2017 Summerhill Stud Sale of Mares and Weanlings
“As One Door Closes, Another One Opens…” There is never a good time to do this, more so as it involves the dispersal of the families that have brought international recognition to Summerhill. When our former stud manager John Slade, was assisting with our mating plans last July, he was charmed by the layered evolution of our broodmares through generations of the leading stallions Northern Guest, Home Guard, Liloy, Rambo Dancer, National Emblem, Fard, Kahal and Muhtafal, all of them “top ten” luminaries, several of them national champions in one category or another. While this is an emotional time for all of us, it’s an opportune one for our colleagues. Our good friend Graham Beck, laid the foundations for his stellar successes at Highlands and Maine Chance through his legendary “raids” on their stock, as well as those of the Noreen, Scott Bros. and Hartford studs. For our own part, the partnerships we’d assembled in 1987 were dispersed on their maturity in 1998, and we were left with just 26 mares on the farm; seven years later, through our re- investment in those families, we’d won the first of ten national premierships. Famously, the dams of Jet Master, Royal Chalice, Angus and Pierre Jourdan, among many others, were acquired right here, as was Varsfontein’s “Blue Hen”, Secret Pact. While Summerhill’s successes owe much to the stallions that’ve decorated our barn over the decades, it’s arguable that we’ve never been better served than in the outstanding young sprinter-milers currently doing duty here, Act Of War, Capetown Noir, Willow Magic and Linngari; they comprise the bulk of the covering sires in the catalogue.
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