Irish feed company enters the market
THE world-renowned Red Mills horse feeds are coming to South Africa and business development director Michael Connolly was at Durbanville at the weekend to outline the company’s plans.
He said: “We are the number one horse feed supplier in Europe and Asia, supplying 76 countries worldwide, and we have been looking at the South African market for the past ten years.
“You have world class horses and world class horsemen.”
Connolly
Apparently one of the key reasons for taking so long was cost because Connolly is determined that his firm’s products are competitive with the local ones and “we have to ensure that they are affordable.”
The Irish-based company- William Connolly & Sons (Michael Connolly is a grandson of the founder) – boasted 97 Group 1 winners in 12 countries last year and supplies many of the top trainers around the world including William Haggas and Nicky Henderson in England, the Aga Khan’s trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre in France and in Ireland Melbourne Cup winner Joseph O’Brien, Cheltenham king Willie Mullins, Dermot Weld and John Oxx .
Connolly continued: “Under phase one of the South African operation we will supply the top trainers and studs direct and in phase two we will operate through a distributor.
“We are proven over time and the advantages of our products, as we see it, are that we use whole grains not extracts, steam for cooking which improves digestibility, a shelf life of ten months minimum that copies mother nature and does not use any nasty chemicals, consistency and state of the art quality control.”
Gaumerais
Connolly was accompanied on his trip by global account manager Nicholas Gaumerais and he has recruited Peter Gibson (083-406 4881) as the company’s product adviser in South Africa. Doubtless the likes of Equi-Feeds will hit back with offers and promotions of their own in a bid to hold on to the market and the competition can only benefit racing stables and studs in this country. A typical everyman’s regional sale of genuine quality and value, the Cape Yearling Sale lived up to its solid reputation at Mistico Equestrian Centre in Paarl on Sunday. Summerveld based Puller Racing Stables hooked the big fish of the day when the hammer fell at R360 000 for Wilgerbosdrift’s lot 167 – a daughter of Soft Falling Rain from the family of Master Of My Fate. Named Soft Day, the filly is closely inbred to Storm Cat. The filly is out of a mare who won five and her Gr3 placed second dam is a half-sister to champion Promisefrommyheart – the dam of promising sire Master Of My Fate, Gr1 winner Covenant and Gr1 performer Secret Heart – dam of Breeders’ Cup winning sire Pluck. The recently deceased Equus Champion Soft Falling Rain is from the same female line as Smart Strike and the globetrotting star, whose wins included the Gr2 Joel Stakes and Gr2 Godolphin Mile, first crop includes impressive debut winner Gin Fizz, runner up in the Ruffian Stakes and debut scorer Mawsool.
Soft Falling Rain
Soft Falling Rain also topped the sires averages with 6 of his 7 lots selling for an aggregate of R860 000 for an average of R143 333. Top aggregate in the sire ranks was the Klawervlei based July winning son of Jet Master, Pomodoro, who made a flying start to his stud career when he was crowned South Africa’s Champion First Crop Sire of 2017-2018. His first crop is headed by Equus Champion and multiple Gr1 winner Return Flight and R4 000 000 plus earner Cirillo and on Sunday 12 of his 13 lots sold for an aggregate of R1 210 000, an average of just over R100 000. Gauteng based Paul Peter Racing Stables were the big buyers, taking home 24 lots for an aggregate of R1 025 000 and an average of R42 708. Besides selling the top lot of the day, Wilgerbosdrift also topped the vendor charts overall with 13 of their 14 lots selling for an aggregate of R1 615 000 and an average of R124 231 A total of 144 of the 186 lots catalogued found buyers with an aggregate of R9 275 000 – 125% up on 2018, but bearing in mind that double the number of horses were sold. The average of R64 410 was up 10% year on year, with the median staying constant at R50 000. The show now moves on to the National Yearling Sale to be held in Johannesburg on 24,25 and 26 April. – Bloodstock SA