the Dubai owner around 20 years ago and last week the Sheikh’s Shadwell Stud operation celebrated its first South African Classic winner with Majmu (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}).
The grey filly was imperious in winning the G1 Avontour Estate Cape Fillies’ Guineas at Kenilworth last Sunday (video). Trained for Sheikh Hamdan by Mike de Kock, Majmu was bought for A$300,000 by Gold at the Inglis Easter Yearling Sales in 2013 and has won five of her six starts.
De Kock believes that she has the quality to join his international team and Gold is inclined to agree.
“She has a number of options,” said Gold. “We could run her in the G1 [J & B] Met at the end of January, although that might be asking quite a lot of her, but as a 3-year-old filly she would get plenty of weight from the other horses. Majmu could also travel to Europe as she is now a Classic winner; we can be a bit bolder with her. She could go into quarantine in February which would rule her out of the summer races in Europe, but she would be ready for an autumn campaign. We will discuss it and see what Mike de Kock and Sheikh Hamdan would like to do.”
Travel is at the heart of Sheikh Hamdan’s South African operation. The idea behind Shadwell’s expansion was to source horses capable of running in the Dubai International Carnival. When Gold first suggested the idea, there was value to be found in the bloodstock market there. Five years ago, Sheikh Hamdan decided to open operations in South Africa and knew the man he wanted to train his horses.
“Sheikh Hamdan said we should look more favorably on South Africa and he spoke to Mike [de Kock] about training his horses and also suggested that he and I should buy some horses in the Cape initially,” Gold commented. “The end aim is very much with a view to getting horses to race at the Carnival.”
It was in Dubai where de Kock first came to Sheikh Hamdan’s notice. His success in bringing horses to the United Arab Emirates from South Africa prompted Sheikh Hamdan to ask de Kock to train for him.
Added Gold, “He was the first real jet-setting trainer to take horses to Dubai and single-handedly pioneered the idea of traveling horses to the Emirates for racing and training the best Thoroughbreds. He knew the sort of horse that could do well in Dubai and the team and record behind him spoke for itself, so Sheikh Hamdan felt he was ideally placed.”
Training horses in South Africa to make the Dubai International Carnival is not as easy as it may seem. The threat of African Horse Sickness means the horses are subjected to strict quarantine rules which see them spend 90 days in Mauritius and another 30 days in Europe before they are allowed into Dubai. In total the South African horses spend five months quarantined and traveling at a critical time in their development, which poses added difficulties.
The obstacles hindering the path of his horse may be large, but Sheikh Hamdan wants to have runners in his home country, and more importantly, winners.
“For Sheikh Hamdan, the sport–no matter where it is in the world–is about him having enjoyment and to get nice horses to run in Dubai is the ultimate aim,” said Gold. “It is a fun thing for him to have runners in Dubai and he enjoys it immensely.”
Last year saw a slight shift in policy when de Kock and Gold bought horses in Australia for racing in South Africa. Majmu has been the most successful so far, but from nine runners, they have had eight winners with three stakes winners and a couple of G1-placed horses among the bunch.
Soft Falling Rain (SAF)(National Assembly {Can}) is the most high profile of the horses the collaboration between Sheikh Hamdan and Mike de Kock has yielded to date. The 5-year-old was a G1 winner as a juvenile in his native South Africa before traveling to Dubai where he won the G3 UAE 2000 Guineas and the G2 Godolphin Mile.
He stepped up again when coming to England where he added the G2 Joel S. to his tally and finished his career with a sixth place finish behind Toronado (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) in the G1 Queen Anne S. at Royal Ascot in June. Now retired to stand at Mary Slack’s Wilgersbodrift Stud, Gold confirmed that Sheikh Hamdan has retained shares in Soft Falling Rain from the final crop of National Assembly.
“Sheikh Hamdan sold part of the horse, but kept some shares and will be supporting him with some of our broodmares in South Africa,” Gold concluded. “We also have three or four fillies to retire from the track and it would be [nice] if he could do well. He was a champion 2-year-old and is an international graded-stakes winner, so he should be popular with breeders.”
Soft Falling Rain’s new career is the next step in the evolution of Shadwell’s involvement in South Africa, adding a bloodstock dimension to a burgeoning racing operation in the Cape.