While frequently attracting a small field, run as it is towards the latter part of the busy Natal winter season, the Grade 1 Champion Stakes over 2000m at Greyville has always been a race of considerable significance. In recent years it has served to confirm a horse’s status, as it did with Prince Florimund, Spanish Pool (Ire) and Fools Holme (USA) in 1982, 1984 and 1986 respectively. in some instances it has redeemed a horse’s claims, as it did with Swan Prince in 1981, while in others the race dashed the hopes of some, as it did with Wolf Power in 1983 and Spanish Pool (Ire) two years later. For Wolf Power it appeared as a gift in his path to a national stakes earning record, while for the Irish horse it provided the opportunity of bowing out of active competition as the first equine millionaire in South African racing.
Considerable importance
This year’s running was of considerable importance as it afforded the brilliant Model Man yet another crack at that magic million in earnings, a goal that had eluded him in his two previous races. Following a season that saw him race seven times for five straight wins before a second place in the Grade 1 Rothmans July Handicap and then again in his final appearance of the term in the Grade 1 Mainstay 1800, Model Man was still R71 560 shy of R1 million going into the Champion Stakes. By the time August 8 came round, there weren’t too many horses left prepared to take Model Man on at weight-for-age terms over 2000m. Only five opposed him for the R125 000 event, which meant that each runner was assured a share of the stake. When one comes to think of it, R1 500 isn’t bad for running last in a race! Former J&B Metropolitan winner Wild West – who hadn’t won a race since that Kenilworth triumph some 18 months earlier – was the only one of his opposition capable of making a race of it, and it appeared a mere formality that Model Man would emerge the winner and become the first horse in South African racing to top a million in earnings. Perhaps the betting provided the best indicator to the fields chances – 1/5 Model Man, 5/1 Wild West, 16/1 Impressive Style, 20/1 Fair Value, 33/1 North Star and Mantovano. Apart from Impressive Style and Fair Value changing positions, that was how they finished. While Wild West was 1 1/4 lengths off the winner at the line, it was more of a case of Model Man first and the rest nowhere.
Extremely confident race
Basil Marcus, who has had an unbroken association with Model Man since the colt won last year’s Mainstay 1800 rode an extremely confident race. He took the favourite to the front at the break and then allowed Fair Value to lead him a length under sufferance from the 1600 to 700m, where he decided it was time to assert his authority over the race. Without coming off the bit, Model Man swept aside Fair Value as he set sail for the line and although Wild West threw out a belated challenge, the favourite was never in any danger and scored comfortably by a little more than a length with Fair Value a further 6 lengths adrift in third spot. The time of 2:1,60 mattered not – Model Man won as he liked to register his 13th victory from 19 starts for R1 005 440 and a promise of more to come before he’s retired to stud next year. Model Man is scheduled to return to Odessa Stud, the place of his birth, for the 1988 breeding season.
MODEL MAN (1982c, Elliodor - Top Model by Filipepi). Bred at the Cohen\'s Odessa Stud in Ceres, Model Man is one of just a dozen foals in the first crop of Lyphard-stallion Elliodor. A 38.000 National Sale yearling, Model Man was trained by Patrick Lunn in Natal. He made his debut in the last week of his 2yo season, winning a 1200m Juvenile Plate by three lengths. The follow-up was impressive: four consecutive wins early at three, including the Gr2 SA Invitation Stakes. Model Man met with defeat for the first time in the Richelieu Guineas, over the sprint/miler\'s Milnerton 1600. He\'d been interrupted in his preparation, and in a race run in a howling South Easter failed to quicken up the straight.
Following wins in handicaps, he lined up for the Gr1 Chris Smith (Natal) Guineas. Model Man ran well; badly interfered with in the closing stages, he finished 4th, beaten 2 lengths. The Gr1 SA Two Thousand was next. In a heroic battle he was just shaded by Potomac, after shifting markedly in the closing stages, but for which he might have won. The pace was hot, the time fast and the race an exceptional one, beyond doubt the best of the SA season.
Model Man reappeared a month later in the Rothmans July. Always well placed, he ran a good race, but may have found the distance just a little beyond him. He took his chance just three weeks later in the Mainstay, over 1800m at Clairwood, badly drawn in a field of 15. Contrary to his previous runs, he raced well off the pace in a very fast run race, to produce breathtaking acceleration in the straight, overtaking most of the field and winning going away.
His 4yo career was full of highlights, with wins in the Hawaii Stakes, J&B Met, and Schweppes Challenge. He ran second in the Rothmans July (to Bush Telegraph) and Mainstay (to Main Man), in both races worse off at weight-for-age with the winners. He was the unofficial Horse of the Year in the flu-interrupted 1986/87 season, for which the Jockey Club had cancelled all racing awards.
Model Man scored twice as a 5yo, in the Champion Stakes and remarkably over 1100m, with topweight in a strong A-division handicap. In the process he became South Africa first equine millionaire.
Syndicated for a million Rand, Model Man\'s stud career started where he\'d been born, at Odessa Stud. His progeny includes 2yo Champions Special Preview and Private Reserve, 3yo Champion League Title, and highclass Amberpondo and Glamour Boy. He died following a paddock injury in 2005, having sired 18 crops and 893 foals, including thirteen individual Gr1 winners (7 colts, 6 fillies).
Legacy: Gr1 J&B Met, Gr1 Schweppes Challenge, Gr1 Mainstay 1800, Gr1 Hawaii S., Gr1 Champion S.; Horse of the Year 1986/87; sire of 13 Gr1 winners
Fools Holme
FOOLS HOLME (1982c; Noholme - Fancifool by Vaguely Noble). Fools Holme was bred in Florida, his sire Noholme an Australian bred son of Star Kingdom. Noholme won 12 races in Australia and was voted Horse of the Year in 1959. In 1960 he was purchased by American Gene Goff and exported to the USA, where he was syndicated for Fools Holmemillion in 1967. His best progeny included Nodouble, Brigand, Carnauba, Fools Holme, General Holme and Schecky Greene. Fools Holme\'s dam Fancifool managed 2 places from ten starts at 3 and 4. She is an own-sister to Mandera (TFR 112), who stayed at least a mile and a half, and who is the dam of St Leger winner and sire Touching Wood (TFR 127, by Roberto), as well as Irish mile and a half winner Mansky (Nijinsky), a sire in South Africa. The second dam is an unraced half sister to Bold Ruler.
Fools Holme was bought as a foal in the US for .000 on account of Cyril Hurvitz and sold in the 84/85 season to the partnership of Ross and Gardiner for an undisclosed figure.
Fools Holme made a winning debut in January 1985, added another four wins during the Natal winter season, before returning to the Cape. There he won an A-division racefigure handicap at odds of 1/10. Still unbeaten, the 1986 J&B Met was to have been his mission, but a hock injury put paid to those plans. Fools Holme reappeared in Natal, winning the Schweppes Challenge, after which he was made even money favourite for the Rothmans July where he finished second to stable companion Occult. He regained his winning ways next time out, in the Champion Stakes. He did not race again in South Africa and was shipped to the USA, where he finished uplaced at his only start in April 1987.
Fools Holme took up stud duties Ireland, where he sired five crops, then transferred to Italy. His best progeny was G1 winner Frenchpark, who went to stud in the USA in 1996 before relocating to New Zealand two years later.
Legacy: Gr1 Schweppes Challenge, Gr1 Champion S.
Wild West
WILD WEST (1981c, Roland Gardens – Wild Ash by New South Wales). Bred at Paul J de Wet\'s Zandvliet Stud, Wild West is a big, handsome chestnut son of English 2000 Guineas winner Roland Gardens, and the first foal of his dual Fillies Guineas winning dam Wild Ash. Purchased from the 1983 Germiston Yearling Sales for R40.000, he raced in the colours of the Circle Seven Syndicate, trained by Ralph Rixon. Wild West contested all of the Triple Crown races as a 3yo, running fourth in the Richelieu Guineas, third in the Southern Sun Classic, and winning the SA 2000. He ended the season with a second in the Rothmans July behind Gondolier, and was voted Champion 3yo Colt of 1984/85. His biggest success came as a 4yo in the 1986 J&B Metropolitan, where as 22/10 favourite he won by just under a length despite his jockey dropping the whip close home. He had 3 more starts as a 4yo but was beset with soundnessproblems. He came back after a 10 month break to run three third places including in the Republic Day Handicap and Rothmans July. Early in his 6yo career he was runner-up in the Champion Stakes and the Gold Vase, in the latter race breaking down fatally just after the line. Wild West won eight races in all, for stakes of R490k.
Legacy: Gr1 SA 2000, Gr1 J&B Met. Champion 3yo Colt.
This year’s running was of considerable importance as it afforded the brilliant Model Man yet another crack at that magic million in earnings, a goal that had eluded him in his two previous races. Following a season that saw him race seven times for five straight wins before a second place in the Grade 1 Rothmans July Handicap and then again in his final appearance of the term in the Grade 1 Mainstay 1800, Model Man was still R71 560 shy of R1 million going into the Champion Stakes. By the time August 8 came round, there weren’t too many horses left prepared to take Model Man on at weight-for-age terms over 2000m. Only five opposed him for the R125 000 event, which meant that each runner was assured a share of the stake. When one comes to think of it, R1 500 isn’t bad for running last in a race! Former J&B Metropolitan winner Wild West – who hadn’t won a race since that Kenilworth triumph some 18 months earlier – was the only one of his opposition capable of making a race of it, and it appeared a mere formality that Model Man would emerge the winner and become the first horse in South African racing to top a million in earnings. Perhaps the betting provided the best indicator to the fields chances – 1/5 Model Man, 5/1 Wild West, 16/1 Impressive Style, 20/1 Fair Value, 33/1 North Star and Mantovano. Apart from Impressive Style and Fair Value changing positions, that was how they finished. While Wild West was 1 1/4 lengths off the winner at the line, it was more of a case of Model Man first and the rest nowhere.
Basil Marcus, who has had an unbroken association with Model Man since the colt won last year’s Mainstay 1800 rode an extremely confident race. He took the favourite to the front at the break and then allowed Fair Value to lead him a length under sufferance from the 1600 to 700m, where he decided it was time to assert his authority over the race. Without coming off the bit, Model Man swept aside Fair Value as he set sail for the line and although Wild West threw out a belated challenge, the favourite was never in any danger and scored comfortably by a little more than a length with Fair Value a further 6 lengths adrift in third spot. The time of 2:1,60 mattered not – Model Man won as he liked to register his 13th victory from 19 starts for R1 005 440 and a promise of more to come before he’s retired to stud next year. Model Man is scheduled to return to Odessa Stud, the place of his birth, for the 1988 breeding season.
