Shongweni sale

got Ruby Queen for 20k a great buy IMO

well done

Great going Titch...

What did BEACHES go for?

Well done titch, let us know when you racing a horse in kzn

Hey guys...how was the sale...were the prices OK

hi guys i would like to tell you a story about the Shongweni sale when it was not so well know, many years ago.I went to sale and met Miss C Shaw there she had a few horses on the sale and I asked her about them and all I wanted to know was if they were sore or not? she confirmed that there were nothing wrong with them and was sound, so as the bidding started the first one came up which was a filly called Crystal Pride x Crystal de Roche which I bought for R8000 and another horse called Golden Rival x Golden Thact out of Unrivaled, I paid R10 000 for the horse.

The filly I left with Miss Shaw, about a month later she phoned me and told me that the horse will be running over 1200m but as it was coming from a rest and the distance is to short she don't expect it to win, the jockey was R Sigh and it was running against a horse from the David Payne stable that was 8/10, guess what? my horse, drawn against the paint on the outside, jumped and they never caught her, start to finish paying R45 a win,I had R400 wins on it.
the other horse was send to Mr Bertie van der Merwe, he went on to win 11 more race including a feautere the TAB OFS Sprint beating Joburg horses and 2 features at Kimberley , and retiring at the ripe age of 12years, I wonder if he is still alife?The best Mr van der Merwe ever trained.

So my memories from Shongweni are good and it is still a sale where you can get value for your money..

This is why we stay in the game to find that one good horse, allow me to share another story although not from the same sale but from another sale that was held by someone we all know.
Mr Clyde Basel also decided to go into the auction game and his first auction was held at Gosforth park one afternoon after the last race in the Parade Ring, as I had won a few Bob and Clyde was one of my ex pupils at school I decided to support him, as I am not a good judge on conformation I purely buy on breeding, so up comes this horse called FRISTON x Argosy x Firle ( half brother to Firle Beacon) I bid and get the horse for R1250 you couldn't buy a cow for that at the time and also another horse for R2000 called Parsons Lad.

After the sale I asked Clyde to whom can I send the horse and he suggested Bertie in BFN, about two months later Bertie phoned and said the horse is running and but he has two other horses in the race and they are both better than him but we couldn't beat the favourite which was a horse from Mr C Laird and 8/10, to cut a long story short it won going away so I was 1 from 1, paid R25 a win, had R500 on, was the only winner of the P6, 2% collect another R5600 plus I think the prize money was R20 000 for first place, on a horse I paid R1250 for, but the story doesn't end there, after a couple of unplaced runs I saw an ad from a certain MR P Lafferty in the Computaform advertising for Horses so off Friston goes to DBN, his first race over 1200 he finished like 20L behind had a few other unplaced runs, then Paul entered him at Scotsville 1800m drawn 15, R Agrella up 48.5 kg,soft track, I didnt had much hope an Argosy over 1800 on soft no way never had a cent on, the horse ran START TO FINISH winning by 1.25m going away!!! up to this day I still don't know who was more astounded, the jockey, trainer or owner.

and Parsons Lad? the R2000 buy, after Friston's win off he went to Bertie and guess what, he won fisrt time out as well making it 2 from 2 with Bertie also paying over R30 a win.

lastly I bought a horse from Paul called Va Voom also for R2000, it was a Rainbow Dream plauged with arthritis, if he was right on the day he could run, won second time out with it on the Vaal, ridden by D Yeo, also trained by Bertie, beating an 5/10 shot callred Zakinthos (Arg) trained by Mr T Millard, in the Computaform they wrote afterwards "beat weak field" al the horses placed from 2nd to 5th all won their next races!!! , had to retire because of leg problems.

I guess that is why we are staying in racing, I am sure there are a lot of Forum members with similar stories Why not. tell us about it maybe we can put it in a book:.




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Thanks James, you are very kind to share your stories with us

We very happy with the 6 we bought.

According to our price list ,though, Ruby Queen was R10k. Was it a buy back Titch?

What did Sham racing buy?

Lot nos 9, 11, 30, 43, 51 & 80 all for under R100k

Years ago in the very early days of merit ratings I went to the Shongweni sale, had a few (or more) drinks with Laff, and waited for a horse in the supplementary catalogue that Laff was selling. The horse was called Railrider and the owner wanted out. Laff reckoned the horse wasn't quite finished yet and with the new handicapping system I figured out that Railrider could run in races where he stood a chance. I was as pissed as anything by the time the horse came into the ring, I bought him for R1000 and Laff and I went 50/50.

He won three races before the end of that year and ran a bunch of places. The first time he won for us was at Scottsville in July and he paid something like R67 for a win. Some genius wrote a letter to the Sporting Post complaining that Laff in his on course preview had deliberately misled the public by saying that Railrider had a small place chance, or something like that. Because, you know, if we had in fact made him a certainty and kept it to ourselves the horse would have paid R67 for a win...NOT.

Back in the days when I used to go on TV with Laff or any other presenter to preview races I'd try and make a point to not go on if I had a runner in the race. You're on a hiding to nothing, but you srtill get those rocket scientists who believe that the connections always know how a horse of theirs will run and they must be lying if they get it wrong.

Sham Racing Wrote:

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> We very happy with the 6 we bought.
>
> According to our price list ,though, Ruby Queen
> was R10k. Was it a buy back Titch?

yip we got it for R17500 ex vat she is kim bound