my african adventure report - british racing...

My African Adventure The Fred Packard Scholarship Report !!Charles Foot - August 2014

�1MY AFRICAN ADVENTURE - CHARLES FOOT

Alistair Gordon and Myself

Introduction!It is strange how normality returns so fast and yet a memory is etched in me; only ninety

days ago Durban was a place I had only heard of, now its a place I shall never forget. !!I feel like I found a part of myself I never knew existed, and it was here in which I

would go as far as to say began to define who I am. A challenge is placed in front of you, I felt all I could do was dive straight in, I would either sink or swim. Arriving at a place so different to what you know, without knowing anybody tests anyones confidence. Doubt runs through ones mind as to how you might cope but until it is put in front of you, you can't know how your mind will deal with it, from my own perspective I found confidence I never knew was there.!!

A scare at check in: !“How long are you going for?”!“I’m not sure its about three months” !“You do realise you are only allowed ninety days, if you are over I cant let you !

! board, if you hold on I will just calculate it… wow someone has planned this well ! you are inside by hours!”!!Sue Hines knew this of course her meticulous planning never once came unstuck on the entire trip. The lodge where I stayed was fantastic and had everything I could ask for, and the hire car was probably one of the most defining things about the entire trips success. The flights, the timings, and the finances from my perspective ran seamlessly. !!To my understanding the aims of the Scholarship were to learn primarily, but also develop in character, gain friends and contacts, and to act as an ambassador for the the Scholarship and the British Racing School with the blog and now through magazine articles. I believe I have completed all these tasks set to the best of my ability. !!


The Racing in South Africa!!Going racing in South Africa to a standard meeting is a strange experience from a Euro-pean perspective as the racing is so poorly attended. On occasions it felt as if there were more jockeys than spectators. Racing is often enjoyed from a restaurant or bar instead of from around the paddock or at the front of the course. At one course, Scottsville, the race-course is on the side of a casino and to go for lunch requires walking across the gambling floor. Scottsville always seemed very recognisable but it was only when I got home I dis-covered it was the location of the film ‘Racing Stripes’ which is where I had seen it before. !!!!!!

!!The larger meetings such as the Golden Horse Sprint and the Rising Sun Trophy were however well attended especially by the Indian community who form an important part of racing in South Africa. The racecourses themselves are very big and would rival any of our larger courses, they were built at a time when horse racing was the key aspect of the social calendar, and was the only access to sport and gambling in apartheid South Africa. Now but a skeleton of what was remains, I was lucky or unfortunate enough depending on your perspective to witness the final moments of Clairwood racecourse as it bowed out after eighty years of racing. The site is destined to become a shipping yard, and it is a shame that they will lose the Garden Track which was previously unique in being a large galloping course and left handed. Change is however needed in order to progress forward and the money from the sale was reinvested in the building of a Pollytrack at Greyville and in the construction of six hundred new boxes at Summerveld Training Centre as well as a upgrade to the grooms accommodation and the existing stable yards. !!The racing is characterised by the Durban Dawdle and the Cape Crawl were no jockey is willing to go on early, a very slow early pace means a lot of jostling and pulling as well as difficulty towards the end of the race for the closers. The draw therefore plays a massive part in it, forcing a horse to drop in from a wide berth due to the tight nature of the cour-ses. Many a horses plans were changed during my stay when the draw numbers had been handed out. ! !

!!


THE LAST RACE AT CLAIRWOOD

Summerveld!Summerveld was a fantastic place to be based especially during the Durban Champions Season. It is home to 1400 horses and 20 trainers, who include Mike DeKock, Bret Craw-ford, Glen Kotsen, Kom Naidoo and Gavin Van-Zyl some of the biggest names in South African racing. With big trainers comes the attention of press, owners, and top jockeys, being surrounded by such a buzz made you feel as if you were part of something special. !!Top horses require the best treatment and that came in the form of the Baker and McVeigh veterinary practice, Summerveld is their head office and training centre for all vets who wish to work under their wold class banner. Before a vet can join the practice in Malton, Chantilly or Newmarket they first must work a period in Summeveld under the command of John McVeigh. The vets come to the yards to check everything is ok and then in turn inject or examine anything which isn't. It often fell on myself to escort the vet around the yard and help where ever I could. Having some of the finest young vets in the world so close was an amazing opportunity and on numerous occasions Alistair allowed me to have time off to accompany one of the vets on their rounds or to an outside yard as well as observing surgery taking place. I made great friends at the practice and I joined their so-cial circle, often enjoying a meal or sporting event together. !!Alistair himself was nearly but not quite as he liked to point out, at Summerveld from the very beginning and had seen the centre grow and develop over time. His yard is the only one to contain an equine swimming pool and due to his love of animals and nature one of the nicest in my opinion. Large trees provided shade and seclusion under their branches and it was very easy, well at least I found it was to forget what surrounded you outside the yards confines. There were two rescue cats Missy and Spazy who provided endless enjoyment, a sheep and her messiah lamb also resided in the yard. The sheep had been brought in to help an anxious filly who box walked and it lived in the stable with her, but one evening a groom ran to tell us that she was giving birth so we had a very sweet lamb running around causing mischief as well. !!Being on the tracks from before the first light everyday made it feel special and we were often greeted by a spectacular sunrise due to the dust in the air. Thousands of horses exer-cise everyday, you always had to mind your back from a rogue horse a groom was strug-gling with. It is not as spread out as a European centre with all the horses ringing together before a work rider, apprentice or jockey takes them out on the track. This means that in a square area you could be looking at 500 horses in front of you.!!!!!!


Yard Experience and Training !!An early start everyday, I made a joke early on in my blog mentioning black men, in black clothes in the middle of the pitch black road; Alistair found it hilarious because it was very true. As I set out from the lodge through the electric gate and onto the dirt road which would take me the eight minute drive to Summerveld you didn't know what would lie in store. The local guys that set out for work at that time in the morning don't seem at all worried about how likely they are to be struck down, they spring out the darkness. Cars could also be left abandoned with the lights off blocking the road, loose horses cantering towards you anything became possible. I never encountered any problems but you cer-tainly had to be awake. Approaching Summerveld I would swing up off the road and the security guards would recognise the car and spring from their white plastic chairs to open the large metal gates. Trundling up through Summerveld past various yards left and right, with grooms carrying muck filled bags upon their heads littering the road, I would hop over the sand track and into the wooded seclusion of Alistair's yard. !!The first jobs of the morning would include, checking who hadn’t eaten up during the night by asking the night watchman, taking any temperatures, and importantly feeding the cats. From then the patches (pads), elasticated nosebands and sheets would be put out for the grooms to take. Grooms would be legged up and horse observed walking out the yard to check for soundness as often the grooms wouldn't be able to tell. We would drive across in the bakkie (pronounced buckee) and watch the horses trot in the sand ring. Sometimes horses would need to be held so that grooms could swap across with a non riding groom to trot their horse.!!Fillies were nearly always from then on led from the ground not ridden except for babies or easily excited horses, were as the colts and geldings with a couple of exceptions were ridden. Our retained jockey Alec Forbes and another jockey Nicky Roebuck who was paid to work ride and would get the odd spare from the stable, would walk over and jump on the horses, instructed on the track and the pace required and would then trot off into the black to work the horse. Instructions would vary from: run along together, small half pace, nice canter, work away, and other such phrases which I learnt to put into a speed scale. Along with the speed came the track: first opening on the beach, round the turn, take them on the top track, go on the bottom track or go on the polly. The whole time we kept an eye on the tractors which constantly through out the morning levelled out the gallops, so as to not get stuck behind them. Alistair also had a team of three work riders who got paid extra on top of their standard grooms wages to ride the horses, they were not as good as the jockeys as you would expect and had to be carefully controlled as they had a habit of either forgetting or ignoring instructions, but they still didn't ride badly. We would then every time walk across to various tracks and back in order to watch, many trainers how-ever stayed at their rings and used binoculars. !!This process was repeated for second lot. !


After first lot we watched the horses return in, they were encouraged to roll in the sand pit and then the grooms would begin brushing them. Most of the horses would not have hay in the mornings as it reduces their appetites for hard feed, this was common practice across Summerveld. As it was now light any runners or horses with problems would be brought out to trot up for inspection, it was discussed between Alistair, Nicolette his as-sistant and myself any previous treatment, improvement and necessary steps going for-ward for that horse. !!We set off for the two minute drive up the road to the club house for breakfast, a fire was often lit when it was cold, and we had our seats not at the tables but the sofas at one end with a small coffee table laid out. The jockeys would often come and join us for tea as well as a couple of trainers and assistants, often there would be funny conversations or com-plaints discussed and laughed about. After breakfast we joined our string in our normal location the rings we shared with Mike De Kock in front of the trotting circle.!!We didn't often have a cantering third string but when we did it would be small and full of horses just doing light work, I would often go by myself with the work riders to ob-serve and conduct the lot before reporting back to Alistair. !!As there are such a high ratio of grooms to horses we did not use a horse walker as the grooms could lead the horses around for an hour, there was a loop at the top for the fillies to be led around and a track around the whole of Summerveld for the colts and geldings. !!The rest of the morning would be filled by preparing the feeds, walking around checking and administrating medication such as anti ulcer or wormers, swimmers, horses on the treadmill, escorting and assisting vets and other un routine tasks. !!In the afternoons we started again at 2:30 some horses would again be swimming and on the treadmill, all the others would be groomed and taken out for a walk. The grooms would put in hay and water which would be checked by myself, Nicolette or Alistair at the end and any alterations to the levels sorted out. Alistair would often be in the office on the phone or sorting out the nominations for the next week. We would feed the two yards, and any daily jobs would be sorted. !!The whole operation ran very smoothly, years of practice had ironed out a system which hardly missed a beat. It was actually hard in the beginning to find a slot in such a system, initially there wasn't room, however as I became more comfortable I began to spot small things to keep me occupied. Often I found myself just watching and observing taking in what I could see before me, I managed to write two different note pads full of information that I jotted down during my stay. Frequently there were times I spent with Alistair being told of the years of champions that had passed through the yard and some of the prob-lems and solutions he had discover in decades of training. I really enjoyed that role just checking things, on occasion taking control when Alistair was away and keeping him in-formed.!


Champions Season !!!!!!Racing was always enjoyable after all it is the reason we all do it. The racing itself was highly competitive, nearly always full fields and three reserves. During the three months we had two winners but nearly a 60% place strike rate, horses knocking on the door but not quite getting their heads in front. The three month period I was in Durban for is called the Champions Season the who's who of South African racing descend upon Kwa-Zulu Natal for the most competitive 90 days of the year. They bring with them the finest horses and riders clashing in a series of sixteen Grade 1 Races. However it is not just the best horses that they bring but a large majority of their entire yards, Cape Town and Johannes-burg arrive in Durban. !!Clearly this influx of invaders brings a new level to the calibre of racing here and it be-comes very difficult for an ordinary horse to find a ordinary race. They only race two or three times a week, with eight race cards in general, with then only one or two races suit-ing a particular horse a month you have no option but to take these good horses on. !!It would be my full recommendation without doubt that if a fellow recipient decided that they would like to come to South Africa, Champions Season is the time they should do it! !

The Vodacome Durban July!!!!!!The biggest day on the calendar, America has the Breeders Cup, Australia the Melbourne Cup, the French have the Arc but the Africans have the July. The nation stops to watch 16 horses fight it out to be crowned and to go down in history. The entire day is twelve races long featuring practically every leading horse in the country, this is the one they all want to win.!! It starts with the entries, then the trial races, then the weights are announced before! the agony of who has got in and who hasn’t. From then it is compulsory to take your horse for a public gallop the week before the July, at 7am all sixteen horses and reserves take it in turn to work on the course. Finally the nation stops as the jockeys are presented and shake the Presidents hand, the brass band plays the anthem and the pens spring open, eternal glory awaits. !


!The day is more than racing, it is a iconic event. An African ‘Only Way is Essex’ show is basically presented, as fashion disaster after disaster stroll past. With the event lasting all day the majority of the crowd are rather merry by the end and tent town in the middle of the course carries on through the night. !!I loved my day at the July, I met hundreds of people. I didn't actually see many races as I spent a lot of the time travelling from box to box on the back of invites, socialising. It is often the work put in around the bar that can reap the highest rewards and at the July it is certainly the place to be. I am very grateful to a lot of people for their hospitality, and I hope many contacts which shall be put to good use later on. !!The race its self ended in agony as one of my friends the jockey MJ Byleveld crossed the line in front on a horse pre trained by the team at Balmoral (I will mention them later), euphoria turned to despair however as the runner up the favourite Legislate and jockey Richard Fourie launched an appeal. It was upheld and the race was bitterly taken away, a mighty blow to all concerned. !!Luckily the heroine of South Africa the mighty Beach Beauty won her second Garden Province G1 to save the day on her final start after seventeen wins in a fairy tail career. Her story is one of the nicest to hear and the stuff dreams are made of, owned by a group of friends to preserve the memory from the suicide of the breeders son, she stands fifteen hands high but wow can she run. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Trips to Mooi River!!I was incredibly lucky that Alistair was always willing to allow me time to go exploring, in fact he would encourage it. I was fortunate enough to visit the town of Mooi River, a town synonymous with the breeding of South African thorough-breds. It is home to the largest stud in the country in Sum-merhill and also Clifton Stud, Scott Bros, Bush Hill Stud, Yel-low Star Stud and Balmoral Stud. !!My first visit was with John-Charles Lepeudry a french vet working for Baker and McVeigh, we traveled the ninety minutes inland to the foot of the Drakensburg Mountains to visit Marc and Nicola Copez of Balmoral Stud. Apart from the breeding poor Mooi River doesn't have much going for it, it is cold and the town has fall-en to ruin. The roads are one large pothole and the shops don’t look worth going in. On two separate occasions snow was falling during my visits and the coldest it reached was -6 degrees. Away from the town itself it is quite simply stunning, massive open spaces and some of the most fertile land in the country, make it the perfect place to raise horses. !!Balmoral Stud primarily prepare for the ‘Ready to Run’ sales for which their brand is making a name for itself as having the largest drafts. A runners to winners strike rate of 83% is impressive reading and they are obtaining the prices it deserves. The stud takes unbroken yearlings which have either been pin hooked in Australia or at the South African sales, plus yearlings sent directly from breeders. They then break these horses over a four week period via a long reining program (very unusual in South Africa, Nicola was previously a jockey and trainer originating from Northern Ireland) before going on to teach the horses to canter, change legs and then eventually gallop. At the time of my visit they were twelve weeks away from the first ready to run sale, and six weeks away from the horses first practice breeze. !!The first visit with John-Charles was to meet the Balmoral team and help with the African Horse Sickness injections, every year the horses have to have two injections to immunise against most strains of the horse sickness. With the stud spread out over hundreds of acres and over 150 horses to vaccinate it is not an easy task. What it did provide was a chance to have a complete tour of the yard as we had to visit ever horse, one horse is a partially fa-mous resident J J the Jet Plane himself. I enjoyed giving him a pat. !!I returned a few weeks later to spend the night and a full day with Nicola watching the training of the yearlings, I am incredibly grateful for their hospitality and time. Balmoral is where Shannon returned to and I could fully understand why, well maybe not the weather. !!!


!!!!!!!!!!!!Another trip organised by Alistair was the Summer Hill Winter Lecture program. Sum-merhill Stud consist of various things combined together and could lightly be compared to our own national stud. They run a program called “The School of Excellence”, as the first institution of its kind in the southern hemisphere, it fills a void in the needs of an in-dustry involving billions of dollars in investment, but woefully short on the educational opportunities. Alongside the school of excellence they stand twelve different stallions many you may have heard of including former Ballydoyle inmates Await the Dawn, Golden Sword and Brave Tin Soldier along with Singapore sensation and Kris Flyer Sprint winner Ato. Summerhills line up also includes, Traffic Guard former Irish Champion Stakes runner up, and a full brother to Yeats in the shape of Royal Whip winner Solskjaer. !!Along with champion horses, students and broodmares Summerhill is home to one of the countries leading hotels and restaurants called Hartford House, in fact it was voted Africa's leading restaurant in 2011 and only this year it was one of the three top country restaurants on the planet as voted by The Wall Street Journal. I can safely say it is an in-credible place. !!Sat in this intimate theatre hall with simply some of racings greatest figures presenting in front of you was the chance in a life time. The finest food on the continent was served twice a day with a King himself even in attendance, the evening banquet featured a talk from Fée Halsted founder of globally acclaimed Ardmore Ceramics whose pieces are some of the most desirable in the world. I was fortunate enough to sit next to Cheryl Goss wife of founder and CEO Mick Goss, she was a fascinating person due to her inputs into the Stud and the Hotel over the last forty years. !!Despite all this it was the lectures and discussions which I will take the most from as to hear first hand the inner workings and figures of a global industry, is such precious infor-mation so rarely heard beyond the board room. I didn’t leave the bar that night until 4am but not one drop of alcohol was consumed on my behalf and it was the conversation alone which kept me awake with the company of great men, lucky for me with more wine came more stories! The next day the lectures started at 7:30 but it was nothing a cup of tea couldn't fix.!


Charity Work - The Costal Horse Care Unit !I spent a day assisting the Natal Coastal Horse Care Unit, who travel to rural areas with the ambition of educating and helping the local people care for their horses and donkeys. South Africa may appear to many to be a first world country but two hours from a major city it is anything but. We treated 114 horses throughout the region making three different stops to treat, educate and help the people who had travelled large distances to meet us. !!Each horse was given a wormer and check-up, and any faults that were spotted were dis-cussed with its owner and advice was issued on how best to help it. Sometimes we hand-ed out medicine or purple spray for wounds, as well as having a tack exchange in which any tack deemed dangerous was taken away so that it could no longer cause harm and replaced with a modern safer alternative which had been donated to this remarkable charity. !We handed out saddle pads, bits, bridals, reins and overreach boots, the majority of the horses are ridden bare back and sometimes the jeans of the riders can cause horrible sores on its back which can go untreated. The hope is that its owner would now use a saddle pad to protect its back, they also teach the owners not to use jeans to ride in. My role was in fluent native Zulu of course to take down the names, and details of every horse and owner who arrived, not such a simple task as it may appear. Most horses are unnamed and as unfamiliar with the english language as their owners. !!I love history, and the area we travelled in and around where the battlefield sites from the Boar/Zulu Wars. One of our clinics was conducted on the opposite hill from the Isandl-wana battlefield, Isandlwana is one of Britain's greatest defeats and the precinct to Rorke’s Drift. !!Although I never felt in danger you can tell these were hard men, permission had to be sought from the local chief to go into these areas. The people loved being helped they care deeply for their horses as they are such a crucial part of their existence, still used for transport and work. They didn't mistreat them on purpose they often thought they were doing the right thing, as with everything education is so important. We never carried a gun as it is too valuable so when a horse is euthanised they use bicarbonate of soda inject-ed into the vein. I really enjoyed my day, and was so pleased to have been able to help in a small way, it was so interesting to see and do. Not even many South Africans will have ventured into these places so it was a great privilege. !


Other Trips!During my time despite offering every weekend to work, Alistair only took me up on it once, obviously racing was different as I would always go if we had runners. Alistair knew that getting out and seeing what South Africa had to offer was important. I tried to use these opportunities as best I could, in fact I exhausted my TripAdvisor app! I practical-ly visited every attraction in 90 days. From the largest shopping mall in the southern hemisphere to the Moses Madibah football stadium I did it. My little punto never let me down and I had a great time, sometimes I had company the majority of the time I went along by myself. !!Some of my favourite trips included the Umgeni Bird Park, filled with thousands of beau-tiful and strange birds, the U Sharka Marine World with the sharks, seals, fish and dol-phins, the clash between the Natal Sharks and the Cape Town Stormers at Kings Park was a particular highlight from a rugby fans perspective, watching the match as guest of Glen Kotsen in a box behind the posts was awesome, although a great lasting memory will be the 50 rand bribe used to get into VIP parking ( equivalent to £2.20!). The match was cap-tivating with the result going down to the wire, a drop kick after the final whistle stole the result away from the Sharks much to Glens delight as the Stormers took victory.!

A moment I will never forget was the ‘Fear Factor Lunch’ eating croc with crocs, a picnic bench like no other surrounded by 27 5ft long crocodiles! It was certainly a South African experience and a feeling I cant explain. Now we come to it I cant explain the taste either sort of like a flakey chicken fish cake, it was edible but I wasn't hanging around long enough for seconds! !

Alistair and Jeannet took me along when they visited Jeannet’s son and his family, a love-ly resort on the Indian Ocean, a delicious braai and a dip in the Ocean made for a throughly enjoyable day, I am so grateful for Alistair and Jeannet who welcomed me into their lives as openly as they did, it meant an awful lot. !


Accommodation, Food, Flights and Car Hire!!The flights went without a hitch, I was grateful for the pre requested window seats as it gave me some privacy. Although it is a long journey, the excitement lifted me through and I managed to board the correct planes each time. Jeannet kindly collected me from the air-port the first evening, they welcomed me for dinner and I stayed with them that night. Af-ter morning stables the next day Jeannet drove me the fifteen kilometres into Kloof to col-lect my trusty Punto hire car. !!CitiRent car hire treated me very well throughout the trip, I always maintained contact with them, I also took the car back on a couple of occasions to be checked over. After a while I felt the tyres had worn too low so I requested them to be changed, they swapped cars with me briefly before returning my original car complete with four new tyres. Jean-net did however need to chase them along slightly to do this, an excuse of ‘this is africa’ was often used in daily life. !!South African drivers are an interesting bunch with many following rules known only to themselves. Unless you undertake you often don’t move any where, traffic lights are op-tional to many, and if there is no room to go forward you are quite welcome to make it yourself down the hard shoulder or pavement. To qualify to drive a local taxi the re-quirements needed are complete ignorance, deafness from loud music and a open mind to the definition of a road! In general this mishmash of ideas does seem to work if you just go with it, and I never felt like crashing. !!Hillcrest the local town provided a fantastic place to be located so close too. There were several supermarkets, a mall, restaurants, phone shops and many other things you may well require, I was very fortunate to have it located so close. !!I stayed at Summerveld Lodge it was eight minutes drive from the main stable complex along a dirt road, the room was perfect for what I required. I had a comfy bed, regular clean sheets, a microwave, a kettle, shower, loo and a fridge, best of all it came with a dai-ly maid service if only she could always follow me around! The lodge was made up of possibly six rooms leading away from a balcony/corridor with a bar, restaurant and deck-ing at one end. It was a real social hub for the local horsey community in and around the surrounding area, I was lucky enough to meet some great and fascinating people. Located just down the road was the Shongweni Polo Club, it was home of the South African Na-tional riding championships and a Leg of the World Cup Showjumping which was fantas-tic to see. Summerveld was the place to be for all things equestrian and sporting in Natal. !!The only slight criticism of the Lodge was a lack of healthy food option, the menu was limited to primarily chip based meals, which unfortunately were unavoidable when eat-ing there on a twice daily basis.


Alistair and Jeannet !!For me Alistair became the single greatest thing about this trip, his wealth of experience spanning fifty years of horse racing was matched only by his kindness and generosity. To-gether Jeannet and Alistair shared so much of their lives with me offering to take me on trips like the ones previously mentioned. I was welcomed for dinner when ever I liked which was often weekly, and even simple things like taking care of my washing added up enormously. !!From the first evening through to the last they were the greatest hosts I could have wished and hoped for. A mentor would be the right word to use as he took it upon himself to share as much as he could, and so he mentored me throughout the trip which feels so much more of my life than the ninety days that it simply was. !!On the yard in exchange for his generosity I worked as hard as I could and always to the best of my ability, I hope that was simply enough. I tried to turn my hand to any task set and would not settle till I was happy with it, I tried to maintain contact as best as I could

with various tasks so he was always informed as to progress. I appreciated the trust he placed and in return worked hard for it. !!Accompanying him to the sales was watching a master at work, together after three days of looking we came home with two hopefully great fillies, I was delighted with the pair of them, and the adrenaline buzz was unbelievable. Now I hope they can run fast. !!I couldn't fail to mention the two days which we spent in the Bush, to be taken to the wildlife park all 95,000 hectares of it to spend time in the real wild was (I’m running out of adjectives, it was all to good) phantasmagorical, I loved it. It became just one of the great opportunities offered during the trip.!!Going forward Alistair used his network of contacts to find me

my current position with Widden Stud in Australia and the reference he has given me is too great to have come from a man such himself and I hope moving forward I can do it justice. !! I will forever be grateful to so so many people, but Alistair and Jeannet for me will always be special, I hope I can repay the abundance of good will shown. !!! “Alistair is owed a good bottle of wine and a top class dinner next time I meet him, and for

once it shall be at my expense with no excuses!”!


!Summerveld Map and Photos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


A! ! ! ! B! ! ! ! C!!!!!!D! ! ! ! E! ! ! ! F!!!!!G! ! ! ! H! ! ! ! I

Links and Info!For anyone interested The Dubai Racing Channel have produced a very good behind the scenes video, filmed in the lead up to the July at Summerveld it can be found on Youtube, and it is 95% very accountable in my opinion and well worth watching for more of an in-sight. ‘Inside Durban - a look behind the scenes at racing in South Africa’ !https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiF9EfzEPrY!!Summer-hill Stud: http://www.summerhill.co.za!!Summerhill Sires List: http://issuu.com/xpressions-advertising/docs/summer-hill_sires_brochure_2013_2014!!The School of Excellence: http://blog.summerhill.co.za/al-maktoum-school-overview/!!Hartford House: http://www.hartford.co.za!!Balmoral: http://www.hartford.co.za!!Baker and Mcveigh Veterinary Practice: http://www.bakermcveigh.com/sum-merveld.html!!Ambassador !I hope while I was away everybody managed to keep an eye on my blog, lucky for me even if you didn't yourself others did. At the time of writing in the 100 days it has been live, it received 2401 separate visitors from thirty six different countries and nearly 5000 page views at an average of 48 views a day. In addition to this my writing has been pub-lished in local newspaper articles, and town newsletters, even my old school association ran a piece in their annual review with a photo of myself on the front cover. !!One thing I am very proud of is the article I have written for South Africa’s ‘Parade Maga-zine’, it is the largest racing magazine in the country, with a run totalling 4000. It gets de-livered to every big name in the country, so the fact that they consider publishing my sto-ry and the story of the Scholarship is very special to me. I look forward to seeing it! !!To Finish !I owe so much to so many people, I have loved this experience. This trip was published as the trip of a lifetime, and what ever happens it always will be as it was the point which helped define my life. My thanks especially to Mrs Packard and family, The British Racing School and Alistair and Jeannet. ! ! !

I hope I can go on to do you all proud


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiF9EfzEPrY

http://www.summerhill.co.za

http://issuu.com/xpressions-advertising/docs/summerhill_sires_brochure_2013_2014

http://blog.summerhill.co.za/al-maktoum-school-overview/

http://www.hartford.co.za

http://www.hartford.co.za

http://www.bakermcveigh.com/summerveld.html

my african adventure report - british racing...

Documents