The Equarius Bloodstock Blog

A QUEEN’S PLATE … IN MORE WAYS THAN ONE!     7 February 2020 The L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate Racing Festival is one of the highlights of the racing year in South Africa – and, positioned as it is in early January, it sees a large contingent of international owners and breeders gracing the lawns, private boxes, and marquees of Kenilworth, on, what, one hopes, will be two glorious summer days of superb racing. The premier event of the two-day racing festival is, of course, the L’Ormarins Queen’s Plate itself – a race first run in 1861, with a purse of 500 Sovereigns and a Silver Plate presented by Her Majesty Queen Victoria. The trophy that everyone wants to win (photo: LQP) In light of the name of the race, and the ‘Royal’ terminology, one might think that the Cartier Sceptre Stakes – which is on the under-card, and highlights the first day of the Festival, is actually named after one of the ‘Crown Jewels’ of the United Kingdom – the ‘Sovereign’s Sceptre with C...

Twin Foals Are Not Always A 'Disaster' November 20, 2011  South African ‘Horse of the Year’ and leading sire DYNASTY, and historic U.S. ‘Horse of the Year’ SPECTACULAR BID can attest to that. I grew up knowing that twin foals weren’t always a total disaster. How, as a child, could I possibly know that? My grandfather bred the odd draft horse on his farm in Wiltshire in England, and, in 1918, the same year that my mother was born, one of his mares dropped twins; twins of equal size, and both extremely healthy. Such was the occasion, that, when they were a few weeks old, the village photographer was commissioned to come and take a photograph. The ‘carter’ (Jones) was instructed to hold the mare in the middle of the field whilst the photographer set up his tripod, got the mare in focus, and was instructed by my grandfather – who stood to the front of the mare with a flag – that he was to only take the photograph ...

We all know how actions have consequences ….   November 14 2011 So, how did one of the darkest moments in South African history – over 50 years ago – almost result in there being no JET MASTER (as we know him) in the South African stud book? There are so many “what if” stories that have defined the Thoroughbred breed; Every single great horse bred, owes (or owed) his or her existence to actions and decisions made by owners and breeders of their antecedents . Matings are an important decision for any breeder to have to make – but there are many more factors other than matings, which require action, and depending on the route chosen, the breed – the entire breed – can take the direction which we know to have happened … or, another, which would have resulted from a different response being taken when certain decisions have to be made! So, what does all of this historical decision-making have to do with South Africa’s reigning multiple-Champion Sire JET MASTER? 21 st Ma...