There was a brief break from the Cheltenham Festival on the Nick Luck Daily this week... though it turns out even South Africa isn’t entirely exempt from Cheltenham chat.
As it covers Cheltenham week, the Nick Luck Daily podcast has been in vision over the last few days.
This week’s Weatherbys bloodstock segment, despite focusing on goings-on thousands of miles away from the Cotswolds, wasn’t exempt from the in-vision requirement, and Luck provided a pre-recorded remote interview with Pippa Mickleburgh of Race Coast Sales in South Africa.
Mickleburgh, despite operating in a country of Flat racing thousands of miles away, said she’d nevertheless be keeping a close eye on proceedings at Prestbury Park given that Il Etait Temps, who would go on to land day three’s feature Queen Mother Champion Chase, is owned by a bunch of South Africans.
They are, namely, the Heffer and Kieswetter families.
“The Kieswetters are good friends of mine,” Mickleburgh explained. “In fact, when Aventuur, the farm I managed for many years, closed down its breeding operations, the Kieswetters bought our horses.”
News of Aventuur’s breeding shut down was reported last year, and Mickelburgh shared her experience of more than three decades at the operation with Luck.
“I was there for 35 years,” she mused, “and it was a wonderful ride. We had a beautiful stallion, Var, who has now become famous as the sire of Autumn Glow, carrying our flag around the world. It was a boutique wine estate, restaurant and hotel, but we also ran some of the best mares in the land.”
It short, Mickleburgh summarised that it was a “pleasure” and “honour” to work for the family operation, headed by brothers Michael and Philip, sons of the late Tony Taberer.
“Time goes on,” Mickleburgh reflected, “and the new generation came in. ‘Dad’, who originally employed me, passed away and I think the new generation had different ideas about how things would be run on the farm. It was the time to end and, as I said, all the mares are very lucky to be owned by the Kieswetters.”
Before working at Aventuur, Mickleburgh spent time in the employment of the late Sir Henry Cecil and, when prompted by Luck, she was happy to share her memories of that era.
“I worked in pre-training for him in Newmarket,” she explained, “many, many years ago when I was young! I enjoyed it and I learned a lot about life from the late, great, guv’nor.”
Pushed for specifics, Mickleburgh said it was Cecil’s “attention to detail” and the value he placed on his staff that struck her most.
“It’s something I’ve tried to take wherever I go in whatever I do,” Mickleburgh stated. “He was strict in his ways, but he realised that he couldn’t be successful if the staff he employed weren’t passionate about their jobs.”
Mickleburgh pointed out that, when it came to attention to detail, every horse’s legs were “touched every single night” by senior personnel.
Cecil’s “care to the human and the horse” was “wonderful”, Mickleburgh concluded.
Mickleburgh admitted that in her current role, she’s less hands-on with horses.
“I’ve had to change course a little bit,” she shared, “which I’m actually enjoying, but what I’m doing now is managing a few little different things. I’ve got a couple of mares whose breeding careers I manage. They’ve moved with me to boarding farms. There are two little studs that are growing, and I’m helping them build, develop and buy mares. So, I’m doing a little bit of consulting, but my main job is to help build sales at Hollywoodbets Kenilworth. That’s my goal now.”
Mickleburgh said the experience of working with Cape Racing Sales has been “interesting”, though it was funny to be “on the other side of the fence”, given that she had until recently been a vendor.
“I’m getting everything from both sides,” she laughed. “But so far so good. I think I lead well, but I’ve got a great team. They’re passionate and they’ll go to the end of the Earth to make it work.”
Asked if she was seeing an increase in the quality of South African stock, or at least signs that the quality of stock was being maintained, Mickleburgh admitted that South Africa was still “low” on numbers.
“Covid hit us hard,” she explained. “A lot of mares were taken out of the system, so we’re a bit low on numbers, but I think the quality is still good and there are still some great benefactors who are continually upgrading mare bands and stallions.”
Mickleburgh added that in her new position she has “never seen so many yearlings”, having inspected over 340 with Ric Wylie from New Zealand.
“There’s work in progress and everybody is trying extremely hard,” she continued, adding that this week’s Cape Racing Sales Premier Yearling Sale, which takes place on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th March, can be followed on its website, and that potential buyers can bid by Zoom.
She added that Kenilworth is a “beautiful” racecourse nestled amongst the “greenery” of the Western Cape.
As it isn’t a traditional sale venue, however, Mickleburgh said it has had to be transformed into one.
“It’s very quaint and pretty,” she concluded
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