Beauty getting better with age
HE current darling of South African racing Beach Beauty likely has two more official races before retiring, but will have another ‘race’ after that when historians decide exactly where to place her among the country’s greatest ever female thoroughbreds.
The Dennis Drier-trained evergreen six-year-old mare retained her crown in the Gr 2 Drill Hall Stakes over 1 400m on Saturday, overcoming yet another wide draw with her early speed, before coasting to a 2,5 length victory over a classy field under a hands and heels ride by Sean Cormack.
The diminutive bay by Dynasty looked a little awkward going down to the start but it had nothing to do with her stride and everything to do with her saddle cloth, which made her look like a school kid donning a uniform a couple of sizes too big. Her tiny stature is part of her appeal and another alluring asset is her gentle nature.
TThe well documented fairytale story behind the Shanks Syndicate that race her adds to the package.
The connections revealed that, while Beach Beauty was nervous before her two Gr 1 wins in Cape Town over the summer, she was as calm as a lamb in the saddling enclosure on Saturday. It was if she knew she was at home on her favourite course, Greyville.
However, that does not mean she is any less suited to other courses. She possesses tremendous gatespeed and a fantastic turn of foot, vital assets for tight tracks, while her ability to both switch off in the running and sustain a finish make her just as effective on galloping tracks.
There was a period during her unlucky Cape summer of the 2011/12 season where she showed a tendency to fight for her head, especially in the races run at a farcical pace. However, the sublime hands of jockey Sean Cormack, who began his prolific partnership with her in the latter part of that season, have rendered that hiccup a distant memory.
Beach Beauty has now won 16 times in 29 starts, including four Gr 1s, six Gr 2s and one Gr 3.
She might not have reached a peak as high as Empress Club, who could well be the best filly the country has seen, but for durability at the highest level there is likely no South African female that has ever matched her. Even at the age of six, her zest and will to win show no sign of wane.
Furthermore, Empress Club was an Argentinian-bred, while Beach Beauty was bred near Volksrust by the late Trevor Armitage.
Beach Beauty will probably not even be considered the best of her crop as Igugu won the Triple Tiara before winning both the Vodacom Durban July and the J&B Met. However, Igugu was an Australian-bred and her Met victory as a fouryear-old was her last win, although the Northern Hemisphere environment was partly responsible for that as it played havoc with her cycles.
Flush Of Dawn in the 1920s ended her career as the highest stake earner in the country’s history and no filly matched her popularity until the arrival of Kings Pact in the 1950s.
Kings Pact rattled off a then record nine successive wins in 1953, including beating the great Mowgli as a two-year-old in the Newbury Stakes over 1 200m. She also became only the second ever two-year-old to win the Clairwood Winter Handicap and as a young three-year-old won the Champions Stakes over 2 000m at Greyville by 9,75 lengths in record time. King’s Pact was named Horse Of The Year in her two-year-old year. Co-incidentally her career ended with the same record as Beach Beauty’s current one, 16 wins in 29 races.
Beach Beauty was the KZN Horse Of The Year last year, but looks likely to retire without an Equus Horse Of The Year title due to Louis The King’s recent Triple Crown success.
Terrence Millard trained two fillies that won ARCSA Horse Of The Year titles, Tecla Bluff and Enchanted Garden. He also trained the like of July winner Devon Air as well as Olympic Duel. However, none of his best fillies ever matched Beach Beauty’s durability.
The Mike de Kock-trained great, the Zimbabwean-bred Ipi Tombe, was the Dubai Horse Of The Year in 2003, but had to be retired as an early five-year-old due to injury.
Of the top females in recent times, only the Mike Basstrained River Jetez, who won the J&B Met as a six-year-old and raced overseas until the age of nine, can compete with Beach Beauty’s longevity.
She would likely have won more than one Gr 1 had her career not coincided with her great full-brother Pocket Power and another stablemate, the high class filly Sun Classique. Incidentally Bass once called the early 1980’s sprint-miler filly Sweet Chestnut the best horse he had ever trained, although Pocket Power has probably usurped her.
Other great females in SA history include Renounce, Scarlet Lady, Wainui, Star Effort, Hoeberg, Beach Beauty’s stablemate Val De Ra, Mother Russia, and many more, including, perhaps, the current pair Cherry On The Top and Via Africa.
There is little doubt that Beach Beauty deserves her place among them and if she can beat the boys in her next start in the weight for age Rising Sun Gold Challenge over 1 600m, her place will be well and truly cemented.
Variety Club was nurtured from a two-year-old into a twice Equus Horse of The Year by top Cape trainer Joey Ramsden, for whom he won 16 races, including four Gr 1s, four Gr 2s and four Gr 3s.
He couldn’t have got off to a better start with De Kock and might be the horse to convert the champion trainer’s long held dream of winning a European or North American Gr 1.
Variety Club’s critics have said that he is one dimensional and was gifted his races in South Africa by never being taken on in front by horses that were also referred to as inferior. However, his best assets, his tremendous gatespeed and his ability to quicken off his high cruising speed, were shown yesterday to be just as effective against world class opposition.
The class of the opposition is probably reflected in his amazing winning odds of 12-1 on the Hong Kong tote. The critics have finally been silenced.
Owner Markus Jooste and his racing manager Derek Brugman were on course to cheer him home and so was his breeder, Anton Shepherd of Beaumont Stud.