Double celebration for Clifton Stud
PETER and Jenny Blyth of Clifton Stud, who bred the Horse Of The Year Classic Flag in the 1990s, have enjoyed a halcyon couple of weeks as they watched two progeny of their farm, Bezanova and Cutting Edge, respectively win the KZN Breeders Million Mile at Greyville on June 28 and the KZN Yearling Sale Million over 1300m on Vodacom Durban July day.
The two winners of these races, Bezanova and Cutting Edge, are respectively grandsons of two horses Peter Blyth has admired for a long time, AP Indy and Danzig.
Bezanova was quickly categorised by trainer Alec Laird as a horse that would take a while to come into his own and has duly had an excellent season as a four-year-old, winning the Gr 2 Peermont Emperor’s Palace Charity Mile last November and finishing a 0,9 length third to Equus Horse Of The Year Legislate in the prestigious weight for age Gr 1 Rising Sun Gold Challenge, before converting favouritism in the Million Mile.
He is a striking looking, rangy chestnut gelding by the useful Danzig stallion Bezrin.
His damsire is London News, who won the July in 1996, and another interesting point is that his third dam, Sail The Wind, is July winner Power King’s grandam.
It is hardly surprising that Bezanova loves Greyville. Blyth recalled the breeding of Bezanova. “I stood Allied Flag who produced Classic Flag (July winner 1998).
“Allied Flag was by Danzig, I've always liked a Danzig line horse, and I just thought his dam Ananova would be a good mating to Bezrin.”
Laird “fell in love with the horse” and purchased him on behalf of Chris Gerber for R150 000.
The Dennis Bosch-trained Cutting Edge is by the well-bred AP Indy stallion AP Answer, whom Blyth bought from the USA.
On Saturday the gelding’s win was full of merit as he jumped from a wide draw of 14 and over raced for much of the way.
However, he was still able to produce a late surge, in which he displayed a nice length of stride, to beat two promising types in Natal and Chosen Dash.
Blyth said: “Cutting Edge’s dam Glitterstone (Secret Prospector) produced a lot of individual winners and one of them won seven. I thought it was a nice mating to A.P. Answer.”
He was purchased at the Suncoast KZN Yearling Sale for R80 000 and is owned by Alesh Naidoo and HCN Da Costa.
Cutting Edge looks likely to appreciate a mile and could have a promising career ahead of him. Blyth recalls the purchase of AP Answer. “I went to America in 1998 and I happened to see AP Indy and he blew me over as a horse, he looked just stunning.”
AP Indy was an expensively purchased yearling, a champion three-year-old colt and Horse Of The Year and then became a sire of sires.
Two other horses that impressed Blyth in America were Danzig and Mr Prospector and they are AP Answer’s damsire and grandamsire respectively.
AP Answer’s third dam is a sister to Storm Bird, the sire of a world leading stallion Storm Cat.
Furthermore, AP Indy is by Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew and his second dam is Lassie Dear, the dam of Al Mufti, which has always made AP Indy stallions suited to the South African breeding market.
Blyth, after being sent a list of USA-based stallions for sale, was unable to expel AP Answer from his mind due to the pedigree and eventually decided to take a chance with him.
AP Answer’s dam is Pas De Response, who was champion two-year-old filly of France, and she beat a top class field, including the 4/9 favourite Dazzle, in the Gr 1 Cheveley Park Stakes over six furlongs at Newmarket.
This apparently caught the eye of legendary jockey and now trainer Michael Roberts, who had ridden in a race against Dazzle before that which she won by five lengths.
Roberts sent a couple of mares to AP Answer as a result.
The Blyth’s original stud farm, before moving to the KZN Midlands, was in Mpumalanga.
Clifton Stud progeny have never been mollycoddled and are left out in the paddock as young horses to compete with each other and to face the various elements.
One interesting method is to locate the water trough on the high end of the paddock and to feed them at the bottom, forcing the youngsters to walk up the hill for a drink.
Peter Blyth has done the full circle in horseracing, having been a trainer, an owner and a breeder, and said that without doubt breeding was the toughest.
A breeder must wait three years to see how good or bad a foal is and there are many disappointments, a recent one being when Bezanova’s dam aborted her foal.
However, the upside of breeding are the victories and the sense of accomplishment that comes with it, and the KZN Million Mile and KZN Yearling Sale Million trophies are currently displayed on the Blyth household mantelpiece.