Procter’s influence lives on at Mwetwood Stud
THE late KZN all round horseracing man Anton Procter's influence is living on partly through Mwetwood Stud, among other of his legacies.
Nothemba Mlonzi is the owner of Mwetwood Stud, a previously small private operation which has recently hired former Summerveld trainer John Fox as manager in their drive to expand into a commercial operation. Big renovations to farm facilities are under way and shares in various stallions have been bought in addition to their current band of seven broodmares.
Mlonzi bought a farm in the KZN Midlands in 2006 which she first leased before taking over in 2007 and producing such crops as tomatoes and peppers.
She appointed an ex-cedara student as the farm manager, because she works in Johannesburg as a practicing attorney on top of running her company Econ Oil.
Nothemba
The farm manager one day told Nothemba the kikuya grass in an empty section of the farm would provide good grazing and informed her of neighbour Anton Procter's success in breeding racehorses. Procter had soon organised a high level introduction to breeding for Nothemba and this included a trip to watch the Epsom Derby.
Nothemba was impressed by the Derby, but came home still sceptical because she had gathered luck played a big part in breeding.
However, Procter convinced her luck in breeding was usually a product of hard work.
A lot of the place names in the area end in "wood" and the Mwetwood Stud name was formed by using the initials of her parents and adding "wood" on the end.
She had soon purchased two mares, On A Wing (a three-time winner by Tiger Ridge) and Celestial Cloud (a twice-winner by Toreador and half-sister to Grade 1placed Patchit Up Baby).
The resulting progeny were the filly Master Keys and the colt Galaxy Tunes. The pair were sold at the National Yearling Sales and the KZN Yearling Sale for R100,000 and R50,000 respectively.
Master Keys gave Nathan Kotzen his first winner as a trainer when scoring on debut on February 28, 2018, and Galaxy Tunes won fifth time out for Mark Dixon.
The wins drew attention to Nothemba as the first black breeder in the country.
Recognising the responsible position she was now in she began giving her horses Zulu names, such as current Wendy Whitehead-trained Soft Falling Rain filly Mvuluzana, which means "soft falling rain" in Zulu.
Procter groomed Nothemba on the factors to consider when purchasing mares.
Whitehead
The winners have continued to flow, culminating in a double on January 18 this year with the Whitehead-trained pair Mvuluzana and Sky Cafe (Toreador). It was Whitehead who recommended John Fox as farm manager.
Anton's passing two years ago was keenly felt by Nothemba and the industry, but she remains in contact with Anton's extremely knowledgeable widow Judy.
Procter played cricket for Natal together with his legendary brother Mike. However, he was always destined to be a farmer and horseman.
His importance to the industry was summed up in an article a few years ago written by Gold Circle publishing manager Andrew Harrison.
Procter began following pedigrees in his school days.
Later he became involved in amateur horseracing as an owner and trainer in Donnybrook. He travelled all the way down to Umtata to win his first race, the horse being ridden by a young African who had never ridden in a race before. It felt like winning the July and Procter's passion grew.
He became secretary of the Richmond Gymkhana Club; later he had a public trainer’s license in Zimbabwe; he spent nine years working for perennial KZN champion breeders Summerhill Stud.
He also had a stint as a bookmaker, purchasing a license in Greytown for R1020.
On Durban July day in 1970 just about the whole town descended on his premises thinking it was a Tote. Fortunately the favourite Naval Escort finished unplaced and an outsider his wife had dreamed vividly about, Court Day, won. An
exhausted Procter arrived home that Saturday with R34,000 in his satchel, three times more than it had cost him to buy the property and build the house where they were staying.
Procter was instrumental in bringing the stallion Rakeen to South Africa.
Owner and breeder Larry Nestadt had given Procter an instruction to find a horse good enough to win a stakes race in South Africa and have a pedigree good enough to stand at stud. Procter, with the help of pedigree fundi Robin Bruss, identified all of the Northern Dancers left in the world and they found Rakeen, a fouryear-old trained by John Gosden who had not yet raced.
They approached Sheik Mohammed’s manager Anthony Stroud and he agreed to sell for £100,000.
However, a few days later Rakeen won comfortably on debut and the deal was off. Three days later he was beaten as odds on favourite. Stroud did an about turn and and the deal was done for £125,000.
Procter went to watch Rakeen's next race at Doncaster with Henry Cecil’s assistant and a Sheik Mohammed representative. Under Walter Swinburn he won the ten furlong event by five lengths. Rakeen won four races in South Africa and finished third in the 1991 July.
Procter was working for Aldora Stud in the KZN Midlands when Rakeen stood there. He recalled the late Hugh Jonsson wanting to send his mare Jet Lightning to him but stalling as he was convinced R5,000 for a live foal was too much. Procter, in a session of bartering which lasted about two hours, eventually convinced Jonsson the fee was worth it for such a well bred stallion. The resulting progeny was Jet Master.
Mcveigh
Jet Master needs no introduction and fittingly the latest chapter in this racehorse and stallion phenomenon's legacy is the retirement to stud of his grandson Jet Dark, who is part-owned by Hugh Jonsson's nephew Nick. Procter, with the help of veterinarian John Mcveigh, also identified the successful stallion Toreador and was instrumental in bringing over the useful late bread-and-butter stallion Crusade.