Steve’s travels take him to the historic Summerhill Stud
Resting at the head of the table in the semi-outdoor dining room of the Hartford Hotel, which is part of this horse farm complex, is proprietor Mick Goss who is ready to regale a small party of visitors with a brief and fascinating history of the farm, the battles of the district and the country at large.
Goss speaks two native South African languages plus English which is chiefly his heritage and completed his law degree in Afrikaans – just for good measure. He is quite the raconteur and immediately has us all absorbed. I could recount a tale or two (and may do as you read on) but better really that you visit the stud yourself.
His soliloquy is interrupted only by an examination of his four ‘young’ stallions including the Australian bred Willow Magic; a spot of lunch and, oh, of course the arrival of the King and Queen of Lesotho.
“Willow Magic is the only Group 1-winning son of Dubawi, the world’s number one stallion of 2015, in continental Africa,” says the Summerhill website.
Goss hastens to add that Newgate Farm’s Henry Field and agent James Harron, who shared in racing the horse, retain their interest in him at stud. Newgate offered the horse at the 2012 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale where he was knocked down to trainer Sean Tarry’s brother Mark for $40,000.
Willow Magic was a fine performer on the track and retired to stud in 2016. He’s described by Goss as having the “great combination of the pre-potency of Dubawi with a tough-as-teak Australian mum.” You may google ‘the inspiring story of La Willow’ to read Kristen Manning’s excellent tale of this mum.
As to the King (constitutional monarch) of Lesotho, Letsie III (born David Mohato Bereng Seeiso) is not an infrequent visitor to Summerhill and he’s a keen racing man, with an interest in several mares, and annually a dirt track meeting is held at Semonkong in honour of his birthday. Semonkong is a small town in central Lesotho. It’s on a similar latitude to Durban but inland and separated from Summerhill by the Drakensberg ranges.
Goss tells us that many a dignitary has visited this farm. Many, including Winston Churchill, have bedded down for the night or nights. He also recounts the history of many significant battles which took place in the district.
One such battle was that of Spion Kop, about 100 kilometres from Summerhill. “Three future heads of government were at that battle,” Goss explains. “Winston Churchill, Mahatma Gandhi and Louis Botha.”
Gandhi’s formative years were in South Africa and apparently he took part in the second Anglo Boer War and fought at Spion Kop, for the British Army, as a stretcher bearer and medic.
The tales go on and Goss is incredibly engaging and, happily, looking healthy and well after being severely debilitated in 2016 when diagnosed with crohn’s disease.
Goss, born in 1950, excelled academically and at sport as a youngster. He captained Natal Schools at rugby; won a rugby scholarship to Stellenbosch and represented Western Province under-20s and under-25s.
He graduated in law, worked as an attorney and an advocate in Durban and established his own practice and then abandoned all that after 17 years to immerse himself in the racing and breeding industries.
He talks of world politics, the fragility of the planet and the occasional unease of living in his beloved country where talk of land reform and appropriation seems to have intensified of late. It, if it happens, will apparently be targeted at non-productive land use and that certainly isn’t the case with Goss’s high employing property. He seemed unperturbed.
His farm Summerhill and the neighbouring Hartford Stud have been producing world class racehorses since the 1930s and have sent out the winners of every major race on the South African racing calendar.
Various tracks on the farm acknowledge the contribution others have made and the names of same include Angus Gold Drive and Mike de Kock Drive. The sign which bore Markus Jooste’s name is back in the shed.
Goss is committed to his industry at large – vigorously campaigning on the fronts of horse movement and investment, especially on occasions when the world economic crises or local political crises have threatened the industry’s existence.
He’s also committed to the local community which has been central to his life. Anywhere between 400 and 500 people will sleep on the property, which includes a school and a creche, each night. Education and training is a high priority and Summerhill has awarded almost 50 international scholarships to members of a once-disadvantaged community.
I had the pleasure of visiting Summerhill on the eve of the Durban July. In 1946 St. Paul’s, a graduate of Pony and Galloway handicaps, became the smallest ever winner of the July. He was owned by Mick Goss’ grandfather Pat.
The Sea Cottage Story
We all know the story of Phar Lap being shot at. The assailants missed him. That wasn’t the case with the remarkable Sea Cottage in South Africa which is arguably the country’s most famous racing story.
On Saturday November, 1, 1930, an attempt was made at Caulfield to kill or maim the Melbourne Cup favourite Phar Lap. The horse was returning to the stable after trackwork, when a shot was fired from a motor car, which was immediately driven away. Phar Lap was not injured and later in the day he brilliantly won the Melbourne Stakes at Flemington.
On June 10, 1966, Sea Cottage was shot from a concrete shelter, which still exists today, while walking under the Blue Lagoon bridge in Durban. The story goes something likes this. A bookmaker had allegedly approached the owner of a nightclub and asked him to settle his considerable debt.
The bookmaker was presumably calling in debts as he faced a huge payout if Sea Cottage were to win the Durban July as was generally expected. The club owner’s alleged response was to ask what it would be worth to “stop” Sea Cottage. The bookmaker’s alleged reply was he would forego the debt.
A bouncer from the club named Johnny Nel then allegedly hatched the plan and agreed to carry it out. Absurdly, the gangsters reportedly turned up at the beach in their evening suits, a couple of days before the shooting, to do their reconnaissance. Sea Cottage’s white markings made him an easy horse to identify.
Then, when the great horse was shot in the soft flesh of the hindquarters with a pistol, the culprits arrived in an even more readily identifiable yellow convertible and that led to Nel’s arrest and conviction.
Sea Cottage, with bullet still intact, ran in the big race just three weeks after the incident and finished an unlucky fourth after being severely checked in the straight.
However, he famously won the July the following year carrying top-weight (the bullet still lodged in his hindquarter). He dead-heated with the lightweight Jollify, to whom he conceded 27 pounds.
Sea Cottage ended his career with 20 wins from 24 starts and was widely regarded as the greatest horse to ever grace the South African turf until Horse Chestnut arrived.
The vets had decided that the best course of action was to leave bullet where it had lodged and it stayed firmly put throughout his stud career and was only retrieved upon his death at age 25.